"History does not repeat, but often rhymes.While the gaming industry is now staring at a barrel of further cuts at Microsoft's gaming division, which has cited an eerily familiar reason for its surprisingly rapid contraction, it's an idiom that I have rattled in my head. 

Last year, the Embracer Group (a company with a similar appetite for acquiring a game studio) stumbled out of a契約2 billion deal, dropped out of the studio for a while, laid off staff and was eventually split into 3 parts when it hit the ground. It was followed by widespread criticism from players and developers, with plenty of jabs firing across subtle, dull passages.

Now, with microsoft's shocking closure of studios including Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks, we are firmly in the realm of "time is a flat circle." This isn't even Bell's first toll — on May 1, a rash of layoffs shocked more than 1,900 Blizzard and Xbox employees, prompting the cancellation of Blizzard's no longer scheduled survival game. 

Unfortunately, it's not over yet. As Bloomberg reported, "Xbox started offering voluntary retirement contracts to ZeniMax producers, quality assurance testers and other staff this week," but others across the Xbox organization say more cuts are underway.

According to the report, Xbox president Matt Booty talked about how thin and spread the company was, like "peanut butter in bread," adding that understaffing was a concern in multiple studios. Similarly, Bloomberg says that Jill Braff of ZeniMax Studios added:"Supporting 9 studios around the world is difficult with a lean central team that can keep growing...I think we were about to fall."

Layoffs feel like a severe cause-and-effect case in hindsight, mostly as tragic and frustrating as they were, hitting a blizzard earlier this year. Large acquisitions involve restructuring, especially if668.7 billion is spent to make it happen. 

But looking at the latest wave of studio closures, as well as the prospect of possibly layoffs and cuts needing to come up with yet another headline about next week, I can't help but think about that number — human68.7 billion, an amount that the human mind can't even properly visualize.

I'm also thinking about Embracer, but I feel like I'm seeing the same car crash happen again in slow motion - this time a finger crossed that someone might have been wearing a seat belt. Did Microsoft, like the Embracer Group, bite more than it was able to bite when it droppedド68.7 billion at Blizzard?

Here we expect Microsoft's Xbox division to get back on its feet. For many studios and developers under the umbrella, not for the benefit of the company itself or its shareholders, I'm wondering how many axes need to fall before someone can look at a spreadsheet somewhere and say, "I can hold my breath until next time."