Another week, another baffling headline out of Microsoft. The latest is at least illustrative: According to Bloomberg, the company has set an across-the-board goal of 30 percent “accountability margins” – Microsoft’s weird, somehow-worse-sounding term for profit margins – which explains why its gaming division has been rampantly laying off employees, canceling games, and closing studios. So now we know the directive that informed numerous questionable decisions, but why keep doing it? On the latest Aftermath Hours, we wonder if Microsoft will ever find a way to right the ship.
This time around, we discuss the aforementioned recent revelation that Microsoft has been seeking a 30 percent profit margin from its gaming division since 2023. This borders on ludicrous compared to what the rest of the industry typically achieves and fully clears that bar in the case of Xbox, which managed a 12 percent profit margin in 2022. Now here we are in 2025, following multiple rounds of mass layoffs and project cancellations, because while Xbox was profitable, it wasn’t profitable enough. We once again repeat what has become a common refrain: What is Microsoft thinking, especially as both the industry and the global economy enter increasingly uncertain times? And if Microsoft continues to pump out pricey hardware while laying off developers and shutting down studios, where will the money come from?
Then we talk about TwitchCon and the security woes that became the story of this year’s event. While the claim that TwitchCon had no security is definitively untrue, misogyny and sociopathic clip farming intrinsic to the modern platform ecosystem still managed to spill over into real life. How does Twitch handle that? At what point does TwitchCon become so much of a reputational risk that Twitch would be better off pulling the plug?
Finally, we talk about both Mario (the video game character) and Luigi (Mangione).
You can find this week's episode below and on Spotify, Apple, or wherever else you prefer to listen to podcasts. If you like what you hear, make sure to leave a review so that we can hire the finest legal minds of our generation to ensure that Luigi Mangione gets to go back to MAGFest someday.
Here’s an excerpt from our conversation (edited for length and clarity):
Chris: “What the fuck is Microsoft doing” is the refrain at every part of the business. What the fuck are you doing with Gaza? What the fuck are you doing with games? What the fuck are you doing with Game Pass? What the fuck are you doing with AI? What the fuck are you doing with your OS? This is Microsoft right now in 2025: What the fuck are you doing? Constantly! With Windows 10! With everything!
They added a new Clippy. He looks like shit. He’s a little blob. Fuck you! I don’t want that!
Riley: Tom Warren at The Verge said [its name, Mico] is pronounced “Mee-co,” but you can’t do that, because it’s Microsoft. It’s a shortened version of your company name, but it’s not pronounced the same.
Nathan: So wait, this new Clippy has a name and everything? I need to look this up.
OK so, he’s an AI assistant. Of course. My first impression: He looks like shit – kinda like one of those little guys from Mario Galaxy, but sans any sort of personality. They sanded off every edge both literally and figuratively to make it as inoffensive as possible.
Riley: This is what gets me. I still haven’t upgraded to Windows 11, but every time I’m like “I’ve gotta deal with this; I care about my device security,” it’s like “We’ve added all this AI shit.” What if I just don’t want it? You can sign up to back up your stuff, but you’ve gotta use OneDrive, and it’s only five gigs or something.
When we stopped using Windows 8 or whatever, few people were still using it. But this is crazy: 42 percent of users are still using Windows 10.
Nathan: Sorry, I’m still over here reading about Mico. From The Verge article: “You can see it, it reacts as you speak to it, and if you talk about something sad you’ll see its facial expressions react almost immediately.”
Why would I want my little Clippy-adjacent fucking assistant guy to emotionally react to me saying something sad? Why would I want to say something sad when I’m like “Hey, can you open Excel for me?”
Chris: Imagine if it got sad about the wrong thing. You’re like “Hey, I got a new haircut,” and it just [makes an unhappy face at you].
Nathan: It’s like “I don’t know about that one, man.” But that would actually be useful!
Riley: “You can make this thing sad,” as a selling point, feels very weird.
Nathan: Right! It’s so bizarre! What a strange selling point, to say “This is why you should want this: because you can upset it.”
