Microsoft Layoffs Continue: More Employees Let Go

Summary

• Microsoft has reportedly laid off more employees across its gaming, security, and sales divisions.
• It's unclear how many employees have been impacted.
• These new layoffs are also unconnected to a previous round of cuts announced earlier in January.

Microsoft has reportedly laid off even more employees across its gaming, security, and sales divisions. The past few years have been challenging for video game employees, with many companies, including Microsoft, announcing sweeping layoffs in 2024 alone. These layoffs have affected both big-name developers and smaller indie companies. Recent examples include IllFonic, the developer behind Predator: Hunting Grounds, and People Can Fly, the studio behind Outriders. Earlier this month, Rocksteady also announced layoffs following the divisive reception of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.

Microsoft, one of the biggest companies hit by recent layoffs, has been cutting back on its Xbox workforce since the start of 2024. In January, Microsoft announced that 1,900 staff members involved in its Xbox gaming division would be let go, including employees at acquired subsidiaries like Activision Blizzard and ZeniMax. In September, another 650 employees were laid off from corporate and support positions at Activision Blizzard.

Now, according to a new report from Business Insider (via GamesIndustry.biz), another round of Microsoft layoffs might have just taken place. A Microsoft spokesperson reportedly stated that these latest cuts would impact a small number of staff members, but did not specify the exact number of employees affected. These new layoffs are unconnected to a previous round of cuts announced earlier this month, which focused on underperforming workers not necessarily connected to Xbox.

Microsoft's ongoing wave of layoffs is particularly noteworthy due to the company's recent acquisitions of major publishers like Bethesda and Activision Blizzard, as well as the news that Microsoft reached a $3 trillion market value shortly after the massive January 2024 layoffs. This first wave of cuts led to Microsoft receiving complaints from the FTC, which initially sought to use the layoffs at Activision Blizzard as grounds to halt or reverse Microsoft’s highly publicized merger with the Call of Duty publisher.

Other past Microsoft layoffs have affected Xbox’s physical retail teams, as well as most of Blizzard’s customer service team and in-house developers like Sledgehammer Games and Toys for Bob. Blizzard’s unnamed survival game, codenamed Project Odyssey, was also canceled following these layoffs. The number of employees reportedly affected by this latest round of Microsoft layoffs has yet to be confirmed, and it remains unclear what impact it might have on the Xbox gaming division.