According to a Bloomberg report, the layoffs are expected shortly after Microsoft’s fiscal year ends on June 30. While the number of affected employees has not been disclosed, the planned cuts are expected to go beyond staffing, with reductions also being considered across marketing and other operational budgets.

The restructuring will be the first major overhaul since Asha Sharma became chief executive of Xbox in February.

Sharma reportedly outlined the challenges facing the gaming business in an internal message to employees. She said Xbox’s accountability margin had fallen to just 3% despite the company spending more than $20 billion over the past five years on content, platforms and hardware subsidies. During the same period, annual revenue declined by almost $500 million.

The Xbox chief told staff the business would need to rebuild parts of its platform infrastructure and reassess its portfolio in the months ahead. Bloomberg reported that Sharma and Chief Content Officer Matt Booty have described the current period as an “Xbox Reset”, aimed at putting the division on a more sustainable path.

The planned changes come as Xbox works to overcome challenges across several parts of its business. Microsoft’s drive into subscription gaming and cloud services has not delivered the growth needed to offset weaker console sales.

At the same time, the company has faced complaints over a lack of major exclusive titles capable of driving hardware demand.

Growth in Game Pass subscriptions has also stalled. In April, Microsoft cut Game Pass prices and announced that future Call of Duty titles would no longer launch on the service on day one, marking one of the first major strategic changes under Sharma’s leadership.

The company is also dealing with high hardware costs. Reports say increasing component prices have significantly raised storage costs, creating additional pressure on Microsoft’s long-term console plans, including work linked to its next-generation gaming platform, codenamed Helix.

As part of the reset, Xbox is expected to place greater emphasis on its biggest gaming franchises, including Halo, Gears of War and Forza.

The company recently confirmed that upcoming titles such as Gears of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution will not launch on competing platforms including PlayStation and Nintendo Switch, while it focuses on strengthening the Xbox ecosystem.

Microsoft has not publicly commented on the reported layoffs.

Over the years, people have devised many strategies to build wealth; one of these strategies is community-based savings and investments. From rotational group saving schemes like ajo, to investment clubs, pooling funds to support a member to start a business, even giving low or no interest loans to members, community-based savings create a pool of funds for members to fall back on when needed.

Community-based savings and investments encourage people to build a disciplined approach to wealth creation.

There is a high level of transparency because all the rules and regulations are set by the members who are accountable to and for each other. These groups are usually made up of friends, family, or co-workers; the close relationships create a spirit of trust and responsibility. No member of the group wants to default or let down the others as it can damage their personal and social reputation.

So, while a person might be comfortable missing deadlines on their own savings or investment plans, they think twice before letting down their community.

The challenge for many groups and communities is effectively managing their savings or investment scheme. Ensuring that all members are making their contributions, that disbursements happen on time, and everyone has the most up-to-date information can be a chore.

Even deciding where to save or invest and how frequently to contribute can be hard work. Increasingly, communities are turning to technology to help coordinate. For instance, many investment clubs are run via WhatsApp or similar platforms. Halo Financial Services, a newly launched fintech, is helping Nigerians improve their personal finances and build wealth by leveraging the power of community.

According to Chidimma Onyeokoro, Co-founder/CEO of Halo Financial Services, “Nigerians, have always understood that we progress faster when we do things together. From ajo, to putting money together for community development projects, even friends pooling resources to help one of their squad. There’s strength in numbers. We are using technology to harness that strength to drive wealth creation for individuals through their communities.”

According to her, trust is the bedrock of all financial services. By leveraging existing trust within communities, Halo will be able to reach more people with the products, tools and knowledge to meet their wealth creation goals.

She added, “Halo is actually two companies, an asset management company and a microfinance bank, both fully licensed. That means we have not one but two regulators to answer to. That’s a big selling point for us. People can trust us because our corporate governance and risk management have to be top-notch to satisfy both CBN and SEC.“

Halo enables communities to help their members save, invest, and build wealth. Using intuitive technology, Halo allows communities to automate contributions and disbursements, and collaborate more efficiently.

For Halo, a community is any group of five or more people that self-identify and have an individual willing to be the administrator. That could be as small as a group of friends or as large as a union. Via a mobile or web app, Halo gives communities the tools to set up plans quickly and simply for their members to save or invest in. For communities with members that are less technologically inclined, Halo offers access via a nationwide agent network.

One of the key features of the platform is that a community’s interest rate is calculated on their total portfolio – so individual members benefit from higher interest rates (even though their own contributions may be modest).

The platform also lowers the barrier to entry for big ticket investments. By enabling communities to invest as a group, individual members can benefit from opportunities they may not be able to afford alone.

Halo also provides relatable financial education and investment tips to help users make better financial decisions.

Halo offers a variety of high-quality savings and investment options. On the savings side, Halo offers fixed savings, where money is put aside for a specific amount of time; goal savings, where money is contributed over time to reach a set amount; and ajo, where community members contribute equal amounts monthly with a different member receiving the sum total each month. On the investment side, Halo offers Dollar and Naira denominated mutual funds, private funds (offering investments in real estate, commodities and more) and access to US and local stocks and bonds. Halo also offers qualified credit to communities, meaning their members can access loans and credit cards.

Halo is committed to serving as many people as possible, so they provide multiple ways for communities to engage.

This includes white labelled apps (branded for the community and managed by Halo), hosted communities (community-branded environments within the Halo app), single feature integration (for communities with an existing app that want to offer specific services to their members), direct access via agent network (for those who prefer face to face interaction), and managed portfolio services (for more sophisticated and affluent investors.

Halo is on a mission to help build stronger communities that can actively contribute to their member’s prosperity and and pave their way to financial freedom.

Investee companies will initially be located across Nigeria and Ghana, with the fund set to target the wider West Africa region.

Recent advances in digital information technology provide an opportunity to both build and scale solutions to everyday challenges faced by millions of Africans – in particular, the aggregation of fragmented value chains, the formalisation of large sectors of the continent’s economy and the provision of much-needed access to financial services for both consumers and businesses.

The Constant Ventures fund has a unique structure that enables investment either directly in talented entrepreneurs and compelling start-ups across West Africa or through its proprietary venture studio, which serves as a catalyst to combine best-in-class entrepreneurs, ideas and capital to quickly build winning start-ups.

Constant Ventures created the fund on the back of its successful track record as an angel investor, as well as a respected developer of technology businesses.

To-date, it has invested US$3.2 million in nine Nigerian start-ups*, with a return of 5.6x, which is projected to return 15x after the next funding round.

Ike Echeruo, Chairman of the Constant Group and co-founder and Managing Partner of Constant Ventures, says:

“We are very excited to be announcing this fund today.  It has been a decade in the making, the result of deep-dive research and due diligence in anticipation of this moment when we knew that advances in information technology would enable start-ups across West Africa to commercially address real societal needs. 

“Technology was always going to provide the answer to so many of the critical issues faced by millions of people across Africa today.  We are now on the cusp of a paradigm shift with recent advances across information technology presenting a unique investment window.  We have looked at what has worked in other geographies.  Now, refined and optimised for Africa, we have modelled a fund to invest in businesses that will both improve the lives of millions of people and deliver outstanding returns for investors.”