In a new Xbox Wire blog postXbox CEO Asha Sharma and Chief Content Officer Matt Booty shared a memo sent to Xbox employees. The memo itself is too long to cover in its entirety here, but I’ll go over some of the more important details.
I also covered Bloomberg’s report that Xbox is expected to make major layoffs next month.So with that out of the way, let’s take a look at what Sharma and Booty had to say:
“We expanded our studio system when we needed one content channel to meet multiple strategies across subscription, streaming and devices. In the process, we have become overstretched as we execute shifting strategies across a more readily available content landscape. We are the lucky managers of industry-defining franchises that have enormous potential and player demand, but we haven’t adequately funded them to compete and win. At the same time, as we saw last weekend at Showcase, a reliable portfolio of first-party and third-party exclusives and new IP are critical to our success. We need to reevaluate the balance between these and our investment priorities for the next five years… Our current platform infrastructure is not designed for the battle ahead. Our systems are overly complex and span hundreds of dependencies, hindering our ability to act quickly. We have become too reliant on suppliers to operate our systems and must become more self-sufficient as an engineering culture to build for the future.“
It’s a lot to digest and honestly, it’s a brutally honest message from Xbox. To me, it seems like the company believes that some of its biggest franchises weren’t getting the investment they needed, despite strong player demand.
At least from what I’ve read, Xbox seems to be reconsidering where it spends its money. That’s probably good news for those of us who enjoy franchises like Halo, Gears of War, and Forza, but perhaps not so much for smaller projects and franchises that may struggle to compete for resources.
For now, we don’t know exactly what this will look like in practice. However, with reports suggesting that the next 100 days could bring significant changes, including possible studio closures or adjustments to the Xbox studio lineupIt is clear that the company believes its current approach is not sustainable.
Whatever the case, the next 100 days will be extremely interesting for Xbox. There are clearly some tough decisions ahead, but hopefully they aren’t all bad and will ultimately help the company move down a stronger path.
That being said, let me know your thoughts on the whole situation in the comments and be sure to participate in our poll above.
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