Microsoft is Laying Off Another 650 Employees at Xbox - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 12 September 2024 / 3,953 Views
Microsoft has laid off another 650 employees in its gaming division.
This is on top of the 1,900 laid off in January of this year and the closing of Redfall developer Arkane Austin and Mighty DOOM developer Alpha Dog Studios. Tango Gameworks was originally going to be shut down, however, Publisher Krafton acquired the studio and the Hi-Fi Rush IP last month.
The majority of layoffs this time are at "corporate and supporting functions," according to Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer in an internal memo sent to employees obtained by The Verge. No studios are being closed and "no games, devices or experiences are being cancelled."
Read the complete memo by Phil Spencer below:
For the past year, our goal has been to minimize disruption while welcoming new teams and enabling them to do their best work. 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.
I know that this is difficult news to hear. We are deeply grateful for the contributions of our colleagues who are learning they are impacted. In the US, we’re supporting them with exit packages that include severance, extended healthcare, and outplacement services to help with their transition; outside the US packages will differ according to location.
With these changes, our corporate and supporting teams and resources are aligned for sustainable future growth, and can better support our studio teams and business units with programs and resources that can scale to meet their needs. Separately, as part of running the business, there are some impacts to other teams as they adapt to shifting priorities and manage the lifecycle and performance of games. No games, devices or experiences are being cancelled and no studios are being closed as part of these adjustments today.
Throughout our team’s history, we have had great moments, and we have had challenging ones. Today is one of the challenging days. I know that going through more changes like this is hard, but even in the most trying times, this team has been able to come together and show one another care and kindness as we work to continue delivering for our players. We appreciate your support as we navigate these changes and we thank you for your compassion and respect for each other.
Phil
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
More Articles
Sounds like duplicate back office personnel like HR, Finances, IT, Marketing, Purchasing, Logistics, Legal, etc. Not uncommon year or so after an acquisition. That's about the time needed to merge offices for companies this size. Still sucks for those affected. I just hope they got some kind of retention bonus for this period to make the merging happen.
WOW... That Activision buyout really didn't help anything for Xbox
Really could have used that 70 Billion to either buy dozens of smaller studios, support the studios they already had, or secure 3rd party exclusives...
You are thinking like a customer and console enthusiast and not like a shareholder. The shareholders are and still were thrilled by the transaction and that’s all that matters in today’s economy.
Funny enough, I actually have a very significant amount of money invested in the industry lol
true! the 70billion was a great investment for now and the future for microsoft
These acquisitions are almost entirely done the for the purpose of gaining ownership over IP. Microsoft now has ownership over Banjo, Crash, Spyro, CoD, Skylanders, Candy Crush, and so much more…despite literally having had nothing to do with them.
ABK is making Xbox billions. 100 games means little compared to a CoD.
Is that the argument you want to make in an article about MS firing people from ABK?
How does letting people go that you had no idea existed affect your gaming?
I didn't say it did.
I asked in a thread about people being fired do you want to make the argument that Xbox is making billions.
Look what I am replying to below.
"WOW... That Activision buyout really didn't help anything for Xbox"
When people spout nonsense like this, they need to be corrected. ABK makes MS Billions, which totally disproves this point.
And again I ask is "Xbox is making billions" the response you want to make in a thread about people being fired from their jobs.
Wow this is gas seeing an admin/mod act so childish....
it seems no devs where fired only staff in HR, Finances, IT, Marketing, Purchasing, Logistics, Legal, etc like tober said.
I mean can people really expect to keep people around if their roles are already filled? i wonder what would Bandorr be saying if this was Sony and it was non devs. maybe check his post history....
So why don't you reply to HopeMillsHorror bringing up ABK doing nothing for Xbox in a thread where ABK are cutting staff?
They are laying off people from the administrative and support departments, so it doesn't make sense to buy studios to support the old ones.
Exclusivity in games from third-party studios is the biggest stupidity I've ever seen, because it's not their IP. In fact, if it were something that good, Take Two and EA would make exclusivity contracts, whereas we only see a marketing contract today.
I think ABK is just going to be forced to adopt the customer service model that the rest of Microsoft uses, which is: lay off every human involved in customer service except those that deal in business to business transactions, replace all customer service reps with AI and knowledge base articles, and then if someone needs human assistance run them in a bot loop until they get frustrated and give up
Well, I'm glad they are all non-gaming positions and that no projects were cancelled, but still incredibly sad to see so many laid off at once.
I know there must be a lot of redundancy caused by Microsoft's recent purchases, but those are very significant numbers. More than 2k jobs lost in a single year is worrying for the future of XBox, and the year isn't done yet.
Big Phil just went Elon on Xbox. Maybe this helps? ... probably not.
Hopefully they find work at a company that actually appreciates them.
Slam that dick in the door MS. No one is taking your title away.
What is the bad decision made here?
this comment makes your original comment a lot more coherent lol.
Jesus christ poor trillion dollar company let them buy more publishers it seems to be good for everyone. /s
In my opinion, it is extremely sad. I know that they are focusing on people who mostly work in the administrative and support areas, that is, they are cutting costs in areas that do not generate value for the product or service, which makes perfect sense from the point of view of production management, whose goal is a lean system (Toyota production system).
Mergers of large corporations will always bring these types of results, because there are redundant positions, and I think there is still room for more layoffs in the administrative sectors of Activision Blizzard and Bethesda. What they want to keep are the IPs and employees who will bring value to the company. Every company does this... in the end, stakeholders want to know that investments are being maximized. I think there should be advance notice so that people can plan ahead, stop spending, and look for a new job while they are still working at their current company (I think there should be legislation so that people who are going to lose a job can receive help from the government and the company itself to quickly enter a new workplace. Of course, what I said is utopian).
But Phil Spencer and Matt Booty, or anyone else higher up responsible for how bad Xbox is going has gotten the sack at all. That’s because It’s class war, like it always has been.
