XBox Division to Take Large Percentage of Microsoft Layoffs
Poster: Aron Schatz
Posted on January 28, 2009 at 12:46:01 AM
Said By Blorge
Microsoft recently announced that the company would be laying-off 5,000 employees due to a drop in profits. This is the first mass layoff in the history of Microsoft. However, news has trickled out that the Xbox division will be suffering the brunt of the job cuts.
Word has been trickling out that the Entertainment and Devices Division (EDD) will receive the brunt of the mass layoff. The EDD division consists of the Zune, PC gaming and the massive Xbox division. The EDD is headed up by the well known faces: Shane Kim, Don Matttrick, Phil Spencer and the friendly Aaron Greenberg.
Linky.
I think this may have two possible ramifications:
- Its getting rather close to time to start developing a 360 successor. What are the odds the Microsoft delay it for a while?
- After the partial failure of Vista (as well as the total failure of unifying PC gaming with the Games for Windows Program and XBox Live on PC), will we see Microsoft start to ignore the gaming division entirely to instead worry about making Windows 7 a success (remember, that is the part of Microsoft that actually makes money)?
While I doubt that the second will actually occur, one musn't forget the mess that Microsoft shareholders started making around August last year surrounding the gaming division's money making potential. And that was when Microsoft wasn't particularly woried about its finances despite losing billions of dollars on the XBox.
Overall, I think it will be an interesting year for the 360; especially when you look at Microsoft's approach compared to Sony's. I'm curious to see what approach pans out.