Nadella Calls Xbox's Layoff Spree 'Great to See'

Satya Nadella just put a number on how he feels about the hundreds of Xbox employees who lost their jobs this week: fantastic, apparently, though he was careful to aim that word at the IP portfolio and let 'streamlining' cover the human cost.

Xbox cut 268 people this week on top of 1,600 earlier this year, folded Obsidian into Bethesda, handed Halo to Activision, and shut down Double Fine, Compulsion Games, and Undead Labs, with Ninja Theory reportedly next. Speaking on the Sources Podcast with Alex Heath, as reported by PC Gamer, Nadella called the process 'great to see' and said Microsoft still has to 'invent the right sustainable business model' to get gaming to more people.

Run that sentence through the same test you'd run on a benchmark chart: the business model comes after the studios get gutted, not before. That's not streamlining, that's redesigning the engine mid-flight and hoping the fuel math works out once you've already jettisoned the tank.

Xbox's own Chief Creator Officer, Matt Booty, said the division is 'roughly three-quarters' through its restructuring, which means more closures are queued up before anyone answers the business-model question Nadella just admitted is still open. Sharma's line about technology getting 'better' by getting 'simpler, not bigger' reads fine in a memo. It reads worse next to a studio's severance count.

Microsoft wants credit for growth next fiscal year while still figuring out what it's growing. Test that claim yourself in twelve months: count the studios left standing, then count the games they shipped.