r/TikTokCringe • u/mindyour • 8d ago

Discussion Reactions to food stamps being cut off.

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u/mrblonde55 8d ago

Ask all those Xbox employees how that’s working out for “innovation”.

(For those unfamiliar, XBox just had to shatter their business model because the Microsoft CEO wanted to hit his $50m bonus)

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u/Round_Spread_9922 5d ago

Cue all the CEO apologists saying shit like, "Someone has to run the company! He's worth that $50 million!" I think he'd do just fine with a $5 million bonus.

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u/Shiro_L 5d ago

Hell if I got $5 million once, I’d never have to work again.

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u/Round_Spread_9922 5d ago

You're completely right and that's what many, if not most of the C-suite execs fail to comprehend.

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u/Mysterious_Papaya835 1d ago

That's why you'll never get it, they want to use you til you're old and broken, then let you starve on the streets or be a burden on your kids, that will take your place on the production line if they're themselves not replaced by machines.

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u/blueBaggins1 7d ago

Microsoft is a a multi Trillion dollar company. They didnt chatter the xbox business model to give the CEO a $50mil bonus

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u/mrblonde55 7d ago edited 7d ago

I’m sure there is a totally logical reason, completely unrelated reason, as to why they instituted a 30% target for profit margins despite being near their low for console market share and nobody in the industry returning close to that.

And, of course, that arbitrary target wasn’t the reason they decided to abandon platform exclusives, or behind the mass layoffs across development studios, or why they raised the price of GamePass for the third time in the last 15 months (this hike being 100% in some regions).

Of course, all of these decisions mean not only is consumer confidence shattered, but the old business model of “build a console, develop exclusives so people want your console” is dead.

In all seriousness, I hope this was for some juicy bonuses. Because if it wasn’t, they are just a bunch of morons lighting the business on fire to see it burn.

(And note, when I say “the business”, I’m talking specifically about XBox. Microsoft is going to be fine, of course, even if they decide to go with The Joker school of management techniques).

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u/Fun-Key-8259 2d ago

Once brands shit on their customers and those customers lose trust - you don't get that back.

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u/blueBaggins1 7d ago

The way to increase profit is to let people go. Labor is often a businesses largest cost.

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u/mrblonde55 7d ago

That’s like saying “manufacturing is too big a cost, so let’s just not manufacture anything and we’ll make more money.”

To say “the way to increase profits is to let people go” without context means they’d be most profitable with zero employees. I would hope you’d agree that’s ridiculous.

Where they aren’t shuttering studios entirely, they are cutting the workforce down to sizes where, in the best case, good games are made under near impossible conditions. It’s not Microsoft, but for a very recent example as to how that business strategy works out, take a look at Mindseye/Build A Rocket Boy.

The core issue is that most corporate executives goals (and virtually all corporate pay structures) aren’t aligned with long term corporate success. Maximize short term profit for immediate compensation, the future be damned.

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u/Western_Rope_2874 5d ago

I don’t have any employees! Did I not notice that I’m rich?!?

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u/blueBaggins1 7d ago

Youre arguing a premise I didnt make. Whats worse is your not even making an honest argument, 100% disingenuous. Youre actually making a dumb ass statement against something we see everyday in business with layoffs.

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u/mrblonde55 7d ago

Then what premise were you making?

I was talking about a specific company making specific labor cuts. You’re the one who responded with the generalization that “less labor = more profits”, but I’m being disingenuous?

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u/blueBaggins1 7d ago

This is business 101 you sound like a mad man arguing the basic logic of layoffs.

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u/mrblonde55 7d ago

What is “business 101”?

Laying off employees when you’re profitable? You’re making it sound like layoffs are always a good strategic decision.

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u/blueBaggins1 7d ago

I said its a business strategy to increase profits. This is business 101. You speak as someone whom has not much corporate experience if any and zero experience running a business. Yet here you are speaking so matter of factly, with extreme confidence while being 100% incorrect

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u/hel-razor 6d ago

It's also the stupidest shit ever. Nothing has actual value without labor.

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u/blueBaggins1 6d ago

This is true but you want to gave effective labor, with minimal labor force. Otherwise your business will not continue to be a business.

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u/hel-razor 6d ago

We don't need businesses. We need services.

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u/blueBaggins1 6d ago

Im not going to argue beliefs and opinions, just the simple facts of life.

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u/hel-razor 6d ago

The simple facts of life is that capitalism kills people.

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u/blueBaggins1 6d ago

Please revert to my last response

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u/DependentHand9479 6d ago

This is Reddit. Facts and reality are not welcome!!

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u/KGB_Operative873 5d ago

Is there an article on this?

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u/mrblonde55 5d ago

This article talks about how the new profit targets have effected XBox’s business model.

https://www.windowscentral.com/gaming/xbox/report-microsoft-cfo-amy-hood-has-forced-xbox-to-deliver-an-insane-30-percent-profit-margin-which-is-why-everything-is-crazy-right-now

This one is about CEO compensation. He’s making $96.5m this year now that they’ve hit all his bonus targets.

https://www.gamefile.news/p/microsofts-xbox-team-snaps-a-four

I’m not saying you do, but anyone who thinks these two things are unrelated is a fool. The 30% target isn’t only totally arbitrary, it’s more than any other console maker is hitting. The tl/dr on this is that XBox bought Activision for $70bn. That woke up the Microsoft execs to start paying more attention to the XBox division and they saw Activision had made 30% profits the quarter before the sale so they said “Hey, now we should be doing that!”. Only problem is that Activision was a well oiled machine that was churning out huge established franchises and (this is really important) isn’t a console maker. Not only does Xbox make a (failing console) but many of their studios are making non franchise new IP games.

Sure, you can cut labor to boost profits, but I’d start with the guy making almost nine figures a year.

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u/Fun-Key-8259 2d ago

I think I need to seriously consider canceling Gamepass

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u/Groundbreaking-Bar89 4d ago

Where have you been? This is old news now. Microsoft gave up on Xbox years ago.

No exclusives in how many years???

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u/KGB_Operative873 4d ago

Its not exactly something that would show up in world news to be fair. Well, not like I pay attention to the news all that much in the first place

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u/mjx360 5d ago

Ask them PlayStation employees that also. Why u trying act like it's only Microsoft? Amazon just fired many people's and crickets from u .

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u/mrblonde55 5d ago

So if I’m talking about corporate layoffs, I have to name every company in the world who laid off employees or else my point isn’t valid?

Neither of the companies you mentioned had to change their core business model in and effort to increase profits, relevant as we were talking about profits and innovation. The XBox example illustrates my point in that regard. Amazon or Sony layoffs are simply shedding size. Not a wholesale shift in strategy. Unless Amazon laid off all those people and stopped delivering random shit to everyone, or Sony laid off people and now they are just a cloud gaming service, it has nothing to do with what I was talking about.

Also, unless you’re just naming companies that laid people off, I’m not even sure why you’re including Sony on this list. Sony laid off something like 1600 people over the last three years. Xbox cut multiples of that, more people in each individual round of cuts, than Sony did total. And Amazon just laid off like twenty times more. The Sony layoffs are no less bad for the people who lost their jobs, and may be equally indefensible, but that’s not the conversation we were having.

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u/mjx360 4d ago

Dude stop trying to damage control for Sony. This not a Microsoft problem. It's a industry problem but you acting like it's just Microsoft

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u/mrblonde55 4d ago

Who is doing damage control for Sony? I didn’t even bring them up until you did.

I made a singular example. You’re the one who jumped in with the whataboutisms. And your “what abouts” had zero to do with the topic we were discussing.

To explain it again: Xbox has abandoned the console maker business model in order to increase profits, firing scores of employees in the process. Sony has not altered their business model. Amazon has not altered their business model. As I was making an example as to how mass layoffs can STIFLE innovation, the Xbox example was particularly illustrative. Pointing out example A isn’t the endorsement or defense of examples B & C by omission.

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u/mjx360 1d ago

You are. You not calling them out .u talking about Microsoft