In a week when Xbox fans were hoping to hear a response from Microsoft to the PS5 Pro, the software giant is making a third round of gaming layoffs instead. 650 employees at Microsoft’s gaming business are being laid off, part of continued cuts at Xbox after Microsoft’s $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
Microsoft cut 1,900 Activision Blizzard and Xbox jobs earlier this year and then shuttered four studios it acquired as part of its $7.5 billion Bethesda acquisition in May. Thankfully, Hi-Fi Rush studio Tango Gameworks was eventually saved from Microsoft’s shutdown after Krafton, the South Korean publisher behind PUBG: Battlegrounds and The Callisto Protocol, acquired the Japanese studio from Microsoft instead.
I really miss the Kinect, but I think they expected way too much from it. It was a lot of fun for games like Just Dance and various sports games for casual play, and I probably would’ve bought a new XBox if they continued to support it.
Always online can go die though, screw that. If I get a console, it’s because it’s more convenient than a PC. Give me a unique playing experience in a living room setting and I’ll pick one up.