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Microsoft Lays Off Video Games Staff In New Round of Job Cuts

Elizabeth Greenberg

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video games layoffs job cuts
The latest round of cuts from Microsoft mirrors cuts from across the gaming sector. 

Following its £54.3bn merger with Activision-Blizzard, Microsoft is announcing more cuts to its gaming division, following a large round of cuts in January and studio closures in May.

Microsoft purchased Activision-Blizzard, the gaming company behind Call of Duty,World of Warcraft, and Overwatch, last October after a lengthy investigation from the UK competition watchdog over concerns it would skew the gaming market.

Since then, Microsoft laid off 1,900 workers in January, and closed four gaming studios it had purchased before its deal with Activision went through.

The new cuts will amount to around 650 workers from the gaming division, with those working in “mostly corporate and supporting functions” being affected across its global workforce.

However, this latest round of cuts will not include any “games, devices or experiences” and “no studios are being closed,” according to a memo shared to workers.

The decision to make this round of layoffs, which amount to around 3% of Microsoft’s current gaming staff, was in order to manage their business for “long-term success” and to align their “post-acquisition team structure,” Xbox, which is owned by Microsoft, owner Phil Spencer said, as reported by the BBC.

While no decisions on the continuation of games had been announced with the layoffs, Spencer did say that the cuts could impact other teams, causing them to shift priorities and “manage the lifecycle and performance of games.”


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Microsoft, which also owns King, the maker of Candy Crush, and Zenimax, which owns Bethesda, the creator of Fallout, has spread its influence over the gaming world.

But the video games industry has suffered layouts, much akin to the wider tech industry.

Sony, EARiot Games, Unity, Epic, and Amazon’s game division have all laid off workers over the past few months in a volatile year for the industry’s workers.

Despite layoffs at Microsoft, the company’s latest finance report shows that its video games revenues have increased, potentially as a result of its acquisition of Activision-Blizzard.

Elizabeth Greenberg

Staff Writer

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