The studio which has been responsible for bringing high quality video programming for the Microsoft's Xbox platform is going to be shutdown soon. This is a part of the company's restructuring efforts.

Microsoft wants to focus more on gaming sector, and to accomplish this goal the company has decided to finally scrap its two-year old Entertainment Studios. Consequently, we will see over 18,000 people getting laid off through the next year.

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The Santa Monica based studio, which has about 200 working employees, will be closed in a few months, with the employees staying back until the projects currently under production are completed. These projects include 'Halo: Nightfall", and Halo television series which is being produced by Steven Spielberg. 

The person at the helm of Xbox, Phil Spencer, stated that the company will continue enhancing its entertainment offering on console through monthly updates, and will keep on providing good quality sports content such as 'NHL on Xbox'.

"Our app partnerships with world-class content providers bringing entertainment, sports and TV content to Xbox customers around the world are not impacted by this organizational change," Spencer said in a statement.

The strategy stemmed from the launch of Xbox One which, to the company's dismay, was not able to gain a large audience. Plus, the additional hike of $100 of the console's price didn't help either. Xbox has a strong contender as Sony PlayStation 4, and to give it a neck-to-neck competition the company is preparing itself. Similar to the unbundling of Kinect, the shut-down of Xbox's Entertainment Studios is the gaming giant's effort to win more market share.

TagsEntertainment Studios, Xbox