Microsoft has been on a pretty brutal layoff streak, and it looks to only be continuing. Reports indicate that the company is letting go about 9,000 more staffers, or about 4% of its workforce. This more from its Microsoft Gaming division, colloquially and previously called the Xbox part of the company, which was hit early last year alongside recent acquisition Activision Blizzard.
Specifically on said gaming division, the company’s gaming lead Phil Spencer is cited to have said that that it is following “Microsoft’s lead in removing layers of management to increase agility and effectiveness”. But the whole situation may be ironic, if not new, for non-managerial staffers affected, as Phil also mentions that this is done “at a time when we have more players, games and gaming hours than ever before”.
In relation to these layoffs, or even because of them, the planned reboot of Perfect Dark has been axed, and one of the studios behind it, The Initiative, shut down. Also on the chopping block include a fantasy game Everwild by UK-based Rare Studio, as well as a new MMO by ZeniMax Online Studios, the name behind The Elder Scrolls Online and Bethesda Softworks. Both games have been in the oven for years, and their respective studios will see job cuts as a result.
This round of layoffs follow a 3% headcount reduction back in May of this year, of 7,000 workers. It’s also the the largest Microsoft layoff since 2023, when it let go 10,000 workers at the time.
(Source: The Seattle Times, Bloomberg, CNN)
