Just days after Microsoft’s gaming division suffered massive layoffs affecting thousands, including key Xbox studios, the company’s leadership has found a way to look even more disconnected from reality.
This time, it’s Xbox Graphics principal dev lead Mike Matsel, who shared a tone-deaf hiring post that includes, of all things, an AI-generated image-right after reports emerged that Microsoft is pushing AI investment at the cost of human jobs.
The July 2025 cuts, which hit roughly 9,000 Microsoft employees, gutted multiple game studios and left veterans of the industry without jobs. While morale plummeted, Xbox leadership stumbled again and again in their public messaging. A Gamescom invite promoting an AI roundtable triggered backlash almost instantly. Soon after, executive producer Matt Turnbull suggested on LinkedIn that laid-off workers use ChatGPT to help process their feelings-a post that might have meant well but came across as clueless and robotic.
But Matsel’s post might have managed to lower the bar even further. He announced openings on the Xbox Graphics team for engineers with driver and GPU performance expertise. That’s normal enough. What wasn’t was his choice of visual aid: an awkward, obviously AI-generated image of someone working at a computer with the monitor facing the wrong way. It didn’t take long for the internet to tear it apart. Comments ranged from mocking the AI slop to sarcastically offering their own skills in producing garbage visuals. And honestly, can you blame them?
At best, these execs are so out of touch they genuinely thought they were being helpful. At worst, they’re trying to stir controversy for engagement. Either way, the optics are terrible. Matsel’s AI image symbolized what many now see as Microsoft’s new corporate motto: out with people, in with the bots.
With Microsoft continuing to double down on AI and cost-cutting, even at the expense of its gaming legacy, it’s no surprise that confidence in Xbox leadership is crumbling. Gamers and developers alike are left wondering whether the soul of Xbox is being traded in for algorithmic efficiency and PR blunders.