Katarzyna Petru
In the gaming world, things are heating up again. Microsoft is planning further mass layoffs in the Xbox division, Netflix is removing over 20 games from its catalogue, while Sony and Nintendo are calmly reaping the rewards of their strategy. Two different trajectories - one shows growth through predictability, the other is searching for a new identity in chaos.
Xbox and the "end of the console era"?
According to Bloomberg reports, Microsoft is preparing a "major round of layoffs" at Xbox — likely as soon as next week, coinciding with the end of the fiscal year. There are talks of thousands of employees being affected. This will be the fourth wave of job cuts in the past 18 months.
In the background — a record acquisition of Activision Blizzard for 69 billion dollars and an increasingly evident shift towards streaming. Microsoft is increasingly speaking less about consoles and more about how "every device is an Xbox". Theoretically, this sounds fresh, but the technical reality still lags behind — the Xbox app is still not available on either Apple TV or Google TV.
There is also a lack of a convincing ecosystem that could withstand competition from the PS5 and Switch 2. The availability of Xbox consoles on the global market is becoming increasingly problematic. If the “console-less” strategy is to succeed, so far the results are... difficult to assess.
Netflix is scaling back. 22 games are disappearing from the catalogue
Not only Microsoft is changing direction. Netflix, which since 2021 has been increasingly bold in experimenting with games, is removing as many as 22 titles from its library in July. Among those disappearing are Hades, Katana Zero, Monument Valley (all parts) and games from the Golden Idol series. These are games praised by critics, raising questions about the further sense of this model.
The new head of Netflix Games, Alain Tascan, is announcing changes and a shift towards games native to televisions, which are expected to arrive by the end of 2025. For now, however, Netflix is sticking with mobile games on Android and iOS, and experiments with streaming have still not moved beyond the testing phase.
And in the meantime Sony and Nintendo...
While the competition is cutting, reorganising and searching for a new identity, Sony and Nintendo are simply doing their thing — to good effect. The PS5 is dominating in Europe, North America and Asia, and Microsoft's release of its exclusives has only given the console a further boost.
On the other hand, Nintendo has set another record. The Switch 2 has become the fastest-selling console in history, even dethroning its predecessor. No revolution in communication, but continuous evolution — and it works.
What's next?
The gaming industry is clearly splitting into those who know what they want to achieve — and those who are still searching for a new path. Xbox and Netflix are trying to move beyond traditional models, but for now the results are more costly than groundbreaking.
Is this a temporary crisis? Or perhaps a signal that the future of gaming won’t necessarily look as we imagined it 3–4 years ago?
