From what I know of large corporations, I’d honestly be surprised, if the Microsofties they met, knew that this was happening…
Micro$oft is like the new EA. This is the exact same shit EA did 10 years back when they bought up dozens of studios, milked the shit out of them, and then closed the studio so the executives could get bonuses. Now EA has like, 5 studios that make games while the rest got gutted for the IP and then taken out back with a gun.
I think EA was still worse. At least in my perception.
I think EA actually bought studios just to get the IP and immediately get rid of the employees. I also think they tried to milk a few of the IPs before letting it go downhill.
MS, from what I can tell, gave studios quite a lot of freedom to do what they do best. I don’t think they intentionally wanted to fuck over studios, but they rather sacrificed them.
Don’t get me wrong: that’s still bad. But there’s a difference between fucking studios over with intent and reacting badly to changed circumstances.
Unlike EA, Microsoft can afford to wait a little and then get rid of the employees. They let them do what they want because they have no idea how to run a gaming studio anymore. They don’t have any incentive to have expertise, which is why the old Xbox IPs like Halo or Gears died so COD can live in another part of town. They are like tech venture capitalists now, not even just in gaming.
Of course they wouldn’t mention it, to Microsoft they were just numbers on a spreadsheet, not people.
Just like every other corporation.
I feel a bit of shame that back in the Win7, Xbox Series S era of Microsoft I was sort of cheering them on as an underdog in several markets.
But it does seem like every large company is driving these zero sum efforts now. Anyone that high up is chomping for workforce reduction.
If larger-scale changes don’t prove possible, I still want Elizabeth Warren’s Accountable Capitalism act as a way for majority workforce in a company to declare “No, this way is insane, fire whoever suggested it” earlier rather than later.
I get a feeling MS doesn’t want to be in the game production/publishing space anymore. They see bigger growth opportunities elsewhere. I personally believe that it’s a big mistake and the ai bubble will cost them dearly, but chasing very short term profitability has never hurt an executive.
Too bad they decided they did not want to do it anymore after buying half of the world’s game studios, then.
They took a huge bet on consolidation and it didn’t really pay off. Now they’re writing it off.
They have enough money to weather major mistakes, unfortunately for everyone
Truth is they have increased their yearly evil quotas, so now they have to find new ways to fulfill then
Microsoft‘s fuckery continues. Glad I ditched them.
Amen!
The Mafia shit continues with no repercussions because governments nowadays are by the corporations and for the corporations.
Tell em when they get back to their offices this way the issue takes care of it self! Scumbags
It’s a shame that Microsoft owns id Software and Bethesda now. They’ll fuck that up too along with all the major IPs they own. Coz they are stupid too large corporate bullshit that only looks at numbers and nothing else.
Microsoft probably were thinking “He’s just making another Daikatana, anyway.”
