Xbox layoffs hit accessibility leadership, calling into question Microsoft’s continued commitment to accessibility initiatives

Yesterday’s 1,600 layoffs at Xbox—just half of the 3,200 job cuts Microsoft intends to inflict on its gaming division by the end of its 2027 fiscal year—seem to have taken a heavy toll on the company’s celebrated accessibility efforts. In the 24 hours since CEO Asha Sharma pronounced Xbox’s “reset,” senior and lead accessibility specialists…

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Bernie Sanders is mad about the Xbox layoffs

US senator Bernie Sanders is famous as not-exactly-a-friend of powerful corporations: He’s previously called for OpenAI to be broken up, for instance, and earlier this year announced a bill that would pause the construction of data centers in the US, to give lawmakers a chance to catch up with, and regulate, AI companies. But AI…

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Xbox CEO Asha Sharma points the finger at Phil Spencer’s strategy for yesterday’s sweeping layoffs: ‘We simply spread ourselves too thin’

3,200 layoffs at XboxXbox CEO Asha Sharma has made a number of big changes since taking over from former chief Phil Spencer. Some of them—dialling back Game Pass, leaning into exclusives—collectively represent a pretty clear repudiation of Spencer’s strategies. In a new interview with Fortune (via Game Developer), Sharma was more explicit about her belief…

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A classic Daedalic adventure is free on GOG, and it’s not one I particularly like but you can’t beat the price

GOG’s Summer Sale is winding down, but there’s one more freebie you can grab before it’s over. Silence, the 2016 point-and-click adventure from Daedalic, is yours for the taking until Friday. I’ll be blunt: I did not care for Silence. I quite like Daedalic adventures in general, and Silence certainly looked the part, with lush…

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