In a new Xbox Wire blog postXbox CEO Asha Sharma and Chief Content Officer Matt Booty shared a memo sent to Xbox employees. The memo itself is too long to fully cover here, but I’ll go over some of the most important details.
I also covered Bloomberg’s report that Xbox will be making big cuts next monthso let’s take a look at what Sharma and Booty had to say:
“We expanded our studio system when we needed a content pipeline to meet multiple strategies across subscription, streaming and devices. In the process, we’ve stretched ourselves a lot while working on changing strategies in a more readily available content landscape. We are successful operators of industry-defining franchises that have great potential and player demand, but are underfunded to compete and win. At the same time, as we saw at the Showcase last weekend, a robust pipeline of first- and third-party exclusives and new IP is critical to our success. We need to rethink the balance between these and our investment priorities for the next 5 years… Our current platform infrastructure is not built for the battle ahead. Our systems are too complex, involving hundreds of dependencies, which hinders our ability to move quickly. We have become too reliant on vendors to manage our systems, and we need to be more self-reliant as an engineering culture to build for the future.“
That’s a lot to digest, and frankly, a brutally honest message from Xbox. It seems to me that the company believes that some of its biggest franchises are not getting the investment they need, despite strong demand from players.
At least as I read it, Xbox is rethinking where it spends its money. This is probably good news for those who enjoy franchises like Halo, Gears of War and Forza, but perhaps less so for smaller projects and franchises that struggle to compete for resources.
We still don’t know exactly what this will look like in practice. However, with reports that the next 100 days could bring significant changes, including potential studio closures or adjustments to Xbox’s studio lineupit is clear that the company believes its current approach is unsustainable.
Regardless, the next 100 days are going to be very interesting for Xbox. There are obviously some tough decisions ahead, but hopefully they’re not all bad and will ultimately help put the company on a stronger path going forward.
However, let me know your thoughts on the whole situation in the comments and be sure to take our poll above.
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