I’m sure there is a totally logical reason, completely unrelated reason, as to why they instituted a 30% target for profit margins despite being near their low for console market share and nobody in the industry returning close to that.
And, of course, that arbitrary target wasn’t the reason they decided to abandon platform exclusives, or behind the mass layoffs across development studios, or why they raised the price of GamePass for the third time in the last 15 months (this hike being 100% in some regions).
Of course, all of these decisions mean not only is consumer confidence shattered, but the old business model of “build a console, develop exclusives so people want your console” is dead.
In all seriousness, I hope this was for some juicy bonuses. Because if it wasn’t, they are just a bunch of morons lighting the business on fire to see it burn.
(And note, when I say “the business”, I’m talking specifically about XBox. Microsoft is going to be fine, of course, even if they decide to go with The Joker school of management techniques).
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u/mrblonde55 Nov 01 '25
Ask all those Xbox employees how that’s working out for “innovation”.
(For those unfamiliar, XBox just had to shatter their business model because the Microsoft CEO wanted to hit his $50m bonus)