Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella called Xbox’s continued job cuts “great to see,” commenting on the restructuring led by Xbox CEO Asha Sharma. The comment follows Xbox’s latest layoffs, which eliminated 268 more jobs on top of the 1,600 eliminated earlier this year, part of a plan that has already united studios, reorganized franchises like Halo, and ousted several developers entirely. Nadella made the comment on the Sources Podcast with Alex Heath during a broader interview about Xbox’s place within Microsoft. When asked about his feelings on the state and future of Xbox, Nadella said: “I feel fantastic. There’s some streamlining that the team is doing, and Asha is doing that, which is great to see. And then we have to come up with the right sustainable business model that allows us to offer games to more and more people. That’s always been the goal, which is, we want to be a great publisher and a great platform provider for games on both PC and Xbox.” Calling the cuts “great to see” will likely have a very different effect for the thousands of employees who actually lost their jobs this year than it does for Nadella’s position. Sharma has defended the restructuring by pointing to Xbox’s margins, which she says are 3 to 10 times behind comparable platforms and publishing businesses. Matt Booty, chief content officer, said the company is already about three-quarters of the way through the announced cuts, so there are apparently still more changes on the way before the fiscal year ends.
