[STEAM] "This cannot continue": Xbox leaders lay out "hard truths" behind sagging brand

[Steam 0]

Just 100 days ago, when new

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Gaming CEO Asha Sharma

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, she said she'd work to "understand what makes [Xbox] work and protect it." Now, Sharma and Xbox Studios chief Matt Booty have laid out the many things that are not working for the Xbox brand in a brutal self-assessment the they say necessitates a wholesale "Xbox reset."

The message sent to Xbox employees and

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last night paints a grim picture for practically every facet of the Xbox division. That portion of

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is currently only seeing a "3% accountability margin" (read: profit margin), down year over year and well below both

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and the lofty 30% margins that

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across the board.

It's an underperformance, they write, born out of being "over extended" by moves like

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. That mega-merger came on top of $20 billion in spending on other acquisitions, platform investments, and hardware subsidies over the last five years, the executives write. But despite the spending spree,

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's overall gaming revenues are down nearly $500 million compared to five years ago.

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