The recent spate of Xbox layoffs has prompted a former employee to share an anecdote about how one exec suggested turning Halo into Diablo.
It’s impossible not to despair at the state of the games industry at the moment. While the games themselves have never been better, they come in spite of all the odious corporate decisions that have resulted in rising prices and mass layoffs.
Most recently, Sony announced it will no longer be releasing physical games after 2027 and is unlikely to ever U-turn despite the widespread online outrage, while Xbox just yesterday laid off 3,200 people as part of a big ‘reset.’
What’s especially tragic about all this is that none of this is new for the industry. Mismanagement and terrible ideas from the higher-ups have plagued it for years, with one developer taking to social media to slam game executives as ‘stupid detached money grubbing idiots.’
That corker of a line comes from Dan Callen, a former Bungie designer who was working on Marathon before being caught up in Sony’s own wave of layoffs last month.
The news of the Xbox layoffs, however, are what inspired Callen to share an anecdote of his time working with the company, when he was part of 343 Industries (now known as Halo Studios).
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In particular, Callen singles out Don Mattrick, who oversaw the launch of the Xbox One and is widely blamed for its failures. He’s especially infamous for responding to criticisms about the Xbox One’s ‘always on’ internet connection by telling people to stick with the Xbox 360 instead… which Microsoft swiftly U-turned on.
‘I have very distinct memories of having to demo Halo 4 for Don Mattrick and realising that these people just live on different planes of reality,’ wrote Callen on Bluesky.
While showing off one of the game’s missions, that introduced the Mantis mech, Mattrick apparently asked if anybody had played Diablo 3 and suggested Halo 4 should ‘copy their idea of a real money auction house for campaign mech skins.’
According to Callen, ‘Every single human being around him reacted like this was an amazing groundbreaking idea while simultaneously realising this was the stupidest s*** imaginable since everyone with a brain had seen how hard that blew up in their face.’
He’s not wrong. The auction house is widely considered the worst thing about Diablo 3 and was shut down after a couple of years. According to former Diablo devs, it wasn’t even particularly profitable and the only reason it wasn’t removed sooner was because of legal issues considering it was being advertised on the game boxes.
Callen adds that Halo 4 was about 90% done anyway, so there was no real time to add an auction house, but everyone ‘still had to act like it was a good idea and make the pretence that they were making action items and s***.
‘So yeah, game execs remain stupid detached money grubbing idiots.’
If any quote best sums up the games industry right now, it’s that one, although sadly it’s probably not restricted to just gaming.
You can see how little has changed when reading current Xbox boss Asha Sharma’s letter about the layoffs. Aside from being full of typical corporate speak, it reads very similarly to how her predecessor Phil Spencer spoke about the business, emphasising how little really changes despite who’s in charge.
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