We’re at the point where many of you are tired of hearing about the Xbox situation that’s been building over the last several days. After all, there are only so many ways you can talk about how the company shut down four companies within its ranks, many of which were under the Bethesda umbrella. The outrage felt by the gaming community on all levels was loud, and it didn’t help that the various members of the Xbox team, such as Xbox President Sarah Bond, kept tripping over themselves trying to “explain” why things had to go down like they did or “what they need in the future.”
In the case of Bond, she was at a Bloomberg Tech Conference and was asked straight-up during an interview why these shutdowns happened and how gamers should “interpret it.” As you can guess, she didn’t give an answer that made much sense:
“I’ll go back to what I was saying about the industry. And when we look at those fundamental trends, we feel a deep responsibility to ensure that the games we make, the devices we build, and the services that we offer are there through moments, even when the industry isn’t growing, and you’re through a time of transition. And the news we announced earlier this week is an outcome of that, and our commitment to make sure that the business is healthy for the long term.”
Regarding the situation with Tango Gameworks, she noted that there were a “variety of factors” that led to its closing and that the ultimate goal with all of this was to re-establish the “long-term commitment” to their games and products and be able to “deliver on those promises.”
Except, as many would point out to Sarah Bond, none of that is true or accurate to what’s been going down. As former and current employees have noted, the Xbox brand has been buying up so many companies and trying to expand that it’s now put itself in a hole that Microsoft wants to get out of.
One ex-employee fairly pointed out that the Xbox Game Pass is stagnating and costing the company even more money, and that led to the shutdowns. Then, IGN did a special piece about the situation, and this quote helped showcase the “state of mind” of many employees:
Bond, Matt Booty, and Phil Spencer can attempt to spin this situation all they want, but the truth remains the same. They shut down four studios randomly, despite some of them doing really good work, and they’re no better now than they were before the announcement.
