Once Again, Mass Layoffs at Microsoft (Just Like Every Month This Year)
Reporting and articles trickling in (in recent hours):
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Microsoft Gaming to Lay Off 3% of Global Workforce, About 650 Employees, in Additional Post-Activision Blizzard Cuts
The cuts will primarily impact staffers in “corporate and supporting functions,” per Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer.
“For the past year, our goal has been to minimize disruption while welcoming new teams and enabling them to do their best work,” Spencer said in an email to staff Thursday, which was obtained by Variety. “As part of aligning our post-acquisition team structure and managing our business, we have made the decision to eliminate approximately 650 roles across Microsoft Gaming—mostly corporate and supporting functions—to organize our business for long term success.”
U.S. employees will receive exit packages that include severance, extended healthcare and outplacement services, while international employees will receive different packages dependent on their location, per Spencer.
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Microsoft Lays Off Another 650 Staff From Its Video Game Workforce, Xbox Boss Phil Spencer Sends Memo to Staff
Microsoft is laying off a further 650 staff from its gaming business, according to a memo sent by Xbox chief Phil Spencer to staff today, September 12, and obtained by IGN.
In the memo, Spencer said the roles affect mostly corporate and support functions, and were made “to organize our business for long term success.” He clarified that no games, devices or experiences are being canceled and no studios are being closed as part of these cuts.
These latest layoffs mean Microsoft has let go of 2,550 staff from its gaming business since acquiring Activision Blizzard for $69 billion in 2023. In his memo, below, Spencer makes it clear that the cuts are related to the acquisition.
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Microsoft Announces Additional Layoffs to Its Gaming Division
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.
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Microsoft to cut 650 jobs at its Xbox gaming unit — read the full memo from top exec Phil Spencer
Microsoft on Thursday said it is cutting 650 roles at its Xbox gaming division, in the latest major round of layoffs to hit the video game industry.
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Microsoft Gaming makes another 650 job cuts in third round of Xbox layoffs this year
Microsoft continued the cost-cutting in its Xbox and video games division Thursday morning following its $68.7 billion Activision-Blizzard acquisition, laying off another 650 employees.
Phil Spencer, the Microsoft Gaming CEO, told employees that the latest cutbacks do not signal the cancelation of any additional games, devices, or experiences. He said no further Microsoft games studios are being closed.
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Microsoft lays off another 650 in gaming division, bringing the total to 2,550
Microsoft is making even more cuts to the staff roster of its Xbox gaming division.
The company on Thursday announced plans to lay off 650 employees, which will bring the total number of job losses since its October 2023 acquisition of Activision Blizzard to 2,550.
The latest round of cuts will largely impact corporate and support roles. No studios are being closed and no games or game systems will be cancelled as a result of the belt-tightening. (Microsoft closed Tango Gameworks, makers of Hi-Fi Rush, and Redfall developer Arkane Austin in previous layoff rounds, which did impact its upcoming titles.)
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Microsoft will cut another 650 gaming jobs, mostly at Activision Blizzard
Microsoft’s gaming chief Phil Spencer told employees in an email on September 12, 2024, that the company will lay off around 650 people from its video games division, as has been reported by Stephen Totilo, who gained access to the full memo announcing the bad news.
It’s the second round of cuts following Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard after layoffs conducted in January 2024 already eliminated around 1,900 jobs. Whereas that wave of layoffs included top personnel such as former Blizzard president Mike Ybarra, no executives will leave the company this time around. According to Spencer’s memo, the brunt of these cuts will be borne by corporate and support roles.