Big tech layoffs have never stopped. The batches have been smaller, but they've all been laying off hundreds or thousands of employees every few months for years now 😔
Cutting payroll is one way to juice quarterly profits in the short term.
I think Microsoft gave up on the Xbox as a system and are making their games available on PlayStation though, so part of the layoffs could be in the gaming hardware division and sort of justified.
the hardware cost is more than made up for in game pass subs. Much like the hardware was once a loss to get license to cover the cost. I dont believe they'll drop the Xbox at any point
Too spreading FUD. A few thousand being laid of at a company that has 228,000 employees is insignificant. It happens ALL THE TIME and is part of the constant rebalancing of such a large organization.
Good Afternoon My love friend Murk Zuckerberg Good day My Love friend Murk Zuckerberg I love you every time am Doctor Fadilu Abaoli Abajobir 1am My 1Jitu Fadilu Abaoli Abajobir Fathar Fadilu Abaoli Abajobir International CIE USA United States Of America & international Social Media FAA)Fadilu Abaoli Abajobir )1am Fadilu Abaoli Abajobir) https://www.facebook.com/100084226210791/posts/685665687584299/?app=fbl&__cft__[0]=AZVzIKhzbZDEzbmc5Tk8W2-10aC-354oWZx-AMovReUT9Jjv8jptfVhmq7szaKiCKzCuKvy3s62oFDmTnI4uR-v9HHcnBMCqWbBtk5NrKtTGZRzp6mZBqeZj31SgWoYZZB1rnq996H4gMF019qqHi6YMwJTSXTggZJwrAiuhhDws6FTfzVdTey9WzRybo74WyYDXkaYm9wH452pphoKT9ir4&__tn__=-UK-R!%3Av-R
it was clear when Xbox basically said publicly that it wanted to move out of the hardware market and focus everything on its subscription-based gaming services like game pass and cloud gaming.
I worked at Microsoft for over 30 years until yesterday. In those 30+ years, I did not have a single negative performance review, and I was usually rated above average. I have been awarded and recognized several times over the years.
I say all that because it's important to understand that Microsoft is laying off really strong performers. The company doesn't want to do the work or take the risk of targeting under-performers. Perversely, it means with each round of cuts, the average competence of the Microsoft employees goes down.
In the US, being fired for performance takes effort on the part of managers, and leaves the company vulnerable to a lawsuit.
I think anyone who was let go would understand performance-based layoffs, or shutting down an unprofitable business unit. But Microsoft doesn't do that. Instead, it's a person here, a person there, with no regard to the quality of the person, and no consultation with the managers closest to the employee.
Microsoft is also breaking every basic business rule with dribs and drabs layoffs now spanning four years. A basic rule of layoffs is get them done once and move on. The morale among the remaining employees is in the toilet as they now must cover for the missing person, and no one feels safe in their job. Everyone expects to be fired next week.
Lastly, I don't think Satya Nadella is actually running the company. Or, he is paying a lot of attention to the engineering (his background) and not the people and policies. He makes speeches and writes books about company culture and valuing employees, and then he oversees the firing of seriously good talent. (I'm not just talking about me. I survived the first 10 rounds of layoffs since 2021, and I saw quality walk out the door while idiots remained.)
Our best enterprise customers are absolutely stunned by these moves. People they know and trust are suddenly gone, with no replacement because the position was eliminated. (See above.) Microsoft is building an amazing cloud and amazing AI, with no one to sell or support it.
Just my opinion, but they've made so many acquisitions and put out so little of late that its clearly catching up with them. It was bound to happen. The wheel is getting too big.
The latter sure, but the former is the ideal for many to find opportunities that minimize their need to compromise their happiness to earn a living.
Loving a job to not be a chore and so on is also ideal for many to put the necessary work to always be in optimal position to not hopefully be unemployed relative to others pursuing the same job—they usually have little reservations to not continually be better and learn the latest things to do the job in more varied ways if they love their job.
Overall loving a job usually entails working continually hard to get or be continually a viable candidate for the best places to do a certain job.
Such people even seek to be among the best or historically great at such jobs which is the ideal passion to have for something as time-consuming as a job for some.
Albeit it's not trivial nor the market necessarily favors what people love to do translating to a high-paying and stable job—but it can be certainly ideal to seek that outcome throughout someone's professional career.
Whether that sports, creative gigs, engineering gigs, and so on.
tl;dr; it can be argued that loving a job is ideal and critical to integrate work and life in the most meaningful, sustainable, and happiest ways.
The caveat is that the job market doesn't always align with what people want to do as their ideal job though with their interests as far as pay and demand.
But there's certainly definitely a case to in fact love your job—and respect the opportunities to work at places and regions of the world that allows you to do so throughout someone's lifetime.
And there is nothing wrong with people leaving a job if and when they realize they don't like it. Don't be a bootlicker you don't need to work at a single company for your entire life.
Yes, AI can help write an operating system (OS)—but with some important caveats. Here's a breakdown of what that means:
✅ What AI Can Do in OS Development AI, especially large language models like me, can:
Generate boilerplate code for OS components (e.g., memory management, file systems, schedulers). Explain low-level concepts like kernel design, interrupts, or system calls. Assist with debugging and code optimization. Help write drivers or modules for specific hardware. Automate testing and documentation. ⚠️ What AI Can't Fully Do (Yet) Designing a full OS from scratch without human guidance is extremely complex. It requires: Deep understanding of hardware. Real-time performance tuning. Security and concurrency handling. Making architectural decisions (e.g., monolithic vs. microkernel) still needs human judgment. Maintaining and evolving the OS over time involves community input, hardware changes, and evolving standards. 🛠️ Real-World Use Cases Hobby OS projects: AI can help you build a basic OS like MikeOS or a toy kernel in C or Rust. Embedded systems: AI can assist in writing minimal OS-like environments for microcontrollers. Contributions to Linux or BSD: AI can help generate patches or documentation. Would you like to see an example of AI generating a simple OS kernel in C or Rust? Or are you thinking about a specific kind of OS (like for embedded devices, desktops, or something else)?
Phil’s head should have been the first to roll for his gross incompetence. It’s sickening that people at the top make the mistakes but it’s always the people below who pay for their mistakes.
Times need to change!
Fire PHIL!!!
Why do they always beat around the bush with this BS Jargon?
Phil: “To position Gaming for enduring success and allow us to focus on strategic growth areas, we will end or decrease work in certain areas of the business and follow Microsoft’s lead in removing layers of management to increase agility and effectiveness.”
He could have just said, i messed up and you’re paying the price!
From a gaming standpoint, Microsoft has had so many unforced errors in the last 15 years that they can no longer use their OS monopoly to subsidize their gaming division. From letting Valve eat their lunch uncontested for the past 20 years to the whole Xbox One debacle to massively overspending on creatively bankrupt studios, it's just one bonehead move after another.
Why would anyone want to work for a company that routinely mass-hires and mass-fires people in order to 1) manipulate the stock price and 2) keep workers unstable and on edge?
It's the new normal and people won't vote for people who will provide protections and regulations for workers; instead, the poorest in the US vote for the people who give to the richest.
I read a fun piece this week about how all of these CEOs are just not nearly as smart as people give them credit for being, especially Altman. But, they're all full of shit and they speak in ways that make us feel stupid, until you parse what they're saying and what they're saying is: nothing.
Satya is no different. He's not special, has no vision, and offers nothing but job losses to the country. Ruining lives just to make the stock price go up a little higher in the imaginary money casino. These tech guys need to get taken to the woodshed.
Yup, 100%. Silicon Valley is just an ouroboros of tech bros beating each other off for profit at this point.
I remember reading this a long time ago, and while it's a slightly different focus, the point aligns with your greater point completely: https://www.aaronrosspowell.com/p/silicon-valley-s-very-online-ideologues-are-in-model-collapse
Is anyone aware that most CEOs used to be really great team leaders and ICs, especially from Microsoft?
The idea that CEOs are all stupid is Ed’s way of making himself feel better. Sure, some of them are: Elon, that guy from WeWork, Kay Whitmore, John Sculley, any Tr*mp, but come on. Tell me Steve Jobs was stupid. Tell me Warren Buffett is stupid. Tell me Jensen Huang, of all people, is stupid or dumb. They might be unconscionably wealthy and saddled with far fewer morals than we think they should have, but they’re not stupid nor dumb.
The way to grow is to fire employees and then acquire well established business. Clearly Microsoft does not know how to hire right or train its own employees.
Xbox is failing so the workers are getting the blame, not the executives who's strategy failed. And Phil's out there putting a smile on the whole thing. Nice one Phil, buddy, good guy gamer bro. Got another t-shirt with an old game logo for this occasion? Maybe a fake tattoo?
I worked for an ISP in the late 90's, so I've lived through this kind of industry shift. Unfortunately, the game industry has gone terribly off course in the last decade, putting effort into priorities that did not make for good games, and gamers made their dissatisfaction quite loudly and clearly. There is now going to be pain and a rebuilding period. The good devs will rise from the ashes and the industry will be better for it.
Not if the people responsible for it's troubles laugh it off all the way to the bank. We are in this state because CEOs and other officials walk off unscathed and return to repeat the same crap over and over and over.
Devs are not to blame, those directing them are, and they are not the ones getting fired...
Microsoft has 220,000 employees, up 60,000 since 2020.
You can make some really good arguments about the ethics of making promises to people and then unceremoniously cutting ties, or how they should be obligated to treat people like adult humans, or about the shortsightedness of executives, or how bad they are at planning for the future....
...but sarcastically saying that as capitalists they're failing to create jobs is just a completely erroneous argument.
You kidding? Microsoft investors are probably high-fiving right now. The only heads that will roll are the 9000-odd people this article is alluding to.
As a 30-year veteran in the gaming industry, I can say without a hesitation that Phil Spencer and his c-suite team needs to be fired. Microsoft has a responsibility to preserve the industry they now own or control a major stake in. If they couldn't manage it, they shouldn't have bought it. This will be devestating to the industry. My heart goes out to everyone affected, including many of my friends and colleagues.
I don't disagree, but this was always the plan. It's not like they bought Bethesda and Activision and realized they made a mistake or something. They got what they wanted knowing if they did they were going to fire a lot of "redundant" people. That, more than worry about what happens to Call of Duty, is why people should be against these gigantic acquisitions, no matter which side of the console war nonsense people are on. These acquisitions are always bad for staff and always (eventually) bad for consumers.
25 year vet here. You know very well that will not happen. And even if it does they are all rich so they won't care. Remember when Riccitiello was fired from being EA's CEO and Unity hired him and gave him a 5 million $ singing bonus? He and other CEOs learned that even if they do a bad job it does not matter.
"We will move forward with deep appreciation and respect for all who have contributed to this journey."
Co-pilot, please translate.
“Later, suckers. Oh, we’re dumping you now, but don’t worry — we’ll totally remember you while we watch the stock price go up and pretend you never existed.”
They also hired to pump up stock in the past because it was a way to show "we are growing". I hate when people get fired. But many companies became gigantic just for the sake of saying: "We are now more than X amount of employees"
You realise Microsoft has gained 60,000 employees in the last 5 years. To cut back on redundant jobs while expanding into new ones has always happened...
This could be shortened to: Regrettably, we are laying off with severance or internal relocation to increase profit and efficiency. The rest of the memo is just the usual American corporate bs with lots of long words and fancy phrases.
I struggle to understand when layoffs are sold as fostering growth.
Is this just “management speak” covering poor management, over acquiring, over hiring? Or is it as some people say, a cover for the pipe dream that AI will make them do more with less people enabling them to redirect money into more acquisitions.
Either way, it sucks for those let go. If growth is high and revenues increasing why can’t you move people to do more of what is successful
Funny how nobody at the leadership level is ever laid off. Don't tell me its performance based. It's all about the money. One of the leadership team makes more than several hundred of the regular employees.
Great point. Every single article about layoffs should emphasize how much salary and especially stock bonus income all the executives make. And also If there were recently any stock buy-backs to bribe the activist stockholders.
Microsoft has to pay for money losers Xbox, Blizzard games, OpenAI and those Surface laptops there will be more layoffs and Wall Street will celebrate.
This is why they're doing it. Signaling Wall Street around their AI ambitions - the more they lay off, the more the AI-obsessed sees MS as the major 'agile' AI contender. It doesn't matter that they have ridiculous amounts of cash and should be holding onto/hiring their best talent to win in the long term.
Short term is their only focus and it may come back to bite the upper management/ Satya hard, if they're ever held accountable if/when the bubble bursts. Even if AI sticks around, as it's expected to, it's valuation bubble bursting seems likely enough.
I would suggest that a great way to punish Microsoft/Xbox would be to boycott their products, but then they would probably just layoff even more people.
"In an effort to stoke the billionaire-desired hellscape and join the federal government and other billionaire led tech groups in the need to teach the undesired half of our country a lesson, we are slashing features, products and laying off staff while keeping prices the same or increasing them."
"This seizure of profit will continue until the economy tanks as desired, or we run out of options short of putting Microsoft up for sale. You can help by subscribing to MS365 instead of paying your bills. If you are among those who would vote for a woman as US President and cannot afford a subscription, even better."
If they were at all honest, I'd respect them more.
This is going to defeat the purpose of going to college if AI does everything. Pretty much gets rid of everyone's job that they already hate commuting to.
We had a phrase when I worked in the oil industry, it was called "hugging the pipe." Every time there was a round of layoffs, which occurred pretty regularly at two year intervals, it was widely understood that the people who "hug the pipe" (i.e. - people out in the field who actually put their hands on equipment) were the safest. I think in the new world of work, hugging the pipe will be in manual labor work that AI can't do, like carpentry or plumbing (the original pipe huggers... 😀).
On an individual level, non-factory physical labor positions (nursing, health assistant, plumbing, certain crop picking, construction) and upper management/leadership roles do seem the safest from automation at the moment, but on a societal level it's unclear where we can find enough employment for substantially all our working age population.
Just like Boeing. They never properly passed down knowledge/mentored their younger white-collar workers... once the older work force with all of the institutional knowledge retired, they've found themselves in their current mess.
Same will be true of a bunch of industries that are taking the AI route now... it will ruin their prospects of finding higher-level talent in just a decade or so. You see this at law firms already.
Take a minute to read that entire memo from Phil. Just a bunch of masturbatory comments about how strong the Xbox brand is, in part because of the "tough decisions" (ie, previous layoffs) they'd already done. And now, more layoffs. Because that's what strong brands do.
I hate reading these overly positive memos of really devastating news to your own colleagues. Truly not sure if he's thanking his employees or saying they'll be more successful without them given previous layoff decisions. Ugh
Microsoft ruined Perfect Dark (I have no hopes for this alleged production hell), Halo, Forza Motorsport, etc… What you need is people with passion for those franchises not some contractors who get fired after 2 years and replaced by the next contractor. We as players can tell if something was a passion product or a ticked off feature list. Shame on you MS!
Platform, hardware and road map have never looked stronger?? Guess the 360 years were rubbish then because Xbox doesn’t appear to have had any coherent or viable vision since 2013, just jumping from one bandwagon to another. “What is an Xbox?”. Beats me. I’ve given up on their snake oil that they are trying to sell.
The new roadmap is just being a publishing house combining Activision, Bethesda, Blizzard, id, King, et al., to sellgames across all possible platforms while putting Xbox stickers on Windows PCs.
In terms of profitability, that's the strongest "Xbox" has ever been. Every console generation they've third place behind Sony and Nintendo, and constantly bleeding money (even with the Xbox 360, which started off strong but soon fell behind the PS3 and Wii, eventually relying on the Kinnect to keep it alive).
It took seven years for the PS3 to overtake the 360 in sales. It's true that the PS3 ultimately sold more than the 360, but it was never a large gap. Of course, Microsoft then went on to squander that momentum in the following generation and have been playing catch-up ever since.
Nothing’s wrong with MBA’s, Accountants, and lawyers it’s when you don’t hold them accountable, and when you allow them to run Pharmaceutical, Tech, automobile companies, or any other company that requires actual expertise about the business at hand which is actually almost any business, guess which part of the world has that as one of its biggest problems currently?
Microsoft in its history, is known for making acquisitions and then trying to figure it out later…
Real journalism isn’t about fearing blacklists but about scratching beneath the surface and uncovering the truth. Reporters who think they’re doing someone a favor by conducting flattering interviews sin against their profession.
This article alone has 9,000 witnesses who can explain much about what’s happening at Microsoft. You can cross-examine testimonies, keep sources confidential, and still serve the public.
Well, the good news is that is what Jason Scheier (who broke this story at Bloomberg) does. The bad news is that there aren't a lot of other "real" journalists in the field, as that kind of reporting doesn't pay the bills.
It's common for companies to acquire smaller studios and then lay people off from them. They are taking the development in-house and Microsoft thinks they can manage. I've never seen a studio get acquired and not have portion of staff get laid off.
*Some* layoffs are probably inevitable. But look at how many waves they have and how big these waves are. This is not the normal fallout from an acquisition
Yeah. I’d get having some layoffs after a merger to reduce redundancy in identical divisions of both companies, but Microsoft has basically let go of a significant chunk of employees in their gaming division since 2022 and has pretty much accelerated the layoffs after completing their acquisition of ActiBlizz.
Buying Blizzard games for $75.5 billion, Skype for $8.2 billion, Nokia for $7.2 billion, and many others, most of big ones have been unprofitable.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_Microsoft Waste totaling over 100 billion dollars yes they afford it but they are still chasing Apple and Google in mobile and they have no answers for Apple Silicon and five OS ecosystems.
Microsoft’s acquisitions were often lazy, particularly GitHub and LinkedIn which should have been done in house (yes it would have took 2 years). In contrast, Apple’s largest acquisition was only $3 billion (Beats), while Next Computer and Steve Jobs’ acquisition for $404 million dollars which became the foundation for five OS hardware/ecosystems. Three other acquisitions totaling $750 million, PA Semi, Intrinsity, and Anobit, laid the groundwork for Apple Silicon after Intel said no to the future.
They could be paying a one-time fee to remove competition. Fewer studios, less vendors, more control over negotiations. Even for those on the "same side".
How’s that working for them? Blockbuster acquisitions with no profit. The Blizzard games content company acquisition basically is $75.5 billion dollars down the drain.
Long term with no presence in mobile and Intel running ashore is a killer for Microsoft and their recent Surface mashup with Qualcomm last year so far has been a fiasco and the jury is still out on AI.
Especially Microsoft who has a war chest of corporate Windows Server money. It has been well documented they do this to small development houses and studios, not just for patent capture or IP consolidation.
It's not every single M&A they do, but it's not far fetched that some of the raids are to take players off the board before their competition can.
Seems like Microsoft should never have been allowed to buy ABK and others if they just end up laying people off. In some cases like Tango Gamesorks with no other reason then being unable to mange them, after laying of people from Bethesda publishing. So much of this is self inflicted!
Oof… is this the beginning of layoffs for others? Or Isolated?
ReplyDeleteXbox has become weak and lame
DeleteBig tech layoffs have never stopped. The batches have been smaller, but they've all been laying off hundreds or thousands of employees every few months for years now 😔
DeleteCutting payroll is one way to juice quarterly profits in the short term.
DeleteI think Microsoft gave up on the Xbox as a system and are making their games available on PlayStation though, so part of the layoffs could be in the gaming hardware division and sort of justified.
the hardware cost is more than made up for in game pass subs. Much like the hardware was once a loss to get license to cover the cost. I dont believe they'll drop the Xbox at any point
DeleteOh yeah I’m not saying the layoffs occurred because MSFT wasn’t profitable. Just not profitable enough for Wall Street. 😕
DeleteI vaguely remember a headline about Xbox exclusives now being available on PC and PlayStation, but too lazy to check.
DeleteXbox division was caught playing around and not working.
DeleteToo spreading FUD. A few thousand being laid of at a company that has 228,000 employees is insignificant. It happens ALL THE TIME and is part of the constant rebalancing of such a large organization.
DeleteNot really "mass" lol
DeleteGood Afternoon My love friend Murk Zuckerberg Good day My Love friend Murk Zuckerberg I love you every time am Doctor Fadilu Abaoli Abajobir
ReplyDelete1am My 1Jitu Fadilu Abaoli Abajobir Fathar Fadilu Abaoli Abajobir International CIE USA United States Of America & international Social Media FAA)Fadilu Abaoli Abajobir )1am Fadilu Abaoli Abajobir)
https://www.facebook.com/100084226210791/posts/685665687584299/?app=fbl&__cft__[0]=AZVzIKhzbZDEzbmc5Tk8W2-10aC-354oWZx-AMovReUT9Jjv8jptfVhmq7szaKiCKzCuKvy3s62oFDmTnI4uR-v9HHcnBMCqWbBtk5NrKtTGZRzp6mZBqeZj31SgWoYZZB1rnq996H4gMF019qqHi6YMwJTSXTggZJwrAiuhhDws6FTfzVdTey9WzRybo74WyYDXkaYm9wH452pphoKT9ir4&__tn__=-UK-R!%3Av-R
Microsoft runs around trying to buy anything and everything then realizes it can't manage its way out of a wet paper bag.
ReplyDeletethis is an xbox 🤣🤣🤣
ReplyDeleteThat’s because it’s owned by
ReplyDeleteCongrats to Sony for finally winning the console wars?
ReplyDeletethat was done the moment Microsoft Studios first title was ported to PlayStation.
Deleteit was clear when Xbox basically said publicly that it wanted to move out of the hardware market and focus everything on its subscription-based gaming services like game pass and cloud gaming.
Deletethere is no job security in the private sector anymore
ReplyDeleteI worked at Microsoft for over 30 years until yesterday. In those 30+ years, I did not have a single negative performance review, and I was usually rated above average. I have been awarded and recognized several times over the years.
ReplyDeleteI say all that because it's important to understand that Microsoft is laying off really strong performers. The company doesn't want to do the work or take the risk of targeting under-performers. Perversely, it means with each round of cuts, the average competence of the Microsoft employees goes down.
In the US, being fired for performance takes effort on the part of managers, and leaves the company vulnerable to a lawsuit.
I think anyone who was let go would understand performance-based layoffs, or shutting down an unprofitable business unit. But Microsoft doesn't do that. Instead, it's a person here, a person there, with no regard to the quality of the person, and no consultation with the managers closest to the employee.
Microsoft is also breaking every basic business rule with dribs and drabs layoffs now spanning four years. A basic rule of layoffs is get them done once and move on. The morale among the remaining employees is in the toilet as they now must cover for the missing person, and no one feels safe in their job. Everyone expects to be fired next week.
Lastly, I don't think Satya Nadella is actually running the company. Or, he is paying a lot of attention to the engineering (his background) and not the people and policies. He makes speeches and writes books about company culture and valuing employees, and then he oversees the firing of seriously good talent. (I'm not just talking about me. I survived the first 10 rounds of layoffs since 2021, and I saw quality walk out the door while idiots remained.)
Our best enterprise customers are absolutely stunned by these moves. People they know and trust are suddenly gone, with no replacement because the position was eliminated. (See above.) Microsoft is building an amazing cloud and amazing AI, with no one to sell or support it.
Conglomerate and cut....it's the American way.
ReplyDeleteI will laugh so hard when markets shift into areas humans will become more valuable than AI. These companies are screwed.
ReplyDeleteJust a matter of time.
parasite killing the host.
ReplyDeleteCorporate greed is out of control.
ReplyDeleteXbox became a 3P publisher when they bought Activision. Should have been obvious to everyone.
ReplyDeleteJust my opinion, but they've made so many acquisitions and put out so little of late that its clearly catching up with them. It was bound to happen. The wheel is getting too big.
ReplyDeleteCan someone PLEASE ask one of these freaking CEOs "how come AI don't replace your job?" Like WTF???
ReplyDeleteAnother reminder –unfortunately people still need them– that you should not love your job or your employer. They do not, will never, love you back.
ReplyDeleteThe latter sure, but the former is the ideal for many to find opportunities that minimize their need to compromise their happiness to earn a living.
DeleteLoving a job to not be a chore and so on is also ideal for many to put the necessary work to always be in optimal position to not hopefully be unemployed relative to others pursuing the same job—they usually have little reservations to not continually be better and learn the latest things to do the job in more varied ways if they love their job.
Overall loving a job usually entails working continually hard to get or be continually a viable candidate for the best places to do a certain job.
Such people even seek to be among the best or historically great at such jobs which is the ideal passion to have for something as time-consuming as a job for some.
Albeit it's not trivial nor the market necessarily favors what people love to do translating to a high-paying and stable job—but it can be certainly ideal to seek that outcome throughout someone's professional career.
Whether that sports, creative gigs, engineering gigs, and so on.
tl;dr; it can be argued that loving a job is ideal and critical to integrate work and life in the most meaningful, sustainable, and happiest ways.
DeleteThe caveat is that the job market doesn't always align with what people want to do as their ideal job though with their interests as far as pay and demand.
But there's certainly definitely a case to in fact love your job—and respect the opportunities to work at places and regions of the world that allows you to do so throughout someone's lifetime.
Here you go again with long winded comments droning on about absolute nonsense. Just shut up.
Delete…You're free to just ignore, not read, or respond to my comments.
DeleteLoving your job is often an important thing for people to secure for themselves.
Feel free to respectfully disagree.
That attitude keeps people from staying in a job... Life isn't bad mate
DeleteAnd there is nothing wrong with people leaving a job if and when they realize they don't like it. Don't be a bootlicker you don't need to work at a single company for your entire life.
Delete"Life isn't bad mate"
DeleteIn 2025 I think you could make the case that it is actually
"Hey Copilot. Can AI write an operating system?"
ReplyDeleteCopilot
DeleteHey! Great question.
Yes, AI can help write an operating system (OS)—but with some important caveats. Here's a breakdown of what that means:
✅ What AI Can Do in OS Development
AI, especially large language models like me, can:
Generate boilerplate code for OS components (e.g., memory management, file systems, schedulers).
Explain low-level concepts like kernel design, interrupts, or system calls.
Assist with debugging and code optimization.
Help write drivers or modules for specific hardware.
Automate testing and documentation.
⚠️ What AI Can't Fully Do (Yet)
Designing a full OS from scratch without human guidance is extremely complex. It requires:
Deep understanding of hardware.
Real-time performance tuning.
Security and concurrency handling.
Making architectural decisions (e.g., monolithic vs. microkernel) still needs human judgment.
Maintaining and evolving the OS over time involves community input, hardware changes, and evolving standards.
🛠️ Real-World Use Cases
Hobby OS projects: AI can help you build a basic OS like MikeOS or a toy kernel in C or Rust.
Embedded systems: AI can assist in writing minimal OS-like environments for microcontrollers.
Contributions to Linux or BSD: AI can help generate patches or documentation.
Would you like to see an example of AI generating a simple OS kernel in C or Rust? Or are you thinking about a specific kind of OS (like for embedded devices, desktops, or something else)?
Translation:
Delete"Hey! Great question.
No."
Who needs an OS when you have the web….
DeleteThat’s what it should say.
Phil’s head should have been the first to roll for his gross incompetence. It’s sickening that people at the top make the mistakes but it’s always the people below who pay for their mistakes.
ReplyDeleteTimes need to change!
Fire PHIL!!!
Why do they always beat around the bush with this BS Jargon?
Phil: “To position Gaming for enduring success and allow us to focus on strategic growth areas, we will end or decrease work in certain areas of the business and follow Microsoft’s lead in removing layers of management to increase agility and effectiveness.”
He could have just said, i messed up and you’re paying the price!
Agreed but he has clearly mastered the bullshit political corporate game
DeleteFrom a gaming standpoint, Microsoft has had so many unforced errors in the last 15 years that they can no longer use their OS monopoly to subsidize their gaming division. From letting Valve eat their lunch uncontested for the past 20 years to the whole Xbox One debacle to massively overspending on creatively bankrupt studios, it's just one bonehead move after another.
ReplyDeleteGG Xbox
ReplyDeleteWhy would anyone want to work for a company that routinely mass-hires and mass-fires people in order to 1) manipulate the stock price and 2) keep workers unstable and on edge?
ReplyDeleteIt's the new normal and people won't vote for people who will provide protections and regulations for workers; instead, the poorest in the US vote for the people who give to the richest.
DeleteThey don't but who isn't doing that? They want to be able to pay rent and eat so you do what you have to.
DeleteBecause they offer H1B sponsorships.
DeleteI read a fun piece this week about how all of these CEOs are just not nearly as smart as people give them credit for being, especially Altman. But, they're all full of shit and they speak in ways that make us feel stupid, until you parse what they're saying and what they're saying is: nothing.
ReplyDeleteSatya is no different. He's not special, has no vision, and offers nothing but job losses to the country. Ruining lives just to make the stock price go up a little higher in the imaginary money casino. These tech guys need to get taken to the woodshed.
I'd even argue Satya is worse than the others. He's the one who enabled Altman to hang on when the OpenAI board fired him.
DeleteEd Zitron, yeah? He's my go-to tech read these days.
DeleteYes!! I just learned of him yesterday!! Got me very interested to read more
DeleteLink to that article! https://www.wheresyoured.at/make-fun-of-them/
DeleteOh, thanks! I wasn't sure about policy on that kind of thing.
DeleteIt's a long read but god is it worth it.
CEO's, the lot of them, are all overpaid, over-hyped managers.
DeleteIt's a game they have rigged themselves, many CEOs serve in the boards of other companies. They pad each other's back.
Yup, 100%. Silicon Valley is just an ouroboros of tech bros beating each other off for profit at this point.
DeleteI remember reading this a long time ago, and while it's a slightly different focus, the point aligns with your greater point completely: https://www.aaronrosspowell.com/p/silicon-valley-s-very-online-ideologues-are-in-model-collapse
Is anyone aware that most CEOs used to be really great team leaders and ICs, especially from Microsoft?
DeleteThe idea that CEOs are all stupid is Ed’s way of making himself feel better. Sure, some of them are: Elon, that guy from WeWork, Kay Whitmore, John Sculley, any Tr*mp, but come on. Tell me Steve Jobs was stupid. Tell me Warren Buffett is stupid. Tell me Jensen Huang, of all people, is stupid or dumb. They might be unconscionably wealthy and saddled with far fewer morals than we think they should have, but they’re not stupid nor dumb.
There’s a lot of CEOs and I’m confident we can find more stupid ones than visionary ones.
DeleteThe way to grow is to fire employees and then acquire well established business. Clearly Microsoft does not know how to hire right or train its own employees.
ReplyDeleteXbox is failing so the workers are getting the blame, not the executives who's strategy failed.
ReplyDeleteAnd Phil's out there putting a smile on the whole thing. Nice one Phil, buddy, good guy gamer bro. Got another t-shirt with an old game logo for this occasion? Maybe a fake tattoo?
Phil sucks, I feel bad for all the employees who lost their job.
ReplyDeleteI worked for an ISP in the late 90's, so I've lived through this kind of industry shift. Unfortunately, the game industry has gone terribly off course in the last decade, putting effort into priorities that did not make for good games, and gamers made their dissatisfaction quite loudly and clearly. There is now going to be pain and a rebuilding period. The good devs will rise from the ashes and the industry will be better for it.
ReplyDeleteNot if the people responsible for it's troubles laugh it off all the way to the bank. We are in this state because CEOs and other officials walk off unscathed and return to repeat the same crap over and over and over.
DeleteDevs are not to blame, those directing them are, and they are not the ones getting fired...
Balmer years aren't looking quite so bad now.
ReplyDeleteDEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS!DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS!DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS!DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS!
DeleteThanks capitalism, so much for those jobs you promised to create.
ReplyDeleteMicrosoft has 220,000 employees, up 60,000 since 2020.
DeleteYou can make some really good arguments about the ethics of making promises to people and then unceremoniously cutting ties, or how they should be obligated to treat people like adult humans, or about the shortsightedness of executives, or how bad they are at planning for the future....
...but sarcastically saying that as capitalists they're failing to create jobs is just a completely erroneous argument.
This is the kind of thing that heads need to roll as a result of, but unfortunately those heads just cash in some huge bonuses.
ReplyDeleteYou kidding? Microsoft investors are probably high-fiving right now. The only heads that will roll are the 9000-odd people this article is alluding to.
DeleteMicrosoft Investors need to realise that mass layoffs after mass layoffs while continuing to burn billions into OpenAI is not sustainable business.
DeleteIt’s a monopoly, they don’t have to make customers happy.
DeleteAs a 30-year veteran in the gaming industry, I can say without a hesitation that Phil Spencer and his c-suite team needs to be fired. Microsoft has a responsibility to preserve the industry they now own or control a major stake in. If they couldn't manage it, they shouldn't have bought it. This will be devestating to the industry. My heart goes out to everyone affected, including many of my friends and colleagues.
ReplyDeleteYou expect too much. Management will always circle the wagons and take care of themselves first and foremost.
DeleteLook at Disney and how their creatives have organized over the last 70 years to protect themselves. It's sad, but none of this is new.
Just a new industry.
I don't disagree, but this was always the plan. It's not like they bought Bethesda and Activision and realized they made a mistake or something. They got what they wanted knowing if they did they were going to fire a lot of "redundant" people. That, more than worry about what happens to Call of Duty, is why people should be against these gigantic acquisitions, no matter which side of the console war nonsense people are on. These acquisitions are always bad for staff and always (eventually) bad for consumers.
Delete25 year vet here. You know very well that will not happen. And even if it does they are all rich so they won't care. Remember when Riccitiello was fired from being EA's CEO and Unity hired him and gave him a 5 million $ singing bonus? He and other CEOs learned that even if they do a bad job it does not matter.
Delete"We will move forward with deep appreciation and respect for all who have contributed to this journey."
ReplyDeleteCo-pilot, please translate.
“Later, suckers. Oh, we’re dumping you now, but don’t worry — we’ll totally remember you while we watch the stock price go up and pretend you never existed.”
Layoffs to pump up stock / profit margins should be illegal. Almost all of big tech is doing this and it is terrible.
ReplyDeleteThey also hired to pump up stock in the past because it was a way to show "we are growing".
DeleteI hate when people get fired. But many companies became gigantic just for the sake of saying: "We are now more than X amount of employees"
New reality of tech industry. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteYou realise Microsoft has gained 60,000 employees in the last 5 years. To cut back on redundant jobs while expanding into new ones has always happened...
DeleteNot at this scale.
Deletehttps://layoffs.fyi/
https://media.tenor.com/VXpt02jFlIIAAAAC/it%27s-over-9000-it%27s.gif
ReplyDeleteGross. Nothing like late-stage capitalism.
ReplyDeleteThis could be shortened to:
DeleteRegrettably, we are laying off with severance or internal relocation to increase profit and efficiency.
The rest of the memo is just the usual American corporate bs with lots of long words and fancy phrases.
Does "internal relocation" count as a lay off?
DeleteI struggle to understand when layoffs are sold as fostering growth.
ReplyDeleteIs this just “management speak” covering poor management, over acquiring, over hiring? Or is it as some people say, a cover for the pipe dream that AI will make them do more with less people enabling them to redirect money into more acquisitions.
Either way, it sucks for those let go. If growth is high and revenues increasing why can’t you move people to do more of what is successful
they're talking about growing the market cap (aka the share price), these kinds of announcements make Wall St. very happy and then number go up.
DeleteFunny how nobody at the leadership level is ever laid off. Don't tell me its performance based. It's all about the money. One of the leadership team makes more than several hundred of the regular employees.
ReplyDeleteGreat point. Every single article about layoffs should emphasize how much salary and especially stock bonus income all the executives make. And also If there were recently any stock buy-backs to bribe the activist stockholders.
DeleteMicrosoft has to pay for money losers Xbox, Blizzard games, OpenAI and those Surface laptops there will be more layoffs and Wall Street will celebrate.
ReplyDeleteThis is why they're doing it. Signaling Wall Street around their AI ambitions - the more they lay off, the more the AI-obsessed sees MS as the major 'agile' AI contender. It doesn't matter that they have ridiculous amounts of cash and should be holding onto/hiring their best talent to win in the long term.
DeleteShort term is their only focus and it may come back to bite the upper management/ Satya hard, if they're ever held accountable if/when the bubble bursts. Even if AI sticks around, as it's expected to, it's valuation bubble bursting seems likely enough.
As is the joke within Microsoft amongst its developers:
ReplyDelete"Just rub a little AI on it"
candy crush is the one thing keeping the NYPD going. this is going to be devastating for their morale
ReplyDeleteThe usual rags are claiming that NYPD officers are going to resign en mass if Zohran becomes mayor.
DeleteSo these layoffs and those resignations will karmically cancel each other out, right?
I would suggest that a great way to punish Microsoft/Xbox would be to boycott their products, but then they would probably just layoff even more people.
ReplyDeleteThey are laying off people despite having record profits. It's fallacy to argue that not boycotting Xbox would save jobs.
Delete"The success we’re seeing currently is based on tough decisions we’ve made previously."
ReplyDeleteGotta apprecciate Phil's gaslighting in here. What a horrible sentence to put on an email where you announce you are firing people.
I hope those laid off can create new smaller more customer friendly studios with better morals towards society. Capitalism is crumbling.
ReplyDeleteAnd then resist when Microsoft chime around to buy them
DeleteCrumbling, good one. There's no other proven system and you know it
DeleteFunny that you think what is happening is 'proven', it's a disaster.
DeleteShares trading up this morning.
ReplyDeleteGotta love this era of capitalism we’re living in.
Right? I hope all of the talented folks affected by this are able to quickly get back on their feet and doing what they enjoy.
DeleteThis is why they do it... just for a couple of weeks of slightly higher earnings.
Delete"We're reducing our workforce by 9,000 in the next quarter and focusing on efficiency and value."
DeleteStock Price Goes Up
"We're hiring 9,000 new employees in the next quarter to meet booming demand for our products."
Stock Price Goes Up
Rinse, repeat.
"In an effort to stoke the billionaire-desired hellscape and join the federal government and other billionaire led tech groups in the need to teach the undesired half of our country a lesson, we are slashing features, products and laying off staff while keeping prices the same or increasing them."
ReplyDelete"This seizure of profit will continue until the economy tanks as desired, or we run out of options short of putting Microsoft up for sale. You can help by subscribing to MS365 instead of paying your bills. If you are among those who would vote for a woman as US President and cannot afford a subscription, even better."
If they were at all honest, I'd respect them more.
This is going to defeat the purpose of going to college if AI does everything. Pretty much gets rid of everyone's job that they already hate commuting to.
ReplyDeleteWe had a phrase when I worked in the oil industry, it was called "hugging the pipe." Every time there was a round of layoffs, which occurred pretty regularly at two year intervals, it was widely understood that the people who "hug the pipe" (i.e. - people out in the field who actually put their hands on equipment) were the safest. I think in the new world of work, hugging the pipe will be in manual labor work that AI can't do, like carpentry or plumbing (the original pipe huggers... 😀).
DeleteOn an individual level, non-factory physical labor positions (nursing, health assistant, plumbing, certain crop picking, construction) and upper management/leadership roles do seem the safest from automation at the moment, but on a societal level it's unclear where we can find enough employment for substantially all our working age population.
DeleteJust like Boeing. They never properly passed down knowledge/mentored their younger white-collar workers... once the older work force with all of the institutional knowledge retired, they've found themselves in their current mess.
DeleteSame will be true of a bunch of industries that are taking the AI route now... it will ruin their prospects of finding higher-level talent in just a decade or so. You see this at law firms already.
Take a minute to read that entire memo from Phil. Just a bunch of masturbatory comments about how strong the Xbox brand is, in part because of the "tough decisions" (ie, previous layoffs) they'd already done. And now, more layoffs. Because that's what strong brands do.
ReplyDeleteTruly a moron.
I hate reading these overly positive memos of really devastating news to your own colleagues. Truly not sure if he's thanking his employees or saying they'll be more successful without them given previous layoff decisions. Ugh
Delete"...masturbatory..."
DeleteAdded to my vocabulary.
Can this be used in a corporate environment?
DeleteChatgpt suggests these
If you're trying to critique something as self-serving or self-indulgent, here are safer terms:
Self-congratulatory
Navel-gazing
Indulgent
Solipsistic
Echo chamber-like
Out of touch
More style than substance
Nah def use masturbatory
DeleteBetter yet, use a thesaurus instead of ChatGPT.
DeleteI don’t know. So long as you aren’t paying for it it seems fine. Help send them bankrupt one prompt at a time.
Delete"Demand has never been higher and that's due to the work of the people we're firing."
DeleteGee Phil, then maybe you should keep them?
Microsoft ruined Perfect Dark (I have no hopes for this alleged production hell), Halo, Forza Motorsport, etc… What you need is people with passion for those franchises not some contractors who get fired after 2 years and replaced by the next contractor.
DeleteWe as players can tell if something was a passion product or a ticked off feature list.
Shame on you MS!
Platform, hardware and road map have never looked stronger?? Guess the 360 years were rubbish then because Xbox doesn’t appear to have had any coherent or viable vision since 2013, just jumping from one bandwagon to another. “What is an Xbox?”. Beats me. I’ve given up on their snake oil that they are trying to sell.
ReplyDeleteThe new roadmap is just being a publishing house combining Activision, Bethesda, Blizzard, id, King, et al., to sellgames across all possible platforms while putting Xbox stickers on Windows PCs.
DeleteIn terms of profitability, that's the strongest "Xbox" has ever been. Every console generation they've third place behind Sony and Nintendo, and constantly bleeding money (even with the Xbox 360, which started off strong but soon fell behind the PS3 and Wii, eventually relying on the Kinnect to keep it alive).
It took seven years for the PS3 to overtake the 360 in sales. It's true that the PS3 ultimately sold more than the 360, but it was never a large gap. Of course, Microsoft then went on to squander that momentum in the following generation and have been playing catch-up ever since.
DeleteWe need to build a world that isn't run by MBAs. Disgusting.
ReplyDeleteNothing’s wrong with MBA’s, Accountants, and lawyers it’s when you don’t hold them accountable, and when you allow them to run Pharmaceutical, Tech, automobile companies, or any other company that requires actual expertise about the business at hand which is actually almost any business, guess which part of the world has that as one of its biggest problems currently?
DeleteMicrosoft in its history, is known for making acquisitions and then trying to figure it out later…
Big oof.
ReplyDeleteNobody should let Spencer give an interview again without pressing him on why he wants to acquire all these studios just to lay people off
ReplyDeleteSpencer only gives interviews to friendly publications. Anyone who asks real questions will be blacklisted. That's how this all works.
DeleteReal journalism isn’t about fearing blacklists but about scratching beneath the surface and uncovering the truth. Reporters who think they’re doing someone a favor by conducting flattering interviews sin against their profession.
DeleteThis article alone has 9,000 witnesses who can explain much about what’s happening at Microsoft. You can cross-examine testimonies, keep sources confidential, and still serve the public.
Well, the good news is that is what Jason Scheier (who broke this story at Bloomberg) does. The bad news is that there aren't a lot of other "real" journalists in the field, as that kind of reporting doesn't pay the bills.
DeleteI sadly agree :\
DeleteIt was probably the cheapest way of acquiring the IP developed by said studios.
DeleteIt's common for companies to acquire smaller studios and then lay people off from them. They are taking the development in-house and Microsoft thinks they can manage. I've never seen a studio get acquired and not have portion of staff get laid off.
Delete*Some* layoffs are probably inevitable. But look at how many waves they have and how big these waves are. This is not the normal fallout from an acquisition
DeleteYeah. I’d get having some layoffs after a merger to reduce redundancy in identical divisions of both companies, but Microsoft has basically let go of a significant chunk of employees in their gaming division since 2022 and has pretty much accelerated the layoffs after completing their acquisition of ActiBlizz.
DeleteI've never seen a positive merger or acquisition before. The only ones that benefit are execs and (maybe) shareholders.
DeleteBuying Blizzard games for $75.5 billion, Skype for $8.2 billion, Nokia for $7.2 billion, and many others, most of big ones have been unprofitable.
Deletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_Microsoft Waste totaling over 100 billion dollars yes they afford it but they are still chasing Apple and Google in mobile and they have no answers for Apple Silicon and five OS ecosystems.
Microsoft’s acquisitions were often lazy, particularly GitHub and LinkedIn which should have been done in house (yes it would have took 2 years). In contrast, Apple’s largest acquisition was only $3 billion (Beats), while Next Computer and Steve Jobs’ acquisition for $404 million dollars which became the foundation for five OS hardware/ecosystems. Three other acquisitions totaling $750 million, PA Semi, Intrinsity, and Anobit, laid the groundwork for Apple Silicon after Intel said no to the future.
They could be paying a one-time fee to remove competition. Fewer studios, less vendors, more control over negotiations. Even for those on the "same side".
DeleteHow’s that working for them? Blockbuster acquisitions with no profit. The Blizzard games content company acquisition basically is $75.5 billion dollars down the drain.
DeleteLong term with no presence in mobile and Intel running ashore is a killer for Microsoft and their recent Surface mashup with Qualcomm last year so far has been a fiasco and the jury is still out on AI.
Especially Microsoft who has a war chest of corporate Windows Server money. It has been well documented they do this to small development houses and studios, not just for patent capture or IP consolidation.
DeleteIt's not every single M&A they do, but it's not far fetched that some of the raids are to take players off the board before their competition can.
I would love a Decoder with Spencer. This strategy on gaming that Microsoft has implemented is literally just tearing apart job positions.
DeleteAny executive positions cut?
ReplyDeleteIf we cut executives, who's going to order the next round of layoffs?
DeleteWho's going to extol the virtues of AI replacing everyone's job but their own?
DeleteThey do but they either get pushed out or they quietly disappear on “sabbatical” never to return.
Deletehttps://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-30/microsoft-s-sales-chief-to-take-sabbatical-with-layoffs-looming
No mention of executive pay being cut to align with these measures. Obviously an oversight, right?
ReplyDeleteProbably receiving bonuses for this in actuality.
DeleteGulfstream G800 won't pay for itself. Those executives need all the help they can get.
Deletehttps://media.tenor.com/80zMDyE85hAAAAAC/money-crying.gif
DeleteAnd just wait a couple of weeks for the financial results and the announcement of record profits.
DeleteBleak but true.
DeleteSeems like Microsoft should never have been allowed to buy ABK and others if they just end up laying people off. In some cases like Tango Gamesorks with no other reason then being unable to mange them, after laying of people from Bethesda publishing. So much of this is self inflicted!
ReplyDelete