Microsoft has never been good at running game studios, which is a problem when it owns them all

Microsoft layoffs latest in a poor history of running game studios | Polygon

The latest Xbox layoffs are about a long history of mismanagement as much as recent overexpansion

polygon.com

Microsoft’s latest round of Xbox layoffs—ditching big-name projects like Rare’s Everwild and The Initiative’s Perfect Dark reboot and axing teams at Raven, Turn 10, ZeniMax, King and more—feels less like a one-off belt-tightening and more like the inevitable aftershock of a five-year acquisition binge. After gobbling up Bethesda, Activision Blizzard and a slew of indie studios, Microsoft got too fat too fast, and now it’s carving away overlapping teams and “vanity” titles that never quite gelled under its sprawling, top-heavy umbrella.

But the real kicker? This isn’t just the fallout of overexpansion—it’s a decades-long habit. From bungled Bungie buy-outs to the slow death of Lionhead and the erratic stewardship of Rare, Microsoft has repeatedly shown it can’t nurture creative studios the way Sony (say) does. As it stands, Xbox is the world’s biggest publisher, yet its biggest games are often the first to go when the budget axe swings. With the Fable reboot looming as the next “big test,” fans might want to brace for more studio shake-ups unless Microsoft finally learns to trust its devs.