“Inhumane” and “Disgusting” Mass Layoff Execution, According to Microsoft Staff
From 2023 (it has gotten even worse since):
"There is a trillion dollars worth of pension funds/mutual funds invested in Microsoft stock," someone wrote, "they only care about the stock performance; this is America, after all".
They let Microsoft gamble (or run) its worthless business... with somebody else's money. It's a disaster in the making. "The layoffs will continue until the bottom-line improves," someone wrote earlier. "The stock price will always out weigh your feelings. Right or wrong, good or bad, your feelings on the matter of MS layoffs mean nothing when compared to the value of the stock. If it were not true, then the MS stock would plummet with each layoff announcement but it does not. Instead it the prize rises. I can assure you, there is no one on the board or in the upper echelon of MS management that cares."
This was said in response to the news below [1-3].
Worker loyalty is waning. The workers are looking for other places to work. █
Related/contextual items from the news:
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ESO devs at ZeniMax reel from Microsoft's 'hollow' layoff emails, with some wondering how a 'carcass of workers' is 'supposed to keep shipping award-winning games'
It's with precious little pleasure that I sit here and try to find a new way to say 'the games industry has had a rough couple of years' without cannibalising my own work—if you've been following along, you already know the score. Mass layoffs, studio closures, and (most recently) a whopping 9,000 layoffs at Microsoft, despite CEO Phil Spencer boasting about how strong the company is looking.
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ZeniMax Online devs say Microsoft layoffs eliminated critical MMORPG staff and institutional knowledge
It’s not going to surprise anyone with a functioning sense of empathy that Microsoft’s immense cuts to employees across its gaming division have deeply affected the lives of those laid off and those remaining, but we’re getting another peek behind the impact that also points out how those layoffs have impacted studio functions and existing games such as Elder Scrolls Online.
According to current employee Page Branson, some of those who were laid off were “absolutely crucial” to the success of ESO and “integral” to the everyday function of the studio in general. Some of that brain drain can likely be attributed to the dev knowledge lost thanks to the ending of development on MMORPG Project Blackbird as well as the departure of former studio president Matt Firor, but according to QA worker Autumn Mitchell, a third of the studio’s institutional knowledge keeping ZOS’s projects running smoothly has been eliminated.
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ZeniMax Workers Call Out Microsoft For Its “Inhumane” and “Disgusting” Mass Layoff Execution
If you follow the video game industry at all, then unless you've been living under a rock for the month of July, you've heard about Microsoft enacting its latest mass layoff, which cut 9,000+ people across the company, a large chunk of those cuts hitting its Xbox and gaming division. It was an awful way to start the month, as we learned, and are still learning, how those cuts impacted studios like The Initiative, ZeniMax Online, Rare, and King, to name a few.
In an interview with Game Developer, several ZeniMax Media developers, some of whom are still with the studio and others who were impacted in the layoffs, called out Microsoft and Xbox executive leadership for how poorly the mass layoff was handled, the chaos it caused, and the execution of the whole situation, which some called "inhumane" and "disgusting."