Xbox to lay off employees next month as it takes a ‘reset’

The layoffs are the first under newly appointed CEO Asha Sharma, who stepped in to the position in February following the retirement of Phil Spencer after a 38-year tenure.

Xbox to take a ‘reset’

Sharma, in a memo to employees globally, called for a “reset” in the organisation as she shared the challenges facing Microsoft’s gaming unit.

“Our current platform infrastructure is not built for the battle ahead. Our systems are overly complex, spanning hundreds of dependencies, which hinders our ability to move fast,” Sharma said in the memo posted by Xbox on its website.

“We’ve become too reliant on vendors to operate our systems and must become more self-reliant as an engineering culture to build for the future. We must increase the value we ship to players while decreasing the time it takes to do so.”

The CEO said these realities will be “surprising and even frustrating” to some employees.