https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/microsofts-year-of-shame/
When you chalk up this many Ls in a single year, I don't think the passing shame of a single week's news cycle can do the whole picture justice. For as much criticism as Microsoft has gotten this year for closing game studios like Arkane, for pivoting Windows away from the kind of software that has a fun hot dog stand color scheme to a bloated whale carcass that even non-techies are considering ditching in favor of Linux, it deserves more.
Microsoft's leadership will no doubt point to the stock price as proof 2025 was a great year for the company. Call me crazy, but I feel like profiting while laying off talent, making your products materially worse, and firing your own employees for protesting your morally bankrupt deals with a bloodthirsty military is a bad look, actually! But get that bag I guess.
This is a really good roundup by Wes Fenlon of PC Gamer of
all the major news around Microsoft this year, which led to the astonishing
result of Xbox ending up in 4th place in a 3 way race this holiday season.
The
major points:
1. Phil Spencer saying everything is great despite Microsoft
closing studios and firing thousands upon thousands of developers and cancels
games.
2. Ending Windows 10 support when 1/3 of the PCs of the planet haven't
updated or can update to Windows 11.
3. The Copilot AI disaster that no one
wants to use.
4. Becoming political to appease the new US administration.
5.
Game Pass stops being profitable with no where close to the amount of money it
needs to make its money back for Microsoft.
6. The "This is an Xbox" campaign
giving people the impression that they had exited the games business.
7. They
somehow were able to kill Call of Duty, the one consistent money making machine
they had bought.
8. Caught providing services to the IDF as they commit
genocide, and then disavows hosting their data only after people called them out
on it.
This was truly a generational run by Phil Spencer.
I think Microsoft can
still do a lot to have a 2026 to restore themselves, but never count Microsoft
to not do worse, they have a talent for it.
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