Microsoft CEO Calls Layoffs "Streamlining" and Says Microsoft Layoffs Are "Great to See"

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Sep 26, 2026

7 months ago: Asha Sharma "a Palliative Care Doctor Who Slides Xbox Gently Into the Night"

Last night we wrote about Halo reduced to barely 20 people! Yes, Halo!

Microsoft layoffs - including Microsoft's XBox layoffs - are far vaster than the media cares to admit.

In the past few hours there was some uproar online about what Microsoft's CEO said about the XBox 'CEO' (they make up a CEO for everything these days, even slop). [1,2]

How to add insult to injury? Say people got 'streamlined' out of their job and that it's "great to see".

Microsoft's XBox layoffs aren't over yet, it is perpetual [3], and insiders from Microsoft challenge the lack of transparency [4] (WARN Act violated or avoided) while some speak out [5] and - as we noted days ago - when the media says studios "go independent" or something to that effect they exaggerate as those are shutdowns [6].

The lack of honesty here is only to be expected from Microsoft. This is, after all, Microsoft. █

Related/contextual items from the news:

1. Microsoft CEO On Recent Xbox Layoffs: ‘There’s Some Amount Of Streamlining Asha Is Doing…Which Is Great To See’

   Xbox is currently in the middle of a “reset” under new CEO Asha Sharma. This so-called corporate reset has mainly consisted of a lot of layoffs, with more to come, as well as Microsoft divesting from many studios and shuffling franchises and teams around, like moving Halo under Activision. And Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella seems pretty pleased with all the cuts and with Sharma’s plans for the brand.

2. Amid mass Xbox layoffs, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says the "streamlining" is "great to see"

   At least somebody is happy with the state of Xbox. With Xbox now 75% through an urgent restructuring plan that has seen thousands laid off, many games canceled, and several studios severed or consolidated, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says the "streamlining" going on is "great to see."

3. The Xbox reset doesn't have an end date | Opinion [Ed: This is why it's called "Forever Layoffs"]

   GamesIndustry.biz says Xbox’s “reset” has become a prolonged restructuring rather than a one-time cut, with another 268 jobs lost this week on top of roughly 1,600 already gone. Microsoft is still working toward the 3,200-job reduction it signaled earlier this summer, and the company has not given staff a clear endpoint for the process.

4. Microsoft WARN Act Investigation

   Strauss Borrelli PLLC, a leading class action law firm, is investigating Microsoft Corporation (“Microsoft”) regarding its recent potential mass layoff in Redmond, Washington. The WARN Act is a federal law that requires certain employers to notify their employees, in writing, at least 60 days before a plant closing or mass layoff takes effect. As a result, we believe Microsoft employees may be entitled to 60 days of severance pay and benefits.

5. "Please, Asha, post more 'cool' photos of your adventures with Kojima": Former Head of World's Edge Studio Criticizes Xbox Leadership

   Former head of World's Edge studio, Shannon Loftis, publicly criticized Xbox executive Asha Sharma amidst another round of layoffs in Microsoft's gaming division.

6. Microsoft's failure to find a home for Ninja Theory voids the one, very tenuous upside to Senua's SGF reveal

   There’s plenty to dislike about this latest round of corporate-mandated Xbox misery. The hundreds more human beings losing their livelihoods. The embracing of risk-averse factory line development. The fact that nobody, still, knows what on earth is happening with Arkane.

   Personally, I keep thinking of the likely closure of Ninja Theory. Not because I desperately yearn for more Hellblade games in my life – I don’t – but more so how unlikely that proposition seemed, when a thunderous announcement trailer for their Celtic action sequel Senua flashed up on Summer Game Fest screens in June. Four weeks later, the people who made it would be collectively put up for sale. Another eleven weeks later, Microsoft exec Matt Booty would publicly dedicate all of two sentences to how two separate deals had fallen through, triggering a "proposed closure." Possibly the biggest individual failure of the sorry affair thus far, confessed in about the same amount of words as was spent on a new Halo.