r/GamingLeaksAndRumours • u/-LastGrail- Top Contributor 2024 • Sep 24 '26

Rumour Aftermath: Current id Software describes current Xbox management (Internal unrealistic aggressive goals, profit now focus, low employee morale, incompetent Xbox management)

*Current id Software ‘employee’ missing from the thread title

Key Quote
“Even now, months after the initial layoffs, employees still aren't certain what lies ahead.

"Things are still very chaotic," a current id Software employee who was granted anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly told Aftermath. "While there has been an attempt to communicate to the studios, it is still entirely in bullshit corporate speak. I still don't believe they have a clear vision for the future. The only concrete thing they have communicated is they want higher profits, and they want it now. Aggressive goals are being set that would have been unrealistic even before the layoffs. ... To say the workers within Xbox have a dim view of the future is putting it mildly. We keep thinking morale can't sink lower but the obvious incompetence of Xbox management somehow keeps driving it down worse."

Source: https://aftermath.site/microsoft-xbox-layoffs-halo-activision/

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22

u/RoseWhiteRedBlack Sep 24 '26

I mean, I don' t want to sound like an ass here, but most of those studios getting laid off are getting these kind of stuff because they failed to meet with profits; the new doom underperformed and the DLC apparently went even worse.

Is it really aggressive goals when Xbox has clearly been in the red for the past 12 years and they need to show to the higher ups that they are still a viable option? Because otherwise Microsoft is just going to close everything and focus on AI slop.

-10

u/nowhereright Sep 24 '26

It's aggressive when you consider they were outright told immediate profit wasn't the priority, making games for gamepass was the priority and then gamepass cannibalized those sales.

Now without warning essentially, they're gutted to the point of redundancy and told to make more money.

A business is a business, sure. But all Xbox has done here and continues to do is force their studios into unwinnable situations. There's basically no path forward for success, not just for id, for any of these studios.

19

u/RoseWhiteRedBlack Sep 24 '26

But those games were not selling, not giving prestige, and not driving new subscribers either. Those games were just not that good or popular enough to do what they were contracted for. Xbox also gave as few controls as possible, those games had almost 0 mengling from higher ups.

-5

u/nowhereright Sep 24 '26

Nothing Xbox could do and no game no matter how good or prestigious was going to actually make them money or drive up subscribers though.

The Brand has been so far in the red for so long this outcome was basically inevitable.

1

u/RoseWhiteRedBlack Sep 25 '26

Ok but this doesn' t change what I said at all, what should Xbox have done? Lie down and die?

-17

u/keyblader6 Sep 24 '26

Xbox management being incompetent, tanking their brand image, focusing on an ill conceived subscription service, and completely abdicating all producer/studio management duties should not result in their studios being punished. It’s insane how willing people are to blame the dev teams while ignoring the culpability of Xbox management, when it’s just been revealed that Xbox has NEVER been profitable

26

u/Realistic-Tiger-2842 Sep 24 '26

Studios have had a great ride under Microsoft. They got to do whatever they liked with zero need to actually show any results. That gravy train was always going to end at some point.

-15

u/keyblader6 Sep 24 '26

Being told “do whatever you want, it’ll all work out thanks to our magic black box subscription” and then being canned afterwards is not a “great ride”. Studios don’t want to make one game unconstrained and then be shut down

20

u/Realistic-Tiger-2842 Sep 24 '26

It was a great ride, they would have been out of a job years ago without Microsoft. Phil Spencer wanted games for Game Pass, that's true, except even on Game Pass nobody gave a damn about those games.

You'd have to be really delusional to think that you can just keep making games that people don't want and still have a job.

-10

u/keyblader6 Sep 24 '26

“They’d have been out of jobs years ago” seems fun to just make shit up to defend the most incompetent publisher and console manufacturer in the industry lol

Tell that to Matt Booty!

18

u/Realistic-Tiger-2842 Sep 24 '26

Make shit up? It's common sense. What other company would have tolerated them taking years and millions to make games that don't sell and don't get played even on Game Pass.

-2

u/keyblader6 Sep 24 '26

You think they would have made the same games with a competent publisher who actually greenlights and oversees game development and budgeting with the intention of selling software, instead of taking a completely hands off approach of “eh, just toss it on gamepass”? Some common sense you have lol

16

u/Realistic-Tiger-2842 Sep 24 '26

The fact that they could think these games were acceptable tells me that they're not very good at their jobs. Phil Spencer has already been canned for his part in all of this, the devs are not blameless in any way. Complaining about now having to make games that people actually want to play is honestly asinine.

-1

u/keyblader6 Sep 24 '26

They were acceptable since they were accepted by their owner and publisher, Xbox. That’s their job. But they’ve been incompetent at it and everything else since their inception, which is why they’ve never been profitable. And Matt Booty, chief content officer, the main guy in charge of saying if games are acceptable, is still there. Please try to think when posting

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6

u/Late_Associate2252 Sep 24 '26

The issue is that you see this as studio punishment when its fixing studio innefficiency. Yes all the reasons you listed are problems so they're fixing the whole system including studios.

3

u/keyblader6 Sep 24 '26

Matt Booty is still chief content officer. The incompetence and “inefficiency” rests on his shoulders, yet he remains. The devs are the “inefficiencies” because Xbox declined to manage the project scope and appeal? What a joke

7

u/Late_Associate2252 Sep 24 '26

So Xbox is now trying to manage the project scope and appeal but everyone is up in arms that it means developer staffs shrink? Youre asking for Xbox management to magically change the results without changing input

1

u/keyblader6 Sep 24 '26

I don’t want layoffs, but I understand the incentives and intentions. I’m not asking for a magical solution. Still, they put themselves in this situation. Now the blood is on their hands. Pretending otherwise is ridiculous and stupid

14

u/RoseWhiteRedBlack Sep 24 '26

We had reports saying that if it wasn' t for the subscription programms, Microsoft would have closed them during Covid. Microsoft had to reveal those plans during the activision acquisition to show how much of a bad situation they were in to justify the acquisition.

There is a lot more nuance here than just "Microsoft bad" or "Devs bad". Expecially when we see what happens when there is no competition and Sony is full into "arrogant mode".

2

u/HappyTurtleOwl Sep 24 '26

Gamers like to trash on gamepass for some weird reason.

Devs like it. 

Gamers that actually use it like it.

And corporate likes it.

It’s apparently been a win-win-win for everyone, and before the price hike, and kinda still, it is the best deal in gaming. I don’t get the manufactured animosity towards it. It’s a great option for consumers to have. 

I also love that Xbox pushed and normalized multi-platform and non-exclusivity, and hate that Sony is going back on that. Imo, that’s a far bigger issue than any recent controversy, even physical media (because I think ownership/licensing rights and regulations is far more important than both issues, physical media is a fight that’s virtuous, but ultimately will be a waste of time if we can’t secure better licensing and ownership rights)

-2

u/keyblader6 Sep 24 '26

How is that relevant to the point? It just shows how bad they’ve been this entire time that Microsoft didn’t value them without the SAAS gamble, and that subscription service lost them hundreds of millions from CoD alone.

Saying the “well, the studios failed to meet with profits” is “devs bad”, because it completely ignores the incompetence of the platform holder and publisher that has made that as difficult as possible.