Xbox’s bold plan for the future sounds nearly impossible

It’s another bad week for the video game industry. Microsoft outlined a series of layoffs on Monday that Xbox CEO Asha Sharma described as “the most significant restructure in Xbox history.” But buried in Sharma’s memo was a curiously optimistic statement: “I want Xbox to be one of the few companies that entertains more than a billion people each day and gives everyone the opportunity to create and connect,” she wrote.

Xbox has been a shambling mess after Microsoft spent billions of dollars with little to show for it, and now it aims to reach a much bigger audience with a much smaller team, amid one of the most challenging times in the industry’s history. Sharma’s billion-person goal would sound outlandish at the best of times. Right now it sounds nearly impossible.

The job cuts will see Xbox laying off 1,600 employees this summer, with another 1,600 expected...

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