This week has been chaotic to say the least in the world of Xbox, with four studio closures and various other reports about the situation being shared earlier this week. We don't have all the details on the exact reasons behind the closures just yet, so unsurprisingly we're getting a lot of varied opinions from people around the industry.
A few hours ago, IGN included some of these opinions in a new article, speaking to "two former longtime Xbox employees" including one who apparently lamented the state of the business and suggested that "it’s no longer Xbox, but Microsoft Gaming".
This particular Xbox veteran went on to suggest that Xbox has perhaps grown too big for its own boots following the Activision Blizzard acquisition ("there is just too much surface area"), and advised that the reason certain decisions seem so inconsistent with past messaging is probably because Phil Spencer isn't making the final calls:
"The reason this seems so inconsistent with previous Xbox leadership team statements is that these decisions probably aren't being made by Phil. This is all getting dictated by [Microsoft CEO] Satya [Nadella] and [Microsoft CFO] Amy Hood, and it all stems from the Activision acquisition."
"I 100% believe this is a board-level decision. Xbox was a huge profit center, so Satya approved a huge merger. Now, games are slowing, and Microsoft stock is skyrocketing and there is no way Satya is going to let Xbox drag it down. This is all my opinion, of course, but…I'm fairly certain these are not decisions being made only by Xbox leadership."
Of course, we're not going to know any of this for sure unless Phil comes out and says it was his decision to close these studios - but we've at least heard from Xbox president Sarah Bond about the situation. In an interview today, Bond simply stated that the decision was made to "make sure that the business is healthy for the long term".
It's a sad situation however you look at it, but clearly Microsoft feels the need to take drastic measures in this case.