Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella called Xbox’s ongoing job cuts “great to see,” commenting on the restructuring led by Xbox CEO Asha Sharma. The remark follows Xbox’s latest layoffs, which cut 268 more jobs on top of the 1,600 eliminated earlier this year, part of a plan that has already folded studios together, reshuffled franchises like Halo, and pushed several developers out entirely. Nadella made the comment on the Sources Podcast with Alex Heath during a broader interview about Xbox’s place within Microsoft. When asked about his feelings about the state and future of Xbox, Nadella said:”I feel fantastic. There’s some amount of streamlining the team is doing, and Asha is doing, which is great to see. And then we have to invent the right sustainable business model that allows us to deliver gaming to more and more people. That has always been the goal, which is, we want to be a great publisher and a great platform provider for games across both PCs and Xboxes.”
Calling the cuts “great to see” probably lands very differently for the thousands of employees who actually lost their jobs this year than it does from Nadella’s position. Sharma has defended the restructuring by pointing to Xbox’s margins, which she says trail comparable platform and publishing businesses by 3 to 10 times. Chief Content Officer Matt Booty said the company is now roughly three-quarters of the way through the announced cuts, so more changes are apparently still on the way before the fiscal year ends.
