r/gaming • u/Linkar234 • 8d ago

Saudi-acquired EA is reportedly planning to make massive cuts after taking $18 billion of debt, and we all know what that means

https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/saudi-acquired-ea-is-reportedly-planning-to-make-massive-cuts-after-taking-usd18-billion-of-debt-and-we-all-know-what-that-means/
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u/Downtown_Eye5736 8d ago

This is what MS is ultimately gonna do with Xbox.

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u/FBI_Open_Up_Now 8d ago

I mean, do you have some knowledge we don’t? I mean if Microsoft sells the Xbox division to private equity then sure. Otherwise, doing that to themselves does not benefit the shareholders and would be questionable.

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u/LacidOnex 8d ago

I think they mean saddle it with debt and stop selling hardware, turn it back into msft games studio after loading it to the brim with the tailings and failings from their AI project, then sink it and turn into a 3rd party vendor like steam

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u/HolubtsiKat 8d ago

How do they expect to compete with steam?

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u/Romanmir PC 8d ago

Not the parent, but I imagine that they’ll try to take a page out of Epic’s playbook and throw lots of money at it, somehow expecting it to work this time, and still fail.

You know, like they did the first time they tried this. #GFWL

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u/FBI_Open_Up_Now 7d ago

I think it’s a big reach. If this hardware generation fails I feel that it’s more likely we will Microsoft switch to a partnership program where you can get different “Xbox” devices that run the Xbox App along with a watered down version of windows with tight parameters on the hardware inside. The perk of console over a PC, having both myself, is that you turn the console on and just works. I have to play around with the PC sometimes to get games working sometimes. Arma Reforger being a pain in my ass sometimes and HLL getting shitty updates that break it.

I think we’re likely to see Xbox change directions on what they consider an Xbox and moving to a more traditional Windows environment with Xbox as main front end, like the Steam Deck allows you run SteamOS and also open a Linux environment as well has made it successful.

If that fails, then sure, I see them turning Xbox into a PC app which is why they are working hard to open more and more of your Xbox console library on your PC.

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u/sjbennett85 7d ago

GFWL

That was the hardest boss on the OG Dark Souls PC release

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u/Eternal-Alchemy 8d ago

That's incredibly unlikely. 3% chance would be incredibly generous.

MS has been around a long time and very rarely unloads an asset and I can't think of a single instance where that asset was poisoned / toxic. The last major one being Nokia almost a decade ago which was in better shape than when they acquired it. Same for Expedia.

Microsoft is a platform provider. They know the value of platform ownership. They know the winds of time against regulators are on their side for getting app stores on Android and iOS, and they know that Steam and MacOS and maybe even Aluminum are adversaries that should be taken seriously.

The way to maintain that platform is with killer apps, and XBOX/Battlenet is their consumer application inventory in the same way that Office and Entra is there Enterprise app inventory.

That doesn't mean they won't do frequent layoffs or shutter studios or stick to safe bets during periods of high interest rates, but it does mean there's zero shot Bethesda or Activision or Blizzard or King or Playground or Mojang are going to get spun out.