Microsoft's XBox "Bloodbath" Seems to Have Already Begun (Informally), Studios Allegedly to Face Shutdowns, Layoff Notices Handed Out, 100% Layoffs in Some Cases, 10% in Others or on Average
Based on this comment: "Some friends of mine that work for a Microsoft owned studio just got laid off and told that the studio is shutting down... what a dumb timeline we live in, they bought 500 studios just to close them all down."
"When asked by another user which studio it was," an observer remarked, "they said it was Compulsion Games. They later edited their comment, but the original version can still be seen in this quote reply."
So is a complete closure/shutdown imminent? (Compulsion Games in this case)
As an author put it some hours ago: "According to a source nicknamed LinkWink, employees have already received layoff notices and the company's imminent closure. These data echo recent reports from Bloomberg and The Verge, which predict large-scale layoffs in the Xbox gaming division in July 2026, following the end of the current fiscal year. The upcoming layoffs are expected to affect approximately 10% of the total workforce, inevitably leading to the complete elimination of several development teams."
That seems to make sense based on prior things we saw, even months ago.
Many game developers saw it coming and unionised. "Remember telling blue collars to "learn to code" as they lost their livelihoods? Better learn to weld. The only white collars at risk are ones who do nothing or think sending emails is a real job," someone wrote due to the above news. Somebody else replied, "maybe because they aren't real engineers..."
"We have found ourselves over extended," another person stated. "Well, AS certainly has the language down already, how to make layoffs sound necessary even if there have to be other ways to cut costs. Well, it was to be expected, I guess. I just wonder how do you bring back a dying console by cutting and not actually trying to improve things."
Someone reponded: "New leader same BS - it seems that every " genius leader's" go to nowadays when they don't know what to do and are clueless about the industry that they are appointed to lead is to .... drum roll ... layoff people. And by people I mean the poor souls (individual contributors) who followed the previous leaderships strategic directives. Heres a thought AS, why don't you layoff all the sycophant leadership who created these strategic blunders to occur and leave the alone the IC, you will need them to rescue your org. Once you have done that look into the current ICs for talent who have vision and creativity that can lead to true innovation and not just sychophants who will do as they are told. Nah instead you will make one or two changes, shuffle around some people, but keep the same id--ts in place. Congratulations you have not changed anything just postponed Xbox's demise. To all the IC's good luck just remember you didnt create this mess your "genius" leadership did - proving one thing they're no smatter or better than you."
Of course people can understand the big picture. This is not limited to XBox. █
