Summary
- Microsoft has announced that 650 employees are being laid off from its gaming teams.
- The company issued layoffs to around 1,900 staff members in January.
- Phil Spencer claims that no games or devices will be canceled as a result of the job cuts.
Microsoft recently announced another round of layoffs impacting its Xbox gaming division, resulting in about 650 people being let go. Layoffs have become more common in the video game industry over the past few years, with companies like Microsoft, Sega, and EA cutting down their workforces throughout 2024. Not even smaller developers are immune, as Life is Strange: True Colors studio Deck Nine and Lords of the Fallen dev CI Games announced their own layoffs at the beginning of the year.
Microsoft, which has become one of the biggest gaming companies in the world thanks to its major buyout of Activision Blizzard last year, issued layoffs to some of its in-house developers back in January, leading to 1,900 staff members being out of work. These layoffs were largely centered around studios Microsoft acquired in the buyout, including most of Blizzard’s customer service team, Skylanders and Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time developer Toys for Bob, and Call of Duty support studio Sledgehammer Games. These layoffs also impacted ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Bethesda Softworks, which was acquired by Microsoft back in 2021.
Unfortunately, it seems that this was only the beginning when it came to layoffs at Microsoft. Earlier today, Xbox executive Phil Spencer announced that approximately 650 people were being let go from Microsoft’s gaming division in a company email, as reported by news outlets like Game File. According to an inside source, most of these layoffs include corporate and support positions at Activision Blizzard, though Spencer stated in his email that no projects will be impacted. Additionally, a source claims that no business unit leaders at Xbox or any of its affiliated studios are being cut.
Microsoft is Laying Off Nearly 650 Workers at Its Gaming Division
In his announcement email, Phil Spencer stated that this latest round of Microsoft layoffs is part of a corporate restructuring brought on by the Activision Blizzard purchase, which cost Microsoft roughly $69 billion and gave the company access to major franchises like Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and Diablo. January’s 1,900 layoffs also seem to have been a result of Microsoft’s recent expansions, which have even caught the attention of the Federal Trade Commission.
Earlier this summer, industry insiders predicted that Microsoft would be laying off even more employees in its Xbox gaming division, and now this has come to pass. It isn't yet clear if Microsoft will issue more layoffs in the future, but this latest wave is part of a continuing trend that doesn't seem to be slowing down.
- Date Founded
- April 4, 1975
- Headquarters
- Redmond, Washington, United States
- CEO
- Satya Nadella
- Subsidiaries
- activision blizzard, Microsoft Studios, Mojang Studios, Microsoft Game Studios, Xbox Game Studios
- Consoles
- Xbox, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Xbox One X, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series X|S
- Services
- Xbox Game Pass
- Known For
- Xbox