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News Microsoft lays off 1,900 staff from its video game workforce

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Microsoft Lays Off 1,900 Staff From Its Video Game Workforce - IGN

Microsoft is cutting 1,900 staff from its video game workforce, sources have told IGN.
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Microsoft is cutting 1,900 staff from its video game workforce, sources have told IGN.

In a message to staff viewed by IGN, Xbox boss Phil Spencer said Microsoft will provide "full support to those who are impacted during the transition, including severance benefits informed by local employment laws." IGN has asked Microsoft for comment.

The layoffs come following the $69 billion acquisition of Call of Duty owner Activision Blizzard.
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Phil Spencer's letter

“It’s been a little over three months since the Activision, Blizzard, and King teams joined Microsoft. As we move forward in 2024, the leadership of Microsoft Gaming and Activision Blizzard is committed to aligning on a strategy and an execution plan with a sustainable cost structure that will support the whole of our growing business. Together, we’ve set priorities, identified areas of overlap, and ensured that we’re all aligned on the best opportunities for growth.
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“As part of this process, we have made the painful decision to reduce the size of our gaming workforce by approximately 1,900 roles out of the 22,000 people on our team. The Gaming Leadership Team and I are committed to navigating this process as thoughtfully as possible. The people who are directly impacted by these reductions have all played an important part in the success of Activision Blizzard, ZeniMax and the Xbox teams, and they should be proud of everything they’ve accomplished here. We are grateful for all of the creativity, passion and dedication they have brought to our games, our players and our colleagues. We will provide our full support to those who are impacted during the transition, including severance benefits informed by local employment laws. Those whose roles will be impacted will be notified, and we ask that you please treat your departing colleagues with the respect and compassion that is consistent with our values.
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“Looking ahead, we'll continue to invest in areas that will grow our business and support our strategy of bringing more games to more players around the world. Although this is a difficult moment for our team, I'm as confident as ever in your ability to create and nurture the games, stories and worlds that bring players together.
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“Phil.”
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Hate reading things like this. So many talented people. Hope they bounce back quickly.
 
MS recently had a wave of layoffs already, which also included Xbox, if I recall.

This is almost 10% of employees laid off, just horrible. But this is what always happens following corporate consolidation.

Screw these consolidations man.
 
We all knew this was going to happen the minute Microsoft closed the deal with Activision. Microsoft loves doing layoffs. Activision loves doing layoffs. Layoffs happen all the time with mergers. The writing was on the wall. Yet so many cheerleaders for the buyout insisted that Microsoft would take care of their new employees, even though Microsoft laid off 10,000 people in 2023.
 
HockeyBird said:
We all knew this was going to happen the minute Microsoft closed the deal with Activision. Microsoft loves doing layoffs. Activision loves doing layoffs. Layoffs happen all the time with mergers. The writing was on the wall. Yet so many cheerleaders for the buyout insisted that Microsoft would take care of their new employees, even though Microsoft laid off 10,000 people in 2023.
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Like this wasnt happenning all around the globe in the tech media.

Overemployment in the Covid era along with not making the same % of benefits...

I hope they hop somewhere else soon.
 
I'm sure Microsoft is going through some very tough times financially and this is by no means a measure to simply increase the money that yearly goes to shareholders at the expense of workers and their families, right?
 
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Expected aftermath of the merger. Keep in mind that Microsoft and ActiBliz were full companies and now they're effectively one company.

That means you're going to have a lot of duplicate roles in certain positions and at some point Microsoft is going to trim down those roles to what is actually needed. It does suck for anyone fired and I hope they land well on their feet but it's not really an unexpected outcome.
 
Brutal news. Unfortunately we are going to keep hearing about layoffs all year long.
 
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I assume this is a lot of the redundant positions that come from a huge merger. HR, IT, accountants, legal, some managerial roles, etc. Any layoff is bad of course but I think this is slightly different in that (again, I’m assuming) actual developers wouldn’t be impacted much.
 
KingOnion said:
I assume this is a lot of the redundant positions that come from a huge merger. HR, IT, accountants, legal, some managerial roles, etc. Any layoff is bad of course but I think this is slightly different in that (again, I’m assuming) actual developers wouldn’t be impacted much.
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it's nearly 2,000 people and a game was cancelled, 100% actual developers were impacted
 
KingOnion said:
I assume this is a lot of the redundant positions that come from a huge merger. HR, IT, accountants, legal, some managerial roles, etc. Any layoff is bad of course but I think this is slightly different in that (again, I’m assuming) actual developers wouldn’t be impacted much.
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right now no one knows

 
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I would place good odds on a ton of the money saved (that doesn't go to exec bonuses) from layoffs being invested into their AI...
 
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KingOnion said:
I assume this is a lot of the redundant positions that come from a huge merger. HR, IT, accountants, legal, some managerial roles, etc. Any layoff is bad of course but I think this is slightly different in that (again, I’m assuming) actual developers wouldn’t be impacted much.
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Even if that's true, this is a callous way of looking at it.
 
I knew this was going to happen, and people kept shouting me down because "Microsoft supports the unionization at Activision Blizzard."

How many of those that were part of those efforts are being let go?
 
I hate it when this happens, I even hate it more when this happens at a multi billion dollar company. MS, Walmart, Boeing, Stellantis... As if you need more proof for that whole "job creator" schtick is nothing but a myth...
 
Capitalism demands more sacrifices, even when you’re the richest company in the world

Fuck Phil Spencer so much
 
I raged about the Riot and Microsoft layoffs on Twitter enough. I normally do not do this but I’m pretty fed up with tech companies at the moment. I’m liquidating my entire Microsoft stock because of this.
 
People being harsh on Microsoft here, without such sacrifices they might have only earned a $140B profit instead of the $146.052B they got previously.
 
Lugia667 said:
sadly it seems it went up because of this
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Yea that’s usually the response to layoffs. Makes me sick to my stomach. It’s short term financial gains to boost a number on a piece of paper so a bigwig doesn’t get fired or put on notice.

Of all the sickening and disgusting things companies do, layoffs is what pisses me off the most and makes me want to not invest in them. Most importantly, it impacts people’s lives. Secondly, it shows terrible planning and creativity skills amongst its leadership. These “layoffs” could’ve turned into a new development studio or two and they still would be making millions while also investing MORE toward growth (which is the entire point of tech companies and it’s stock prices. Growth).

/rage.
 
It's so sickening that while everyone knows how the free market works is completely broken, it's just business as usual.
 
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One of the richest companies in the world right here. All the cash on hand they could ever want but they still bow down to make shareholders happy.
 
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I wish headlines like this weren’t written like “Xbox lays off 1900 people,“ I wish they were written like “Phil Spencer and Matt Booty completely ruin 1900 people’s lives.”

I have, in the past, been somewhat positive on Xbox but this shit is fucking inexcusable. That’s 1900 people whose lives are now upended. How will those 1900 people make ends meet? What are they gonna do? What about their families?

Microsoft just became a trillion dollar company and they‘re just letting 1900 people go, with zero repercussions. I hope everyone responsible for this are haunted for the rest of their pathetic lives. I’m so fucking furious that this shit keeps happening in this industry and no one is going to be held responsible in any meaningful way.
 
What a fucking mess. At minimum, this is fucked up in the literal sense of being poorly executed. No one should find out their job might be in danger from the press.

IPs that conflict with Microsoft's other IPs, or don't align with the Xbox Game Pass strategy are inevitably going to get axed. This was obvious from the moment the consolidation happened.

It's "happening across the industry" because the post-Covid stock market rebound went ahead of the consumer rebound, and so massive consolidation was inevitable. This isn't because of a collapse in the number of people buying video games, it's because of a pattern of mismanagement fed by a combination of greed and easy loans.

I know a lot of gamers who praised the merger because they loved Warcraft and Diablo, but Activision was revealed as a toxic hellhole. MS could come along and make their beloved franchises clean to purchase again, and all it required was a brief compromise on other values.

And here is the inevitable result that should have been one of the two reasons that regulatory bodies shut this down. Thing is, the "Toxic Hellhole" problem at Activision was caused by consolidation in the first place. There was no reason for Blizzard and Infinity Ward and Toys for Bob and Vicarious Visions and Treyarch to all be the same damn company. And yes, perhaps acquisitions ensured those companies would continue to exist for longer, but their games certainly didn't after every single one of these once independent studios became Call of Duty machines.

And without a central organizing purpose, and with a giant bureaucratic behemoth managing from above it is extremely easy for the abusive and the toxic to hide, to fester, to grow, as long as they deliver the next batch of the franchise that has now lasted longer than the war it was based on.

It is damning to me that the best hope for MS buying this company was that at least it's brand of corporate content farming might be so sterile and devoid of value that it would strangle out abuse.

If there is a silver lining here it's that the gaming market is healthy, and that there should be games to make and people to buy them enough for these 2k people to find jobs, hopefully making something a little more interesting than Call of Duty: Dopamine Drip.
 
oldpuck said:
If there is a silver lining here it's that the gaming market is healthy, and that there should be games to make and people to buy them enough for these 2k people to find jobs, hopefully making something a little more interesting than Call of Duty: Dopamine Drip.
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I don't think we would be seeing industry wide layoffs, studio closures, and game closures if this was the case. We know what types of sales are needed to sustain games like Spider-Man 2 to keep the industry "healthy".
 
Brock Reiher said:
I don't think we would be seeing industry wide layoffs, studio closures, and game closures if this was the case. We know what types of sales are needed to sustain games like Spider-Man 2 to keep the industry "healthy".
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The number of people who buy games, and the amount of money they're willing to spend on them is going up, not down. That's why I said the market is healthy but the industry is not. The industry has gone all in on AAA nonsense, depending on those massive sales to make back their massive investment. This isn't the video game crash where the market for video games dried up.
 
Absolutely ridiculous state of affairs. Microsoft could find 69 billion to buy Activision, but couldn't even find a few million to keep an extra 1900 staff on.

The thing is: it's not even that long since the merger. Microsoft would have been looking into these layoffs while the ink on the contract was still wet
 
Feels like stories of layoffs are just a daily thing now. Not sure what else I can say beyond 'this sucks, hope everyone affected lands on their feet, fuck capitalism.'

Might have been naive of the ABK workers to believe things might be better under MS, but if they feel betrayed, they've every right to be.
 
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HockeyBird said:
We all knew this was going to happen the minute Microsoft closed the deal with Activision. Microsoft loves doing layoffs. Activision loves doing layoffs. Layoffs happen all the time with mergers. The writing was on the wall. Yet so many cheerleaders for the buyout insisted that Microsoft would take care of their new employees, even though Microsoft laid off 10,000 people in 2023.
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It was going to happen even without the acquisition unfortunately, and Activision would have laid off employees as well. Does not justify it at all and such a shame, but redundancies were bound to happen. 1900 is an absurd amount, some overlap was inevitable sadly but 8% of the workforce, that is disgusting, especially a day after they were announced as the most valuable company in the world
 
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rêverie said:
they did what they had to do for their bottomline.

...is what i would say if i was a bootlicker. 👺
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In a sense you’re right, these types of moves are done to please shareholders in the short term, but I feel like it’s a symptom of how massive these companies have become that they see cuts like this as a means to keep the ship afloat. Gaming as an industry upscaled too fast imo, and people like Spencer are a reason why.

It’s only January, the layoffs are gonna get worse throughout the year. Just deplorable.
 
Disappointing, but not surprising…

Hope things work out for all those people, getting the rug pulled out from under you like that is brutal.
 
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