{"id":3141,"date":"2026-07-06T22:08:30","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T22:08:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=3141"},"modified":"2026-07-06T22:08:30","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T22:08:30","slug":"how-did-xbox-get-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=3141","title":{"rendered":"How Did Xbox Get Here?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

Xbox once vowed to \u201cPower Your Dreams.\u201d These days, it just wants to keep the power \u2014 meaning the lights at its Redmond, Washington HQ \u2014 on.<\/p>\n

Read more Where to Watch USA vs. Belgium World Cup Match Live Online<\/a><\/p>\n

On Monday, new-ish Xbox CEO Asha Sharma announced \u201cthe most significant restructure in Xbox history,\u201d including the loss of 3,200 jobs (1,600 today) and four studios: Compulsion Games (We Happy Few<\/em>, South of Midnight<\/em>), Double Fine Productions (Keeper<\/em>, PsychoNauts<\/em>), Ninja Theory (DmC: Devil May Cry<\/em>, Hellblade: Senua\u2019s Sacrifice<\/em>) and Undead Labs (State of Decay<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Owned by the mighty Microsoft, the Xbox division has been pumped full of investment until it nearly burst. Sharma\u2019s unenviable job is to trim the fat before this whole thing blows up. She\u2019ll spend the next year doing exactly that.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur business today is not healthy. We are operating at margins that are 3-10x lower than comparable platform and publishing businesses,\u201d Sharma wrote, in part, in a memo to employees. \u201cWe must reset XBOX.\u201d<\/p>\n

Xbox has had more than a few swings and misses since the Xbox 360 gave way to the Xbox One. NYU Stern School of Business video games professor Joost van Dreunen counts 15 acquisitions over the past 13 years. The most prominent \u2014 and the most expensive at $69 billion \u2014 was Call of Duty<\/em>-maker Activision Blizzard, which bloated the balance sheet like Augustus Gloop.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou start building an empire this large, you lose track of the different provinces and components,\u201d van Dreunen told The Hollywood Reporter<\/em>.<\/p>\n

First, quality control was sacrificed, both in terms of software and market research. Then the innovation died. As it turns out, the sum of the parts had been far better than the whole.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is neither possible nor desirable to own every great independent studio,\u201d Sharma wrote. \u201cWe have also learned that we are not the best home for every type of studio; in a typical year, we lost 64 cents for every dollar we invested.\u201d<\/p>\n

Xbox played the grow-or-die game we\u2019ve seen do so much damage to the film and television ecosystems in the streaming era. It chose to \u201cgrow\u201d at all costs, and because of those costs, nearly died anyway. It is a cautionary tale in an industry of cautionary tales.<\/p>\n

In the 1970s and early \u201980s, before the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and with all due respect to Mattel\u2019s Intellivision, Atari had the home video game console market completely cornered. Greed, hubris and a Steven Spielberg blockbuster ruined Atari and nearly tanked the home video game industry forever.<\/p>\n

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial<\/em> lit up the box office in the summer of 1982. Wanting to replicate the success on its Atari 2600 console for the same year\u2019s holiday season, Atari made two huge mistakes: 1) It gave developers just five weeks(!) to create and complete the game, and 2) It preordered 12 million cartridges \u2014 there were 10 million Atari 2600 homes at the time. <\/p>\n

Read more Balogun Brouhaha Turns a National TV Sports Moment of Unity Into a Moment of Division (Again)<\/a><\/p>\n

The game was awful, and Atari ended up burying (at least) hundreds of thousands of the unsold cartridges in the New Mexico desert. Symbolism has never been so spot on.<\/p>\n

When subscription services became all the rage \u2014 again: thanks, Netflix! \u2014 in a mad rush to stock its Game Pass library, Xbox built a bunch of small and midsize games that added no value. Revenue and margins were ignored for scale, as Xbox became a \u201cbureaucratic mess,\u201d in van Dreunen\u2019s words. Sharma\u2019s words read pretty much the same.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, in some parts of the company, work passes through as many as 14 layers of management,\u201d she wrote. \u201cWe will reduce management layers to no more than 5, and where possible, 3.\u201d<\/p>\n

Xbox, like the broader entertainment ecosystem (including its direct competitors in Sony and Nintendo), has also been caught in a cyclone of macroeconomic factors. AI has \u201cwildly exposed\u201d Xbox,\u201d van Dreunen told THR<\/em>. The Trump tariffs, his war in Iran, a shortage of hardware components due to the data-center boom, and currency exchange rates for Japanese Yen have decimated any available margins, forcing Xbox especially to raise its hardware prices \u2014 several times. (Sharma did roll back some Game Pass subscription rates.)<\/p>\n

The price hikes, especially those for Xbox\u2019s now aging Series X and Series S consoles, have not gone over great with gamers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey forget that they\u2019re still part of a market,\u201d van Dreunen said.<\/p>\n

This particular marketplace is unforgiving.<\/p>\n

\u201cHistory is full of companies that mistake longevity for inevitability,\u201d Sharma closed her email, vowing: \u201cWe will not be one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

As an Xbox gamer himself (me too), Van Dreunen is \u201coptimistic\u201d in Sharma\u2019s ability to right this ship.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a game company,\u201d he says, Xbox \u201cstill has a lot of merit.\u201d (It also has Minecraft<\/em> \u2014 expect Sharma to lean even harder on that franchise, which, in a reverse-ET<\/em> spawned a blockbuster movie last year.)<\/p>\n

The turnaround may or may not take place at the aforementioned 1 Microsoft Way. Van Dreunen says he can certainly see a future in which Xbox ix \u201cdivested entirely from Microsoft.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt starts with these partial divestments that we see today,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s incredibly painful, and it\u2019s incredibly sad for a lot of people, [but] any change at this point is preferred to continuing down this road where we\u2019re slowly watching this thing sink.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Colin Woodell, KJ Apa and Diane Guerrero to Lead Netflix\u2019s \u2018Myron Bolitar\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Xbox is laying off 3,200 people and divesting four studios \u2014 how did it come to this?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3140,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2315,1543,1943],"class_list":["post-3141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting","tag-asha-sharma","tag-video-games","tag-xbox"],"yoast_head":"\nHow Did Xbox Get Here? - US Property Moves<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=3141\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Did Xbox Get Here? - US Property Moves\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Xbox is laying off 3,200 people and divesting four studios \u2014 how did it come to this?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=3141\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"US Property Moves\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-06T22:08:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uspropertymoves.com\\\/?p=3141#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uspropertymoves.com\\\/?p=3141\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uspropertymoves.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f6dcb1ef8e64fe67b72b772b81aa822c\"},\"headline\":\"How Did Xbox Get Here?\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-06T22:08:30+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uspropertymoves.com\\\/?p=3141\"},\"wordCount\":913,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uspropertymoves.com\\\/?p=3141#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uspropertymoves.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/200a7484f2fb3b5b8ac34861e66055b2.webp\",\"keywords\":[\"Asha Sharma\",\"Video Games\",\"Xbox\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Interesting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/uspropertymoves.com\\\/?p=3141#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uspropertymoves.com\\\/?p=3141\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uspropertymoves.com\\\/?p=3141\",\"name\":\"How Did Xbox Get Here? - US Property Moves\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uspropertymoves.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uspropertymoves.com\\\/?p=3141#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uspropertymoves.com\\\/?p=3141#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uspropertymoves.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/200a7484f2fb3b5b8ac34861e66055b2.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-06T22:08:30+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uspropertymoves.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f6dcb1ef8e64fe67b72b772b81aa822c\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uspropertymoves.com\\\/?p=3141#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/uspropertymoves.com\\\/?p=3141\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uspropertymoves.com\\\/?p=3141#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uspropertymoves.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/200a7484f2fb3b5b8ac34861e66055b2.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uspropertymoves.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/200a7484f2fb3b5b8ac34861e66055b2.webp\",\"width\":1296,\"height\":730},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uspropertymoves.com\\\/?p=3141#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uspropertymoves.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"How Did Xbox Get Here?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uspropertymoves.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uspropertymoves.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"US Property Moves\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uspropertymoves.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uspropertymoves.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f6dcb1ef8e64fe67b72b772b81aa822c\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/uspropertymoves.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uspropertymoves.com\\\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How Did Xbox Get Here? - US Property Moves","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=3141","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How Did Xbox Get Here? - US Property Moves","og_description":"Xbox is laying off 3,200 people and divesting four studios \u2014 how did it come to this?","og_url":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=3141","og_site_name":"US Property Moves","article_published_time":"2026-07-06T22:08:30+00:00","author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=3141#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=3141"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f6dcb1ef8e64fe67b72b772b81aa822c"},"headline":"How Did Xbox Get Here?","datePublished":"2026-07-06T22:08:30+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=3141"},"wordCount":913,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=3141#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/200a7484f2fb3b5b8ac34861e66055b2.webp","keywords":["Asha Sharma","Video Games","Xbox"],"articleSection":["Interesting"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=3141#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=3141","url":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=3141","name":"How Did Xbox Get Here? - US Property Moves","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=3141#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=3141#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/200a7484f2fb3b5b8ac34861e66055b2.webp","datePublished":"2026-07-06T22:08:30+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f6dcb1ef8e64fe67b72b772b81aa822c"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=3141#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=3141"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=3141#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/200a7484f2fb3b5b8ac34861e66055b2.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/200a7484f2fb3b5b8ac34861e66055b2.webp","width":1296,"height":730},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=3141#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"How Did Xbox Get Here?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/","name":"US Property Moves","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f6dcb1ef8e64fe67b72b772b81aa822c","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/uspropertymoves.com"],"url":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}