The past several months have seen lots of tech businesses make huge cutbacks in their operations. Most of the time, that has also led to mass layoffs at companies like Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, Google, and more.
One major tech and media company will be cutting its spending as well but with a difference. The Wall Street Journal reports that the streaming movie and TV show company Netflix is looking to reduce expenses by $300 million in 2023. Company executives told employees in an email earlier in May they should be "judicious with their spending." However, at least for now, Netflix is not looking to layoffs or even hiring freezes to cut spending.
Part of the reason Netflix is tightening its belt right now is that its controversial plans to charge its subscribers in the US and other countries for sharing account passwords have been delayed. It was originally planned for the first quarter of 2023, but now it's scheduled to happen sometime in the second quarter, which ends June 30. Even now, Netflix has yet to give a precise date for when the new password-sharing fees will go into effect, and how much they will be.
However, even if Netflix might be cutting back on some spending, it is still a tiny amount compared to its total expenses, which totaled $26 billion in 2022. It's also trying to make moves outside of streaming movies and TV shows by publishing as many as 40 mobile games in 2023.
It also has its own in-house game development studios. One of them is working on what's being called a AAA multi-platform action-adventure game. The creative director for that game is Joe Staten, who recently left Microsoft after working for years at its Xbox division in general, and more specifically on its 2021 released game Halo Infinite.
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