Gaming Microsoft To Shut Down Xbox Entertainment Studios

The Helper

Necromancy Power over 9000
Staff member
Reaction score
1,697
xbox-one-and-controller-large-horizontal.pngw300


This morning’s announcement by Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella of one of the largest layoffs in tech history, a plan to cut 18,000 jobs, triggered a whirlwind of speculation about the future of the fledgling Xbox Entertainment Studios. In a memo, Phil Spencer, head of Microsoft’s Xbox division and Microsoft Studios, just confirmed that the company will close the Entertainment Studios in the coming months. Nancy Tellem, Jordan Levin and some of the XES team will stay on for some time to shepherd original programming already in production, including the documentary series about technology Signal to Noise and the Halo game franchise extensions, digital feature Halo: Nightfall and the Halo TV series, which will continue as planned with Microsoft’s 343 Industries and Amblin. Xbox also will continue to support and deliver interactive sports content like ‘NFL on Xbox.’ XBox’s app partnerships are not impacted.

The demise of Xbox Entertainment Studios underscores how hard it is for tech companies, especially of the scale of Microsoft, to get into the content business. The decision appears sudden as just a couple of months ago, Xbox Entertainment Studios unveiled a very extensive first development slate, which included dramas, live-action and animated comedies, unscripted and event series. Levin was brought in as EVP in charge of development only six months ago.

It has been a slow going for the studio the past two years, after Microsoft brought in Tellem, a veteran CBS executive, in September 2012 to crack the entertainment area. Microsoft is a big company where wheels turn slowly, and there didn’t seem to be a strong commitment to the new venture at the top. The company heavily touted its entrance into original programming when it unveiled its next-generation videogame console, the Xbox One, in spring 2013. At that unveiling event, Tellem announced the Halo series with Steven Spielberg executive producing. That project and a number of others faced a lot of hurdles in the deal-making process as the company was creating a new business template for entertainment programming. Meanwhile, XBox rival Sony stepped into the scripted arena for its Sony Playstation Network just a couple of months ago, with its first series, Powers, slated to debut by the end of the year.

XES’ future already seemed a little cloudier after E3 in June, when all the talk about entertainment offerings that had been part of the previous year’s rollout disappeared during Microsoft’s big media presentation. It was games, games, games and nary a mention of XES products to come.


---------------------------------
18,000 jobs
 
Last edited:
General chit-chat
Help Users
  • No one is chatting at the moment.
  • Varine Varine:
    How can you tell the difference between real traffic and indexing or AI generation bots?
  • The Helper The Helper:
    The bots will show up as users online in the forum software but they do not show up in my stats tracking. I am sure there are bots in the stats but the way alot of the bots treat the site do not show up on the stats
  • Varine Varine:
    I want to build a filtration system for my 3d printer, and that shit is so much more complicated than I thought it would be
  • Varine Varine:
    Apparently ABS emits styrene particulates which can be like .2 micrometers, which idk if the VOC detectors I have can even catch that
  • Varine Varine:
    Anyway I need to get some of those sensors and two air pressure sensors installed before an after the filters, which I need to figure out how to calculate the necessary pressure for and I have yet to find anything that tells me how to actually do that, just the cfm ratings
  • Varine Varine:
    And then I have to set up an arduino board to read those sensors, which I also don't know very much about but I have a whole bunch of crash course things for that
  • Varine Varine:
    These sensors are also a lot more than I thought they would be. Like 5 to 10 each, idk why but I assumed they would be like 2 dollars
  • Varine Varine:
    Another issue I'm learning is that a lot of the air quality sensors don't work at very high ambient temperatures. I'm planning on heating this enclosure to like 60C or so, and that's the upper limit of their functionality
  • Varine Varine:
    Although I don't know if I need to actually actively heat it or just let the plate and hotend bring the ambient temp to whatever it will, but even then I need to figure out an exfiltration for hot air. I think I kind of know what to do but it's still fucking confusing
  • The Helper The Helper:
    Maybe you could find some of that information from AC tech - like how they detect freon and such
  • Varine Varine:
    That's mostly what I've been looking at
  • Varine Varine:
    I don't think I'm dealing with quite the same pressures though, at the very least its a significantly smaller system. For the time being I'm just going to put together a quick scrubby box though and hope it works good enough to not make my house toxic
  • Varine Varine:
    I mean I don't use this enough to pose any significant danger I don't think, but I would still rather not be throwing styrene all over the air
  • The Helper The Helper:
    New dessert added to recipes Southern Pecan Praline Cake https://www.thehelper.net/threads/recipe-southern-pecan-praline-cake.193555/
  • The Helper The Helper:
    Another bot invasion 493 members online most of them bots that do not show up on stats
  • Varine Varine:
    I'm looking at a solid 378 guests, but 3 members. Of which two are me and VSNES. The third is unlisted, which makes me think its a ghost.
    +1
  • The Helper The Helper:
    Some members choose invisibility mode
    +1
  • The Helper The Helper:
    I bitch about Xenforo sometimes but it really is full featured you just have to really know what you are doing to get the most out of it.
  • The Helper The Helper:
    It is just not easy to fix styles and customize but it definitely can be done
  • The Helper The Helper:
    I do know this - xenforo dropped the ball by not keeping the vbulletin reputation comments as a feature. The loss of the Reputation comments data when we switched to Xenforo really was the death knell for the site when it came to all the users that left. I know I missed it so much and I got way less interested in the site when that feature was gone and I run the site.
  • Blackveiled Blackveiled:
    People love rep, lol
    +1
  • The Helper The Helper:
    The recipe today is Sloppy Joe Casserole - one of my faves LOL https://www.thehelper.net/threads/sloppy-joe-casserole-with-manwich.193585/
  • The Helper The Helper:
    Decided to put up a healthier type recipe to mix it up - Honey Garlic Shrimp Stir-Fry https://www.thehelper.net/threads/recipe-honey-garlic-shrimp-stir-fry.193595/

      The Helper Discord

      Staff online

      Members online

      Affiliates

      Hive Workshop NUON Dome World Editor Tutorials

      Network Sponsors

      Apex Steel Pipe - Buys and sells Steel Pipe.
      Top