Circling The Drain?

AI Gradually Then Suddenly It's Probably Nothing Tech 21 Comments

I thought the alleged AI boom was all win/win, which you would expect to be a big benefit for companies like Microsoft. But things don’t seem to be going according to plan.

Microsoft (MSFT) on Monday announced it is cutting 4,800 roles across the company, roughly 2.1% of its workforce. The bulk of the layoffs, 3,200, will come from Microsoft’s Xbox division.

“Our business today is not healthy,” she wrote in an email to employees. “We are operating at margins that are 3-10x lower than comparable platform and publishing businesses. We must reset XBOX.”

21 Replies to “Circling The Drain?”

  1. XBox has 20,000 employees.
    Sorry, what on earth do they all do?
    Canning 15% of the workforce should have been done years ago.

    1. 20,000 employees divided by the 23.5 billion dollars they generate in revenue works out to over a million bucks er employee in revenue. I don’t know who does what or how much they make, but I’d bet there are darn few companies where each employee generates over a million dollars in revenue.

  3. interesting. the 21st century version of Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein story.
    go for it. the Deniro version was boss
    as was Peter Boyle’s cameo in that ‘Young Frankenstein’ thing

  5. I despise Mickeysoft and migrated away from Windoze last year. That said, it’s still a juggernaut, and this (Xbox) is a speed bump.

  6. Good. I hope all these stupid video gaming companies – played by way way WAY too many young adult males for way way WAY too many hours a day – go the way of the slinky. Sure, I played Atari 2600 with my buddies in my teens (space invaders, etc.,) but we were all sane enough to largely give it up once we graduated junior high and do better, more productive things with our time. Honestly, if you’re above the age of 18, how do you look yourself in the mirror after playing video games for eight hours a day?

      1. Love that movie. Anthony Michael Hall was the Laurence Olivier of his day!

      1. I watch SEC college football and that’s about it. Used to watch the Eagles religiously, but gave them up after the in-your-face woke era and end zone agitprop (“END RACISM”).

    3. The time that people send playing video games is the time you spent watching TV.

  8. Well, that’s a word salad of a lead.

    This has nothing to do with AI or even Microsoft and everything to do with the AAA video game market collapsing. Every publisher and console manufacturer is in trouble right now. In some cases it’s because the market is demanding more than it’s willing to pay and publishers have foolishly tried to square that circle; publishers have spent huge amounts of money on games their target demographic didn’t want to buy; and on top of that the DRAMpocalypse means that for the first time in history consoles are getting more expensive over time rather than less.

    Microsoft’s XBox division’s particular strategic error was trying to become the Netflix of video games by providing games as a subscription service. In order to have enough content to make that work, they spent insane amounts of money buying up publishers. The expected subscription revenue never materialized and now they’ve got a serious cash flow problem.

    Asha Sharma has clearly been brought in to be the hatchet man to oversee the wind-down of XBox. Whether this means Microsoft follows Sega and exits the console market entirely or just retreats to being a small hardware division is the operative question.

    1. ^ What he said. X Box is imploding because of mismanagement. Buying too many studios, making too many AAA games and forcing developpers into stupid design constraints. For example there is a “Product Inclusion Guide”. Basically making games woke with representations, also suggestings that creators completely abstain from depicting any sexualized or ‘unrealistic’ female characters within their works. No boobs, no butts, LGBTQ propaganda shoved in your face, pronouns, homosexual romances, girlbosses, stronk black wahmyn, sideshaves, etc. This has resulted (as in movies) in the uglification of any female character. Man jaws, higher foreheads, wider shoulders, etc etc. They have also changed beloved characters in series (some retroactively) to be less sexy and more manly. That’s not the whole story but wokeness is a big part of why AAA games are in trouble. Like it or hate it, gaming is big business, bigger than movies. You ignore your customer at your own peril.

      https://youtu.be/Ibz8DOvs0oo?si=GLYltI4hfj_kkNFA

  9. Huh!?
    Imagine that?
    The Dow closes over 53,000 for the first time in history!
    For yet ANOTHER all-time high

    https://www.wsj.com/market-data/quotes/index/DJIA

    It must be “nervous” investors anticipating Trump bitch-slapping Canada ahead of the USMCA cancellation. Or the bloom is off the AI rose. Or something the BadOrangeMan did.

  10. I struggle to understand the alleged connection between AI and a grossly over-staffed business.

Proudly powered by WordPress & Skyrocket Themes

MENU

Navigation