Reset Xbox To What, Exactly?

If you work (or worked) at Xbox, it’s been the longest week in recorded history. But for all the haphazard action that’s been taken, it remains difficult to explain why. CEO Asha Sharma has repeatedly spoken of her plan to “reset” Xbox. OK, sure, but to what? Where is this all headed? On the latest Aftermath Hours, we attempt to make heads or tails of a truly baffling strategy.

This time around, we’re joined by Kotaku’s Rebekah Valentine to discuss that which has long been prophesied (derogatory): The Xbox layoffs finally happened, and they’ve somehow proven even worse than expected. Thousands of jobs lost, seemingly with little regard for institutional knowledge or what the people in question actually, you know, did. Now remaining teams—cut to the bone—are left to pick up the pieces.

Why did Microsoft choose to go about things like this? What happens to the studios that got hit the hardest, and is the decision to put Obsidian, in particular, on Fallout a sign of things to come? And who, really, is to blame for this catastrophic unforced error?

Then we talk about a small handful of bright spots in our week—for example, Summer Games Done Quick, which is just the best. Lastly, we—joined briefly by Chris Person—rave about the new version of Ghost In The Shell.

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, leave a review so that we can launch a procession of various executives out of that nice, big cannon we’ve been eyeing.

Here’s an excerpt from our conversation (edited for length and clarity):

Rebekah: Asha Sharma keeps talking about resetting Xbox. That’s her big line. Maybe someone has already interrogated her about this and she gave a business response—I don’t know. But I have yet to see a competent answer to [the question of] ‘Reset it to what?’ What part of Xbox are you wanting to delete, and which part of Xbox do you want to go back to? Because I’m very suspicious of which part of Xbox it is.

Gita: I can only imagine, but given what it was like to talk to business people about video game journalism, I’m assuming the conversation went something like this: “Do you remember Halo? Halo made a ton of money, right? Can you make us another Halo?” Or like “Call of Duty is really popular. Why can’t it be more popular? Can we make Call of Duty more popular? Make that happen for us, please. And we want everything to be cheaper to produce, also.”

Nathan: “And faster to produce, so AI’s gotta be able to do a lot of it. We don’t need all those people. They’re pesky and keep demanding rights.”

Gita: Halo is the cultural reference point that executives are probably asking for, because that is a moment in time when Xbox had incredible brand penetration across the globe, and one of the most beloved video games of all time was a Microsoft product.

Nathan: But even then, they got lucky. Historically at that point, Bungie had made games for Mac, and Microsoft decided [to take a chance on them]. And even then, instead of getting rid of talent and trying to cut down, Microsoft acquired a studio and let the creatives do their thing—which resulted in a game that became an instant classic and gave Xbox its mascot.

Rebekah: I think you’re right, too, because I believe in Asha’s email [to employees] somewhere, there’s a line about how they have really recognizable IP, and I remember reading that line and thinking “What? Which ones? What are you talking about?” Minecraft and Halo are probably the two that she means. Maybe also Fallout.

Nathan: Do you not know the iconic car from Forza Horizon? You know… car?

Rebekah: I’m not saying they don’t have stuff that is popular; obviously they do. But it’s all stuff that they’ve taken from other places and sort of cobbled together that we associate with itself. Like, I play World of Warcraft. I associate World of Warcraft with itself and with Blizzard. I don’t associate it with Xbox.

Gita: The Blizzard suite of games all have such a consistent style in the gameplay and especially the art that they don’t feel like Microsoft games. They feel like games that are being held hostage by Microsoft at this point.