Microsoft to Cut 9k Workers in Second Wave of Major Layoffs

Surprisingly no mention of AI in an article about mass layoffs at a tech company. Wonder if that line has finally had all the juice squeezed from it to explain away layoffs and outsourcing.

AI works as a smokescreen when doing product development layoffs, but you can't really use it for sales, which is still very human-to-human, or when canceling entire projects like they're doing in XBox Game Studios.

I knew this was coming when Microsoft brought Activision. As ex game industry I nearly started crying at the news.

Mergers always lead to layoffs, games aren't doing great as they're not essential in an iffy economy.

Microsoft is seeing the writing on the wall and cutting internal studios. It's much cheaper to just pay 3rd parties to release on Gamepass vs having to fund an entire games development.

I don't think we even see a real "Xbox" in the future. You'll have Xbox branded living room PCs with Windows. They're working on a gaming mode that I guess optimizes Win 11 a bit.

Getting a AAA games job will be much more difficult in the future.