Xbox plans major layoffs in July as CEO Asha Sharma begins reset
Xbox will carry out major layoffs in July as new CEO Asha Sharma begins a 100-day "reset" of the business. Sharma and chief content officer Matt Booty told staff the overhaul will include rebuilding platform infrastructure, rethinking the content portfolio, and cutting costs as Xbox expects to finish the fiscal year with about a 3% accountability margin. Sharma has warned that rising hardware costs challenge the traditional console model and signaled Xbox may pursue "radically different" ways to deliver consoles. The cuts and strategic reset will shape which games and studios Xbox funds, how it invests in hardware and services, and the company’s competitive direction under Sharma.
BREAKING: Xbox is planning major layoffs next month, Bloomberg has learned, as new CEO Asha Sharma confronts a bleak picture and plans what she calls a "reset" of the business www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Krees396We're doing amazing and just shipped a bunch of hits? Layoffs. We're doing badly and we need change? Also layoffs. Our new CEO is putting us on track and we're gonna do great? Believe it or not, also layoffs.
Simon Gable Lundmark141heartwarming: employees to be laid off via brand new team spirit xbox email addresses
Jesus Died for Arsons107I feel like every company I’ve worked at, “new CEO” means “major layoffs” and yet every new CEO’s first company town hall they always go “don’t worry, I’m not planning massive layoffs” 😒
Nails the Tabaxi 🍉87It's almost like capitalism isn't a sustainable system and has begun to eat itself in order to constantly satiate the twin groups of worthless parasites known as the executive class and shareholders.
Joakim "konjak" Sandberg69Can't just reset with the people you had
The Spaceshipper 🚀41As usual, extremely well-paid people make mistakes and others pay for it, how original. 👎
scottatron17.bsky.social31Im sure some idiots will praise her for it.
Jordan Vulich22Somethings never change. Fucking sucks
Teufelaffe17Rent $20 million Salaries $15 million AI $400 billion Utility $15 million someone who is good at the economy please help me budget this. the shareholders are angry
Goofierbrute14....... It's really hard to make exclusives for the Xbox when YOU KEEP LAYING PEOPLE OFF!
Brandon Makar10Surely Matthew Ball and Aaron Greenberg are on the block.....right? Right?
Setsune Wave8Nobody could've seen this coming! Everybody saw this coming. bsky.app/profile/sets...
Premium Steve8Endless layoffs, the story of the 2020s videogame industry
I Me Mine-lo8i will be Not As Mad if they're AI-related layoffs since we know she's scrapping plans for copilot on xbox/mobile (WHICH I THINK IS GOOD).
MattMT6So Xbox is planning major layoffs, but is XBOX?
EliotBallade5Meet the new boss, same as the old boss
Kaaboose5How is THIS the ONE job that ISN'T threatened by AI taking it?
Peter G4Genuinely, from the bottom of my heart: fuck Microsoft.
kennyellis.bsky.social4I bet they get a bonus at the end of the year for staying under a certain budget and the easiest way for these shit eaters to do that is fire all the little people. #SaveStargate
GetGoodGirl3Xbox gonna Xbox. Nothing ever changes.
Thera3I am starting to think that the focus on bringing back XBOX name and separate it again from Microsoft (no more "everything is an XBOX) is to sell the brand to Saudi / Tencent.
Cherry3They Better be firing ai staff
extremepayne2i cannot take anyone who says “accountability margin” seriously
FUPA Troopa2So she's taking a pay cut to save money, I assume that's part of massive layoffs? Or is it just more money for rich assholes?
Erren2So they did pull Halo from the State of Play. Clown shoes company.
Jade2I heard today that 007 first light had sold just over 50% on Sony, 30 something on steam and just 11% on Xbox. Are gears and Clockwork console sellers? They’re gonna need to be. I hope they can make it work I love the brand as a fan.
lemasterofswords.bsky.social2Oh wow she was a snake along. just like every Xbox CEO ever. shocker
Asha Sharma was always meant to function as Xbox’s sin eater.
Chris Person233She had to have known going into this that they were going to bleed this shit dry. They love putting a new face on things and saying they’re turning a corner right before plunging the knife in. Microsoft cannot be saved.
M.H. Williams28Exactly this. Come in and take a couple million in salary and equity to be the face put on massive cuts.
Cactrot9I don't know this for a fact, but it sure does feel like Microsoft decided that XBox had become unaligned with their values when people (rightly) shat all over the idea of Gaming CoPilot, and now it is on the way out because it cannot fully embrace the new AI future.
🇵🇸|LCL(P)Rock is bad at content5I do hate the corporate tendacy to put a lady in charge ahead of the company actively looking to eat shit. I cant belive she didnt know what was up, or that she wouldnt have taken the job regardless but still feels bad.
justrip 5I’ve got a 360 slim in the office that we use for Halo co-op and every time I turn it on it’s like being transported to 2009, where everything is possible, Obama can do no wrong to and I have no clue who Don Mattrick is
The Verge on Xbox layoffs: "Sources suggest the cuts could even involve a studio closure, or changes to the Xbox studio lineup" www.theverge.com/games/948142...
Midnight Oil17Double Fine do not pick up the phone
Jonathan Rey Trevino8The only thing Microsoft is good at doing is the Three Es. Embrace, Extend, and Extinguish. ಠ~ಠ
Vanguard7After Microsoft fired over 15,000 people in 2025 they still need more? Microsoft imposed a profit mandate on Xbox and later repealed it, is this the price the Xbox team is paying?
Jet Set Alejandro Future4Y’all do not understand. People who have no concept of the cost of a banana NEED their 17th yacht. This NEEDS to happen for the industry to flourish. Just like salting soil to help it grow.
Daemon (but lowpoly)2Asha really going for the twitter using ceo grindset.
Bad Hombre2So make gears Xbox exclusive, layoff a bunch of devs, appeal to the fanboys? How is this going to work in the long run?
this website is not ready for the scope of layoffs that are probably coming in july/august beyond xbox. however badly you think gaming hardware and platform holders are doing right now you should adjust it considerably downward.
Arthur Gies (he/him)21storage was already a prime price driver on current gen consoles and in the memo that released sharma and booty claimed prices om just storage — not RAM — have more or less quadrupled since fall. every piece of hardware right now, even at elevated prices, is losing more money than it was before.
Morgan Park6what does being ready look like? because i think everyone expects layoffs all of the time right now
Ross Weisfish2What’s the plan for MS then? If they lay everyone off that does hardware… do they just not ship Xboxes in the future? Does “Xbox” just become an app on your Windows PC that you buy from a third party because MS doesn’t want to subsidize consoles anymore? I can’t see that working.
While watching the Xbox showcase last Sunday, something rubbed me the wrong way. Why did Asha Sharma so proudly announce that console exclusives are back? In this opinion piece, I analyze what got us here in the first place.
The Price of Reason5Listening to hardcore fans eventually turns a thing into an oroboros. It's not possible to grow a market without expanding scope. And fans tend to be extremely conservative about a thing. Change bad, but without change, growth doesn't happen.
Kody Dotson3Most of that has to deal with appealing to the die-hard XBOX fans. The PS5 port for Gears was pulled last minute (according to Aaron Greenberg), probably because they know Halo will make them more money in the long run. This was her first-ever presentation, so we will see what happens.
The Other Dan ~Liberty or Death!~2Exclusives sell consoles, don’t think there’s really any more to it.
Iffi Mooz’pan2I can’t say I enjoyed this one; there’s a lot of rhetoric I disagree with and premises I would contest. I appreciate you sharing it and your thoughts nonetheless.
Darshiro2That Sony/PC paragraph sure is something... lol
Please point me to a AAA executive who has not screwed over people who ACTUALLY make games. Does one even exist? Look... I'm not stupid, and I'm not naive. There are times when layoffs are the only way to save a company. This. Isn't. That. Xbox was profitable. It was just *less* profitable.
Nick8Indulging in layoffs because they ate too much of the industry… I’d love to see them punished for this. A big part of why they were allowed to purchase companies like Bethesda and Activision-Blizzard was because it wouldn’t lead to mass layoffs.
Mike Futter713 years of terrible decision making, starting with the "Xbox One: The All-in-One Games and Entertainment System" and trucking right on through to 2026. The initial buy-vs-build approach Microsoft took in the late teens was out of necessity. The pipeline was practically empty. They needed wins.
