Microsoft Cuts 1,900 Jobs Across Xbox, Bethesda And Activision Blizzard Teams

Best wishes to everyone impacted by this, that is a massive hit.

This was bound to happen after the merger but still disappointing to see, not even a month into 2024 and already 5000+ people have lost their job in the gaming industry…

@Gloki_junior you do know this is something essentially all businesses do? Some might pretend to be all "Friendly", but they are all out to make/save money and increase profits, whether Sony or Microsoft, and that will sometimes include job cuts.

This is at a time were job cuts across the entire industry are becoming very common. Microsoft would never be immune to cutting jobs, especially after buying Activision Blizzard.

@Gloki_junior Microsoft cut their workforce by over 10,000 just last year alone, this is exactly the sort of thing they have done before and it will likely happen again unfortunately.
You could see it coming a mile off they they were going to eventually have to cut numbers after buying massive publishers. I just didn't expect it to be quite so severe.

While this obviously is unfortunate news to hear and my heart goes out to the folks affected, this shouldn't come as a surprise. A giant corporation was absorbed by an even more giant corporation. There was always going to be some overlap there.

Hopefully this is it as far as Xbox layoffs go at least.

Holy *****, that’s a huge number.

Unfortunately, too many gamers won’t even care about the families and the stress and the horrible ripple effects that come from this — because they get Activision games on Gamepass.

I get this kind of thing happens in business and everyone knew people were going to lose their jobs (though not to this degree). I just wish people wouldn’t wave it off either. Being laid off is a horrible, stressful situation. It's not the time for console wars or fanboying BS.

Sincerely wishing everyone affected the best and that they get on their feet fast. And really hope this is the last round of layoffs in MS and gaming in general (but I sadly won’t hold my breath for either).

Love gaming as much as anyone, but man what a seemingly terrible industry to work in. Pretty much a daily thing now, hope folks land on their feet soon.

@Gloki_junior Why is it more of a Sony thing to do? All large corporations tend to do similar things after mergers due to many factors many can be simply down to the fact they have too many people doing the same job as each other and a large workforce in certain cases is not necessarily productive or cost effective in certain roles. As some one has also mentioned this isn't the first time recently Microsoft has done this.

Understand there will be overlap and redundancies in roles but you would think that a company who is now worth 3trillion$ and making billions in profit could find different roles for these people.

Obviously the merges have something to do with it. It is also probably driven by the massive staff up during the pandemic. Microsoft had a total employee count of approximately 140k in 2019 and it was about 221k in 2022 and 2023.

Geez, the cuts and layoffs never end in this industry. I feel bad for everyone affected as I too wanted to get a job as a game developer/designer. Seeing all this though… I’m glad I’m where I’m at.

We didn't get anything from the Activision deal, and a lot of people lost their jobs. But Microsoft is a great company. All hail Microsoft!

@EvenStephen7 We get Activision games on game pass?

@Fishticon (presumably) at some point. But it has been radio silence.

With the acquisition and being the largest game development group, this was inevitable. When companies get acquired or split, changes are made. 1900 are gone, but they're also hiring for their studios as well like the Coalition. I'm sure some of these people will find jobs in other areas or studios. It's still hard to hear though.

This was very expected. When companies merge there's always overlap. and failing companies that are purchased are often bloated.

@themightyant
Serious they have all those staff more than Sony and Nintendo and can’t and also don’t seem to be producing in 2024 anything at the level of a TOTK and GOWR etc, what do they all do all day.

I will just never understand how it is smart to cut talent. Especially at a company struggling to release thei games on time. All of these companies let greed make them penny smart and pound foolish.

I said right at the begining of this acquisition ,that there would be job losses ,and was met with ,oh but ms have unlimited funds,that will never happen,unfortunately there will be more to come.

I knew something like this was coming after the acquisition.

More department heads who made operations run smoothly are gone and microsoft turns to contract labor moving forward

@Gloki_junior something like this was inevitable after an acquisition/merger of that size.

They spent 69 Billion on them they sure as hell didn't need to do this.

@themightyant we are already seeing the delivering part. They already have a great year of 1st party output and that is just the confirmed games.

We probably don't know half of the games they have in the pipeline but the number of games we do know of is way higher than any other publisher.

So I totally expected the admin side to get affected due to overlap. But i’m surprised by this news on the developer front. Machinegames just opened up a new studio. It felt like amongst the multiple companies laying off staff, perhaps Microsoft could be the exception and be hiring, or at least not letting people go. Shame.

If they report "record profits" in 2024 they should be forced to give it to those people they laid off.

Just told my pal about the Xbox lay offs, and all he said was: : "Don't care, when are we getting all the Call of Duties on gamepass?" "BUY some games you moron" was pretty much my reply. Tight wad

Maybe they weren’t happy watching their other teams drive around the office on scooters and lay about in hammocks under their desks during developer direct 🤣

Everyone feels sorry for these people but they have it good while it lasts.

It really doesn't make good reading when in the same week Microsoft was valued at $3trillion.

Very sad news and not a good look. Best of luck to all those who were impacted by these decisions.

@EvenStephen7 what do gamers/consumers have to do with this ..

Well.....I'm pretty sure Quality Control for issues such as bugs, file save errors, etc, will not be affected or effected. Since there is apparently no such division at Bethesda.

Made the painful decision lol.. more likely planned by their internal efficiency team 3 years ago or so when they looked at the viability of buying ActiBliz. No sudden decisions here guaranteed.

@EvenStephen7 Complaining about fanboys and right away blaming Xbox users' wishes and Game Pass under a three-brand avatar?

@Kaloudz I absolutely agree. I've worked in HR/recruitment for over 15 years at some major global brands and I've had to deliver these kind of layoffs to employees.

It's never easy but, at well run businesses, a natural occurrence. The timing won't help the perception of what Microsoft is doing is the point I was trying to make.

@EvenStephen7 @Fishticon I was thinking the same thing? Did I miss Diablo 4 on game pass?

Unfortunately this stinks. I hate seeing job losses in any company at this magnitude.

Whilst the news is of course sad, it’s not at all a surprise. Mergers, takeovers will always result in redundancies and this isn’t even mass redundancies.
I feel for the workers but in reality it’s a minsicule proportion of the gaming division.
As for Xbox losing MS money, maybe look at the financials and you will see that isn’t the case at all. The consoles do but that’s nothing new.
Revenue wise, the gaming division of MS is highly profitable.

Sony won’t let GP on PlayStation unless hell freezes over. Nintendo maybe but I doubt it.

People will try and make a big deal out of this news and try and suggest it’s the end of Xbox.

Anyone who thinks that is living in cloud cuckoo land.

@EvenStephen7 out of 22k it’s not a huge number at all.
You can’t have 2 people doing the same job. I don’t agree with redundancies but sadly with sometime like this, it was inevitable.

Maybe Major Nelson knew something was going on?

He did leave in what seemed to be pretty sudden and out of nowhere. Of course, that is my view looking from the outside. Could been many different reasons none of us know.

Sadly it’s normal though.

Takeovers rarely create jobs. They always lead to job losses.

It’s horrible and I know because I’ve been through it with Citi and Barclaycard years ago.

Places of this size deal in money and never people.

@Swirly I beg to differ. If you're friend is subscribed to game pass, then definitely not a tight wad. For what it offers game pass is incredibly overpriced and still not offers to purchase 12 months at a discount much like Xbox Live did.

Many will try and spin this and Xbox being in trouble but there is little going on here than normal practice after a takeover.

It’s not good and it’s bad for those affected but this is not a surprise. It’s nothing out of the ordinary and sadly it will happen again throughout gaming.

MS are embracing AI in a big way and that will lead to even more layoffs I’m afraid.

@__jamiie Valued at 3 trillion is different than a profit of 3 trillion. Not saying I know what profit Microsoft have. But I'd be surprised if is 3 trillion.

@BaldBelper78 Citi is ABSOLUTELY one of the WORST places to work. The place is a complete, utter disaster of no direction and mismanagement.

You can NOT, and should NOT, make decisions on correcting problems that simply appease the stockholders. It's only putting a band-aid on the situation that one day is going to need ripped off. Sooner or later a problem will NEED addressed. Throwing it under the rug will not make it disappear. Citi is notorious for this mentality. And paying fines. Billions in fines to the government EVERY year.

@Banjo- …… I’m not blaming Gamepass users? I’m saying too many people always attack or get horribly dismissive because they’re only interested in their own wants.

But yea, I’ll always roll my eyes and mock fanboys, regardless of their console.

This sucks for those affected and I wish people wouldn’t wave it away because of brand loyalty. If you’ve never been through a layoff, you have no idea how awful it can be.

Not sure why having a 3 console avatar is a problem though. I’m an adult who makes good money and play across all consoles. Many users on PureXbox are the same.

@Kaloudz No worries at all. I probably wasn't clear. It's just another sad day for the industry as a whole.

And this is why mega mergers are not good - they are anti competitive and overall bad for the industry because of this type of action - buying other companies is simply there to eliminate the competition and make further profit. By shrinking their workforce in such a manor means they are adding pressure to the other remaining staff and trying to produce more output for less cost. Effectively MS has spent too much buying companies and the staff suffer the consequences.
None of this is related to creating more games, it's all profit and overheads. Now you can see why the CMA thought it was a bad idea - expect more layoffs!

@EvenStephen7 There's no problem with liking every brand, it's just that I found your comment completely contradictory and I don't know what Xbox fans have to do with this. Regarding the other part, nobody here is happy about people losing their job, but I can understand that after a huge merger some roles overlap. I don't know why some people assume that those made redundant are programmers and artists and that we'll get fewer games. Microsoft is not stupid!

ABK is a huge company, bloated like most big publishers. Although I understand what you mean, I also think that things get too complicated and start failing when there are too many people working, some overlap and the whole are not working as a focused team.

Regardless of money, all of the Xbox Game Studios need to become a working place where everybody has a role and work harmoniously. It's not always about layoffs, they also hire people and create new teams, teams like The Initiative that still needs to be fixed because it was a mess until Crystal Dynamics came to rescue. 343 Industries also needed external assistance for creating the campaign of Halo Infinite, that is great. All this tells me that some of the Xbox Game Studios need to be restructured.

You can only look at the sad side, the layoffs, but these companies cost billions and need to be efficient to exist. What I find much more worrying is the excruciating working conditions and the crunch culture of some studios like Naughty Dog. I would never approve that at Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo's studios.

EDIT: 1,900 roles out of 22,000 people after acquiring one of the biggest publishers in the world, including ABK's customer service and community managers. As I said before because it just makes sense, it's not about developers or artists but other positions that overlap.

The people carrying water for a corporation laying people off are the reason we cannot have nice things. Layoffs used to be a last resort now because of people like you they are just another cost saving measure. Unless Microsoft is getting out of making games this is a stupid move.

@Banjo- I say this with all respect: I think you might be reading a little too much into my comment.

I'm not arguing against most of what you throughout those paragraphs. I'm saying: getting laid off is awful. I think people need to take a beat and recognize that peoples' lives are being upended, and that's more important than toys and games (just look at some of these comments!).

It was just a call for civility. Which I guess was my fault, this is the internet.

That said, going through your comments: I agree Xbox needs to be restructured and crunch sucks regardless of who is doing it.

But layoffs are sad, and I don't know how you can look at it anything else at the moment — even if it's an unfortunate side of doing business. There are nearly 2K people (more, considering those left but still affected and demoralized) who are feeling VERY sad today.

@EvenStephen7 I'm just trying to be analytical and look at the big picture. Yes, it's sad that anybody loses their job (unless they deserve it), I agree with you about that.

My heart goes out to the Devs whos lives will be shattered by this move. Given the recent layoffs in the industry, it must be very difficult for anyone to find new work.
I refuse to accept that a company with the pockets of MS could not restructure and form more targetted dev teams foccussed on the games they still need, but there has to be a will to do that. Despite Phil putting a friendly media face to the buisness, they are the same ruthless corporation of old. The only difference these days is that most other corporations have become just as ruthless. The days of gaming buisness being run partially for the benefit of the workers are long gone, and corps no longer need to be losing money before ruining lives - these days they will do it in response to a projected dip in growth.
Im disspointed in many of the companies, but particularly in MS who are one of the leading companies and have the means to do this better.
I pray for the staff affected, Ive been made redundant from a game many a time, but back in the day, the jobs came you with little effort. I fear thats not the case anymore.

@Banjo- I understand. And obviously Microsoft is a megacorp in a capitalistic society; they're (understandably) not a charity. Like I said, I get it. All I was trying to do was offer a show of support to those affected and a reminder that there are bigger things at stake than games.

@Lightning720 did someone call me?

I know loosing a job with reasonably good pay can be bad but I can imagine after getting another one some of those developers and whoever else will have big sigh of relief not producing bloody call of duty every year, hats off to them though for making that garbage every yearly cycle.

@GuyinPA75 I know. They came to the UK and destroyed morale and the workplace. Snakes

@EvenStephen7 i wonder if one of 2000 people laid off in this sat on the internet giving people crap playing the moral high ground when I got laid off the day after I had my second child. I’m pretty sure my co workers were over it by lunch, and I’m supposed to hold my tounge because someone else lost their job.

Perhaps they should focus on not making half baked games. Games like Forza Motorsport are appearing to be a flop.

What is really bad is that MS have also closed the department responsible for physical games. Whilst we know Xbox is focused on digital gaming, this is an insult to gamers who still want physical games.
Phil Spencer is treating fans with a great deal of contempt and it’s a tightrope he’s starting to walk.

Xbox displays in retailers are already non existent and if they go all digital, they will disappear altogether which will hand PlayStation another boost- one they do not need.

Maybe this is a sign that Xbox is heading toward going 3rd party.

Whatever , going all digital is a bad move

The state of the comments here. If this was Sony the same people would be saying VERY different things.

This is 1900 families that now have a real struggle at the worst of times

The company spent billions.

It’s a bad look. Those saying “this is expected” could you be more preprogrammed but the richest 5% the rich 5% have double their wealth in the last few years. Whilst the rest have shrunk their wealth.

This isn’t needed and the richest will still make record profits.

Stop validating this behaviour

The ~worlds~ most profitable company fires 1900 people en mass. There's no way anyone can justify this. So much so that Ybarra won't even stay on. It was obvious Gaming was entering a lull after '23. There was no way to sustain that momentum. But this is one helluva wake up call.

@Adol-Bannings That sucks you went through that, and I'm sorry you weren’t liked and respected enough by your old coworkers. Hopefully that’s changed.

@Stocksy "If this was Sony the same people would be saying VERY different things."

To expect something is not the same as to wish for something. If Sony had purchased a publisher the size of ABK, "the same people" would have expected exactly the same thing to happen: unwanted redundancies.

I feel bad for the people losing their jobs but I was kind of expecting it after everything was sorted (and not in the Sony/Bungie way). They waited after the holidays and got MS benefits (hopefully for all of them). Redundancies is big thing here!

Note: MS is laying off the entire internal ABK customer support and the physical games department is also on their list. Outsourcing could be the solution here.

So a lot is still going on … Jez Cordon is reporting on it!

“Cleaning house” is the first task of new management/ownership. So it’s not surprising in the least. Sad for the people having to find new jobs and possibly suddenly loosing a “work family” they’ve come to know and love.

How crass of Microsoft to bang on about the 3 trillion dollar market cap after laying off 1900 staff!
The PR at Microsoft today is in need of sacking! In a week, Xbox has gone from a real surge of goodwill to plumbing the depths!
Whilst job losses are not a huge surprise, Phil Spencer, Matt Booty and Sarah Bond will slowly kill off Xbox as a console if they are not careful.
They lack communication with fans and are on a trajectory of kill the console.l, go all digital, go 3rd party.
The handling of the situation today has been embarrassing and a PR disaster.

Hid only knows what Phil is going to do next to try and make Xbox as unpopular as possible.

Love my Xbox but the top brass are testing my patience.

All these people on here saying this was expected, are the same people who were saying the ABK acquisition was a good thing. Sure they feel sorry for the all the people that lost their jobs now, but it was okay then as long as they get some games thrown into GamePass that were always coming to Xbox anyway.

Was it a good financial decision maybe. Is still sad though. That's a lot of people, a lot of talent lost, sure were they all worth it no idea, was a lot of money saved probably, a lot of voices made during the strike maybe Microsoft went nope see ya later.

As a non-Gamepass user yeah to me ABK games didn't benefit me. Do I care about games yes, many of the ABK IPs not really. I think the people getting sacked well good luck finding a job now at other studios or going Indie or quitting video games entirely too.

Microsoft sacked many in their own departments too prior years so I shouldn't be surprised. Google I can understand and they have a period for their employees to move on. I was wondering when I was studying and going oh Google's speakers and other products and services are going oh ok that's a surprise but they can still apply for other roles in the company at least or have time to relocate to other jobs.

1900 is a lot of people in many departments, do they need a lot of people to make games, do marketing and more probably not but at the same time it's a lot of people there. A lot of talent, probably yeah a lot of bad blood, a lot of money saved of jobs and paying them or whatever else goes into it that was or wasn't being used or was costing too much. Whatever they discovered was going on there.

Maybe some bad staff but likely bad management.

I don't really trust Microsoft, I already have no interest in Windows 11, I barely use my Xbox or care for anything they make as it is as each game of those I cared for have been disappointments and those that are different types of games are fine but not my thing really let alone a garbage UI/OS for navigation and ads and filler trash in it.

Their decisions do make financial or business sense but at the same time I highly have much reason to use their products or services as it is.

Sure Office quality of life is nice but I can use many other options even if some are janky.

I knew we would see changes but I didn't know what to expect.

This is a start but how much better will it get probably less exciting and wanting that Warzone or Candy Crush money (is WOW even worth the money compared to Elder Scrolls Online, Fallout 76 or Sea of Theives/Forza Motorsport/Halo live service focus), will they care about Spyro 4 and other projects maybe but I mean like Microsoft cares about kid friendly IPs let alone most of what ABK even had anyways.

I still remember the Japanese or family games quotes, still don't think much of them. Yes Japanese games on Xbox is a different situation then OG/360 but eh even then too late of releases, whatever messaging they try is fine but I mean others they could nah they need their image to look good.

Other than the back compat I didn't care I had no interest in the deal whether it got past or not. Even then I didn't have strong wish fulfillment for it happening either.

Pitfall as a Uncharted/Tomb Raider/Indy type explorer adventure puzzle game IP to use nope. Even then if it was remade it'd be probably terrible.

The old IPs will be abandonware like many other Microsoft IPs are. Time to pick them up. Whatever new games well who knows what gets approved or not. Was this only Blizzard though no Vicarious, what other studios? As Vicarious was working on the Blizzard side then the Activison side not just because they made Diablo 2 remake.

A game was lost wish it may have been good like Scalebound like Fable Legends. But who really knows it could have been bad. Also Survival game how? Since when does AAA do survival games ever even a little bit mechanic wise they just don't. Fallout never did. Most others don't.

Long time follower, first time commenter… Be gentle peeps…

Wasn’t this inevitable? Any form of M&A results in this. No need for multiple HR and press departments etc. I would agree the numbers seem large (they can’t all have been there protecting against The A* Hole know as Bobby Kotick?) but Is this just a part of everyone scaling back atm? We’re now seeing multiple lay-offs announced daily. ATBK were bought for the access to established IPs on mobile and the PC hardcore (read East Asian markets). Scaling back is perhaps needed but has Microsoft already taken on too much already this Gen?

Shout out to @Themightyant and @Evenstephens for great points I agree with. Happy gaming folks (I’m off back to LAD Gaiden)!

@AdamANDSteve Yep, most of the positions are customer service agents, HR and community managers and it's 1,900 roles out of the 22,000 people, so kind of inevitable after acquiring one of the biggest publishers in the world.

As you said, most companies are scaling back after covid and scaling back is always better than closing full studios, as we have seen before many times in the video games industry, like the recent closures at Sony and Embracer.

Thanks @Banjo- That’s genuinely very insightful and more than anyone else is reporting atm - it’s also as I thought. Completely sucks for everyone involved but let’s not pretend working in the gaming industry isn’t vicarious. I’ll just never figure out why all of the big devs chased COVID figures (Ie player engagement) so hard… But hey, I’m no CEO… 😉

@EvenStephen7 - as I didn’t correctly tag you before. (Sorry, new here re commentary.)

A question for all… and I’ll shut up and play some more Yakuza before bed…

Are we potentially seeing some form of a modern Crash of ‘83? Albeit with Sky high profits and player engagement at a high? The Crash never hit us in Europe, especially the UK, just a fascinating subject. Just pondering if history will repeat?

@AdamANDSteve Thank you, too! I think that companies (and people) get used to ridiculous and atypical success too quickly and too childishly. Nintendo was disappointed with Super Mario Galaxy sales after selling Wii Sports and New Super Mario Bros. Wii to every human being because of the Wii fad. Then Wii U came. Sony was super arrogant after PS2 and then PS3 and Vita came. Microsoft was super confident about Xbox One Kinect bundles after Xbox 360 but no. Square Enix is always complaining because not every player in the world has bought their games...

These huge companies shouldn't expect that they will always be a social phenomenon invading all of the society's lifestyles and homes. Like you say, the pandemic was completely unusual. People bought the most boring Animal Crossing game to date like they were buying another bundle of masks. Sorry for no longer spending the whole day home playing games because of a worldwide cataclysm!

Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony should be grateful and feel lucky about the video games industry being healthy and consolidated, unlike other entertainment industries. Nope, I don't think there will be a crash.

So it turns out they weren't all overlap like the people on here running damage control are trying to claim and Microsoft will be filling some of the roles by outsourcing to foreign countries. Anything to save a penny it seems.

I get there are redundancies, but why is this affecting Zenimax? That feels off.

@Banjo- Agree with you a lot in principle. It’s never healthy for one company to a dominant / superior role. I’m fortunate enough to own all the current consoles (total console gamer here, I only own a Series S though 😂 - Don’t hate me!).

COVID was, hopefully, a once in a generational thing. Can’t see why they took so much stock in it - but, imho, it really raised awareness of gaming and it being for family fun and also artistic. Purely anecdotal but friends and family that got interested in gaming during the lockdowns, still interested and slightly playing today.

I think the Crash is already happening, tbh. Companies overreaching, pivots around live service (cough Uncle Jim), mass lay-offs. Won’t be as bad as the Crash of ‘83 (that really only hit the US), it’ll just play out in the biggest market ever.

Anyways Mr, what’re you playing?! 😉

@AdamANDSteve Good point, uncle Jim coveting gaming subscriptions and massively multiplayer online games; it seems the opposite of the previous philosophy. You might be right about some kind of crisis considering the mergers to perhaps reduce costs and increase the value, like Game Pass becoming full of first-party games and, at the same time, reducing physical manufacturing and not paying a fortune for a six-month deal with a third party (Rockstar, cough). Then there is Sony's huge debt and the mentioned change of business strategy (online games, subscriptions, PC ports...) Nintendo was really lucky with Switch and the lockdown but they weren't as lucky with Wii U. Who knows what's next.

Games: I just beat the Halo Infinite campaign which is surprisingly good after how bad Halo 5 was. I would like to play a third-party game next, on Game Pass; maybe Persona 5 Tactica after having played Persona 5 Royal last year. I'm also replaying Extreme-G, a childhood favourite! I often play old games. I also have the Yakuza games but I haven't played them yet.

My consoles: all Nintendo until last generation, then PS4, then Xbox One, Xbox One X and now Series X 😁. My favourite handheld still is New Nintendo 3DS (the smaller model that they Yankees didn't get). What are you playing?

Wonder if that was Microsoft's intention all along. Buy Activision Blizzard and dismiss 1000s of staff. Not a nice New Year gift. They could've merged those staff into Microsoft's gaming studios.

@Banjo- Again, I get where you’re coming from. Maybe a “downturn” is better than saying a “crash” but it’s happening IMHO. For a company the size of ABK, no sense to carry across support roles (though ABK needed it, the sh*t that happened there 😉) into MS / Xbox Gaming. Devs and artists will have been let go, no doubt. But what have ABK done outside of Diablo 4 this year? And a very poorly received COD (originally a DLC)? Restructuring needed… (I just personally despise Kotick.)

Soo need to play Halo 5 (massive Nathan Fillion fan here). I would recommend P5 Tactica. Story is “meh” but good tactical strategy. Just, a year after starting then GamePass got me distracted, finally completed Hi-Fi Rush last week (adored, Trent Reznor and The Prodigy 😘). Enjoying Planet of Lana atm, Like a Dragon Gaiden and getting myself prepped for Persona 3 ReLoad! Koromaru ftw!

@GuyinPA75 he's on gamepass core atm. He dropped ultimate in autumn. Apparently won't go back to GPU until CoD goes on there. As I say, he's a tight wad

What do they need 22,000 people for?

Why won't the games media acknowledge that companies have insane bloat? Nintendo have 5000 employees. Blizzard had 22,000.

These companies are just shedding unnecessary roles. How many writers do you need? Do you need 40 writers when you could get away with 20? Do you need 80 artists when you could get away with 50? Consultants, social media managers. There's so much fluff and bloat but nobody ever acknowledges it. Why?

And don’t let the door hit you behind !!! That blizzard boss that took over in 2012 was not innovative or creative very dull with his gameplan

@AdamANDSteve Yes, downturn might be a better term in this case. Interesting games you mentioned, most are in my backlog already 😉.

Regarding ABK, the management was questionable as you said and it was reported that they were looking for buyers before Microsoft made an offer, so I think that the acquisition was positive. Some of its studios were forced to assist the yearly production of Call of Duty games, so I hope that those studios are able to return to Spyro, Crash, Tony Hawk's and more. It would be good for Xbox to have this kind of games so I hope that they do it.

@dreadful I'd say it's even worse my friend. I wonder how much A.i. has to do with this. As a whole even though I'm all for innovation, the rise of A.i. imo in every sector of the gaming industry has only been thus far detrimental. As I believe is evident with the loss of over 5000 positions so far this year.

When one company acquires another there are immediate and obvious redundancies. One massive company doesn't necessarily need 3-4 marketing teams, multiple social teams, etc. This was going to happen no matter what. It's awful, yes, but it was to be expected.

Absolutely on script. Everyone here cheered this merger on, gloated over Sony, and now give the rote nonsense “This was inevitable hope for the best for those impacted.” My god, jump up and down for a soulless corporation and carry their water no matter what. Revolting, really. Now watch the march to more layoffs, increased digital distribution, online rental programs, and price increases with lower overhead. They must have all the money. And you eat it up.

@dreadful Yup that baffles me because what do they produce except from call of duty, overwatch and the odd diablo, spyro and crash bandicoot game?......Absolutely naff all.