Xbox's devastating July was inevitable - Engadget

"It is neither possible nor desirable to own every great independent studio." On July 6, at the dawn of a new fiscal year, Microsoft announced it was laying off 3,200 people in its Xbox division, plus an additional 3,200 employees across other departments. Of the Xbox layoffs, 1,600 jobs were cut immediately, while the remaining 1,600 will be lost over the coming year, the promise casting a morbid shadow over the immediate future of Microsoft's gaming business. Additionally, Xbox attempted to shutter five of its development teams — Arkane Studios, Compulsion Games, Double Fine, Ninja Theory and Undead Labs — and it ended up divesting four of them, while the future of Arkane remains uncertain. The layoffs hit Xbox at all levels: Doom creator id Software lost a reported 50 percent of its staff, Double Fine had to drop a third of its employees as it bought itself back from Microsoft, the platform team was gutted, and it appears that multiple projects were canceled at Fallout: New Vegas studio Obsidian Entertainment, including a sequel to Avowed. Knowing it was coming didn't ease the carnage. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma and chief content officer Matt Booty, both of whom assumed their roles ea