The Video Game Critic

[QUOTE=Astrosmasher]
I did not even know there was a MS studio.  Can anyone tell me what it's function is?  Was?[/QUOTE]
IIRC, there is a MS Game Studios that is the part of MS that makes and publishes games (Halo, Gears now, Forza, etc.).  They are unaffected.  The Entertainment studios however were concerned with making content if I understand it.  TV shows, movies, partnerships with sports, junk like that.  Don Mattrick stuff. 

I would bet that exactly zero people on the boards here will notice this on their Xbox systems in any way.  It would be like if Nintendo shut down a branch that made Nintendo plushie dolls, or if Sega stopped making Sonic slot machines (obviously, this represents a lot more layoffs than that though).  Maybe it's important to them, and it is certainly important to the people working there, but it's not really very gamer centric stuff to begin with.

Correction: I've been reading around a bit, and it's not 18,000 layoffs at the Xbox division (which may have even been in the original post and I didn't read closely enough).  There are a lot of the layoffs focused on Nokia actually.  However, there was originally talk of layoffs at the Xbox marketing department too, not just at the entertainment studios.  Ramping down marketing seems kind of a poor idea right now, but then, maybe those people were hired to market the entertainment content? 

[QUOTE]......and they just laid off 18,000 staff at part of the Xbox division[/QUOTE]

I can't decide if this statement above is either just poorly worded, misleading, or just incorrect. My understanding is that approximately 13,000 of the 18,000 were part of the acquisition of Nokia and not unexpected. 5,000 is nothing to sneeze at and I'm not sure (nor do I care) where those 5,000 came from. What I do know is this:

I'm sure most people would be happy if all 3 companies focused exclusively on games but that is not going to happen (at least with 2 of 3). In the meantime, Microsoft has made it pretty clear that most of the content that people were concerned with (Ridley Scott Halo, Steven Spielberg Halo, Quantum Break, and perhaps some others) are unaffected. Personally, I am looking forward to all of that content. It was also my understanding that this does not eliminate all TV entertainment, it just eliminates content developed by Microsoft. The other part I find interesting is this "damned if you do, damned if you don't" attitude all over forums. First people complained about Microsoft doing TV, now they complain about slimming down the TV content.

No one is happy when they hear about people losing their jobs and I live in fear every day of this happening to me, it is part of the corporate world and often leads to bigger and better things.

Oh, one more thing I know......I'm certainly enjoying my new Xbox One w/Kinect and look forward to supporting it.

[QUOTE=Steve][QUOTE]......and they just laid off 18,000 staff at part of the Xbox division[/QUOTE]

I can't decide if this statement above is either just poorly worded, misleading, or just incorrect. My understanding is that approximately 13,000 of the 18,000 were part of the acquisition of Nokia and not unexpected. 5,000 is nothing to sneeze at and I'm not sure (nor do I care) where those 5,000 came from.

No one is happy when they hear about people losing their jobs and I live in fear every day of this happening to me, it is part of the corporate world and often leads to bigger and better things.
[/QUOTE]
You obviously typed this before my correction posted.    It was just incorrect.  I apologize. 

As for the corporate world, let me tell you, it's also a huge worry working for a Government funded institution.  My current job used to be filled by me and two other people.  Now there is just me, but the same amount of work.  I do it without complaint because the alternative is no job (with the other two people), and because I don't mind being really busy.