Microsoft Under Fresh Investigation by the Italian Competition Authority
For political reasons, not just technical reasons, more nations in Europe try to liberate themselves from GAFAM (and from Microsoft in particular).
In Italy, it turns out that the authorities look into Microsoft's predatory tactics in mobile games. To quote this report: "The watchdog added that the company may have failed to meet its duty of professional diligence in a sector it considers particularly sensitive to the risks of gaming-related addiction. Regulators are also assessing whether the use of virtual currency and bundled sales makes it difficult for players to understand the real value of what they are spending, particularly for minors."
Even without or before this, Microsoft's gaming division is already in pain and likely in the red, in deep losses. Recently it shut down studios, canceled games, and canned a lot of staff. As one site put it some hours ago: "When Microsoft went through a series of layoffs and studio closures in 2025, several games were cancelled. This included Project Blackbird, an upcoming MMO from ZeniMax. Entering development in 2018 with a team that included veterans of Fallout 76 and Doom, little was known about Project Blackbird, including if that was just a working title. The game was reportedly set for a 2028 release date and had apparently been moving along at a nice enough clip that Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer had to have the controller taken away to keep him from playing."
People resigned over it, including the chief. It was chaotic and it says a lot about the state of the "XBox" (or gaming) business. Meanwhile there's this unverified claim posted in thelayoff.com yesterday:
In 2025 we kept a running tally of 30,000+ Microsoft layoffs, so 40k this year would not be unthinkable. The spin-doctoring appears to have started already. █