Microsoft video video games division lays off 1,900 employees

By Carolina Stanton On Jan 25, 2024

A lizard-like humanoid creature stands in the rain, looking slightly evil, with what looks like a volcano faintly visible in the background. He's wearing purple body armour with light blue decorations around the borders. He has green, scaly skin with pink/purple eyes. He's wearing a headpiece which resembles the glove from a knight's suit of armour. His clawed hand is held out, upturned, in front of him, as if trying to catch raindrops.

Almost 2,000 employees in Microsoft’s gaming division are to be laid off after its $69b (£54.3bn) merger deal.

A memo from Xbox boss Phil Spencer despatched to employees says the corporate plans to shed 1,900 of its 22,000 employees.

It was despatched three months after the software program big acquired Activision-Blizzard, recognized for the Call of Duty and Warcraft sequence.

In the letter, verified as real by Microsoft, Mr Spencer says shedding employees was a “painful decision”.

First printed by tech web site The Verge, the message suggests employees throughout the Xbox division and at writer Zenimax – which oversees studios together with Bethesda and Arkane – may also be affected.

Reports additionally counsel Blizzard’s in-progress survival recreation challenge referred to as Odyssey had been cancelled.

Microsoft lastly bought Activision-Blizzard and Candy Crush creator King final September after a sequence of battles with regulators.

After the deal went by, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick left the corporate and was circuitously changed.

And within the wake of the most recent information, one other senior determine on the firm introduced he was departing.

Blizzard boss Mike Ybarra, who beforehand labored at Microsoft, mentioned in an announcement it had been “an honour” to guide the corporate “through an incredible time” and he would return to being its “biggest fan from the outside”.

The online game and tech industries have been hit by a string of layoffs already this 12 months, following a sequence of redundancy bulletins in 2023.

Earlier this week Riot Games, which makes League of Legends, introduced it was shedding 11% of its international workforce.

And Microsoft itself introduced 10,000 job losses final January throughout the broader firm, with Amazon, Meta and others doing the identical.

The BBC has requested Microsoft for additional touch upon the redundancies in its gaming division.