Many Microsoft Managers Are Leaving
Hours ago: Microsoft's Chief Legal Officer Leaves Microsoft After Nearly 30 Years
Now:
Lost in the mist of PR trash and slopfarms is a bunch of meaningful stuff, such as interviews and departure news [1]. There are people speaking out about what Microsoft did to their studios [2,3] and even falling on their sword [4]. Many things are being cancelled by Microsoft, a company that fakes being rich while in fact cutting loads of things (a report from yesterday suggests that Microsoft has shut down almost all of GitHub's offices).
"Hey hi" chaff or chaff about "hey hi" cannot eternally distract from the difficulties inside the company. █
Related/contextual items from the news:
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Darrell Gallagher Departs Xbox as Perfect Dark Reboot and The Initiative Wind Down
Darrell Gallagher, head of The Initiative and one of the key figures behind Xbox’s attempted revival of Perfect Dark, has officially announced his departure from Microsoft. His exit comes in tandem with the closure of The Initiative and the cancellation of its long-anticipated reboot of Rare’s classic spy shooter.
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The Elder Scrolls Online studio head says Microsoft's brutal cuts were 'super emotional… it was awful'
In July this year, Phil Spencer said Microsoft's gaming business has "never looked stronger" as he simultaneously announced an absolutely brutal round of layoffs. Several studios were closed outright, games were cancelled, and almost everything in Microsoft's portfolio was touched in some way, with the aftershocks still coming.
One of the developers heavily affected was Zenimax Online Studios, the maker of The Elder Scrolls Online (TESO), which saw the cancellation of an MMO codenamed Blackbird alongside an unspecified number of layoffs. Such was the impact of the latter that, despite not being included in the initial round of cuts, long-serving ZeniMax president Matt Firor fell on his sword after 18 years as studio head.
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"I want us to be the most successful studio in our entire organization" — The Elder Scrolls Online developers talk future plans after recent Microsoft cuts
The layoffs in July had far-reaching implications across the Xbox division, with multiple teams affected and numerous projects canceled.
One particularly painful loss was the closure of The Initiative, a studio founded back in 2018. The team was working on a reboot of Perfect Dark, which had been shown off in the 2024 Xbox Games Showcase.
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"The failure of Scalebound was ultimately the responsibility of PlatinumGames, myself as director included"— Hideki Kamiya, creator of Devil May Cry and Okami, takes responsibility for Scalebound's cancellation
Hideki Kamiya admitted that if Scalebound had been developed with a Japanese publisher instead of Microsoft, things may have gone differently.