Microsoft has been laying off a significant number of employees from its gaming division for a while now. The company has also cancelled multiple projects recently, including Rare’s Everwild and The Initiative’s Perfect Dark reboot. Amid all this, Microsoft has reportedly invited game developers to an AI roundtable at Gamescom 2025.
As first spotted by Kotaku, Brandon Sheffield, creative director at Necrosoft Games, shared a screenshot of an email sent by ID@Xbox to partner developers. The email reads, “We are excited to be heading to Gamescom 2025 in Cologne, Germany, again this year! If you will also be attending, we are offering an AI Roundtable where you can provide us your feedback on how you’d like to see us use AI in our tools and processes to make the game development and publishing experience more efficient.”
The email hasn’t exactly gone down well with some in the community, considering the ongoing layoffs. Benjamin Rivers, co-founder of Toronto-based indie studio BancyCo, replied to the post saying, “Got this too. Just… just get wrecked, mates.”
The comment section under Sheffield’s post is filled with similar frustration. User ChronoMoogle commented, “Nobody should burn any bridges, but this is pretty much a passive-aggressive invitation to arson.”
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