Not a video I exactly wanted to make, but Xbox's latest announcement about several (recently acquired and in some cases, largely successful) studios being shut down (with more cutbacks to come) made me feel compelled to. The state of the gaming industry has been on a downward spiral for a long time, with the art form slowly fading into obscurity while business and profits take centre stage, and while gaming has always, and will always operate as a business, these latest 'cutbacks' courtesy of Xbox upper management feel like the perfect amalgamation of everything that's wrong with the industry as it stands right now. I would say I hope these are the last layoffs and studio shutterings we see, but as inside sources at Xbox are telling numerous journalists, it instead seems like they're only the beginning. Wishing the best for everyone laid off, an industry as large and as immensely profitable as gaming should not be facing layoffs as brutal and as frequent as it is
This is happening in every industry because of corporate consolidation. This literally cannot be fixed with any other solution but government regulation but because governments don't want to regulate these industries and don't have the know-how to do so and the average governmental employee and Western countries is 8 million years old, it doesn't look like that's coming anytime soon.
The burning question I’ve been asking myself is, “why do these people keep making the same mistake and never learning from it?” The reason is because managers get paid for checking boxes, not making the company money. Now-a-days, you get paid before you do the work, so if it comes out like sh!t, they’re stuck holding the bag instead of you.
The irony with those 70 billion they could have made 2 massive Halo games, 2 massive Gears games, 20 new ips and revive 20 old ips as remake/remasters and have almost half of those 70 billion left. Absolute fail.
@@Obscure_1992nah, they could have done that and STILL had most of that money. U.S. super pacs are almost impossible to follow, but even the liberal estimates are a lot lower than people think….. politicians are upsettingly cheap! The likes of Pelosi and McConnel are being bought off with 6 figure amounts, not 7. The amount of political sway you could generate with just 1bn would be MORE than enough for even a company like Microsoft. Most of the money went to execs and BLOAT. Massive studios like these are just chalked full of non development projects and positions that never get cut, and just drain resources. Not to mention the INSANE hypothetical values given to properties for hypothetical and potential future earnings.
Instead they're just going to throw CoD into the same hole they threw Halo into. Don't get me wrong, I don't like CoD. But... it exists. Most of the time that's more than you can say for Halo these days. Give it 5-10 years, and it'll be a miracle if Microsoft can release a CoD game despite trying. Acquisitions are pointless for a company that just destroys studios with terrible hiring and contractor policies or just shuts the studio down even when they're surpassing all expectations. Microsoft has made the biggest blunder the digital entertainment industry has ever seen.
How to be a corpo in the game industry: 1. Have no brainpower for anything but the financial portfolio. 2. Make terrible decisions. 3. Never read the room.
They only hire c-suite Financial obsessed Psychopaths there's a reason even Phil Spencer or someone who supposedly likes games is mostly just a PR guy even somebody remotely like a gamer or someone who enjoys art would never be allowed to rise up into the positions above somebody like him to any significant margin because that point it doesn't matter what the company is about none of them care about what they're making they only care in the sense of what makes them more money no matter what even if it fucks them over in the long term they literally just suck off shareholders as frequently as possible
4. Cut losses; sell their way out of problem then buy/ bully way into entirely new venture under new name. (inserting new steps before step 1) A. Make something half decent with promises to improve upon next product. B. Fire everyone who is passionate about product/ craft to suit investors/ self greed. C. Make bank off universally hated aforementioned next product. Repeat step one and so on.
@@StormTroopaKoopa Glad you're bringing up point 4. It's why execs across industries keep gutting companies. Because they did it before at other companies. And they made bank off of it. And they'll probably get away with it again after landing with a golden parachute. While their replacement continues the trend because that's how all the rich execs are getting richer.
The day they told people who wanted an Xbox one but didn't have internet access to go fuck themselves was when they officially kneecapped themselves and sold more Playstations than Sony ever could
not to mention the mandatory Kinect that jacked up the MSRP and was mostly just there to lock down the console if the headcount in the room went above some arbitrary number. Sony didn't do anything special that gen, they just refrained from doing all the extra invasive nonsense Xbone tried to push.
@@xXx_Regulus_xXx I’ll be honest, the PlayStation 3 had killer exclusivities, free online services and PlayStation Home going on. They were innovative and made it accessible. My childhood wouldn’t have been the same if we had an Xbox because there’s no way our parents would have paid for online on top of paying for the internet.
I’m glad he said it because too many ppl allowed them to take physical games we owned and could play 50years later into a online subscription cloud service that gets shut down whenever they feel like it. You’ll own nothing and like it 😂
bro deadass- I cant even load up games when I have no internet. I have hundreds of gigabytes of games on my PC that are useless without internet. Halo MCC wont even let you use theater mode without internet connection. I think MCC on steam lets you play everything though iirc. Kinda sad.
@@TheErikjsm with as much money as they had/have, it HAS "happening by now" if they're making layoffs and closing studios to this degree today. Airplanes maintain altitude for a while before finally crashing and burning.
💀 Also, if you didn’t know, Jesus will fulfill you more than anything in this world, I speak from experience (from when i did Romans 10:9-13), he loves you and wants to be in a meaningful (not romantic) relationship with you. :) “that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Romans 10:9-13 KJV “and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.” Mark 1:15 KJV If you want proof that Jesus and the Bible are true look a documentary called “Ron Wyatt discoveries 2022” on UA-cam and a UA-cam channel called Expedition Bible. They both examine archeological sites and discoveries that prove the Bible, and even reference secular sources. (Just don’t convert to 7th day Adventism after watching the documentary) And lastly if you don’t know the gospel and want to be saved search up “abc’s of Salvation Teenmissions” on Google and it should be the first or second result. When you click on it read the whole thing, and do what it says and have faith in Jesus while you are doing it, do not doubt, and if it is hard for you to do what it says, ask Jesus to help you, have faith that he will, and *he will.* God Bless :)
CEO writing himself a $150,000,000 pay raise: we all have to make sacrifices. This hurts me as much as you. It’s been too tough financially this year. We can’t afford to keep paying so many staff we need to downsize
They should never have bought Activision. This is going to be Phil Spencer‘s Bob Iger moment when he bought 20th century Fox and look whats happened to Disney, even though Disney had problems even before that
Soooo Xbox is basically the Covenant from Halo, determined to light the Sacred Ring for their Great Journey, but if they succeed all they'll do is unalive themselves...
Genuinely, I would not be surprised if they drop one during the Xbox Games Showcase next month now to try and make people forget about the events of the last few days - that tends to happen quite a lot, hell the only reason Bethesda announce Elder Scrolls 6 as absurdly early as they did was because Fallout 76 just released and had such a negative sentiment surrounding it
343 should of been part of the layoff Thinking that some don’t know the situation about folks being let go from their position at 343. Well, yes we know Sunny Jim, but trying to hold 343 on pedestal makes you all look less smarter and just more blinded to the facts. Genuinely you all need to understand it’s not only one section that makes a game go bad, yet it’s multiple factors 343 is one of them Microsoft Xbox department is another. Learn not to move or shift the blame as both are responsible for the downfalls of these games due to bad business practices.
@HiddenXperia but 76 was released in November of 2018. 5 months after ES6 was announced. They announced it because they knew they had to tell the fans that they were working on something ES related because they announced Starfield at the same time.
yeeep Disney losing money an Xbox is like hold my beer meanwhile all these big corps an "triple A" studios an producers keep taking major hits. Gaming industry really feels like its going thru a civil war an I hope it works.
They want us to know we aren't valued or needed by them. They have a whole new generation of fresh, naive minds to sell their loot boxes and mobile games to. "What? You're in your mid to late 20s? Go do a crossword puzzle grandpa!" T. Game industry "executive" who's like 50 hasn't played a real game
Basically, if your small indie studio gets scooped up by MS, have a resume ready at all times.... chances are high you're on your way out, and it'll happen without warning.
microsoft’s PR for phil spencer is quite amazing, i dunno how he doesn’t get more criticism lol just seems like a smiley face to put in front of all their horrible decisions
I don’t know why everyone is convinced this is 100% him, and not demands from higher in Microsoft. The Xbox division has been burning money, doesn’t generate as much as it could, and hasn’t been a part of Microsoft they’re pleased about for a while. I can definitely imagine Microsoft making mandates to reduce costs and shift priorities all over the Xbox branches, thus, these awful changes.
@@HiddenXperiaSomething you didn't mention. Is that ghostwire Tokyo Did not sell well, which was the last game They made. Also, check the achievement, something like 80% of the people who played hifi Dropped the game like 30 minutes after playing It. The game had a very very small number of players That played it from beginning to end.. The guy who made the game even said that hider rushed it and sell well and it was supposedly debunked, but it looks like he was telling the truth. Then this fact that beyond good and evil 2 was also a financial disappointment..
@@tyvernoverlord5363 "Dear humanity, we regret being alien bastards, we regret coming to Earth, and we most definitely regret that the Corps just blew up our raggedy-ass fleet!" OORAH
@@TheDeathNote2 I mean, it doesn't have to be Sebastian, I agree that his arc ended nicely and the man has had enough suffering for a lifetime, it could be anyone else like Kidman or Joseph (he was never confirmed as "dead"), or maybe they could come up with the aftermath of Mobius, I dunno, some dumb excuse for more badass virtual nightmares, heck, Ruvik is kind of still loose in the real world, that was never addressed in EW2.
Yeah in the early 2000's the dev studios were mostly the "good guys" fighting on behalf of gamers. But now publisher and studio are becoming the same thing, and the whole industry is becoming liquidated and condensed into live service slop. Gaming should be seen as an artform. But unfortunately making a game with an artistic approach is the exception to the rule nowadays, not the rule itself. TLDR: There's too many bean counters and not enough artists in the industry.
Thankfully this disease is almost entirely Western. Japanese (sans Konami), Korean, and especially Eastern Europe still do good and go for the art, even if the wait is longer
@@JohnPeacekeeper honestly I'd love longer release cycles. Games have enough to do if you play in moderation, and even if you don't there are thousands of games you haven't tried yet. I'd rather work through my backlog and give games more time for polishing. Rapid release cycles lead to enough money that parent companies with greedy investors start making stupid decisions.
When I got this video's notification I was watching a reel about Phil Spencer saying one thing about giving Tango creative license, and less than a year later, they're closed.
Arkane Austin "only" made Prey, Dishonored: Death of The Outsider, Redfall, DLC for Dishonored 1 (believe it was Brigmore Witches), and assisted Arkane Lyon with Dishonored 2. Arkane Lyon is still alive (they made the main Dishonored games and Deathloop), so Dishonored is not on the chopping block. Anyone surprised by Microsoft's move after they _literally_ inventing the term "Embrace Extend Extinguish" which has been their business strategy since the 90's, does not know Microsoft.
Most people aren't surprised, we're just disappointed. A surprise would be them donating their studios to Valve while the Xbox execs drive off into the sunset; what they're doing is expected.
Halo infinite greedy, predatory shop makes a hell of a lot more sense when you realize that they're paying back and 11 digit loan. Art and love goes out the window when you are trying to turn on the corporate money machine
This is what happens when executives that have no industry knowledge get into the fold. They buy a company, let it do something well, then believe they can do it better on their own without the company. It happens all the time, unfortunately.
The thing that's killing gaming: "We have $x to give out to projects. For every $1, we want to have the greatest ROI within a certain time frame. If any project beats your projected ROI, even by $1, your funding is cut." It's literally because they aren't happy making $100m off a game that cost $15m -- If another game could make $100m+$1 for the same investment of $15m (or they can do it for $15m-$1). That's the entire crux.... The desire to not be happy with a TON of profit, but wanting MAXIMUM profit... is what's killing gaming....
What's killing gaming is the shit writing and forced diversity. People don't care who the lead character is in a game where you're just there to fuck shit up. They don't care their race or sexuality. They care about pressing start, new game, and just destroying mindless AI.
Didn't they learn that min-maxing is probably the most draining thing to do from their own games? Seriously, it is why I often don't play a lot of games involving needing to level up perks and such.
@@fickedyodad2137 No, forced diversity is more just a footnote if anything compared to the HORRENDOUS management, which, you know, are also the ones forcing that stuff.
Xbox used to dominate my town until September 2020,when Microsoft decided to announce that they were doing the following: 1. Shutting down all internet servers for the Xbox one in order for people to upgrade to the Xbox series X/S in November 2020 2. Microsoft also announced that they were also stopping production on the Xbox one in order to make room for the Xbox series X/S Now, there are only 10% Xbox users in my town,it used to be 90% before September 2020.
It's so frustrating to see that they have all the money and power to become the best gaming company ever and they still can't be half of what they were on the 360's era
The corporatization of the gaming community is absolutely detrimental to the art form. I called this going wrong all the way back when Halo 5's marketing turned out to be literally NOTHING like the game.
This most disappointing thing is that even if a studio makes a successful, critically acclaimed game, Microsoft will still close the studio. What's the incentive for developers to maintain morale in that kind of environment?
@@benzemamumba Oh I'm sorry your skills of deduction weren't high enough to realize I wasn't talking about a brand of phone when the page is called HIDDENXPERIA. Use some common sense man.
To say something positive, you reported on this very well. You provided a lot of rich detail and I can tell that your research was really on point. Id love to see more videos like this just to hear your commentary on the video game industry!
Really, I should thank Xbox's leadership for all they're doing to help save me money as a gamer, because I'm suddenly not so keen to keep supporting the Xbox brand.
Everyone talks big about Hi-Fi Rush, but the truth is that nobody actually played it. In August they announced they had “3M players”. Now let’s generously assume that count has doubled to 6M. Well, the % of players that have completed the 4th boss is 14%. That’s just 840,000 players that stuck around for just the 4th boss. The truth is that lots of people TRIED it for an hour, thought it was neat, but then moved on. The game wasn’t the smash hit people are making it out to be.
Everyone is putting this on Phil but let's be real, it's the Microsoft executives ABOVE Phil that made this choice, Phil is essentially the spokesperson, the face, the "fall guy" for Microsoft.
Tbh, I've noticed that across the board for Xbox Game Studios as a whole. A lot of the devs at Xbox talk very passionately about their games and shit, and they seem to really love the work that they do, but they still release games in shitty states. There goes a certain point in which it becomes more and more obvious that it isn't their fault, and I feel like that point hit now. What's happening at 343, Turn 10, PG Games and many other game studios within XGS isn't the devs' fault. It's micromanagement from Microsoft executives
@@mrsoisauce9017 Kinda reminds me of what happened at Bungie, where the devs were actually listening to player feedback for Destiny 2. But the higher ups were the ones slowing them down.
@@xghostx9715 it also reminds me of what was happening back when Bungie still worked for Microsoft; they were trying to micromanage the studio. If I remember correctly, that's exactly the reason why they wanted to leave
God this makes my blood boil. It honestly feels like these executives don't actually know how to make money. They just see something done profitably once and then attempt to ape it without any understanding. I wish they'd take a god dam leadership/project management course... but instead they're too busy promoting bootlickers to the top to the point that the people making decisions have bought into the stories and myths that were supposed to be only for the rest of us to believe. They honestly feel... just detatched from reality.
No he wouldn’t, they still fire Timmy’s dad so the CEO can use the money that would have gone to his salary to make the red line go up for shareholders to drool over…
It’s always the executives causing problems: Arkane gets shut down, halo gets made by 18yo contractors and no more hifi rush. The only way Xbox could come back is a good halo game, fallout/elder scrolls or any Fable news. Gears is a success anyway but the hype will die down in about a few months after release
Halo won't even save Xbox at this point. I think Xbox is digging their own grave very deliberately because they've accepted that they've lost to Sony and have just decided to end Xbox in a ball of fire.
whats crazy is these companies think giving massive budgets means great profitable game. Which has literally never been the case. Now they are surprised when their profits fall.
"Hope the execs have a good think about that" That's a VERY tall order. You're asking executives to do something they didn't do in the first place..."think".
the simplest thing I can say is to everyone is support the indies, support the indiviuals behind the games you love, they are who we should be following.
This and the Helldivers/Playstation Network account fiasco makes me wonder if we're in another video game industry crash like the dreaded 1983 one that ended up with ET game cartridges being buried in a landfill.
at this point I hope so. let it "die" long enough for investors to go leech off of some other industry and teach people what happens to the always online games that they """own.""" only people who actually like video games would come back after that, at least for a time.
If I had a nickel for every time a gaming company made an awful decision in the last week I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice.
Did the devs get fired? They could just be merging into Bethesda now. Instead of seeing their studio name. Now we will see Bethesda in the credits instead. Like the studios are shut down but are the employees fired? Lay off shut down is different than being fired.
If I was a higher-ups at Microsoft giving them $70 billion and they’re screwing up as badly. The management needs to get replaced entirely with people that know how to make Xbox a well functioning machine again get rid of Phil get rid of Matt get rid of Sara and put people in there. That knows what the hell they’re doing and bring back that same energy we had from the 360 era.
Game Studios everywhere need to start unionizing!! Short term business decisions benefit shareholders most. These corporate people need to be reminded who provides the real value!!
"It's hard to watch something you love destroy itself, to see it fall apart. Disaster always feels so distant, detached, someone else's struggle in some far away place; it's not until it's in our city, at our doors, that we realize how fragile we are. All of us. All of this."
Look, Xbox is not dead. They literally own so many IPs. MS does not care about the studios or the devs. a great example is MS Flight Simulator. MS closed down Sublogic/Aces Game Studio and fired all the devs that made the Flight games and the IP went into the dungeon only for MS to bring back the IP by hiring a new studio to make the latest Flight Simulator game and it made money. The massive acquisition that MS went through like a year ago was to own as much IP as possible and deny Sony or anyone else the way to make money from them. Remember that Xbox had a ton of studios back in the xbox and xbox 360 era and they milked and destroyed most of them so when they couldn't get more money they just went on a shopping spree and rinse and repeat. Bethesda, Obsidian and even Activision and Blizzard will eventually went up like Bungie, Lionhead and Rare. They will either be able to escape, be closed down or become a shell of their former selves. MS is horrible.
Gaming really has left me behind, it's not the same hobby I fell in love with. I haven't switched my Xbox One on since they got rid of Gold and tried to make everybody subscribe to Game Pass, and my PC with a GTX 970 and an i5 6600 plays absolutely everything I need it to, i.e. games that are old but are actually good. I don't recognise the industry anymore. As with so much of our generation, we've had the golden era, and there's no going back.
I'm tempted to just save up for a pc now, but its hard for me since I'm in college and still work, on top of having long term friends on Xbox that probably can't afford a PC. I just want the love for games to come back.
I can't get over that quote on "...to focus on our priority games." What priority games? How is Halo not a "priority game?" Because it seems like the only thing Microsoft has focused on with Halo is kicking 343 in the mouth and trying to burn it down.
The last game I bought on Steam was Elden Ring. That was after a year of watching guides and reviews, which got me thinking it was a solid buy. Aside from that, I've been playing more retro PS2, 360 and PC games (Sins, Empire at War, Price of Persia: SoT, BF2 (modded), Morrowind, Forbidden Memories, Halo CE, Halo 2, Halo 3, and Reach. I've just lost faith in contemporary gaming; like there's a disconnect between the publishers, the studios and players.
My big worry in gaming is the Jurassic Park Survival game , the studio already had some behind the scenes change over and i prey it does not get cancelled as its a game fans have been asking for for years now !!
*It’s getting to a point where video game developers need to unionize. Companies like Microsoft will just continue to abuse and overwork employees, while also constantly inserting their influence into developments purely for the intent of greed. There also needs to be more workplace oversight into the toxic practices taking place in these companies.*
360/ PS3 years were peak gaming awesomeness. Gaming hasn't been as depressing as of now. Mass Effect, I'm looking at you, Elder Scroll 6, I'm looking at you, Halo 4 (because we all know that Halo4 and up is a collective fever dream) I'm looking at you... And you... Activision Blizzard Anyways... Until the next one :)
@@D00dmannah even story wise it was bad. Levels not well designed and boring to get through. Story and antagonists all ridiculous overkill or very flat, generic and cliche. Only good thing was the cortana chief relationship
I know we love blaming execs for this clusterfuck, but remember they get their marching orders from their board of shareholders; most likely setting a mandate on recouping or reducing costs in a certain time frame. I guarentee the recent decisions within both Microsoft and Sony leadership was from shortsighted board members wanting to maximize every iota of their portfolio.
Let's figure out who is leading all this crap. Not just Microsoft, but the investors that don't know anything about games and don't give a damn. We hit their bottom line they'll listen.
I don't exactly think this is unexpected or outrageous. Zenimax was bought for $7bil for Skyrim and Fallout alone, but 6bil of that was them and the other billion was the rest of what Zenimax has. Bethesda has been doing poorly, so, Microsoft is going to cut the studios that don't make what they really bought Bethesda for.
Time for every Xbox gamer to follow the lead. Cancel gamepass and live subscriptions. Save up money for 4 months, and buy a pc. It’s hard but all the money from gamepass would be better given to steam. Xbox only sees us as money cows and that level of disrespect shouldn’t be tolerated. Remind them that gamers and studios matter guys.
Phil Spencer really needs to put his foot down he’s even acknowledged the pipeline for Xbox is horrible yet hasn’t done anything to help it at least that’s been shown.
I think that's because if he does do something, he risks losing his job. Seriously; corporate executives are so cutthroat and careless nowadays that they will throw you out the goddamn window for simply stating the obvious. If Phil Spencer wants to stay on the team, what choice does he have?
Bro you should become a journalist or a documentary narrator! I f*cken love your voice and the passionate affection you master to bring when talking and explaining a subject in such a nyanced way! Ps. also loved xbox but recently lost all motivation and it's been going on for a while now :(
Did people seriously not expect this? With the ridiculous number of studios Microsoft has bought out theyre absolutely going to be condensing and closing some. This really isn’t news to me or anyone I know. We were fully expecting this to start least a year ago.
Well I’d be surprised if anyone expected the studio that made HiFi rush to be shut down - especially considering they were Xbox’s only Japanese studio. They had been vocal about expanding into more Japanese studios too, which makes it even more baffling.
I don't know about you guys but it seems like Sony and Xbox are in a console race again. But it's not to see who sells more consoles or how popular those consoles become. It's how quickly they can piss off and destroy their communities.
Microsoft should have never wasted the time and money it took to acquire Activision. Instead, Microsoft should have put a few billion into established Xbox exclusives. Halo, Forza, Gears of War, Fable, and other games should have been funded, and instead of using contractors to develop games they should have hired full-time staff who are hired for the entire life cycle of the game. Halo and Forza are why I've always gone with Xbox, but both of those franchises have completely fallen off. Games like Halo and Forza Motorsport should have never chased the "live service" trend and focused on making great experiences with tons of content at launch. If Halo Infinite launched with the level of content it currently has minus the scummy item shop, it would have been a homerun, especially if they kept adding content. If Forza Motorsport would have launched with a real career mode, 10-15 more tracks, less bugs, and more new to Forza content, Microsoft would have another homerun. Instead we get games that feel empty and lack content but feature the most predatory monetization systems in all of gaming. Its sad to see.
@@RykSchThe last Cod game I enjoyed was BO3 I stopped playing afterward's anything before BO3 is a go to in my opinion. Now a day's I agree I wanna see the franchise/Activision go under.
It’s no longer about the art, the experience, the memories the loyal fan base. It’s about numbers, higher up corporate slop. So out of touch. Such a shame
Yo Hidden X huge Halo fan I love you’re videos but find it hard to relate to you’re other non halo vids. But this one was great!!! Xbox news love it, would love to see more Xbox related videos :) just my 2cents
This honestly sounds exactly like the management of where I work. Spending money on pointless endeavors and then whining about the budget being too low for anything important.
Xbox's line up was Fable, Gears of War, and Halo. Now it's going to have to include The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Starcraft, and Call of Duty. Let me guess: Hi-Fi Rush was a spiritual successor to Jet Set Radio, which they're still refusing to port over from the original Xbox. I'm not surprised at the layoffs. I am very surprised that when they fired Frank O'Connor, the Halo forums were ejected with him.
Not a video I exactly wanted to make, but Xbox's latest announcement about several (recently acquired and in some cases, largely successful) studios being shut down (with more cutbacks to come) made me feel compelled to.
The state of the gaming industry has been on a downward spiral for a long time, with the art form slowly fading into obscurity while business and profits take centre stage, and while gaming has always, and will always operate as a business, these latest 'cutbacks' courtesy of Xbox upper management feel like the perfect amalgamation of everything that's wrong with the industry as it stands right now.
I would say I hope these are the last layoffs and studio shutterings we see, but as inside sources at Xbox are telling numerous journalists, it instead seems like they're only the beginning.
Wishing the best for everyone laid off, an industry as large and as immensely profitable as gaming should not be facing layoffs as brutal and as frequent as it is
When the tweet about Hi-Fi Rush was on screen I swear the Microsoft account said in emojis Microsoft doesn’t love you
Johnathan kleck channel
This is happening in every industry because of corporate consolidation. This literally cannot be fixed with any other solution but government regulation but because governments don't want to regulate these industries and don't have the know-how to do so and the average governmental employee and Western countries is 8 million years old, it doesn't look like that's coming anytime soon.
The burning question I’ve been asking myself is, “why do these people keep making the same mistake and never learning from it?” The reason is because managers get paid for checking boxes, not making the company money. Now-a-days, you get paid before you do the work, so if it comes out like sh!t, they’re stuck holding the bag instead of you.
NGL, if they bought Nintendo I would've just given up. Valve owns steam right? If they bought valve I'd be scared of what they'd do to it
"I know we're losing... I just want to know if we've lost."
Fuuuccckkk
Those are high level communiques bruh
Your preaching to the converted
we havent lost. watch everyones gonna be hyped after the june showcase
We have, hope is dead
The irony with those 70 billion they could have made 2 massive Halo games, 2 massive Gears games, 20 new ips and revive 20 old ips as remake/remasters and have almost half of those 70 billion left. Absolute fail.
Epic fail
Instead it was funneled into political lobbying.. lol.
@@Obscure_1992nah, they could have done that and STILL had most of that money. U.S. super pacs are almost impossible to follow, but even the liberal estimates are a lot lower than people think….. politicians are upsettingly cheap! The likes of Pelosi and McConnel are being bought off with 6 figure amounts, not 7. The amount of political sway you could generate with just 1bn would be MORE than enough for even a company like Microsoft.
Most of the money went to execs and BLOAT. Massive studios like these are just chalked full of non development projects and positions that never get cut, and just drain resources. Not to mention the INSANE hypothetical values given to properties for hypothetical and potential future earnings.
All so they could own a few mediocre call of dutys and a failing overwatch. I couldn't be shaking my head harder 💀
Instead they're just going to throw CoD into the same hole they threw Halo into. Don't get me wrong, I don't like CoD. But... it exists. Most of the time that's more than you can say for Halo these days. Give it 5-10 years, and it'll be a miracle if Microsoft can release a CoD game despite trying. Acquisitions are pointless for a company that just destroys studios with terrible hiring and contractor policies or just shuts the studio down even when they're surpassing all expectations. Microsoft has made the biggest blunder the digital entertainment industry has ever seen.
How to be a corpo in the game industry:
1. Have no brainpower for anything but the financial portfolio.
2. Make terrible decisions.
3. Never read the room.
They only hire c-suite Financial obsessed Psychopaths there's a reason even Phil Spencer or someone who supposedly likes games is mostly just a PR guy even somebody remotely like a gamer or someone who enjoys art would never be allowed to rise up into the positions above somebody like him to any significant margin because that point it doesn't matter what the company is about none of them care about what they're making they only care in the sense of what makes them more money no matter what even if it fucks them over in the long term they literally just suck off shareholders as frequently as possible
4. Cut losses; sell their way out of problem then buy/ bully way into entirely new venture under new name.
(inserting new steps before step 1)
A. Make something half decent with promises to improve upon next product.
B. Fire everyone who is passionate about product/ craft to suit investors/ self greed.
C. Make bank off universally hated aforementioned next product.
Repeat step one and so on.
@@StormTroopaKoopa Glad you're bringing up point 4. It's why execs across industries keep gutting companies. Because they did it before at other companies. And they made bank off of it. And they'll probably get away with it again after landing with a golden parachute. While their replacement continues the trend because that's how all the rich execs are getting richer.
5 Push out unfinished products to get more money to fix the issues that wouldn't even exist
You're using stupid Gen Z slang and you have the nerve to talk about brainpower?
The day they told people who wanted an Xbox one but didn't have internet access to go fuck themselves was when they officially kneecapped themselves and sold more Playstations than Sony ever could
not to mention the mandatory Kinect that jacked up the MSRP and was mostly just there to lock down the console if the headcount in the room went above some arbitrary number.
Sony didn't do anything special that gen, they just refrained from doing all the extra invasive nonsense Xbone tried to push.
@xXx_Regulus_xXx that and water marking the games so you had to pay to play on another persons xbox
@@xXx_Regulus_xXx I’ll be honest, the PlayStation 3 had killer exclusivities, free online services and PlayStation Home going on. They were innovative and made it accessible. My childhood wouldn’t have been the same if we had an Xbox because there’s no way our parents would have paid for online on top of paying for the internet.
I’m glad he said it because too many ppl allowed them to take physical games we owned and could play 50years later into a online subscription cloud service that gets shut down whenever they feel like it.
You’ll own nothing and like it 😂
bro deadass- I cant even load up games when I have no internet. I have hundreds of gigabytes of games on my PC that are useless without internet. Halo MCC wont even let you use theater mode without internet connection. I think MCC on steam lets you play everything though iirc. Kinda sad.
So is this the time to bring up Phil's quote of "if we lose our way with Halo, we lose our way with Xbox"?
Make this top comment.
ironic
its not even relevant tbh, they lost their way with halo after reach if the statement held any weight smtn would have happened by now.
@@TheErikjsm with as much money as they had/have, it HAS "happening by now" if they're making layoffs and closing studios to this degree today. Airplanes maintain altitude for a while before finally crashing and burning.
💀
Also, if you didn’t know, Jesus will fulfill you more than anything in this world, I speak from experience (from when i did Romans 10:9-13), he loves you and wants to be in a meaningful (not romantic) relationship with you. :)
“that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Romans 10:9-13 KJV
“and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.”
Mark 1:15 KJV
If you want proof that Jesus and the Bible are true look a documentary called “Ron Wyatt discoveries 2022” on UA-cam and a UA-cam channel called Expedition Bible. They both examine archeological sites and discoveries that prove the Bible, and even reference secular sources. (Just don’t convert to 7th day Adventism after watching the documentary) And lastly if you don’t know the gospel and want to be saved search up “abc’s of Salvation Teenmissions” on Google and it should be the first or second result. When you click on it read the whole thing, and do what it says and have faith in Jesus while you are doing it, do not doubt, and if it is hard for you to do what it says, ask Jesus to help you, have faith that he will, and *he will.*
God Bless :)
CEO writing himself a $150,000,000 pay raise: we all have to make sacrifices. This hurts me as much as you. It’s been too tough financially this year. We can’t afford to keep paying so many staff we need to downsize
Tartarus... microsoft has betrayed us
Fool… you let them get away with it
Legitimately laughed out loud
Having recently watched the H2A cutscene, I heard it in my head as I read that XD
Like they even needed to do it in the first place.
*the profits
They should never have bought Activision. This is going to be Phil Spencer‘s Bob Iger moment when he bought 20th century Fox and look whats happened to Disney, even though Disney had problems even before that
We're watching these tech and entertainment giants fly way too close to the sun and finding out what happens
all that wasted for MW3 and Starfield, just for AA games to get the end of the deal.
CEO: "it had to be done, I needed the money to buy my 3rd yacht"
😂😢
And what did it cost you? CEO: "Me personally? I got a bonus in the tens of millions. But I had to fire 1200 employees."
@@l0rf 💀
Eat the rich
Compare this to the time where the CEO of Nintendo compensated for employees when the Wii U failed by taking it out of his paycheck
Soooo Xbox is basically the Covenant from Halo, determined to light the Sacred Ring for their Great Journey, but if they succeed all they'll do is unalive themselves...
This could not be a more perfect analogy
@@carlosaguilera3916fr
we need teh mahster chef to stahp teh space allens AKA microsoft
And then decided "Hey, let's put out a new Halo trailer"...
For honestly nothing
Genuinely, I would not be surprised if they drop one during the Xbox Games Showcase next month now to try and make people forget about the events of the last few days - that tends to happen quite a lot, hell the only reason Bethesda announce Elder Scrolls 6 as absurdly early as they did was because Fallout 76 just released and had such a negative sentiment surrounding it
343 should of been part of the layoff
Thinking that some don’t know the situation about folks being let go from their position at 343.
Well, yes we know Sunny Jim, but trying to hold 343 on pedestal makes you all look less smarter and just more blinded to the facts.
Genuinely you all need to understand it’s not only one section that makes a game go bad, yet it’s multiple factors 343 is one of them Microsoft Xbox department is another.
Learn not to move or shift the blame as both are responsible for the downfalls of these games due to bad business practices.
You’re like the guy who blames the server for food being over cooked.
@HiddenXperia but 76 was released in November of 2018. 5 months after ES6 was announced.
They announced it because they knew they had to tell the fans that they were working on something ES related because they announced Starfield at the same time.
As Phil Spencer already stated , if we loose our way with halo we loose our way with Xbox… they lost there way with halo on launch of 5 and infinite
I'd argue since Halo Anniversary and Halo 4.
Halo 4 actually. That’s worse than 5 and infinite tbh
@@evanmanor7444yes it all started with Halo 4. Worst game in the franchise imo.
Halo isn't dead.
@@protector_of_the_realmsyou’re tripping sacks if you think halo 4 is worse than infinite
Seems all big corpos these days are just keen on reminding their customers that they just don’t care about *you* sometimes
yeeep Disney losing money an Xbox is like hold my beer meanwhile all these big corps an "triple A" studios an producers keep taking major hits. Gaming industry really feels like its going thru a civil war an I hope it works.
They’ve never cared
They want us to know we aren't valued or needed by them. They have a whole new generation of fresh, naive minds to sell their loot boxes and mobile games to. "What? You're in your mid to late 20s? Go do a crossword puzzle grandpa!" T. Game industry "executive" who's like 50 hasn't played a real game
@@michaelkean5969once upon a time they cared. Back when gaming was for “nerds” and “losers.” Back when boomers thought it’d turn us violent.
Sometimes?
Basically, if your small indie studio gets scooped up by MS, have a resume ready at all times.... chances are high you're on your way out, and it'll happen without warning.
microsoft’s PR for phil spencer is quite amazing, i dunno how he doesn’t get more criticism lol just seems like a smiley face to put in front of all their horrible decisions
I think this is the straw that broke the camel's back when it comes to his PR tbh
I don’t know why everyone is convinced this is 100% him, and not demands from higher in Microsoft. The Xbox division has been burning money, doesn’t generate as much as it could, and hasn’t been a part of Microsoft they’re pleased about for a while. I can definitely imagine Microsoft making mandates to reduce costs and shift priorities all over the Xbox branches, thus, these awful changes.
@@HiddenXperiaSomething you didn't mention. Is that ghostwire Tokyo Did not sell well, which was the last game They made. Also, check the achievement, something like 80% of the people who played hifi Dropped the game like 30 minutes after playing It. The game had a very very small number of players That played it from beginning to end.. The guy who made the game even said that hider rushed it and sell well and it was supposedly debunked, but it looks like he was telling the truth. Then this fact that beyond good and evil 2 was also a financial disappointment..
Has Spencer been in charge since the beginning? If not, I wish they’d bring back whoever was in charge during the 360 era
It's exactly that since 10 years...
"What is it,Microtransactions?"
"Worse,Microsoft shenanigans"
*title comes up on feed*
"Sigh, what happened this time..."
It turns out the true Xbox was the failures and regrets we made along the way.
"The message just repeats. Regret, regret, regret."
@@tyvernoverlord5363 "Dear humanity, we regret being alien bastards, we regret coming to Earth, and we most definitely regret that the Corps just blew up our raggedy-ass fleet!" OORAH
@@TheUnitedNationsSpaceCommand
* Video Ends *
“They’re gonna regret that too.”
Love your pp
"What is it? More layoffs?"
"Worse..."
Everyone grieving that Hi-Fi Rush 2 will never get made, but I'm here lamenting that we'll never see a sequel to Evil Within 2.
It had a good ending, why do you want to see him suffer more
Evil within 3 woulda been fire
@@TheDeathNote2 I mean, it doesn't have to be Sebastian, I agree that his arc ended nicely and the man has had enough suffering for a lifetime, it could be anyone else like Kidman or Joseph (he was never confirmed as "dead"), or maybe they could come up with the aftermath of Mobius, I dunno, some dumb excuse for more badass virtual nightmares, heck, Ruvik is kind of still loose in the real world, that was never addressed in EW2.
Yeah in the early 2000's the dev studios were mostly the "good guys" fighting on behalf of gamers. But now publisher and studio are becoming the same thing, and the whole industry is becoming liquidated and condensed into live service slop. Gaming should be seen as an artform. But unfortunately making a game with an artistic approach is the exception to the rule nowadays, not the rule itself.
TLDR: There's too many bean counters and not enough artists in the industry.
Thankfully this disease is almost entirely Western. Japanese (sans Konami), Korean, and especially Eastern Europe still do good and go for the art, even if the wait is longer
@@JohnPeacekeeper honestly I'd love longer release cycles. Games have enough to do if you play in moderation, and even if you don't there are thousands of games you haven't tried yet. I'd rather work through my backlog and give games more time for polishing. Rapid release cycles lead to enough money that parent companies with greedy investors start making stupid decisions.
When I got this video's notification I was watching a reel about Phil Spencer saying one thing about giving Tango creative license, and less than a year later, they're closed.
Arkane Austin "only" made Prey, Dishonored: Death of The Outsider, Redfall, DLC for Dishonored 1 (believe it was Brigmore Witches), and assisted Arkane Lyon with Dishonored 2.
Arkane Lyon is still alive (they made the main Dishonored games and Deathloop), so Dishonored is not on the chopping block.
Anyone surprised by Microsoft's move after they _literally_ inventing the term "Embrace Extend Extinguish" which has been their business strategy since the 90's, does not know Microsoft.
Most people aren't surprised, we're just disappointed. A surprise would be them donating their studios to Valve while the Xbox execs drive off into the sunset; what they're doing is expected.
I'm genuinely worried for ninja theory, obsidian entertainment and undead labs😢😭
Obsidian must be protected with our lives
If they ever do anything to Obsidian... that is a true golden goose compared to Bethesda
@@Beey56Same with undead labs. State of decay 3 will be a huge game when it actually releases in a few years
InExile even
knocks on wood*
Can just hear Jeff Steitzers voice saying “Suicide” constantly after seeing the headlines in my recommended
😂 Bahaha that was funny.
Halo infinite greedy, predatory shop makes a hell of a lot more sense when you realize that they're paying back and 11 digit loan. Art and love goes out the window when you are trying to turn on the corporate money machine
This is what happens when executives that have no industry knowledge get into the fold.
They buy a company, let it do something well, then believe they can do it better on their own without the company. It happens all the time, unfortunately.
The thing that's killing gaming:
"We have $x to give out to projects. For every $1, we want to have the greatest ROI within a certain time frame. If any project beats your projected ROI, even by $1, your funding is cut."
It's literally because they aren't happy making $100m off a game that cost $15m -- If another game could make $100m+$1 for the same investment of $15m (or they can do it for $15m-$1).
That's the entire crux.... The desire to not be happy with a TON of profit, but wanting MAXIMUM profit... is what's killing gaming....
So greed?
@@LILAC_CHAOS Capitalism
What's killing gaming is the shit writing and forced diversity. People don't care who the lead character is in a game where you're just there to fuck shit up. They don't care their race or sexuality. They care about pressing start, new game, and just destroying mindless AI.
Didn't they learn that min-maxing is probably the most draining thing to do from their own games? Seriously, it is why I often don't play a lot of games involving needing to level up perks and such.
@@fickedyodad2137 No, forced diversity is more just a footnote if anything compared to the HORRENDOUS management, which, you know, are also the ones forcing that stuff.
Xbox used to dominate my town until September 2020,when Microsoft decided to announce that they were doing the following:
1. Shutting down all internet servers for the Xbox one in order for people to upgrade to the Xbox series X/S in November 2020
2. Microsoft also announced that they were also stopping production on the Xbox one in order to make room for the Xbox series X/S
Now, there are only 10% Xbox users in my town,it used to be 90% before September 2020.
How the heck would you know the number of Xboxes in your town? Sounds made up.
It's so frustrating to see that they have all the money and power to become the best gaming company ever and they still can't be half of what they were on the 360's era
That was never going to happen…. Too much centralization rarely ever makes positive change …
The corporatization of the gaming community is absolutely detrimental to the art form. I called this going wrong all the way back when Halo 5's marketing turned out to be literally NOTHING like the game.
This most disappointing thing is that even if a studio makes a successful, critically acclaimed game, Microsoft will still close the studio. What's the incentive for developers to maintain morale in that kind of environment?
As a man working for his pension i couldnt fathom not having any future security for myself or my family
**disney with cancelling everything lucasfilm was making gamewise**
I feel so bad for the ~100 people in tango because their will to make games is probably dust
Dude....i dont think ive ever seen HiddenXperia stand up before....that was jarring 😮
All this time I thought he was just a floating Torso 😢
What are you talking about, isn't Xperia an Android phone?
@@benzemamumba it is but it's also this guys username since you for some reason couldn't tell.....
@@henryofskalitz4879 son, you didn't use the Full Username it wasn't obvious. 🤦
@@benzemamumba Oh I'm sorry your skills of deduction weren't high enough to realize I wasn't talking about a brand of phone when the page is called HIDDENXPERIA. Use some common sense man.
This is it baby, hold me.
To say something positive, you reported on this very well. You provided a lot of rich detail and I can tell that your research was really on point. Id love to see more videos like this just to hear your commentary on the video game industry!
Really, I should thank Xbox's leadership for all they're doing to help save me money as a gamer, because I'm suddenly not so keen to keep supporting the Xbox brand.
Same!
they are very likely getting rid of Xbox anyways in the near future
If you think Sony wouldn't lay off as well. You a fool. Sony is worse man. 😅
@@momsspaghetti4064 Hey, you brought up Sony, not me!
Facts I’m now gonna pledge loyalty to pc, as expensive as it is
Everyone talks big about Hi-Fi Rush, but the truth is that nobody actually played it. In August they announced they had “3M players”. Now let’s generously assume that count has doubled to 6M. Well, the % of players that have completed the 4th boss is 14%. That’s just 840,000 players that stuck around for just the 4th boss.
The truth is that lots of people TRIED it for an hour, thought it was neat, but then moved on. The game wasn’t the smash hit people are making it out to be.
Yeah it was just a lame little indie rhythm game. It didn't sell Xbox
lol that’s how most games are. thats an issue w tracking engagement on game pass. if u sell a game outright u got the $ already so it doesn’t matter
Everyone is putting this on Phil but let's be real, it's the Microsoft executives ABOVE Phil that made this choice, Phil is essentially the spokesperson, the face, the "fall guy" for Microsoft.
And disgusting Microsoft is using Phil as a shield.
Tbh, I've noticed that across the board for Xbox Game Studios as a whole. A lot of the devs at Xbox talk very passionately about their games and shit, and they seem to really love the work that they do, but they still release games in shitty states. There goes a certain point in which it becomes more and more obvious that it isn't their fault, and I feel like that point hit now. What's happening at 343, Turn 10, PG Games and many other game studios within XGS isn't the devs' fault. It's micromanagement from Microsoft executives
@@mrsoisauce9017 Kinda reminds me of what happened at Bungie, where the devs were actually listening to player feedback for Destiny 2. But the higher ups were the ones slowing them down.
@@xghostx9715 it also reminds me of what was happening back when Bungie still worked for Microsoft; they were trying to micromanage the studio. If I remember correctly, that's exactly the reason why they wanted to leave
There's only one executive above Phil: Satya Nadella. Phil reports directly to the CEO of Microsoft
If they couldn't afford to keep them open, dont buy them in the first place
God this makes my blood boil. It honestly feels like these executives don't actually know how to make money. They just see something done profitably once and then attempt to ape it without any understanding. I wish they'd take a god dam leadership/project management course... but instead they're too busy promoting bootlickers to the top to the point that the people making decisions have bought into the stories and myths that were supposed to be only for the rest of us to believe. They honestly feel... just detatched from reality.
Well if you'd only bought every single cosmetic in the Xbox stores then maybe little Timmy would have food on his table tonight.
- tech studios
No he wouldn’t, they still fire Timmy’s dad so the CEO can use the money that would have gone to his salary to make the red line go up for shareholders to drool over…
"One more word Oracle and I rip your eye from it's socket! Which is nothing compared to what I'll do to you" - Microsoft to Tango Gameworks.
It’s always the executives causing problems: Arkane gets shut down, halo gets made by 18yo contractors and no more hifi rush. The only way Xbox could come back is a good halo game, fallout/elder scrolls or any Fable news. Gears is a success anyway but the hype will die down in about a few months after release
Clearly have never held a serious job with performance ratings.
Is that why Corrosion is shit?
Halo won't even save Xbox at this point. I think Xbox is digging their own grave very deliberately because they've accepted that they've lost to Sony and have just decided to end Xbox in a ball of fire.
whats crazy is these companies think giving massive budgets means great profitable game. Which has literally never been the case. Now they are surprised when their profits fall.
"Hope the execs have a good think about that" That's a VERY tall order. You're asking executives to do something they didn't do in the first place..."think".
the simplest thing I can say is to everyone is support the indies, support the indiviuals behind the games you love, they are who we should be following.
sure, support the indies but only the GOOD ones. indie games flop at least as often as corpo games. Remember Mighty Number 9?
This and the Helldivers/Playstation Network account fiasco makes me wonder if we're in another video game industry crash like the dreaded 1983 one that ended up with ET game cartridges being buried in a landfill.
at this point I hope so. let it "die" long enough for investors to go leech off of some other industry and teach people what happens to the always online games that they """own.""" only people who actually like video games would come back after that, at least for a time.
If I had a nickel for every time a gaming company made an awful decision in the last week I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice.
You’d have more than that if you account for the last 1-2 years
If I had a nickel for every time a gaming company made a bad decision, I'd be driving a McLaren.
Ha.
You'd have far more than two.
Really? I'd have a mansion.
Recently as in like this last week? or this year?
if it was this year alone, you could probably quit your job and be fine for a year.
The thumbnail should've been the Red Ring of Death
As someone who's been wanting a sequel to The Evil Within 2... This hurts. I loved Tango Gameworks so this is just like a deep wound.
Dude that looks soooo good! 🤤
Yea I really liked Evil Within 2... great game nearly got all the achievements.
Oh wow no more Dishonoured either... one of my favourite game series to play. This is a dark day for all true gamers...
Did the devs get fired? They could just be merging into Bethesda now. Instead of seeing their studio name. Now we will see Bethesda in the credits instead. Like the studios are shut down but are the employees fired? Lay off shut down is different than being fired.
congwats fwaker nowz chu fwakn knw how we felt wen sony act. killed viceral games😢........chya fwakn sucks dunt it.....
If I was a higher-ups at Microsoft giving them $70 billion and they’re screwing up as badly. The management needs to get replaced entirely with people that know how to make Xbox a well functioning machine again get rid of Phil get rid of Matt get rid of Sara and put people in there. That knows what the hell they’re doing and bring back that same energy we had from the 360 era.
8:45 Given how up their own a** executives are, they'll probably either fire him or just completely ignore it.
After seeing what happened I don’t think Xbox should buy more studios or companies, and just focus on the one that they have
🗣️🔥🔥🔥
Game Studios everywhere need to start unionizing!! Short term business decisions benefit shareholders most. These corporate people need to be reminded who provides the real value!!
Man anti-343 sentiment skyrocketed while the real villians are the dumbasses who decided to shutdown those game studios
both are bad, actually 🗿
I think I may know who responsible for Mastercheeks in the Halo tv show and it's Matt Booty.
"It's hard to watch something you love destroy itself, to see it fall apart. Disaster always feels so distant, detached, someone else's struggle in some far away place; it's not until it's in our city, at our doors, that we realize how fragile we are. All of us. All of this."
This makes me really sad, I’ve been with Xbox since the beginning
Me too. I was 3 when Xbox OG and Halo: CE came out, but I started then and there, and never owned a Playstation. God this is depressing.
Look, Xbox is not dead. They literally own so many IPs. MS does not care about the studios or the devs. a great example is MS Flight Simulator. MS closed down Sublogic/Aces Game Studio and fired all the devs that made the Flight games and the IP went into the dungeon only for MS to bring back the IP by hiring a new studio to make the latest Flight Simulator game and it made money. The massive acquisition that MS went through like a year ago was to own as much IP as possible and deny Sony or anyone else the way to make money from them. Remember that Xbox had a ton of studios back in the xbox and xbox 360 era and they milked and destroyed most of them so when they couldn't get more money they just went on a shopping spree and rinse and repeat. Bethesda, Obsidian and even Activision and Blizzard will eventually went up like Bungie, Lionhead and Rare. They will either be able to escape, be closed down or become a shell of their former selves. MS is horrible.
Tango Gameworks dies while Microsoft Teams still exists. Shit's baffling.
Elaborate please!
Gaming really has left me behind, it's not the same hobby I fell in love with. I haven't switched my Xbox One on since they got rid of Gold and tried to make everybody subscribe to Game Pass, and my PC with a GTX 970 and an i5 6600 plays absolutely everything I need it to, i.e. games that are old but are actually good. I don't recognise the industry anymore. As with so much of our generation, we've had the golden era, and there's no going back.
I'm more surprised that red fall didn't go under soon
I'm tempted to just save up for a pc now, but its hard for me since I'm in college and still work, on top of having long term friends on Xbox that probably can't afford a PC. I just want the love for games to come back.
I can't get over that quote on "...to focus on our priority games." What priority games? How is Halo not a "priority game?" Because it seems like the only thing Microsoft has focused on with Halo is kicking 343 in the mouth and trying to burn it down.
The last game I bought on Steam was Elden Ring. That was after a year of watching guides and reviews, which got me thinking it was a solid buy. Aside from that, I've been playing more retro PS2, 360 and PC games (Sins, Empire at War, Price of Persia: SoT, BF2 (modded), Morrowind, Forbidden Memories, Halo CE, Halo 2, Halo 3, and Reach. I've just lost faith in contemporary gaming; like there's a disconnect between the publishers, the studios and players.
Xbox owners that actually care about this or even are aware of this is probably less than 5%.
As an xbox owner, I would have never known or been affected. It's terrible, but I genuinely have to attachments to these brands coincidentally.
My big worry in gaming is the Jurassic Park Survival game , the studio already had some behind the scenes change over and i prey it does not get cancelled as its a game fans have been asking for for years now !!
thank you for making this btw. as a game dev, it means a lot.
I remember when my dad bought our first original Xbox. If he was alive today he’d be just as disappointed as me.
*It’s getting to a point where video game developers need to unionize. Companies like Microsoft will just continue to abuse and overwork employees, while also constantly inserting their influence into developments purely for the intent of greed. There also needs to be more workplace oversight into the toxic practices taking place in these companies.*
360/ PS3 years were peak gaming awesomeness. Gaming hasn't been as depressing as of now.
Mass Effect, I'm looking at you, Elder Scroll 6, I'm looking at you, Halo 4 (because we all know that Halo4 and up is a collective fever dream) I'm looking at you... And you... Activision Blizzard
Anyways... Until the next one :)
Halo 4 honestly wasn’t that bad…story wise. Multiplayer tho, yeah, it was a COD clone
@@D00dmannah even story wise it was bad. Levels not well designed and boring to get through. Story and antagonists all ridiculous overkill or very flat, generic and cliche. Only good thing was the cortana chief relationship
@@protector_of_the_realms and Spartan Oops is a trainwreck if you try playing it Solo
@@D00dman naaa, Halo 4 story was shit.
what was the problem with mass effect? im guessing andromeda? 1,2,3 were all really good imo
I was gone from my home and computer for 8 days and I come back to this, what happened to the internet in these last 8 days?
This is... oh god... oh no...
BACK TO THE 360, BOYS
Xenia FTW
360 will always be superior
Never left the 360 🔥
I still use mine!!
@@spirito9827That as well lmao.
I know we love blaming execs for this clusterfuck, but remember they get their marching orders from their board of shareholders; most likely setting a mandate on recouping or reducing costs in a certain time frame. I guarentee the recent decisions within both Microsoft and Sony leadership was from shortsighted board members wanting to maximize every iota of their portfolio.
Microsoft has a long history of shitting in their own bed.
Let's figure out who is leading all this crap. Not just Microsoft, but the investors that don't know anything about games and don't give a damn. We hit their bottom line they'll listen.
I don't exactly think this is unexpected or outrageous.
Zenimax was bought for $7bil for Skyrim and Fallout alone, but 6bil of that was them and the other billion was the rest of what Zenimax has.
Bethesda has been doing poorly, so, Microsoft is going to cut the studios that don't make what they really bought Bethesda for.
Time for every Xbox gamer to follow the lead. Cancel gamepass and live subscriptions. Save up money for 4 months, and buy a pc. It’s hard but all the money from gamepass would be better given to steam. Xbox only sees us as money cows and that level of disrespect shouldn’t be tolerated. Remind them that gamers and studios matter guys.
Phil Spencer really needs to put his foot down he’s even acknowledged the pipeline for Xbox is horrible yet hasn’t done anything to help it at least that’s been shown.
I think that's because if he does do something, he risks losing his job. Seriously; corporate executives are so cutthroat and careless nowadays that they will throw you out the goddamn window for simply stating the obvious. If Phil Spencer wants to stay on the team, what choice does he have?
Bro you should become a journalist or a documentary narrator! I f*cken love your voice and the passionate affection you master to bring when talking and explaining a subject in such a nyanced way! Ps. also loved xbox but recently lost all motivation and it's been going on for a while now :(
Did people seriously not expect this? With the ridiculous number of studios Microsoft has bought out theyre absolutely going to be condensing and closing some. This really isn’t news to me or anyone I know. We were fully expecting this to start least a year ago.
agree. I think this video is a massive overexaggeration of the situation
Well I’d be surprised if anyone expected the studio that made HiFi rush to be shut down - especially considering they were Xbox’s only Japanese studio. They had been vocal about expanding into more Japanese studios too, which makes it even more baffling.
ok? expecting it doesn't make it desirable. some people were looking forward to the games those studios could have produced.
@@xXx_Regulus_xXx doesnt chamge the fact that this vid is overexaggerating
I don't know about you guys but it seems like Sony and Xbox are in a console race again. But it's not to see who sells more consoles or how popular those consoles become. It's how quickly they can piss off and destroy their communities.
Oohh boy..earliest I been, this gonna hurt
I took business as a gcse, and I found out businessmen don't care about the people, just the money.
I thought everyone knew that.
You had to take a class to know that?
Microsoft should have never wasted the time and money it took to acquire Activision. Instead, Microsoft should have put a few billion into established Xbox exclusives. Halo, Forza, Gears of War, Fable, and other games should have been funded, and instead of using contractors to develop games they should have hired full-time staff who are hired for the entire life cycle of the game. Halo and Forza are why I've always gone with Xbox, but both of those franchises have completely fallen off. Games like Halo and Forza Motorsport should have never chased the "live service" trend and focused on making great experiences with tons of content at launch. If Halo Infinite launched with the level of content it currently has minus the scummy item shop, it would have been a homerun, especially if they kept adding content. If Forza Motorsport would have launched with a real career mode, 10-15 more tracks, less bugs, and more new to Forza content, Microsoft would have another homerun. Instead we get games that feel empty and lack content but feature the most predatory monetization systems in all of gaming. Its sad to see.
I'm just sitting here waiting for them to shut down Activision if Black Ops 5 flops.
You mean 6? Cold War was Black Ops 5.
@@QuarrelsomeLocalOaf yes black ops 6 your correct
That would be a blessing. I'm ready for CoD to go, tons of shit ass games, it hasn't been good for a good few years.
@@RykSchThe last Cod game I enjoyed was BO3 I stopped playing afterward's anything before BO3 is a go to in my opinion. Now a day's I agree I wanna see the franchise/Activision go under.
It’s no longer about the art, the experience, the memories the loyal fan base. It’s about numbers, higher up corporate slop. So out of touch. Such a shame
i thought this video was gonna be about Sony owning Halo Tv Show
This is killing the games industry, this plus embracer, they are killing everything and tons of careers and potential games.
Dude this isn't anything new, remember EA? Or Activision?? Hell even Bethesda did it too.
Embracer killed TimeSplitters
This is why Indie studios on Steam are dominating rn
Yo Hidden X huge Halo fan I love you’re videos but find it hard to relate to you’re other non halo vids. But this one was great!!! Xbox news love it, would love to see more Xbox related videos :) just my 2cents
And they say the Fallout show's depiction of big corporations isn't realistic.
honestly, this kind of makes 343's initial launch of halo infinite look competent by comparison
I unfortunately think we are going to see a LOT more of this in the coming years. Not just this year alone.
Defund Xbox executives
This honestly sounds exactly like the management of where I work. Spending money on pointless endeavors and then whining about the budget being too low for anything important.
Xbox is now kurt cobain
Lol
too soon
@@WeeWeeJumbo too soon how dudes been gone longer than my dad
What is going on with these big companies and seemingly hatred of turning a profit?
I guess they like taking loses
They like short term profits not long term profits.
Xbox's line up was Fable, Gears of War, and Halo. Now it's going to have to include The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Starcraft, and Call of Duty.
Let me guess: Hi-Fi Rush was a spiritual successor to Jet Set Radio, which they're still refusing to port over from the original Xbox.
I'm not surprised at the layoffs. I am very surprised that when they fired Frank O'Connor, the Halo forums were ejected with him.