You already know Xbox laid off 268 more people here, and left nearly half the Age of Empires team out of a job in the same round. Now the person who commented on it is Microsoft’s own CEO, Satya Nadella, and the comment didn’t land well.
Image: Xbox Wire / Microsoft.
The line that caused the backlash
In an interview on the Sources Podcast, published around September 25, Nadella addressed the recent cuts in the gaming division, led by Xbox CEO Asha Sharma. He called the process “streamlining,” corporate speak for trimming the org chart:
“There’s some amount of streamlining the team is doing, and Asha is doing, which is great to see.”
— Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO
Why it struck a nerve
The timing is the problem. The comment came just days after Xbox confirmed 268 more layoffs, handed the Halo franchise to Activision, and put Ninja Theory at risk of closing, on top of 1,600 cuts already made back in July. For people who lost their jobs, or watched coworkers lose theirs, hearing the head of the whole company call the process “great to see” read, to several outlets, as the opposite of empathy.
How outlets reacted
- GameSpot headline: “Microsoft CEO Attempts To Kill Remaining Xbox Goodwill”
- TheGamer headline: “Microsoft CEO Disturbingly Gleeful About Xbox Layoffs”
- Context 3,200 roles are expected to be cut by the end of the fiscal year, about 20% of the division’s workforce
Nadella hasn’t walked the comment back since the backlash. As far as he’s concerned, the official line is the same one Microsoft has stuck to all along: Xbox is “resetting” to grow again starting in 2027, and the cuts are part of that plan.
Sources: GamesRadar+, TheGamer, WCCFTech
