It's been confirmed today by Xbox boss Phil Spencer that the Microsoft Gaming division will be cutting 650 jobs across "mostly corporate and supporting functions" to ensure the business is sufficiently organised for long-term success.
This was first reported by Stephen Totilo at Game File, who shared Spencer's message to employees in full. In the statement, Spencer acknowledged that it was a "challenging" moment for the business and affected employees would be supported with exit packages that include severance, extended healthcare, and outplacement services.
Here's a bit more about the reasoning behind these 650 job losses:
"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."
According to a source at Game File, the majority of the cuts are Activision Blizzard related.
It was also mentioned by Spencer that nothing is being cancelled in terms of games, experiences or even full studios this time around - unlike when a handful of studios were shut by Microsoft earlier in the year.
Obviously it's always terrible to hear news like this, and our best wishes go out to the 650 affected employees.
Comments 53
aw s*** here we go again.
Color me surprised
(Disclaimer: Obviously it sucks when anyone loses their job, I’m not celebrating this)
Well, at least they’re not cutting jobs involved in the actual making of games. That’s rather important when making games is your business. If they have to cut, let it be positions that don’t impact THAT.
Yuck. Job losses always suck.
*Edit
To add, my daughter just finished her Masters in Game art and design and 5 years ago I felt like she was getting into a great, ever growing industry and profession. These days I don't think that anymore and I pray that she can find good, consistent work in her field. Though the above job losses aren't in that particular part of game development, the industry in general is baulking a little right now. I'm just hoping she can code some indie gold and buy me that Porsche I've always dreamed of.
It's horrible news but given it's backend roles I'm guessing it's ones that are duplicated as part of the merger?
For example if you're now being paid by Microsoft's payroll you probably don't need a separate ABK payroll team once handover is done
The civil service may be relatively dull, but at least they don’t lay us all off if we implement an unsuccessful policy…
MS saw people being briefly more mad at Sony and had to fix that.
@EvenStephen7 how long before Sony tries to 1up again?
Great timing....
Awesome situation Sony is in. Whenever they screw up, Microsoft is immediately there to shine the light back on themselves.
PlayStation: Announces PS5 Pro and everyone hates it.
Phil Spencer: Hold my beer...
Cuts more jobs.
Tough couple years for the industry and global economy. It should turn around eventually.
I'm betting ubisoft is next in line to do a mass layoff.
Xbox in court - "Buying Activision won't result in layoffs."
@MrMagic in hindsight they should not have been allowed to purchase Activision. I was in favor of it back then, but oh boy, I did not expect Microsoft to basically abandon their own ecosystem that quickly. If I had to bet I would have said that the risks of a Microsoft monopoly are much higher than of a Sony one, but here we are.
Microsoft being Microsoft. I wonder how many thousands of people they've laid off over the years after countless acquisitions? Good reminder to not root for a corporation.
Growth, growth, growth. Profits aren't enough; we need to be making the biggest amount of money possible!
@tho_mi
This news sucks terribly, and the questions around the true intentions/benefits of the Activision acquisition (just realised those two words rhyme) are questions yet to be fully understood (apart from the obvious benefits of owning one of the the World's most popular gaming IP). Don't you think "I was in favor of it back then, but oh boy, I did not expect Microsoft to basically abandon their own ecosystem that quickly" is a tad hyperbolic, no? Where is the sentiment that Microsoft/Xbox are about to abandon their own ecosystem come from? There are tens of millions of us in that ecosystem, that's not a customer base anyone can just abandon without truly catastrophic damage to the brand.
Of course, you are at liberty to feel however you wish to feel on the matter, but I just think, respectfully, that you are overreacting slightly on this matter.
*Edited typos make my brain hurt
@MrMagic
I don't think the acquisition of Activision is causing this round. This is a general industry trend that studios and publishers are cutting jobs.
What a fu**ing pathetic generation this has been for both Microsoft and Sony…
Wonder if there is a breakdown of where in Xbox they came from? Game development? Hardware R&D? Etc.
That s*cks. MS keeps making these rounds, with no sign of actually turning business around.
I'll get hated for this, but my GPU subscription ran out a few days back and I did not extend it. Actually, I quickly sold my Xbox too.
Main reason is I don't believe in the current platform or it's longevity. Good luck to everybody affected and I hope they find new jobs soon, but I won't be investing into a sinking ship.
Xbox was jealous of Sony getting all the attention, so they tried to one-up them.
Why does Phil get paid 10 million when Xbox is failing and cutting jobs
@InterceptorAlpha It's "corporate and support roles at Activision Blizzard" so nothing to do with hardware or R&D.
HR? Publishing? Customer service? Marketing? Probably mostly things like that
Wonder if all the jobs are associated with the Xbox product naming department?
Xbox has some of the stupidest product console names and confusion in the industry.
@MrMagic they did say that. Even tho the court and MS knew they weren’t going to keep everyone. There is no need for duplicate positions. But they did say that.
@GADG3Tx87 not everyone!! I am loving the PS5 Pro. Watching videos on it about how the power is going to be used as well as just the overall performance i will get with it. It’s going to be awesome. Sure i wish it was $600 but i will be preordering it. MS on the other hand they need to get some games out and some good ones. GP is not growing and the hardware sales are shrinking to the point i think it’s a say bet to say they won’t outsell Xbox One. They need to get it together and quick.
I had a feeling something negative was going to happen in Xbox land. It seems anytime PlayStation gets some bad press like with the price of their new Pro system, Xbox comes out and steps right in it. All they had to do was lay low…
@HonestHick I'll be waiting right there in the pre order queue too!
Most powerful console hardware ever? I have to be in.
I paid about £600 for a neo geo back when £600 was a lot of cash so in terms of what Im willing to spend on games, this is chump change 😊
Im dissapointed if not surprised that yet more staff are being laid off. I would hope such cuts are well targetted. Recent info from developers about waiting months for Microsoft to reply to emails suggest they need more staff in coms....
At least no studios closed, I hope all the ones Xbox has now stay open and healthy.
@Titntin Did you also get the Atari Jaguar back then too? Think game cartridges for that were $80-&100? Back then that was ridiculous pricing.
They could save a lot more money by just firing Phil instead. It would also help Xbox at the same time.
@GuyinPA75 the Jaguar had alien vs predator that game was amazing and the controller with all those buttons was cool
On the contrary, things become easy with this much repetition.
This round appears to be further redundancy layoffs, which are not a surprise as efficiencies are gained as actibliz further integrates.
Sucks for those involved, but not unexpected at all. The economy is slowing too, so big companies are being more cautious.
@GuyinPA75 Yes mate, I had a jaguar. I worked on a 3d racing game for the ill fated Jaguar CD (which we affectionaly called 'the toilet seat'. Tempest 2000 and AvP were the only really great Jaguar games...
It's as if Microsoft felt the need to one-up PlayStation in the internet's negative press game this week.
@Titntin agreed, the price of the Pro is a little high, but the performance is starting to show a little online already and when more and more games start to really show it’s power it’s going to be nice. I hope i get mine day 1.
Yeah the cuts are sad. Especially cause there isn’t much time left to get a new job in time for the holidays. Crazy to think the holidays and the shopping is closer than i think about it. I hope MS figures it all out and gets some great games out. Cause i like my Series X. But this has been another pretty dry year. Then the big elephant in the room is Gamepass. Seems to be a strong leak out there of MS saying COD needs to boost GP numbers in a big way as the service has largely not grown much at all lately. Might have even shrunk a bit that i don’t know. So what happens if COD don’t grow GP much, which i guess that it will. But say it doesn’t, what happens? Xbox is in odd times right now i think it’s fair to say.
@InterceptorAlpha in context they seem to be publishing and corporate roles more than development. Mostly. Or so it seems.
@PsBoxSwitchOwner @EvenStephen7 "In a statement from Herman Hulst regarding the unexpected announcement of the closure of Santa Monica Studio he had this to say: 'I know they gave us God of War and Ragnarok, but, like, what have they done for us lately?'"
I'm glad to have supported the Activision buyout. I feel like I helped so many people find new jobs.
I can't wait for Microsoft to implement more AI into it's workflows so even more people get to look for more jobs.
Every time I buy an Xbox Game Studios game, pay for game pass, or buy a Microsoft product, I know that I'm helping kill the game industry.
@Fishticon What do think would have happened if MS didn't buy ABK? Or the deal fell through? You think this is bad...
People either don't comprehend or refuse to admit that all these changes are in motion long before the public gets wind of them.
TheSimulator wrote:
It’s a fair question. Do you want a fair answer? It probably won’t be popular.
Mostly because many of the layoffs are not directly tied to decisions he made. If you look everywhere in tech and gaming there are huge numbers of job losses. The business world is in a state of stress right now due to market conditions. Businesses have to cut costs to stay profitable.
But at Xbox it’s particularly bad because they just added around 15,000+ jobs through ABK and Bethesda which were both arranged BEFORE the market contracted and we had a financial crisis. By the time the ABK deal was finalised, almost 2 years later, the situation had very much changed. Hence we have seen Xbox gain 15,000 staff but then fire 2,550 (and counting). Some would always have gone through M&A but no one expected this many.
I’m not saying he couldn’t have done better, anyone can always do better, we all make some bad decisions that with hindsight we wouldn’t make. But also from a business perspective he has rescued Xbox from its lowest point, significantly grown Xbox in terms of revenue, and positioned them pretty well for the next 10 years to be successful. Note: They don’t have to beat Sony to be a success, though that will be an aim/bonus.
@HonestHick I hear you mate. As my PS is where I play 3rd parties (my wife cant use xbox controlers, the higher left stick forces her to rotate the left hand to hold it), Im only using it for exclusives, so its been gathering dust since last September when I cancelled GP. Once I saw the pro price I thought, 'drat, I will need to sell the series X to afford this!' Im putting it on Ebay next week.
For me its been a disaster, my least used console ever, and Ive bought just about everything since home gaming started when I was late teens. Might have been different if my wife could be comfortable with the controller... but probably not, its about games and the few there have been have dissapointed me. I still have a 3090 pc, so I can jump in if they release anything unmissable.
Im really hoping those let go in this announcement land on their feet too, theres so much turmoil in the industry it must be worrying times for them.
@Secryt Microsoft and Sony are multi national corporations, they release the bad news exactly the same way as political parties vote in unpopular policies. When you are distracted elsewhere.
@jruasap It didn't do Sony any good getting rid of Jim Ryan, they went on to make a terrible decision to release the Multi Million pound Flop 'Concord'.
@Titntin Yeah i know you have owned a lot of video game hardware in your life and know the industry very very well. So to say this has been your least played shows a little of just how bad the Series lineup has been for you and many others. Sony’s not releasing new games every 3-6 months but man, seems like half or more of the life cycle of the Xbox has just had nothing. With Avowed pushed to 2025 even this year is a bit dry. Like i said i really want Gears of War E day and if that comes to PS and runs best on Pro. That will leave me with very little to play on Xbox. I thought south of midnight looked good. But yeah get the Pro and i am too. From the looks of things it will be a monster console.
@HonestHick Cheers mate. GP is still the best deal in gaming and though Im slightly dissapointed, it doesnt mean I dont wish Xbox and its gamers happiness and success. I chose to drop GP as I believed it was helping to supress the sales and value of full price games at a time when studios and teams are collapsing. As an ex dev who can afford to buy my games, I felt it was something I needed to do, but it was a personal choice and I wouldnt expect others to do the same. GP plus a series console is clearly a great deal, it just doesnt suit me any longer. It is true though that the exclusives have been few, and a few of them didnt connect with me, but my experience of the platform is not going to be the same for many others.
Ive been sitting with the machine unused for a year waiting for avowed, but it makes sense for me to sell and put the £250 towards the pro price. Ill get most of the rest of the cost from selling one of the ps5s, Ill sell the original disk one with an extra 2tb and hope for £350. Not much left to find for a pro.
Maybe Ill take a leaf from sonys book and try and sell the vertical stand for £30 🤣
@Titntin Heck yeah buddy, once you sell all that the Pro will be mostly free update. I too am going to sell my PS5 and the SSD 1TB i have in it. So the Pro upgrade will hurt a little less. Haha
Yeah i hear you about GP, both the pro’s and con’s of it. Most of the games on it don’t suit me. So thats why I care less and less about it, but for some people it’s a wonderful value. I just think MS really needs to get on a roll and soon. It’s been 4 years now and the console lacks many games that really excite me. I am still supporting it of course as i had said, but the Pro will be my main place now. I too want the dev’s to get their money and not lose jobs, i always consider the health of the industry as i care for it deeply. 😊
@HonestHick "Watching videos on it about how the power is going to be used as well as just the overall performance i will get with it."
Rinse and repeat... Most powerful console is announced... Gamers then spend the next years of its cycle complaining about the lack of games that have made use of this power. 😏
@RetroMan71 i see no reason to believe this console will have many games on it running 4K 60fps so thats all i care about. There is plenty of games to play, i just want a certain performance for them. This console can and should achieve that. The video on what it did for a game that wasn’t running well on the base is pretty good stuff to me.
They are running a business as Phil said! lol
@GADG3Tx87
This is what politicians do. With Sony still under fire for Concord and the PS5 Pro announcement generally going down like a bucket of cold sick it’s a good time for XBox to ‘bury some bad news.’
@GADG3Tx87
No, nobody hates the ps5 pro, on the contrary. People hate the price. That's something completely different.
@IOI At least Nintendo are about to come and throw a grenade into it with the new Switch 2, plus we've had the Steam Deck and other PC handhelds take off in a big way.
Leave it to the handheld games market again to save gaming this gen...
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...