That’s not decision for business 
Honestly, this could be one of the next big steps for MSFS future. Using Gaussian splats for cities, airports etc. The low-level detail would be insane.
I’d already be happy if they had Google-Earth-type PG and it loaded as it should.. and non-glitchy clouds, better road traffic and ground textures.
For Microsoft Flight Simulator (MSFS), Gaussian Splatting “COULD” acts as a massive leap forward in scenery generation, photorealism, and virtual training. 
Microsoft cuts 4800 more jobs (2.1% of total workforce), 3200 from Xbox (20% of Xbox workforce), 1600 of them ‘today’, divesting a bunch of studios.
CNBC reports that Xbox is laying off 1/5 or 20% of staff, so if 3200 is 20% then it was 16,000 people, now 12,800 or so. I’m not sure how many of those go with the studios being divested / spun off.
The full email sent by Asha Sharma to staff is in the IGN link above, but I think it’s worth reading, so it is copied here (if not ok, let me know and I’ll remove it…)
TL/DR: cutting 14 layers of management, reducing “vendor spend by 50%”.
Full email sent to staff by Asha Sharma, Xbox CEO
Subject: Resetting XBOX
Team,
We are beginning the most significant restructure in XBOX history. After careful consideration, I’ve made the difficult decision to reduce our team by approximately 3,200 throughout FY27. This will include approximately 1,600 role eliminations today, and in addition, four studios will leave XBOX to new management. I recognize that a year-long restructuring creates additional challenges. Unfortunately, it is not possible to make all the necessary changes in a single day, and I wanted to be direct about the scale.
I know this is painful. These changes will directly affect people who have poured their creativity into building XBOX. Many joined us through acquisitions, while others were recruited here, or sought us out because they loved this industry and loved XBOX. Today’s decisions do not reflect their talent or dedication.
Our business today is not healthy. We are operating at margins that are 3–10x lower than comparable platform and publishing businesses. We entered Gen 9 with a smaller install base and a higher cost structure. To grow, we bet on Game Pass, multi-platform, and a broader portfolio of content. While those businesses have created meaningful value, they did not grow at the pace we expected. As that happened, our core business weakened, and we added more teams, more investment, and more time, hoping for a better outcome. And now the industry is facing the most severe hardware crisis in its history. We must reset XBOX.
First, we will reset our content portfolio.
Since 2018, we have aggressively expanded our studio portfolio while the number of games created each month across the industry now outpaces the last ten years combined. We now find ourselves competing not only with the largest publishers, but also with smaller independent studios. It is neither possible nor desirable to own every great independent studio. We have also learned that we are not the best home for every type of studio; in a typical year, we lost 64 cents for every dollar we invested. As we reset XBOX, we will help independent creators succeed by providing open development tools and audiences to realize their vision.
Compulsion Games and Double Fine Productions will return to management and transition to independent studios with their IP, catalog, and runway for their next games. Ninja Theory and Undead Labs have entered terms to join new ownership with funding to complete and grow Senua and State of Decay 3. In France, Arkane’s management is beginning required consultation with its Works Council to review potential strategic options.
We are also making reductions across other units, and in some cases, shifting investment to focus on higher priority projects. These changes vary in size across Activision, Bethesda/ZeniMax, Blizzard, King, Mojang, and XBOX Game Studios. None of our first party publicly announced games or projects are being cancelled as part of these reductions.
In addition, Mojang and King will now report directly to me. These two studios have increasingly become platforms and are our largest by monthly active players. They bring critical geographic, demographic, and differentiation to XBOX.
Second, we will reset our platform.
We know that great technology gets better when it gets simpler, not bigger. Today, in some parts of the company, work passes through as many as 14 layers of management. Our platform teams are 40% larger than they were at the start of this generation, even as our player base and playtime have declined. That complexity has slowed decisions, blurred accountability, and made it harder to deliver for players. As we reset XBOX, we will simplify.
We will reduce management layers to no more than 5, and where possible, 3. We will deliver success through a flatter organization that is built around makers (individual contributors focused on building), player-coaches (leaders who remain deeply involved in the work while developing their teams), and directly responsible individuals (DRIs) who own key decisions and outcomes. And we will streamline how we work across our tools, with a cleaner code base, shared services, and 50% reduced vendor spend.
Third, we are resetting how we operate.
As XBOX grew our headcount, we became more fragmented. Teams, studios, and functions often operate independently, and it became harder to work towards a shared goal, make the right tradeoffs, and get things done.
For the first time, we are establishing a Chief Operating Officer with end-to-end P&L responsibility across content, hardware, platform, and services. Helen Chiang has been promoted to this role and will report directly to me. Over nearly two decades at XBOX, Helen has helped build some of our most important businesses, from XBOX Live to leading Mojang and the Minecraft franchise. She will bring our businesses together under one operating model, making sure we make clear investment decisions, learn from our successes and failures, and hold ourselves accountable for results.
Thank you, Dave McCarthy, who is retiring after 17 years with XBOX. Dave has played a defining role in building the platform that millions of players rely on every day and has been a trusted partner through many of the biggest moments in XBOX’s history. We wish him all the best.
These changes are about a bigger future for XBOX, not a smaller one. The next decade of gaming will be larger, more global, and more creative than anything we’ve seen before. This year, we’ll invest as much in XBOX as we ever have, but we’ll invest with greater focus, greater discipline, and greater clarity, all in service of making XBOX where the world plays and creates.
I want XBOX to be one of the few companies that entertains more than a billion people each day and gives everyone the opportunity to create and connect. I know we can achieve this goal. XBOX has many of the most beloved franchises in entertainment history, talented studios around the world, and we will return to growth in 2027.
History is full of companies that mistake longevity for inevitability. We will not be one of them.
Yikes. Could use a temperature check from this studio.
I think MSFS is ok, Jorg said a while ago it was “fully funded”. That said, I’m willing to bet there are less people working on it than last year, when there was a huge push to fix bugs, leading up to SU4 being released. Since then, however, it really feels like there is much less happening.
Maybe they are still there but all working on FS2028 
To be frank, this is very clearly an issue with this studio and franchise, even from the point of view of a mere consumer. Hopefully these changes actually strengthen MSFS.
I’d bet that MSFS’ margins are decently higher than average across studios in the umbrella, which helps.
People complaining about Jorg and what the team are doing wrong have no idea. There are a few things going on here, and I am certain that a recent high-profile departure from these very forums is related. Middle management somehow made a comeback in the last 20 years. Companies are learning that lesson again. And AI.
None of this is surprising. In fact, it’s just getting started.
Can you elaborate more, did I miss something?
I’m sure it’s OK to use Jayne’s name. She posted a heartfelt farewell.
But it’s also equally plausible that being a community manager for so many years is not an end-state for a career, and bigger and better things were on her list of professional goals.
I mean, I don’t know how I would last as long dealing with all of us every day. I don’t even work here and it’s tiring 
Equally plausible indeed, nor should I have said I was certain of anything, as I am not. Being a recent “AI can do your job better than you” grand prize recipient myself, perhaps I’m overly sensistive to the possibility.
What I am certain of, however, is that AI is going to lay waste to tech jobs over the next several years.
Just wanted to quickly clarify here that my departure was a decision I made based on my own life goals and unrelated to current events!
very sad to see you go…good luck for the future..you have been an outstanding community manager
Good luck for the future Jayne. I know you will be happy in your new post.
I saw somewhere she has had a better offer from MS, so Jayne is quite happy I am sure with her career trajectory.
Happy landings Jayne!
This seems desperate, and I will say emphatically that if I have to watch ads to use MSFS, I’m out.
IGN article
Now, I get that they want to make Game Pass accessible to a wider audience, but, the moment advetising is involved, the customer is no longer the customer - they start becoming the product. I’m sure that just like Netflix, etc, upper tiers will remain ad free (for now…), but I don’t like the way advertising creeps in to everything.