-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Microsoft shutting down Xbox Entertainment Studios (TV studio, 200 employees)
- Thread starter Guevara
- Start date
They said pre E3 that the "TV show" is something that you optionally watch at the end of each chapter in game.
So you play a chapter then watch an episode , presumably for added context. It's likely going to be shit , and it's not what we expected after tit was first announced, but it'll be complete and ship on the disks , so......
BabyFaceKillah
Member
tfur
Member
Wait till we find out that Xbox is coming back home to Mattrick with the mobile/game market
They've had zero success outside of the console space.
Yeah, sounds like this is the start of a much bigger shift.
Good luck to all of those affected, but I am happy to see that Xbox is once again starting to resemble the Xbox I came to love as a game console.
If Nadella is serious about this "mobile-first world", the old Xbox division isn't coming back.
Says you! If they could have produced quality gaming IP programming many folks would have loved it!
Ahh..ok
Nightengale
Member
Perspectively speaking, I understand your points, but I look at the marketplace right now and what the competitors are doing, I'd be scared shitless at the Netflix, Amazon, the deals that they're making for exclusive content, and most importantly, the pace of which these deals are materialising.
Xbox ED sounds like they'll have one desirable show by the time Netflix and Amazon makes 5 each.
If you can't double-down to make your products competitive, you'll forever be scraping the bottom of the barrel. Even Sony doesn't dare risk its entertainment products to be an 'exclusive' to their streamning service.
DanteSparda504
Banned
This had a ton of potential. Such a shame that Microsoft has had to turn away from the original vision.
Sho_Nuff82
Member
The popularity of Orange is the New Black, House of Cards, and Amazon's pilot initiative show that there's an audience there for exclusive content programming. I don't know if Halo is ever going to be that killer app though. Better to spend the money on games.
Ballmer and Mattrick's 5-year plans for the Xbox division have been almost completely dismantled.
Ballmer and Mattrick's 5-year plans for the Xbox division have been almost completely dismantled.
Was I one of the few who enjoyed The Tester (on Playstion) ( and Season One that is) ?
kind of funny this was around the same time the reversals started to happen, now it is complete
Nightengale
Member
Ballmer and Mattrick am cry.
WanderingWind
Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
God that E3 is going down in history as one of the worst mistakes made by a company in since the Dreamcast. And I have owned every Microsoft console so that doesn't come from a place of hate.
Shin-Ra
Junior Member
You mean you don't want to overlay twitter on your TV screen?
Metallix87
Member
I'm surprised they didn't manage to get more content out by now. The management must have truly been awful.
Windows Phone rebranded as Xbox Phone.
Leafhopper
Banned
You have cable/satellite or on demand like Netflix etc.
There is no paradise to be found and never was. As long as the pipes are controlled by the few and major channels, sports are only available in packages, streaming perks need that cable/satellite sub your getting nowhere. Internet TV in the same, probably more expensive clothing is the outcome everytime.
Alx
Member
Many of the confirmed ones did. There is one about Street Soccer available right now, there was one about an American music festival, the "ET landfill" one is done as far as I know (not sure if it aired). Two are remaining, the Halo show and "Humans", a UK drama.
That snap nonsense is worse than Hitler and cancer combined.
Well, he also said that he is committed to Xbox and that they will continue to dazzle fans with games. And now here, they are stating that they are shutting down the entertainment division in order to focus more on gaming as well. Added to the fact that they launched with a strong focus on games and just had an E3 that showed nothing but wall to wall games, I think it seems pretty clear what they are doing.
BabyFaceKillah
Member
It's crazy. All their problems were clear for everyone to see a long time ago. We get proven right time and again. Microsoft bubble were nobody can hear common sense.
Steverulez
Member
Is this sarcasm? I assume it is sarcasm
Poodlestrike
Banned
Isleofsancroy
Banned
People who say this don't make sense, Rare DIED AT Nintendo.
You only get one shot at making your console reveal outstanding. You fuck up at it, & it sticks with consumers, just like with the PS3 in the U.S. & with Wii U.
It doesn't matter how many "180's" a company does afterwards.
DarthWalden
Banned
I know I may be alone but I'm really disappointed to hear this news. The soccer program was fantastic and I was looking forward to the Atari ET thing.
It wasn't a game changer for me but it added value to my XBLG subscription
It wasn't a game changer for me but it added value to my XBLG subscription
Alx
Member
It's becoming more and more convenient with time. I loved having the world cup app available next to the TV stream, I usually have TV snapped next to Xbox Fitness, and the snapped achievements can be very convenient.
Memo from Phil Spencer, head of Microsofts Xbox division and Microsoft Studios:
I hope you have had a chance to read todays mails from Satya. I wanted to take a moment to share a few thoughts on what this means for our team and some of the changes we are making as a result.
In last weeks mail outlining some of the steps towards creating the culture and organization to bring our ambitions to life, Satya called out the strategic importance of Xbox as a strong consumer brand, a creative center for gaming and a leader in bold innovation. Every member of Team Xbox should be incredibly proud of the impact and reach your work has within the walls of Microsoft, with our developer community and most importantly, with consumers.
Microsoft is the productivity and platform company for a mobile-first and cloud-first world, and games are the single biggest digital life category in a mobile-first world. Success in this category, by growing a robust Xbox business, brings additional value to Microsoft. I have stated this before, but for Xbox to be successful, we must remain committed to being a consumer-driven organization with the mission of meeting the high expectations of a passionate fan base, to create the best games and to drive technical innovation.
As part of the planned reduction to our overall workforce announced today and in light of our organizations mission, we plan to streamline a handful of portfolio and engineering development efforts across Xbox. One such plan is that, in the coming months, we expect to close Xbox Entertainment Studios. I would like to take this opportunity to recognize the accomplishments from the entire team in XES. They have built an impressive slate of original programming and pioneered interactive entertainment on Xbox, such as the innovative reality series Every Street United that succeeded in uniting audiences around the globe during the recent World Cup. I am pleased that Nancy, Jordan and members of the XES team remain committed to new, original programming already in production like the upcoming documentary series Signal to Noise whose first installment takes on the rise and fall of gaming icon Atari and of course, the upcoming game franchise series Halo: Nightfall, and the Halo Television series which will continue as planned with 343 Industries. Xbox will continue to support and deliver interactive sports content like NFL on Xbox, and we will continue to enhance our entertainment offering on console by innovating the TV experience through the monthly console updates. Additionally, our app partnerships with world-class content providers bringing entertainment, sports and TV content to Xbox customers around the world are not impacted by this organizational change in any way and remain an important component of our Xbox strategy.
Change is never easy, but I believe the changes announced today help us better align with our long-term goals. We have an incredible opportunity ahead of us to define what the next generation of gaming looks like for the growing Xbox community. I have a great deal of confidence in this team and know that with clarity of focus on our mission and our customers we can accomplish great things together. We already have.
In last weeks mail outlining some of the steps towards creating the culture and organization to bring our ambitions to life, Satya called out the strategic importance of Xbox as a strong consumer brand, a creative center for gaming and a leader in bold innovation. Every member of Team Xbox should be incredibly proud of the impact and reach your work has within the walls of Microsoft, with our developer community and most importantly, with consumers.
Microsoft is the productivity and platform company for a mobile-first and cloud-first world, and games are the single biggest digital life category in a mobile-first world. Success in this category, by growing a robust Xbox business, brings additional value to Microsoft. I have stated this before, but for Xbox to be successful, we must remain committed to being a consumer-driven organization with the mission of meeting the high expectations of a passionate fan base, to create the best games and to drive technical innovation.
As part of the planned reduction to our overall workforce announced today and in light of our organizations mission, we plan to streamline a handful of portfolio and engineering development efforts across Xbox. One such plan is that, in the coming months, we expect to close Xbox Entertainment Studios. I would like to take this opportunity to recognize the accomplishments from the entire team in XES. They have built an impressive slate of original programming and pioneered interactive entertainment on Xbox, such as the innovative reality series Every Street United that succeeded in uniting audiences around the globe during the recent World Cup. I am pleased that Nancy, Jordan and members of the XES team remain committed to new, original programming already in production like the upcoming documentary series Signal to Noise whose first installment takes on the rise and fall of gaming icon Atari and of course, the upcoming game franchise series Halo: Nightfall, and the Halo Television series which will continue as planned with 343 Industries. Xbox will continue to support and deliver interactive sports content like NFL on Xbox, and we will continue to enhance our entertainment offering on console by innovating the TV experience through the monthly console updates. Additionally, our app partnerships with world-class content providers bringing entertainment, sports and TV content to Xbox customers around the world are not impacted by this organizational change in any way and remain an important component of our Xbox strategy.
Change is never easy, but I believe the changes announced today help us better align with our long-term goals. We have an incredible opportunity ahead of us to define what the next generation of gaming looks like for the growing Xbox community. I have a great deal of confidence in this team and know that with clarity of focus on our mission and our customers we can accomplish great things together. We already have.
It doesn't seem clear at all, actually. He said everything you mentioned and in the same breath mentioned mobile as the future of entertainment. He said he's committed to Xbox, but that could mean a lot of things.
You mean their reveal... Not E3.
PerfectConsumer
Neo Member
I watched the first episode of their original street soccer show, and despite my interest in the sport, didn't find the content too compelling. I'm a big HBO fan and I guess my expectations are sky-high, but I honestly think they simply looked at the reaction to the first Xbox content offering and made this decision after the mild response it garnered. So I think it was wise. I hope the team finds work soon.
IchigoSharingan
Member
focused on gaming because the entertainment division couldn't produce results?
He's not talking about the Xbox division, but about Microsoft in general. And, yes, in the bigger picture gaming is not a priority for Microsoft. The future Nadella has outlined is mobile-first and cloud-based and that's where most of Microsoft's resources are going into. They aren't going to stop making the Xbox or games for it, but the Xbox business is far from being their priority.
Microsoft cut 18,000 jobs today. Eighteenthousand. To interpret the news of the Xbox Entertainment Studios on such a day as "They're obviously going to spend this money on games now" is naive at best.