Selvom at Microsoft står overfor en konkret udfordring i forhold til døende konsolsalg, så er Xbox-divisionen fortsat en afgørende del af den samlede virksomhed. Men selvom de er vigtige, så blev de for nylig udsat for en glubsk fyringsrunde, der ramte store dele af den samlede division, inklusiv deres nyligt indkøbte Activision Blizzard-studier.
Så hvorfor gjorde Microsoft det? I et lidt mere ærligt interview med Polygon fortæller Xbox-chef Phil Spencer at branchen har brug for mere vækst, og at Xbox-divisionen skal være profitabel.
"It's a little bit of both. But I'll say the thing that has me most concerned for the industry is the lack of growth. And when you have an industry that is projected to be smaller next year in terms of players and dollars, and you get a lot of publicly traded companies that are in the industry that have to show their investors growth — because why else does somebody own a share of someone's stock if it's not going to grow? — the side of the business that then gets scrutinized is the cost side. Because if you're not going to grow the revenue side, then the cost side becomes challenged."
"We're a business. I've said over and over. I don't get any luxury of not having to run a profitable growing business inside of Microsoft. And we are that today. But just across the industry — you mentioned it, and in sitting here at GDC, I reflect on friends of mine in the industry that have been displaced and lost their jobs and how just, I don't want this industry to be a place where people can't, with confidence, build a career."
Er du enig, eller kan du måske bare forstå Spencers pointe?