{"id":15041,"date":"2026-06-15T22:59:29","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T22:59:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/?p=15041"},"modified":"2026-06-15T22:59:29","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T22:59:29","slug":"xbox-plans-layoffs-even-after-microsoft-ceo-said-company-is-long-on-gaming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/?p=15041","title":{"rendered":"Xbox plans layoffs, even after Microsoft CEO said company is \u2018long on gaming\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In July, Xbox may be the next company hit with major changes to its workforce.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2026-06-10\/xbox-plans-significant-layoffs-as-it-transforms-under-new-ceo-asha-sharma\">Bloomberg<\/a>, people familiar with Xbox\u2019s strategy said that the company is \u201cplanning major job cuts next month,\u201d although the scale and details of the cuts are still unclear. Along with staff cuts, Xbox is also planning \u201csignificant\u201d budget cuts \u201cfor marketing and some other areas of the business.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Fast Company <\/em>reached out to Xbox for comment regarding details about the layoffs and budget cuts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This would mark Asha Sharma\u2019s first round of layoffs since she joined the company as CEO in February. Since the former Instacart COO and Microsoft CoreAI president took on the role of CEO, she has made some major changes, like removing Microsoft\u2019s Copilot AI from gaming consoles and lowering prices of Xbox Game Pass. (Enthusiastic Xbox devotees <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/PeterExplainsTheJoke\/comments\/1sv1og7\/what_is_the_context_peter\/\">created memes<\/a> of Sharma depicted as Jesus Christ after these changes.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sharma has been candid about Xbox\u2019s struggles. During a panel at the <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Fsjm9-kYdPs\">Bloomberg Tech conference<\/a> earlier this month, she spoke about the company\u2019s challenges and plans for \u201cresetting the business,\u201d which was \u201cnot in a healthy spot.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe gaming industry is going through a hard time,\u201d Sharma said, attributing some of the struggle to AI. \u201cWith AI, memory and storage costs are going up, 2.75 times rather than 50% down. Just in my first 100 days, it\u2019s up 50% and I think it will continue to go up. The biggest challenge and opportunity is: how do you make affordable products during that time?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Just today, the head of Xbox Game Studios Craig Duncan <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/articles\/xbox-game-studios-boss-departs-amid-growing-concern-over-layoffs-and-possible-studio-shutdowns\">stepped down<\/a> from his role after joining the team in November 2024. The company\u2019s chief of staff Louise O\u2019Connor will also be departing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Last week, Sharma outlined the challenges facing the company and her priorities to \u201creset for a stronger Xbox\u201d in a <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/news.xbox.com\/en-us\/2026\/06\/10\/next-100-days-xbox-reset\/\">blog post<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe will end this fiscal year at about a 3% accountability margin, down year-over-year,\u201d Sharma wrote. \u201cExcluding Activision Blizzard King, over the past five years, we have spent over $20 billion on ongoing investments in our content, platform, and hardware subsidy, but our annual revenue has declined nearly half a billion during that time. Going forward, this cannot continue.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sharma also wrote that Xbox\u2019s current platform infrastructure is \u201coverly complex\u201d and \u201cnot built for the battle ahead.\u201d She added that Xbox has \u201cbecome too reliant on vendors to operate our systems.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sharma also said Xbox has been unable to make as many consoles as players want to buy because of a \u201chardware component crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhen I joined as CEO in February, the price we paid for console storage components was over two times as high as we paid last fall,\u201d Sharma wrote. \u201cThese costs have since doubled again. And as we plan for the 2027 holiday season, we expect another significant increase, taking us over five times the prices we paid only two years earlier.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhile the entire industry is facing a components crisis, we believe we have been impacted more greatly than many of our peers due to the choices we made over the last half decade,\u201d she added.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In March, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said the company will continue to invest in gaming.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cFor me, we\u2019re long on gaming,\u201d Nadella said at an internal Microsoft Q&amp;A. \u201cWe\u2019ll continue to invest, and we\u2019ll always do so. It\u2019s up to this team to show excellence in execution and in creativity. Software always carries risk, but this is software with lots of creation risk. It\u2019s way different. But yet, we have to be the best in class at it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In order to course correct and survive, it seems like Xbox will have to join the ranks of companies that have issued mass layoffs in recent months.<\/p>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fastcompany.com\/91559789\/xbox-plans-layoffs-even-after-microsoft-ceo-said-company-is-long-on-gaming\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In July, Xbox may be the next company hit with major changes to its workforce.&nbsp; According to Bloomberg, people familiar with Xbox\u2019s strategy said that the company is \u201cplanning major job cuts next month,\u201d although the scale and details of the cuts are still unclear. Along with staff cuts, Xbox is also planning \u201csignificant\u201d budget<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15042,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brand-spotlights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15041\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}