Original report comes from the paywalled The Information, that they tried to sell to private equity for $100B-$150B, but that it was short lived and fell through. This backs what a lot of us have been thinking based on the moves Sharma has been making, that they track with a sell-off of the Xbox brand.
it had all the telltale signs from the get go. Bring in fall guy. Suddenly raise service prices to unignorable level. Force attrition. Excuse to kill it and studios. Announce big plans to distract. Gut studios more. Get called out. Explain pivot. Resume gutting. Get called out. Announce vapor ware. Distract distract distract. jingles keys All carefully balanced for the two week news/memory cycle.
Microsoft shuts down studios like it’s no one’s business. I don’t know of a single big tech company that supports devs.
Game developers are seen as free labour… Then companies wonder why their new consoles/systems flop.
DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS!..
…DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS!
…DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS!
It sure seems that the reason they’re shutting down or selling off so many studios is to make Xbox a leaner purchase offering. Because shutting down or otherwise divesting yourself from all of those developers is counter to what a healthy console business ought to do.
Investors!, Investors!, Investors!, Investors!
