Some new statements out of Microsoft CEO Phil Spencer during this year’s IGN Live gaming presentation can be absorbed as either admission of the burdens of leadership or a whole bucket of crocodile tears, depending on one’s read: According to Spencer, the shuttering of studios and thousands of layoffs had to happen as part of the cost of business.
“In the end, I’ve said over and over, I have to run a sustainable business inside the company and grow, and that means sometimes I have to make hard decisions that frankly are not decisions I love, but decisions that somebody needs to go make.
“We will continue to go forward. We will continue to invest in what we’re trying to go do in Xbox and build the best business we can, which ensures we can continue to do shows like the one we just did.”
As for why Spencer didn’t talk more about the studio shutdowns earlier, Spencer claims it’s because he was helping the workers first. “I haven’t been talking publicly about this, because right now is the time for us to focus on the team and the individuals,” he says. “It’s obviously a decision that’s very hard on them, and I want to make sure through severance and other things that we’re doing the right thing for the individuals on the team.”
The statement mirrors Spencer’s spring comments, in which he claimed that reorganization of the company was part of following the trend of a shrinking of the entire gaming industry, and is on top of earlier suggestions made by the company that layoffs were done because of overlap or were planned before the multi-billion dollar acquisition of Activision-Blizzard.
