Xbox Game Studios Stupidity Hate Thread Game Pass Edition

[Incecticyder]

Everyone is hurting right now, yet Nintendo continues to hurt the least of the Big 3. Is it magic? Some sort of satanic ritual? Maybe it's the games. No, that's just silly.

It is like a buffet. Those that ate the most studios/companies/devs are the ones puking (firing people). Nintendo merely knows its stomach better.

 

[DocAwe]

I kinda wish I hadn't bought an XBAWX.

 

[Kier Starmer]

Same that fucker sits in the corner in utter shame.

I am believing the theory that the Game Division bought Activision Blizzard without consulting microsoft high ups and shareholders and now they are furious, they spent 100's of billions on acquisitions and still not profited a penny. Now daddy Microsoft is pissed and I think they are going to gut a lot of thinks. I think the DEIs are going, times are different and shareholders/stakeholders are far more prudent, Sony are more fucked though they have nowhere near the cash to survive but they all deserve to burn.

 

[ZMOT]

I think the DEIs are going, times are different and shareholders/stakeholders are far more prudent

knowing microsoft DEI is probably the last to go...

 

[whatever I feel like]

At this point the DEI that Microsoft is doubling down on is Divest from Entertainment Industry.

 

[Celebrate Nite]

https://archive.ph/rhVbG

Microsoft is reportedly shuttering a major diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) team, according to an internal email sent by the team's leader to a significant number of Microsoft staff last week, in which the lead also accuses the company's executive leadership of "investigated and evidenced discrimination, harassment, and toxicity."

The email, first reported by Business Insider and corroborated by IGN, was sent by the former lead of one of Microsoft's key DEI teams. In it, they state that their "role and team were eliminated due to 'changing business needs' as of July 1st, 2024." IGN has reached out to Microsoft for comment as to the full extent and nature of these layoffs, but has not yet heard back.

The email goes on to assert that DEI programs are in danger not just at Microsoft, but across all businesses:

"Unofficially in my opinion, not specific to Microsoft alone, but [conservative policy plan] Project 2025 looms and true systems change work associated with DEI programs everywhere are no longer business critical or smart as they were in 2020. Hence the purposeful and strategic 3-5 year shelf life of many company's inclusion commitments post the murder of George Floyd are being reevaluated," the email reads. "And the way I see it, the timing was impeccable so businesses everywhere could reevaluate the path forward should their U.S. federal contracts be at risk if the work continues on its face."

The email goes on to praise the work of DEI teams at Microsoft, saying that "impossible mountains were moved" during their tenure and celebrating the "brilliant, ethical, and world class strategists at the company, helping to make the world a better place." However, they also accused executive leadership of "investigated and evidenced discrimination, harassment, and toxicity" directed toward them during their time at the company.

In a statement shared with Business Wire, spokesperson Jeff Jones said: "Our D&I commitments remain unchanged. Our focus on diversity and inclusion is unwavering and we are holding firm on our expectations, prioritizing accountability, and continuing to focus on this work."

Microsoft is just one of numerous tech and gaming companies that made major commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs in the last four years, particularly in the wake of the 2020 murder of George Floyd and the summer of Black Lives Matter protests that followed. Microsoft in particular unveiled a "racial equality initiative", pledging to increase representation, invest an additional $150 million in diversity and inclusion, and double the number of Black and African American leaders in its US divisions by 2025.

However, in the years since, a number of tech companies such as Google and Meta have begun to make significant cuts to the DEI programs they launched in 2020.

Earlier this year, Microsoft laid off 1900 staff from its video game divisions, and closed both Tango Gameworks and Arkane Austin. Last year, the wider company laid off over 10,000 individuals.

IGN has reached out to both the email sender and Microsoft for comment, but did not hear back in time for publication.

 

[xXx: State of the Union]

Too little too late, you can only ruin Fable, Halo and Gears of War so many times.

Edit: I just had a weird flashback to when Crackdown 3 was supposed to save Microsoft. That was 2019 holy shit.

2nd Edit: Microsoft Is Selling An Xbox-Free Xbox Bundle on Amazon for $80 (Forbes Archive)

 

[Baraka Obama]

Too little too late, you can only ruin Fable, Halo and Gears of War so many times.

Agreed, I'm done with them.

I really liked what they did with turning around Xbox One and the Xbox One X. I thought maybe they had turned a corner.

Last 4 years have shown me they know nothing other than how to step on faggy rakes.

 

[marvlouslie]

They're not getting rid of DEI. It's called "RESTRUCTURING", and they're just moving personnel around and getting rid of the obvious shit.

BRIDGE is the new name DEI is going to be incorporated under, and Kirsche has been sounding the alarm on this for literal months now. Corpos gonna corpo.

Also, Microsoft thinking Project 2025 is real. LOL.

 

[Kier Starmer]

Yeah I saw the term BRIDGE appear on a few companies I was researching for work. Imagine repackaging your corpo speech like 6 times in the last 6 years to try and fool not only investors but the public. These fuckers will never learn and companies like Blackrock need to learn that people don't want their shitty globo-homo world where you live locked up, buying shit on Amazon prime. People are rebelling because they know how shitty the world is and how much this is damaging it too.

 

[Pissmaster]

2nd Edit: Microsoft Is Selling An Xbox-Free Xbox Bundle on Amazon for $80 (Forbes Archive)

Wow, what a great deal! Google Stadia succeeded and destroyed consoles and PCs forever, and everyone loves game streaming via subscription models, and now we've got a handy new way to access all the titles that the ever-expanding Game Pass has to offer. This will surely sell trillions and everyone's gonna own nothing and be happy. I only see a bright and optimistic future for the Xbox™ brand!

 

[xXx: State of the Union]

Wow, what a great deal! Google Stadia succeeded and destroyed consoles and PCs forever, and everyone loves game streaming via subscription models, and now we've got a handy new way to access all the titles that the ever-expanding Game Pass has to offer. This will surely sell trillions and everyone's gonna own nothing and be happy. I only see a bright and optimistic future for the Xbox™ brand!

I've seen cope from Xbots that this is geared towards "Grandma and grandpa who only have the kids for a week to a month in the summer" and I'm just shaking my head.

Microsoft desperately wants out of this gay console business.

 

[Pissmaster]

I've seen cope from Xbots that this is geared towards "Grandma and grandpa who only have the kids for a week to a month in the summer" and I'm just shaking my head.

It has been a solid fuckin' 13 years since I messed around with OnLive, with optimism for the tech behind game streaming at the time, and I have concluded that it is completely worthless technology.

I did, I gave OnLive a fair shot. I had a few games I got for free from Humble Bundle. I tried it on my Android phone at the time, I tried it on my computer, I gave it a fair shake. Then, a decade later, I tried Google Stadia and Xcloud. Other than a little bit of input lag being solved, I really didn't see an improvement. Video performance still degraded slowly as my game session went on, becoming uncomfortable after only like 15 minutes, and assorted freezes and dropped connections just made it too unreliable. This was the case with Onlive in 2011, and Stadia in 2021. Xcloud was the best of them, but still had those issues.

A bunch of us documented Stadia right here on the farms in the time it was live, and I contributed as much as I could. There was just such little to say, though. If Reddit's anything to go by, it was most popular with a very specific group of people:

• apartment/dorm dwellers
  • that had excellent internet connections with no data caps
    • therefore lived in a wealthy, first world city; almost always in the USA
      • had extremely limited space, where every inch counted
        • but were willing and able to spend full price on new games + a monthly subscription for a premium account

So, you know, bughive people. The type that work at some swanky Silicon Valley job where they make six figures, but then spend 95% of it on living expenses, so they wind up packed in pods like sardines despite making crazy amounts of dough. It's not exactly surprising that FAGMAN loves to push the idea of game streaming, it's only appealing to the kind of people that work there. It's definitely not for grandma and the kids. They play games on their phones and Switches.

Microsoft desperately wants out of this gay console business.

If Microsoft weren't such a faggy company, I would be all for them pulling a Sega and just releasing the most loony shit on their way out. I've got a permanent admiration for Sega for just going all out with the Dreamcast and dropping crazy experimental games like Seaman and Jet Set Radio.

But it's Microsoft. They can't do that. They may as well just let the Series consoles run their course, keep their services running for a decade after the last console's been produced, and shutter the brand.

 

[Kier Starmer]

As a department they must be billions and I mean 00's in the hole. It must be a nightmare for Microsoft as a whole to account them and make it look favourable to investors/stakeholders. My disdain for silicon people is honestly higher than LA people, we have all seen them. People with god complex's the size of Africa thinking of how humans are cattle for their metrics. I still do not get who the Series X/S is for? For a start whoever named it that needs to die, I even forget it and I have one collecting dust in the lounge.

Yeah their cloud service will die, look at Stadia even on like a 100mb that shit will such and that is in good Europe and not bad Europe.

 

[Super Hans v2]

As a department they must be billions and I mean 00's in the hole. It must be a nightmare for Microsoft as a whole to account them and make it look favourable to

Unless MS execs perjured themselves during the Epic horseshit, the division turns a profit. I don't know how, because as much shit Sony gets and deserves for not making any games, Microsoft is even worse.

 

[NoonmanR]

As a department they must be billions and I mean 00's in the hole. It must be a nightmare for Microsoft as a whole to account them and make it look favourable to investors/stakeholders. My disdain for silicon people is honestly higher than LA people, we have all seen them. People with god complex's the size of Africa thinking of how humans are cattle for their metrics. I still do not get who the Series X/S is for? For a start whoever named it that needs to die, I even forget it and I have one collecting dust in the lounge.

Yeah their cloud service will die, look at Stadia even on like a 100mb that shit will such and that is in good Europe and not bad Europe.

Xbox is in some serious shit right now because of the billions they blew to own Activision, bethesda and 500 studios nobody cares about like double fine(who they also had to spend millions of bucks on bailing them out of the whole fig backer fiasco). They threw around so much money that, supposedly, corporate is taking notice and is pressuring them to turn profits FAST. Problem is game pass fucks their chances of that hard because now nobody actually buys their game when it releases, thus capping revenue to whatever game pass makes, which probably isn't a whole lot.

 

[Incecticyder]

Xbox is in some serious shit right now because of the billions they blew to own Activision, bethesda and 500 studios nobody cares about like double fine(who they also had to spend millions of bucks on bailing them out of the whole fig backer fiasco). They threw around so much money that, supposedly, corporate is taking notice and is pressuring them to turn profits FAST. Problem is game pass fucks their chances of that hard because now nobody actually buys their game when it releases, thus capping revenue to whatever game pass makes, which probably isn't a whole lot.

It was a feeding frenzy. Sony and MS tried to get as many studios as possible to make sure the other does not get them. Now, they have a stomach ache. Now, they have so many studios to manage and fund. Nintendo did it right: buy what you can afford, those you know work well with you, something that is on a good discount and those that do good work.

Also, the Game Pass is unsustainable. It gives money to the main company while taking away the credit from those who make the games. It is a horrible death spiral/catch-22: too damaging to game devs to let it continue and too profitable to the company to discontinue it.

 

[Lone Wandering Courier]

2nd Edit: Microsoft Is Selling An Xbox-Free Xbox Bundle on Amazon for $80 (Forbes Archive)

Eh, if anything else you could always slap on a few emulators and roms. i wouldn't bother with a firestick even for that though.

 

[xXx: State of the Union]

Xbox is in some serious shit right now because of the billions they blew to own Activision, bethesda and 500 studios nobody cares about like double fine(who they also had to spend millions of bucks on bailing them out of the whole fig backer fiasco). They threw around so much money that, supposedly, corporate is taking notice and is pressuring them to turn profits FAST. Problem is game pass fucks their chances of that hard because now nobody actually buys their game when it releases, thus capping revenue to whatever game pass makes, which probably isn't a whole lot.

You see, you'd think they would get their ass in gear and start using these IPs. Get some of these studios to make some Elder Scrolls, Warcraft and Fallout spin offs while the iron is hot.

But this is a fucking corp that owned Banjo Kazooie and Perfect Dark for nearly a quarter century now and had done fuck all with them so I guess they just have to pray that Call of Duty manages to continue to bag whales for a few more years.

 

[NoonmanR]

You see, you'd think they would get their ass in gear and start using these IPs. Get some of these studios to make some Elder Scrolls and Fallout spin offs while the iron is hot.

But this is a fucking corp that owned Banjo Kazooie and Perfect Dark for nearly a quarter century now and had done fuck all with them so I guess they just have to pray that Call of Duty manages to continue to bag whales for a few more years.

I wonder if that old rumor from 4chan was true, about how Xbox execs thought they were buying Donkey Kong Country when they got Rare, and when they were shown a pitch prototype of banjo three they looked utterly bored during the entire thing. Rare has always been a fucking weird thing to see Microsoft own, mainly because it's hard to remember that they weren't always all in on the cod halo gears of war shooter crowd. Like, one of their Japanese launch games for the original xbox, like the only one of the lot they made for the market, was some cutesy on rails platformer thing starring a bunch of rats.

It was a feeding frenzy. Sony and MS tried to get as many studios as possible to make sure the other does not get them. Now, they have a stomach ache. Now, they have so many studios to manage and fund. Nintendo did it right: buy what you can afford, those you know work well with you, something that is on a good discount and those that do good work.

The weird part is Sony didn't really do much of that, they mainly just bought Bungie, and even then it's questionable - seems like they only got em to do a destiny TV show more than anything. No, if anything all they did was whine and tried to get the FCC to block the merger between actiblizz, which failed because the FCC kept making weird arguments like crafting this weird incredibly niche market that excludes the switch and PC(which is also an platform effectively monopolized by Microsoft Windows, but that was ignored altogether) as a counter to ms claim that they negotiated cod on Nintendo switch.