Recently, Xbox layoffs, studio closures and restructuring have continued, and this time even former Sony executives couldn’t help but jump in to make up for it. Shuhei Yoshida, who once served as the head of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios, recently talked about the current situation of Xbox in an interview, directly questioning Microsoft’s game business strategy in recent years, and even hinted that Xbox leadership has many problems in the judgment and execution of the game industry.
After spending tens of billions of dollars, we still don’t know the direction?
Yoshida believes that Microsoft’s biggest problem in recent years is not the lack of studios. On the contrary, from the acquisition of ZeniMax Media to the nearly US$69 billion (approximately NT$2.4 trillion, HK$541 billion, and RM292 billion) acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Xbox actually has more resources than ever before.
The problem is that players never seem to be able to see what kind of long-term strategy these resources will eventually be integrated into. Acquiring studios while laying off employees; talking about building a first-party lineup while pushing some exclusive works to other platforms. This strategy of repeated adjustments has made it increasingly unclear to the outside world what kind of brand Xbox wants to become.
Players began to wonder: Does the acquisition make sense?
Xbox’s biggest signature moves in recent years have almost always been acquisitions. But as more and more studios report layoffs, project cancellations or even closures, some players have begun to ask questions: If there are still layoffs or downsizing in the end, what exactly did those sky-high acquisitions bring? In particular, recent news including the development team of “South of Midnight” and the “Psychonauts” team have continued to ferment, which has caused the outside world to have doubts about Xbox’s internal management.
The words of former Sony executives just hit the pain points of players
In fact, Yoshida did not directly curse. But the reason why many players are particularly impressed is because what he said happens to be the most common question in the Xbox community at present: it is not that there is no money, it is not that there is no IP, it is not that there is no talent, but that everyone is increasingly unable to understand the direction. After all, if the game industry is compared to a football team, Xbox is now more like buying an entire star team at a sky-high price. As a result, fans have been watching for a long time and still don’t know what formation the coach wants to play.
The problem may be bigger than the game itself
For Microsoft, the biggest challenge may not be the success or failure of a certain game, but how to re-establish market confidence. Because players can accept game delays, work overturns, and even the console losing a generation, but if even the company’s long-term direction becomes unclear, that is the most dangerous thing. Judging from the recent series of layoffs, reorganizations and studio turmoil, this debate about the future of Xbox may have just begun.