Summary
- Microsoft has reportedly laid off more employees across its gaming, security, and sales divisions.
- It's unclear how many employees have been impacted.
- These new layoffs are also unconnected to a previous round of cuts announced earlier in January.
Microsoft has reportedly laid off additional employees across its gaming, security, and sales divisions. The past few years have been challenging for the video game industry, with many companies, including Microsoft, announcing significant layoffs in 2024. These layoffs have affected both major studios and smaller indie developers. Recent examples include IllFonic, the developer behind Predator: Hunting Grounds, and People Can Fly, known for Outriders. Earlier this month, Rocksteady also announced layoffs following the mixed reception of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.
Microsoft, one of the largest companies to be hit by layoffs, has been reducing its Xbox workforce since the beginning of 2024. In January, Microsoft announced the layoff of 1,900 staff members from its Xbox gaming division, including employees at acquired subsidiaries like Activision Blizzard and ZeniMax. In September, another 650 employees were let go from corporate and support roles at Activision Blizzard.
According to a recent report from Business Insider (via GamesIndustry.biz), another round of layoffs at Microsoft may have just occurred. A Microsoft spokesperson mentioned that these latest cuts would affect a small number of staff members, though the exact number of layoffs was not specified. These new layoffs are separate from an earlier round of cuts announced earlier this month, which focused on underperforming workers not necessarily connected to Xbox.
Microsoft's ongoing layoffs are particularly significant given the company's recent acquisitions of major publishers like Bethesda and Activision Blizzard, and the news that Microsoft reached a $3 trillion market value shortly after the massive January 2024 layoffs. The initial wave of cuts led to complaints from the FTC, which attempted to use the layoffs at Activision Blizzard as a basis to block or reverse Microsoft's merger with the Call of Duty publisher.
Previous Microsoft layoffs have impacted Xbox's physical retail teams, most of Blizzard's customer service team, and in-house developers such as Sledgehammer Games and Toys for Bob. Blizzard's unnamed survival game, codenamed Project Odyssey, was also canceled following these layoffs. The number of employees affected by the latest reported layoffs remains unconfirmed, and the potential impact on the Xbox gaming division is still unknown.
