In her role leading Xbox's hardware development and relationships with publishers, Bond splits herself between shoring up its traditional gaming business and reaching into untapped areas. She's hinted at new Xbox hardware—Spencer has repeatedly professed his interest in a potential handheld device—while the company has also begun to release Xbox's exclusive games on competing consoles and promoting Netflix-esque subscriptions that don't need a console at all.
In theory, buying Activision, with its popular titles across Xbox, PlayStation, PCs and phones, helps Microsoft on all these fronts. But if Bond is going to pull off this transformation, she's going to have to navigate her division through some pain first. Microsoft has already cut more than 2,650 games jobs this year, with a quarter of the cuts announced in mid-September. These are part of industrywide job losses totaling 11,500. Its gaming unit is operating under a challenging set of revenue and profit goals, according to people familiar with Xbox's business, who declined to be named while discussing private financial matters.
wait what?!? You telling me they didn't make that 70 billy back yet?!
