Xbox workers speak out about layoffs, AI, and how big tech brought a crisis to gaming

And could you, is there a financial reason for targeting id? Was it, it, were, was it in difficult, a difficult position, or were its games still popular?

Still popular.

We still were making good money.

Uh, how they do their accounting, who knows how it works out with that, with things like Game Pass.

The, the insight we have into how we're doing is a lot more nebulous, and we don't get to know that information.

But what we do know is that by every metric we were told, we're doing great.

Uh, so for us, you know, the DLC was our highest critically acclaimed release that we've had.

We, we were, like, I think last I checked, a 90 on OpenCritic.

We're winning awards.

We've had, been a game of the year contender every year we've launched something.

We've always ended up having millions of players.

It didn't matter.

That's why no one thought it was coming for id.

We all thought, you know, "Oh, well, they're only going for those lower performing studios." Those of us organizing, we knew that wasn't the case.

That's not how they're deciding things.

But some people had that idea.

And then for, for a lot of people, that was kind of the moment where like, oh, it doesn't really matter if you succeed, if you make money, if you're brilliant, you personally are just this really cool person.

It doesn't matter.

They don't care.

Yeah.

And I, I, I, I'm glad that you're underlining that point because that's, I think that's something that's so perplexing to people who are watching these layoffs happen, not just this round, but every round that happens.

Like, Morgan, like Elder Scrolls, like, uh, uh, Doom, like beloved series that people are like, "Oh, wow." Like, they, th- these, they, they generate conversation and good reviews and get tons and tons of downloads and make a lot of money, and it seems like, oh, everything, uh, like it, it seems like it's going fine.

Uh, and yet that's, we, you know, we know that it, it, it never matters.

It, it almost never matters, especially if you get bought by, uh, by, by a tech giant or if it gets consolidated under corporate management that is distanced from the studio, then, uh, you've...

Ga- gaming, working in gaming is, again, [laughs] like working in journalism, incredibly volatile.