Following the Microsoft and Blizzard layoff news posted earlier today, Xbox's Matt Booty has also made a lengthy statement on the company's reasoning behind such a huge round of job losses.
Coming by way of The Verge, Matt Booty has done some more explaining in relation to today's somewhat shocking news. Booty told Blizzard that Microsoft is aiming for "a more focused strategy" after acquiring the company - and that this move has contributed to these job losses.
Here's a snippet from Booty's statement, which was sent out as an internal memo to Blizzard employees:
"As you may have read in Phil’s note, today is a challenging day as we say goodbye to some of our colleagues. This is a difficult process, but it is one that will best enable Blizzard and Xbox to deliver ambitious games for our players on more platforms and in more places than ever before. We are moving forward with a more focused strategy across Microsoft Gaming that sets us up for sustainable growth and aligns our talent and resources to our top priorities.
Thank you for working through these changes with us. Together we will continue to create amazing games for our players, with a culture that empowers everyone to be their most authentic selves and do their best work."
You can check out Booty's full comments via The Verge - it's a lengthy statement that even goes into detail about what any affected employees should do next. This sort of memo is never a nice thing to read - we hope everyone at Blizzard and Xbox's other teams lands on their feet after this massive restructure at Microsoft.