{"id":3334,"date":"2026-07-07T12:29:53","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T12:29:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=3334"},"modified":"2026-07-07T12:29:53","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T12:29:53","slug":"xbox-billion-users","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=3334","title":{"rendered":"Xbox\u2019s bold plan for the future sounds nearly impossible"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n
\n

It\u2019s another bad week for the video game industry. Microsoft outlined a series of layoffs on Monday that Xbox CEO Asha Sharma described as \u201cthe most significant restructure in Xbox history<\/a>.\u201d But buried in Sharma\u2019s memo was a curiously optimistic statement: \u201cI want Xbox to be one of the few companies that entertains more than a billion people each day and gives everyone the opportunity to create and connect,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Xbox has been a shambling mess<\/a> after Microsoft spent billions of dollars with little to show for it, and now it aims to reach a much bigger audience with a much smaller team, amid one of the most challenging times in the industry\u2019s history. Sharma\u2019s billion-person goal would sound outlandish at the best of times. Right now it sounds nearly impossible.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The job cuts will see Xbox laying off 1,600 employees this summer, with another 1,600 expected over the next year. This is all part of broader restructuring at Microsoft<\/a>, though the gaming division has been hit particularly hard. Four internal Xbox studios \u2014 Double Fine, Compulsion Games, Undead Labs, and Ninja Theory \u2014 are also being spun out as independent developers, which is perhaps the one bit of good news<\/a>. Those studios were acquired over the years primarily to bolster the offerings on Game Pass, Microsoft\u2019s subscription gaming service, but now it seems that the company is moving in a different direction.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

What is that direction? Well, it isn\u2019t entirely clear. (Confusing strategies are pretty standard for Xbox of late<\/a>.) Xbox has been losing a lot of money \u2014 Sharma claims that \u201cin a typical year, we lost 64 cents for every dollar we invested\u201d \u2014 and now it seems like the goal is to focus entirely on major properties that have a better chance of being blockbuster hits. Sharma says the teams that remain at Microsoft will \u201cfocus on higher priority projects.\u201d That means not just those closely associated with the brand, like Halo<\/em> and Gears of War<\/em>, but also massively popular franchises under the Xbox umbrella, most notably Minecraft<\/em> and Candy Crush<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

In fact, as part of the most recent restructuring, Helen Chiang \u2014 who previously oversaw the Minecraft<\/em> franchise \u2014 has been promoted to a new role as Xbox\u2019s chief operating officer, reporting directly to Sharma. \u201cShe will bring our businesses together under one operating model, making sure we make clear investment decisions, learn from our successes and failures, and hold ourselves accountable for results,\u201d Sharma said of Chiang\u2019s upgraded role.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

With that focus on bigger projects, some of the changes at Xbox make a certain sense. If your goal is to reach a billion people each day, a game from a quirky studio like Double Fine about a sentient lighthouse<\/a> probably won\u2019t move the needle in comparison to expanding Minecraft<\/em> or Candy Crush<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\"A<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Image: Amazon<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

But the reasoning for other cuts is much more opaque. If your goal is to lean into big games, why would you also be \u201cmaking reductions\u201d at places like<\/a> Bethesda (Fallout<\/em>, Elder Scrolls<\/em>), id (Doom<\/em>), and, perhaps Xbox\u2019s most prolific studio, Obsidian (Avowed<\/em>, The Outer Worlds<\/em>)? It seems more like those teams would need further investment \u2014 and at the very least, to not have to spend the next year wondering if they\u2019ll be hit by the next wave of layoffs \u2014 to create a major blockbuster at a time when the industry is as volatile and unpredictable as ever.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

You only need to look at the sorry state of the live-service space<\/a> to see how poorly things can go when companies are simply chasing big numbers. The entire industry saw Fortnite<\/em> become a money-printing cultural phenomenon<\/a> and hoped to re-create it for themselves, collectively spending billions of dollars in the process. The result was a graveyard of canceled games<\/a> and studio closures<\/a>. In 2026, even Fortnite<\/em> itself is struggling<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

This all makes Sharma\u2019s goal of eventually reaching \u201ca billion people each day\u201d seem all the more absurd. It\u2019s not clear what metric she is using to measure that number. It\u2019s extremely unlikely Xbox will reach that in terms of daily players even if you factor in mobile games and an expansion into China and emerging markets like India, which Sharma is planning to do<\/a>. King says<\/a> that its lineup of games attracts more than 200 million monthly<\/em> players, so you\u2019d need quite a few Candy Crush<\/em> apps to even get close. And that\u2019s assuming that follow-ups will be as successful as the original, which is rarely the case (just ask Niantic<\/a>). Sharma really wants to continue to push the Xbox brand into Hollywood<\/a>, so maybe Fallout <\/em>viewers \u2014 Amazon says 100 million people watched the first season \u2014 will count toward that goal. But even if you add up games, TV shows, and Game Pass subscribers, 1 billion people a day is a very large number.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

So instead of a clear path forward at a time of heightened uncertainty, Xbox has a vague and seemingly unattainable goal in front of it. And it\u2019ll be doing that with a team that is smaller and will continue to shrink. \u201cThese changes are about a bigger future for Xbox,\u201d Sharma claims, \u201cnot a smaller one.\u201d But it\u2019s hard to see how that\u2019s the case. Xbox was already experiencing an identity crisis<\/a> heading into these layoffs, and this lack of vision isn\u2019t making things any clearer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Follow topics and authors<\/strong> from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.<\/span><\/p>\n