Xbox’s next 100 days: Sharma and Booty outline major 'reset'

It seems Microsoft’s gaming division is preparing for another round of layoffs, as Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has admitted that the division has overextended its staff members. This comes from Bloomberg, which reports that the company is planning to announce a major round of job cuts shortly after Microsoft’s fiscal year wraps up on June 30. Sharma and Matt Booty are calling it the “Next 100 Days: Xbox Reset.”

Even deeper cuts are expected in marketing and other areas. The new strategy comes as Xbox CEO Asha Sharma and chief content officer Matt Booty sent a candid internal memo to employees outlining what they are calling an “Xbox reset” over the next 100 days.

In the memo, which has also been published publicly on Xbox Wire, Sharma and Booty laid out a clear financial picture. Both noted that Xbox will end the year with an estimated 3% profitability margin. Not accounting for the expensive Activision Blizzard acquisition, the company has spent more than $20 billion on content, platforms, and hardware subsidiaries over just five years. Still, annual revenue for Xbox has dropped by nearly half a billion dollars.

In the memo, they wrote, “We have made mistakes and will continue to make them, but what matters is that we listen, learn, and adjust course where needed. Remember, our fans are rooting for us. Now, we start the next 100 days. It is important to have both optimism and realism as we work to reset the business.”

The duo continued in the blog post:

“We expanded our studio system when we needed a pipeline of content to meet multiple strategies across subscription, streaming, and devices. In the process, we have found ourselves overextended as we executed on changing strategies in a landscape of more readily available content. We are the fortunate stewards of industry-defining franchises that have enormous potential and player demand, but we have not adequately funded them to compete and win.”

These remarks are already indicative of tough decisions for the company in the coming month of May, as they continued, “We are building a stronger Xbox. That means making hard choices about what we build, where we invest, and what kind of company we need to be going forward.”

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