You have no doubt heard about the very major shakeup at Xbox today: Longtime boss Phil Spencer is retiring, presumed heir apparent Sarah Bond has resigned, former AI executive Asha Sharma is now in charge, and Matt Booty, head of Microsoft Studios, is now chief content officer. It’s the kind of thing that makes you think about the downstream impact, particularly given the instability that’s gripped the game industry over the past few years, but Booty says there’s nothing to worry about because this does not mean layoffs are happening immediately.
After enthusing about Microsoft Gaming’s new CEO, Booty wrote, “We have good reasons to believe in what’s ahead. This organization and its franchises have navigated change for decades, and our strength comes from teams who know how to adapt and keep delivering. That confidence is grounded in a strong pipeline of established franchises, new bets we believe in, and clear player demand for what we are building.”
Then, the relevant bit: “My focus is on supporting the teams and leaders we have in place and creating the conditions for them to do their best work. To be clear, there are no organizational changes underway for our studios.”
The word “layoffs” doesn’t actually appear in Booty’s message, or in any of the others posted by Spencer, Sharma, or Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. But as we’ve learned over the past few years, game industry executives love to deploy euphemisms and 25-cent words when talking about layoffs and their justifications for them—so when Booty says “no organizational changes,” he means nobody’s being shown the door.
Does that mean layoffs won’t happen downstream of all this? Of course not: This is a major shakeup, and new leadership means new ideas and priorities. And Microsoft certainly hasn’t been shy about taking a knife to its gaming operations when the mood strikes. In the wake of its $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, which then-CEO Bobby Kotick promised “will benefit consumers and workers,” Microsoft imposed literally thousands of layoffs across its gaming business. Booty’s message is good news for the moment, then, but how long it holds is another matter entirely.
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