Microsoft appears to be planning further layoffs at the Xbox division during this week, based on the latest report.
According to The Verge’s Tom Warren, more Xbox employee layoffs are set to happen sometime this week. One such employee who has already been laid off is Jessie Thomas, former Senior Business PM of Culture Programs. She was on vacation when Microsoft informed her of the decision. She took to Twitter/X to thank all those who have been a part of Team Xbox, and hoped that she made them proud.
Job security at Microsoft’s Xbox division is becoming a growing concern, with the sudden waves of layoffs that have hit the company after it acquired Activision Blizzard King. Our hearts go out to all those who have and are going to be affected by the new spree of layoffs, and we hope that they land on their feet.
The game industry at large has been going through rough times, with just about every major company being hit with layoffs. According to Obsidian, a website that has been keeping track of annual layoffs within the game industry, a total of 10,500 game developers were laid off during the year 2023. As disappointing as that sounds, January, 2024, alone saw 5,600 game developers laid off, which is over half of the layoffs of 2023. A major contributor to the figure of 5,600 laid off game developers in January, 2024, is Microsoft. The company made the decision to part ways with a total of 1,900 Activision Blizzard King employees.
Furthermore, Microsoft announced four studio closures so far in 2024, all of which were acquired by the company in March, 2021, as part of Bethesda Game Studios. These studios are Arkane Austin, Alpha Dog Studios, Tango Gameworks, and Roundhouse Games. In addition, the company also let go of Crash Bandicoot developer Toys for Bob. The company has had more studio closures than first party game releases in the year so far.
