Everyone just loves Phil Spencer these days, right? Oh, right, all the layoffs. Probably not, then. But according to a recent interview with Game File, Spencer is quick to argue, however absurdly, that all of the layoffs are really just about making sure that Xbox has the right people to enable future growth. These comments come after his statements that Xbox operations are growing significantly.
“I have a commitment to the company on the Xbox business being a profitable and growing part of Microsoft. And I need to put us in the best position for long-term growth. Most of that is about building great products that exceed their expectations and find millions of customers. But honestly, you know, the cost of building the products inclusive of the people who work on them—I need to make sure we have enough of the right people and the right number of people in the right places for us to succeed. […] I’d say it was a combination of us looking across the full portfolio of what was working, which we have to do, and running the business, as well as areas of alignment between Activision, ZeniMax and Xbox.”
Spencer’s statements obviously paint a rather different picture of the most recent Activision Blizzard layoffs, which Microsoft has previously claimed were already planned by the Activision-Blizzard prior to the acquisition, though we note Microsoft didn’t tell regulators that before said merger; it’s also unclear why ABK delayed the supposed move and why Microsoft is acting as if it is not in complete control of Activision-Blizzard, a company it has owned for four months. This is key as Microsoft had also told the court that the acquisition would remain vertical – i.e., that it would not conduct mass-layoffs due to redundancy – which it then did anyway and then followed it up by admitting it had done just that for that specific reason to shareholders. It’s also worth noting that even without the acquisition, Xbox did grow last year, although the growth was significantly buoyed by the acquisition.
In summary, everyone loves Phil Spencer.
