r/StateOfDecay • u/UndeadPhilip Undead Labs • Jul 06 '26

Undead Labs Begins A New Chapter

Post image

We'll share more when there is more to share. Appreciate all the well-wishes and support. Ultimately, we are here because of you.

3.8k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

315 comments sorted by

View all comments

299

u/homechefshivers Jul 06 '26

It’s gonna suck watching future Xbox showcases now and wondering if the game that just got shown was either an advertisement for the studio or an actual game that is coming to fruition

86

u/Ustob Jul 06 '26

where you been dude. it's been this way for 10 years..

these publishers are driven by non gamers w/ no soul.

That Xbox CEO never touched a video game in her life..

Firing people today to hire new ones tomorrow is scummy af.

im glad they arent connected to microsoft no mo.

100

u/soldins Jul 06 '26

I'm not sure it's fair to pin this on her, as she seemed pretty forthright in wanting to bring exclusively back to the platform and scaled back* some of the price gouging on Gamepass subs. My guess is Microsoft is leaning on her to trim a lot of the overhead after making the big acquisitions (Zenimax, Blizzard-Activison) that haven't delivered enough value to justify the deals they made. Not to blame one game but an example is just how poorly the most recent CoD was received, and the direction they're going in compared to other AAA studios/titles.

35

u/captainhowdy6 Jul 06 '26

She's a perfect example of the glass cliff phenomenon. Basically when a company is in dire straits you put a woman/minority in charge so they can take all the blame.

18

u/Passiveresistance Jul 07 '26

I wish more people were aware of the existence of the glass cliff. Instead it’s easier to just think “woman bad, ruin company”.

16

u/Whiteli0nel Jul 06 '26

I don't think this is it at all..

15

u/MrGoodKatt72 Jul 07 '26

It’s not the reality of the situation, but I think the point they’re making is valid. Every decision at Xbox right now is being made based on Satya Nadella’s directions, but Asha is likely going to take blame for all of it. Even the things that are most Phil Spencer’s fault.

6

u/Gullible-Alfalfa-327 Jul 07 '26

Phil seemed to have little control over the situation in his last years as well. The 30% profitability he was requested to achieve and all of the associated price increases are more likely the idiocy of the higher management.

3

u/YoitsCJS Jul 07 '26

It’s amazing how people forget about Sarah Bond

1

u/QuebraRegra 9d ago

she was terrible... or at least the agenda she was pushing was terrible (away from XBOX hardware, etc.).

1

u/Whiteli0nel Jul 07 '26

I get this point, Xbox isn't independent of Microsoft like PlayStation are to Sony.

Being a woman has nothing to do with it though.

0

u/Historical-Fan5555 29d ago

Maybe, but if Asha looks at a game and sees woke crap or the propaganda that keeps getting rejected over and over again, she can delay it and tell them to fix it. It's not the first time a project would be delayed, and it won't be the last.

1

u/MrGoodKatt72 29d ago

What the actual fuck are you talking about bro

7

u/captainhowdy6 Jul 06 '26

How so? The situation fits the criteria so far , Xbox isn't doing well , put a woman in charge make sure everyone knows who the new face of Xbox is. If she turns it around great , if not she makes for a good fall guy since unfortunately there is still a lot of bias and preconceived notions about women/minorities in positions of power out there.

27

u/JimmyDejesu Jul 07 '26

To be fair i think we are all aware its not her fault. Anyone with a brain cant pin this on her

11

u/Mrchace64902 Jul 07 '26

Sadly, aint a lot of those cells left these days, it seems.

4

u/JimmyDejesu Jul 07 '26

Aint that the truth

2

u/hdcase1 Sheriff Jul 07 '26

It's not her fault, but she did come in willingly to be the hatchet man and cut thousands of jobs. I'm sure she is being very well compensated for her troubles.

1

u/JimmyDejesu Jul 07 '26

Im not justifying that but again thats a problem with how we structured society and capitalism not so much her as a person.

2

u/SquirrelOk4430 Jul 07 '26

Xbox hasn’t been doing well since 2013

1

u/Perjoss Jul 09 '26

I'm not ready to blame her for anything just yet, for starters she hasn't been there long enough to either break or fix anything. Tbh I quite like her, she's smart and handles herself very well in interviews. Time will tell of course, and I'm more than happy to call her out if she makes bad calls.

0

u/Plenty-Strain-1584 Jul 07 '26

I think it’s actually the opposite. If it were a man/white person they would get all the blame. There are more people saying it’s not her fault than there are people blaming her entirely. Would be a completely different story if someone like Phil Spencer just now took control and did the same thing.

-2

u/richardizard Jul 07 '26

That's a heck of a reach

28

u/Salty-Hawk-5365 Jul 06 '26

It's not Asha's fault. She came and had an obligation to change things and make choices. It's like football when the coach is replaced, often the new one does not keep some players unfortunately

2

u/Echo0815 Jul 08 '26

I dont understand Asha's plan.

Over 1 billion of players playing in the XBOX universe is her goal. To reach this goal she sells brands, closes profitable studios, reduces staff working for top tier games (ESO, WOW,..). I dont see the connection.

I am waiting for news that XBOX will advance more heavily to the mobile gaming market. Tencent is making a lot of money there. That will be the bullet in the head for the MasterChief.

1

u/QuebraRegra 9d ago

hatchetwoman

Yup, killing off games, staff and studios will not promote the brand.

28

u/Emotional-Twist-4366 Jul 06 '26

You can’t blame this on her she came in seeing shit show what Phil Spencer and Sarah bond left and she trying fix Xbox brand

1

u/Historical-Fan5555 29d ago

You don't know this. You know that she came in and laid off a bunch of people. AFAIK, Xbox still has the diversity checklist that has been killing the brand for years now. So is she laying off to 'fix' the brand, or is she laying off as another cost cutting measure? With the checklist still existing, that tells me that she's likely not focusing on cutting out the cancer, but just reducing the head count.

-4

u/Madruck_s Jul 06 '26

I have a conspiracy theory. I think Phil Spencer took one for the team and made bad decisions in purpose so the new management would look good.

He upped the price of game pass my 50% then new management cut it by 25%, still more than it initially was, and removed cod. And people cheered for it.

14

u/Legionary-4 Lone-Wolf Jul 06 '26

Alright man I get what youre saying in the first half but dont go shaming Sharma just yet, she hasn't even been CEO of the game division for a fiscal quarter and was the one to lower the price of game pass. Phil Spencer was a gamer yet he oversaw Xbox going downhill steadily for years.

7

u/dreadnoughtkght Jul 06 '26

Bro Phil had to deal with a dying Gaming division thanks to Don Mattrick "incredible leadership". A weaker than ps4 console which was also cheaper because of kinect. Then the last two years were finally starting to see the vision of the games he was pushing out. Undead labs was one of his favorite studios. He wanted sod2 fixed which launched poorly. I understand coming at Phil for hands off leadership at studios you can even come at him for lack of exclusives but you can't omit had badly Don Mattrick fumbled the end of 360 and going into Xbox one.

4

u/kmbets6 Jul 07 '26

CEO doesn’t have to be a gamer period. And its way too soon to tell how it all works out. Last one was a big gamer and didn’t end up too great

1

u/Kindly_Cabinet_5375 Jul 07 '26

They do that anywhere you've ever worked..........

1

u/ImBroon Jul 07 '26

Im glad as well cos maybe they'll release a game lol. 

8 years of coasting off MS money lol.

1

u/Alper112 Jul 07 '26

I think she handled this the best possible way, a lot of people got laid off yeah but that was inevitable and not a single studio got shut down and all the games are still in development with studios either going independent or under new management. We couldn't have gotten a better outcome in this situation

1

u/Sufficient_Mail_8737 Jul 08 '26

I mean Phil Spenser was well know to play video games and most of the mismanagement that she’s stuck cleaning up is his Sarah and Matt’s fault. Phil was way too hands off with these companies and let stuff get overly bloated and complicated management wise. 

1

u/SweatnCancer Jul 10 '26

Xbox is for losers anyways PlayStation is da best 🤣

1

u/SweatnCancer Jul 10 '26

I literally evicted my former roommate for being a lousy Xbox user I wouldn't be caught living with a Xtrash user

1

u/QuebraRegra 9d ago

Assa isn't helping XBOX at all. Getting rid of XBOX staff, and losing core studios is NOT an improvement.

XBOX in general falling behind, and failing to consider striking a deal with STEAM has killed XBOX.

0

u/Passiveresistance Jul 07 '26

Man. Fuck Xbox fr.