Microsoft announces layoffs at gaming division

Microsoft is laying off hundreds of employees at Xbox, with 1900 jobs cut across Activision Blizzard, Xbox Game Studios, and ZeniMax Media.

[Vengeance1138]

What's this? The Trillion dollar empire company isn't profitable?? *gasp*

[darthv72]

The ship is sinking... everyone into the life boats.

[Eonjay]

This actually pissed me off. I keep thinking of how Microsoft's PR was claiming that they had gotten the support form several workers unions... Everyone should have seen this coming. Also, people have a baby about Sony laying off 50 people. Those same people will now explain why laying off thousands of people is a good thing.

[Vengeance1138]

@Eonjay
Also what's scary is this is on top of the 10 000 layoffs Microsoft announced in January 2023 as well as the additional layoffs they had in June 2023. The instability is palpable!

[InUrFoxHole]

@Eonjay
Sure, let me help you out, bud. MS is a company. A companies sole purpose is to make $ in exchange for providing a service or goods. MS recently made a huge purchase. In that, they have to A: recoup the outgoing $ they just spent and B: Get rid of overlapping positions. Thats life. Sure it sucks and you hate to see it happen but move along and find another job

[Rocketisleague]

Wonder when Bethesda will get the cuts

[Eonjay]

@Vengeance

Obviously the separations are a result of the acquisitions but I personally think this is being accelerated by AI.

[Eonjay]

@InUrFoxHole

What you described is not the purpose of a company, but rather a corporation. The point I was making is that Microsoft was saying this purchase would benefit all involved. People were claiming that the purchase is what the workers needed to create a better work environment. This was all BS.

[TiredGamer]

@Eonjay

What is the purpose of a company or any other business?

[northpaws]

@Eonjay

Microsoft has created a better workspace by making them work somewhere else. /s

[Cacabunga]

Start with their boss.. his ideas are broken

[Eonjay]

@TiredGamer

A corporation is a specific type of company. And within that you can actually have a non-profit corporation. What makes for profit corporations (and specifically traded for profit corps) unique is that they are companies who exist primarily to maximize the returns for investors. So when InUrFoxHole says this is characteristic of 'companies'.. I am just saying that his statement isn't technically accurate. It doesn't apply to ALL companies in other words.

[InUrFoxHole]

@Eonjay
I hear ya man. But if you're MS you can't just blurt out... we're gonna make cuts. Again I know it's scrappy and I side with the workers but they had to know this was gonna happen. I can't remember the last purchase where 100% of the workers stayed.

[dcbronco]

Adults understand this is how acquisitions work. If n4g wasn't mostly children, and worse, fanboy children they'd understand this. When companies acquire another company thousands of jobs often get cut. Adults understand this. Microsoft even talked about creating a large team that could be used throughout the gaming division back when they acquired Bethesda. A team like that eliminates multiple positions from a new company. The people who lost their job will receive 6 months compensation and will most likely be in a new job 3 months in pocketing 3 months or more of pay. Learn how the world works kids. It is crashing down around you.

[jznrpg]

@Eonjay acquisition then downsizing is a product of greed.

[Sonic1881]

Hilarious

[sagapo]

See how hilarious you would find it if you lost your job…

[Sonic1881]

@sagapo
I was laughing at Vengeance comment

[sagapo]

@Sonic: In that case I take my words back. Apologies.

[notachance]

the woe of day-1 subscription service, for every studio they own they have to either get a proportional number of new subscribers, increase the subscription fee, or just outright cutting jobs to offset additional hiring costs. At least with delayed library like PS Plus you can get release window profit from early buyers.

[OptimusDK]

Are you a gamer or shareholder

[Charlieboy333]

@Optimus If you think this cost cutting won't trickle down and affect the games they produce ( you know, the stuff you allegedly play as a NON-SHAREHOLDER ) then you are an idiot.

[Christopher]

***Are you a gamer or shareholder ***

Ignorance of the industry will only lead us to where they want us, not where we want.

[notachance]

@optimus well I mean it’s simple enough.. additional studios means additional salaries to be paid, but because of day 1 gamepass the game purchases are severely impacted. You need to fill that gap in the normal product cycle somehow..

[Einhander1972]

People always have the option to not support Microsoft.

I didn't buy Starfield even though I was excited for it. I don't buy game pass even though it has games on it I want to play.

People do get to decide where the industry goes, that's why there aren't loot boxes in single player games and kinect got kicked to the curb.

[TiredGamer]

To be fair, there are probably millions of MS stock shareholders.

[Christopher]

***that's why there aren't loot boxes in single player games and kinect got kicked to the curb. ***

But there are SP games with loot boxes...

[crazyCoconuts]

Counter argument is that the textbook reason for acquisition is economies of scale. You can make more money by reducing overhead in redundant PR, HR, Legal, etc...
Will be interesting if we get visibility into what types of roles were impacted, that will be more telling I think. I'm not surprised there's post merger layoffs though...

[dumahim]

Eliminating redundancies

[EvertonFC]

Low paid workers no doubt.

[crazyCoconuts]

And now we're starting to get that visibility. Physical Xbox games appear to be on the chopping block... This is a big deal if true
https://twitter.com/JezCord...

[darthv72]

Physical games in general is going the way of the dodo. Im seeing less and less physical media in stores where they sold movies and music... games was next. Why have a division whose job it is to make something on a disc when discs are going away? PC havent had discs for over a decade... consoles and handhelds are heading the same direction and will take people with them, kicking and screaming, regardless.

I cant really recall when the last time i inserted a disc into any of my systems. I swapped out the lasers in my saturn, dreamcast, and gamecube for ODE. I have a modded og xbox with tons of games ripped to it, same with a PS2 modded with a hdd also with games ripped to it. I use the PS Portal to play 4/5 games and my steam deck to play PS1/NES/SNES/N64/NeoGeo/Genesi s/TG16 as well as Xcloud. Im practically all digital now anyway. Convenience is a hell of a drug, maybe even more addicting than collecting shelf candy was.

PS3 is prob the only one I still use discs for but that will change soon enough.

[dumahim]

@darth
Even if that so, why start shifting away from physical in the middle of a console generation?

[crazyCoconuts]

Beyond the actual impact to those that DO buy physical and happen to have an XSX, bigger deal is the perceived retail presence of the brand compared to it's competition. Xbox would be taking the L in every retail outlet in every country. Kinda a big deal if this is really happening. Obviously we don't know anything concrete yet though

[darthv72]

@dumahim... because, by the time the next one starts, people will already be acclimated to it. Sony was already doing their part little by little with the current trend of collector editions not including discs even though they may include steelbook cases. This is their way of saying it is inclusive to those with and without the optical drive on their PS5.

By making them disc neutral will make it easier for people to accept the inevitable change over to no more discs and they will be happy with all the other stuff those editions do come with as a trade off. It starts with the CE but then it will progress into the standard games as well. Getting cases with just a DL code instead of a disc. We already know Nintendo switch games like that.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

@crazyCoconuts
Looking at stores in my own area, Xbox doesn't even have a section anywhere near as big as Nintendo or Playstation, it's almost non-existant. I wouldn't be surprised if they had been planning this for a while because that would explain the lack of presence in stores.

@darthv72
I cannot think of any Nintendo Switch case I've picked up that didn't have a physical disc/cartridge in it, that must be an incredibly small number of games, then again, I'm only buying their first party games and exclusives because I can't buy them anywhere else.

[-Foxtrot]

Gotta help pay that $375 million in compensation to Bobby Kotick when he left in late December somehow /s

[1Victor]

Time sure flies it’s 2027 already?
.
Edit: I guess in Microsoft eyes it’s better to cut them down in batches than 100,000+ on 2027 🤦🏿

[darthv72]

...but they ARE profitable. They also don't need X amount of overlapping employees. This is pretty standard stuff with mergers. The employees who are doing the same jobs as others already in the company are the first to go. I had it happen to myself several years ago. I went and got another job.

Chances are these people will be fine and who knows... they may form a new company and get right back to making games, or cleaning toilets, or filing HR paperwork. It all depends on the job they performed before being laid off. Not all of those affected were game developers, many of which just worked for the company doing non developing stuff... keep that in mind.

[fr0sty]

Activision/Blizzard has 13,000 employees, Bethesda has approx 2300. So 15,300 total... They laid off 1,900. That's almost 12.5% of the total workforce of both Activision and Zenimax/Bethesda combined. More than 1 out of every 10 heads got cut...

[darthv72]

^^its over 22,000 employees across the totality of MS/ABK/ZB and losing another 1900 will still leave them with over 20k. And like I said, not all of them are game devs but other overlapping employees. It sux when it happens (I know personally) but it is what it is.

[fr0sty]

That's still nearly 1 out of every 10 heads (8.6%)... that isn't a small number. It's such a large number, that it is unlikely that they're all just janitors and office workers like you seem to be trying to imply.

[Darkegg]

The abuse goes on both ends. The answer is that Microsoft offers some tools but tradeoff is that whatever tools are available will reduce need for human labor. This deals with many lives so it’s based on the metric as well as implementation of those metrics, watching those who implement it, to portray an accurate ratio of labor and productivity.

I don’t like corporate greed but being on the workbench I have seen slackers too for whom I just want to work harder and self-initiate.

[itsmebryan]

I know. It's like having the number one selling console by a large margin and laying off people. "Clutching my pearls"

[Zeref]

What does profitability have to do with any of this? Out of all the layoffs happening recently. This was the one that was most expected. Layoffs almost always happen after a big acquisition. It's not because of finances. It's because there's a lot of overlap in the job positions.

I was hoping it wouldn't be too bad because they want to keep Activision Blizzard as a separate entity.

But I guess when it's a 70 billion dollar acquisition. There's inevitably going to be a lot more overlap than normal.

Sucks for those that were affected. Hope they land on their feet quickly.

[Einhander1972]

How many years do you think it would take to pay off 70 billion with the salaries of the people who lost their jobs?

And let's not even bring up the fact that Microsoft was getting all these games anyways, so these people lost their jobs for essentially no reason.

[Zeref]

@Einhander1972

The layoffs were gonna happen regardless. Have you seen industry news lately? Everyone is having layoffs. They Would it have been as bad as this? Who knows. But they were against unionization while Microsoft supports it and it turns out, None of the Union workers were affected. So I'm gonna say it would have been just as bad if not worse.

Activision Blizzard was on a downwards spiral. In the next few years we'll see if MS can turn it around for them.

[RhinoGamer88]

You can bet Phil and his boys are getting nice and fat bonuses this year.

[FreeFallFrenzy]

Yet it's considered the "most valuable" company in the world! 🙄

[shadowT]

Blizzard president Mike Ybarra and Blizzard’s chief designer Allen Adham also departing, according a new report of Tom Warren.

[RaidenBlack]

The Blizzard's untitled survival game is also cancelled

[Lightning77]

Typical MS. 5 steps forward..... 100 steps back lol.

[Hofstaderman]

Ybarra was a plant all along to ease the acquisition.

[zaanan]

It’s entirely possible. Remember Nokia?

This raises the total Xbox layoffs since ACTI announcement to 11,900.

“Move along, nothing to see here”

[Hofstaderman]

@zaanan Nokia is exactly a case where MS spent a substantial amount on an acquisition and then proceeded to pull the plug.

[Gamingsince1981]

Nah Mike Ybarra only just said in November they would have to drag him out to make him leave, he's in for the long haul...... now 3 months later he has left its fishy

[Hofstaderman]

Have to make that 70-80 Billion Dollars worth of acquisitions back. Why so surprised? The writing was always on the wall for everybody to read. Wonder how much of the restructuring is geared towards their third party publishing plans?

[Hofstaderman]

Take this with a grain of salt; according to Jez Corden Microsoft has also shut down departments dedicated to bringing Xbox games to physical retail ... which if you've seen the digital-only Xbox console leaks ... well, you can get an idea of where Microsoft is going here.

[darthv72]

Things are changing across the board for physical media... Its been declining for movies and music, games were next.

[gold_drake]

its absolutely horrific for those1900 people.

the 3 trillion dollar company "has to" fire so many people, and for what?. for a "sustainable cost structure"

thats almost 10% of their staff lol

[Tacoboto]

There is no justification for it. They have the money to afford literally anything in the world.

To cancel Blizzard's game six years in development is the twist of the knife when everyone's already down.

For smaller companies that are running with tight costs, layoffs are one thing. What Microsoft did today is a complete other and benefits the big wigs at the expense of everyone else.

Good on Mike Ybarra for leaving. Phil Spencer should follow his example and look at everything that's happened to the developers impacted by his decisions.

[frostypants]

Deep sixing an acquisition's game deep into development is the most MS move ever.

[Tacoboto]

They Fable Legends'd themselves again.

They're the WB-cancelling-finished-movies of the gaming industry.

[porkChop]

"To cancel Blizzard's game six years in development is the twist of the knife when everyone's already down."

I'm really surprised by that. Spencer doesn't usually cancel anything already in development. Even Redfall, even though the devs wanted them to cancel it. But then again, Redfall. Maybe that game's failure made them change their mind. With it being 6 years deep in dev though it doesn't make sense to cancel it. Pretty stupid decision.

[dumahim]

That's what happens when you buy a company that's in the same business as you. There's a lot of people doing the same job, so they're going to save money by getting rid of people that aren't needed anymore.

[Profchaos]

@dumahim Ive heard that before and worked in a job where they merged with another company let go of their newly acquired staff and expected me to take on a whole host of extra work but I was already at 110 percent capacity and not the only one the outcome was morale dropped to an all time low and good staff left in droves.

[The Wood]

I make you right Taco. What this hammers to me is that sustainability issues are due to weak hardware sales and weak gamespass concurrent subs. Something has to give. I definitely see them pivoting to becoming a 3rd party publisher.

[MrDead]

The results of industry consolidation, the only people that benefit are CEO's and shareholders... gamers and the workforce gets ****ed

I can see way more cuts in the short term too as parts of what where competing publishers in the industry merge, and lets not forget the introduction of AI, MS is set to be a big pusher of that.

[porkChop]

Yeah this is terrible. MS has the money and resources to support that staff. None of these large companies need to do any of these layoffs.

[blackblades]

People said this was going to happen after they acquire them but not this many. Makes you think that Sony is doing a better job with not acquiring but just partnering up with studios and funding the games.

[darthv72]

Oh it was happening with Sony too... Bungie, Media Molecule, insomniac... all of them lost people after being acquired by Sony. And it will happen again because its inevitable when you bring on another company that has people like you do. No need for multiples of the same job.

[porkChop]

Huh? Sony has not only laid off plenty of employees, they've also shut down 1 or 2 of the new studios they just bought.

[MrBaskerville]

Well, that's atleast 1900 people who are less tha enthused about the merger. But atleast MS just crossed a 3 trillion dollar market cap, so all is fine.

[TheColbertinator]

Dark times for the gaming industry. Monetization, consolidation and greed increase but layoffs are heavier than ever.

[Minute Man 721]

Dark times....please....we just have to reject that sh!t

[TheEnigma313]

exactly. They will do what we allow them to do. The need our money

[Rockstar]

Greed seems to be the order of the day as of late.

It's very unfortunate.
It seems to me that this level of greed is unsustainable.

Time will tell.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

These days, when I see all this greed, I think it's all coming to a head, I feel like some bad major event will happen to the world in the future, but I don't know what.

[blacktiger]

That was the best comment I ever read regarding to corporate greed and layoff
COPIED!

[recoctimocassirnff]

And yet ms fanboys were gushing over this acquisition.

[SPEAKxTHExTRUTH]

Lay offs are just a part of the game. Every industry has layoffs. It sucks when it happens but there’s really no such thing as job security and anyone who has had a real job should know this.

[thorstein]

Then why aren't smaller studios laying people off?

[thorstein]

It was a simple question. Oh well, the ad hominem is clearly a deflection by an "adult" who believes themself to be inherently more intelligent than anyone else.

Care to provide counter evidence? Or are low quality insults and deflections all you have?

[ThinkThink]

Smaller studios are laying people off. They are a few small studios that closed down as well.

[thorstein]

@ThinkThink

Who? (being genuinely curious)

[Eonjay]

@thorstein

You are wrong in your characterization of him. His purpose is to defend the trillion dollar corporation even if he has to twist himself into a moderately overcooked Philadelphia pretzel. And nothing more.

[darthv72]

Riot games just the other day announced layoffs. And earlier today another one called Reikon (makes of Ruiner) laid off 60% of their staff.

https://kotaku.com/game-ind...

[jimbo676]

Just do your own research only took me a minute to find this news today. https://www.ign.com/article...

[thorstein]

Tencent owns Riot Games.

Thinkthink said he knew of some, that's why I asked. I can't seem to find any.

[darthv72]

Thor... you didnt specify the smaller studios could NOT be owned by a bigger publisher. The list I provided still applies regardless. Smaller studios as well as bigger ones and those owned by even BIGGER publishers are all having layoffs.

you asked, I provided... you can't just change the conditions of the request because you didnt like the answer.

[MrBaskerville]

Not in this capacity, we aren't even past january and the amount of layoffs is almost near half as many as in 2023, which was a record year for the industry. It's dark times indeed.

[Vengeance1138]

Surprising isn't it how training your ecosystem to never buy games would have negative results! Surely Xbox's new lord and saviour Palworld will save them!

[EvertonFC]

Everybody knows that apart from MS/Xbox, you wouldn't think you could make £100,000s of thousands or millions being absolute shite at you're job.
Anybody else would get the sack, it's the same with politicians all from privileged schools who have no clue how the world actually works for 90% of the population yet get there name written in history for there egos.

[MrNinosan]

Except Palworld has nothing to do with Xbox, part from being on GamePass.

[Vengeance1138]

Better not tell that fact to xbots! They're championing it being on Xbox as the biggest win in the history of gaming lol despite the vast majority of players playing it on Steam, not Xbox.

[Inverno]

Didn't take as long as when the Zeni acquisition smh, and you just know they're already planning on buying another major publisher next year. The industry is screwed.

[S2Killinit]

Wonderful.

[preciousdeath]

This was always inevitable for these large acquisitions and mergers. Upper management gets their raises, while the rest take the cuts. If you don't want to see people lose their jobs, Stop rooting on the consolidation of the industry!

[bleedsoe9mm]

Redundancies were inevitable

[Jigga69]

I don't understand... everyone said it would be the best for everybody.

[Eonjay]

This is just the beginning. Expect them to cut at least 3-4k more jobs from the Activision division.

[GamingSinceForever]

It’s as if some of you are celebrating that this is happening and you know who you are. Get a life.

[EvertonFC]

Nobody is celebrating, it's just everyone but MS seems to get what's happening right in front of them.

[DiRtY]

I think this is just sad for everyone affected.
And it sucks, that this is an industry wide issue now.

Riot Games: -11% of the workforce
Microsoft: -8% of the workforce
Bungie: -8% of the workforce

just in the past 3 months. Crazy.

I hope these people will land on their feet.

[MrBaskerville]

A lot of talebt will leave imthe industry. It's too hard to get job security. I know a lot of industry people are considering exit plans.

[Einhander1972]

Deflector shields to maximum!

[CantThinkOfAUsername]

The entire tech industry is screwed. Ebay just posted a record year with record profits, CEO taking home $16M while laying off 1,000 of their staff due to 'budgeting.' They made everyone else work from home to gather the laid off and deliver the news, 'Hey, we just made our best year in revenue and profits, well done, everyone. *pats them on the back* now go fuck yourselves, we got exec bonuses to pay.'

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

I can't even remember the last time I used Ebay, that place went gone downhill, now I end up buying off other online stores or Amazon.

[darthv72]

AI is increasingly being used to replace jobs where programming was involved. Where AI cant replace are trade jobs and those where you need someone to fix stuff that gets broken.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

I seriously believe that some of these lay offs are in preparation for AI to be integrated into their work flow, and I still think we're not ready for it, there are still a lot of governments across the world that haven't even thought about laws regarding AI.

[jznrpg]

Put the actual numbers and those 8%’s are a lot different. Singular Studios compared to one of the largest publishers and acquirer of studios. Nice try though

[Stanjara]

Jesus Christ what a shit show.

[isarai]

Damn, weren't some of their acquisitions happy for the "stability" being bought out by MS was supposed to bring them?

This is sad, that's a ton of people, I hope they find better jobs out there with ease.

[jwillj2k4]

This is why I don’t feel sorry for anyone who made the transition from ABK, Bethesda to Microsoft. Writings been on the wall for a long time and you celebrated saying being acquired by a $1 trillion revenue company gives you stability as if all that money went to keeping staff happy and quality of life improvements 😆

[Flenter]

Did Phil get the boot to 😃?

[Eonjay]

Lets be honesty, he probably got a raise.

[Dandizzle]

nearly 2000 people just lost their jobs..... Thats not some tiny layoff.... This is MS just expelling talent due to mismanaged projects and bumbling executives.

As if I didn't already have a mountain of reasons why I wouldn't want to work for MS in any capacity

[CrashMania]

It was never about rataining talent, it was only ever about swooping up as many IPs as possible because MS have been too inept to make a half decent new IP for like 15 years.

[Futureshark]

I presume Spencer's not one of the 1900 to go then..?

[Rockstar]

Leave Phil alone!
He's a "gamer" and "one of us".

Good guy Phil strikes again...

[Hofstaderman]

Remember that Leave Britney Alone guy?

[Rockstar]

Indeed!

It worked! They've left Britney alone.

[Elda]

Just smh.

[Pickledpepper]

I feel for those losing their jobs I really do but nothing will change.
You all keep going on as though this is the beginning of the end when you all know nothing will change and its just something for you to use in the console war.
You act as though you care for the people losing their jobs but really your glad for the ammo to throw around.

[frostypants]

Man the gaming industry is just brutal these days. I guess it makes sense that entertainment would be among the first things to take a hit with rising interest rates. I'm pretty critical of how MS runs their gaming division but I feel bad for these workers.

[DivineHand125]

Not a good start for Activision blizzard in 2024. The first thing I was expecting to hear is for Activision Blizzard content to be added to game pass not more layoffs.

[Relientk77]

Omg wow that's nuts. Almost 2,000 jobs. If they were going to announce layoffs yeah wasn't thinking the number would be that high.

[CantThinkOfAUsername]

They cut 10,000 jobs back in January 2023. What's another 2,000?

[derek]

Wonder if will see the same "freak out" we saw over the few dozen job loses at playstation studios. Probably not.

[Crows90]

Gamepass quality demands less costs.

[Hereandthere]

This is why consolidation sucks

[Einhander1972]

A big "I told you so" to the people who mock me and don't want to let me say the things I say even though they nearly always turn out to be true.

Keep in mind this is on top of the thousands of people they have sacked in 2022 and 2023, and yes I am only counting people from their gaming and gaming related divisions, which of course was only a fraction of the 20,000+ total people they fired in that timeframe. (While collecting record profits and becoming the wealthiest company in the world.)

But you know, the big story is Naughty Dog laying off a dozen temps or Bungie trimming their workforce by 100 people.

Of course no one mention this recent headline.

Bungie Has over 1,400 Employees According to Job Listing
https://hardcoregamer.com/b...

How many more jobs do you think they can replace with AI by 2027?

[rlow1]

Funny how everyone is jumping all over this when Sony made cuts to his year as well.

It sucks, but what can you expect when you buy multiple companies.

[purple101]

And yet, every month or so it seems another studio is getting brought by Sony, expanded, invested in, to compete with m$

Soon they will have to do nothing as m$ ruining their console single handily

This is not a good thing for anybody actually is it!

[jznrpg]

Didn’t see this coming /s

[Agent75]

I'm not a business expert, but if you've not got the goods, you don't pull in the dollars. Lack of games equals lack of sales. With Windows and Xbox, Microsoft have been so dumb.

[Travesty]

I’ve been hearing that there will be more layoffs from other dev companies throughout the year.. I guess only time will tell.. Sad to say the least. But hopefully they all get over this hump and go back to making great games from all sides..

[Miacosa]

Not surprising given the environmental economics we are in and there was probably many redundant positions across the company because of all the mergers. Hopefully all effected can quickly get hired elsewhere or spin up a new thing of their own.

[contra157]

Second richest company to maximize profits got to get the escalator attachment for the yacht

[TiredGamer]

A bit concerning… if the next batch of titles don’t help GamePass grow substantially, Xbox will be going full third party.

[Nacho_Z]

"If the next batch of titles don’t help GamePass grow substantially"

Pretty safe bet they won't. Maybe if COD and FIFA were exclusive right now they'd have a chance but if a major Bethesda release doesn't move the needle not much will.

[crazyCoconuts]

Hi-Fi Rush just got Dual-Sense support. Prepare for the other shoe to drop.

[Armyofdarkness]

I was gonna buy Like a Dragon Gaiden, then I remembered it’s on game pass. Turns out I got a month for 1 damn dollar, played it and canceled (could have refunded too). I actually felt bad about that! I know it has nothing to do with the layoffs as bleeding money is not a problem for this TRILLION dollar company.

Ah Microsoft. This sucks, but give it a week and people won’t give a shit as usual. Hellblade’s out soon, after all.

[jznrpg]

A lot of people do care and that’s why Xbox consoles are down YoY , GamePass numbers have stagnated and they aren’t selling very many copies of games physical or digital for years now.

There are some who don’t care what happens to gaming in the long term and that’s most gamepass subscribers or they dont know any better and take whatever MS dishes out but there are many who wont give MS their money because of their negative practices and their negative influence over on our hobby

[TheCaptainKuchiki]

It is slowly starting to crumble...
that's why it was extremely funny for me to see that that unions supported the buyout because whenever a company purchases another big company, the first thing they do is lay off 10% of the employees.
Why would unions support a deal that would inevitably lead to layoffs???

[Bathyj]

How could people not see this coming? While everyone was cheerleading and pom-pomming Microsoft's acquisitions I was realizing that Microsoft was purchasing more expenses. More bills. More mouths to feed.

Peoples salaries need to be paid every week. They took on all these people and they have acquired all these IPS but did any of you stop to think how many extra wages they took on to pay?

But Microsoft is so rich right? Well they didn't get rich by being stupid with money. If they are operating at a loss on not making enough profit then they will trim the fat. they will not bleed money forever. Eventually their incoming revenue needs to be larger than the outgoing expensives or the whole theme comes crashing down. Microsoft a big but they are not too big to fail for stop and over here of this little thing called the Roman Empire?

I see two possibilities on the horizon. Microsoft going full third party and not doing another console or an 80s Style game industry crash.

[Gamingsince1981]

Something fishy is going on though, Mike ybarra left as well on his own accord yet it was only November when he said "you would have to drag me out of the building, I'm here for the long haul"

[Charlieboy333]

Maybe someone did drag him out? :)

[Profchaos]

1900 is a lot feel for those people it's not easy out there right now.
It's all fun and games to play the console war game but these are people with families, mortgages etc.

[RhinoGamer88]

Phil and his cronies...safe as always.

[rogerrus3]

“xBoX fAnS eAtIn GuD tHiS yEaR”

[Barlos]

Thank you Phil! Thank you Xbox!!

!!!!!1!!

[Petebloodyonion]

Love how ppl are again trying to spin this with the EVIL MS theory or how they have lied and bla bla bla
Here's the fact: MS has cut 1900 jobs out of 22 000 jobs.
Meaning 9-10% of the work force.

The same 9-10% range we have heard from all layoff around the world.
Like the 8% Bungie had ppl layoff

[DarXyde]

Sigh... As much as I take issue with the people at ABK and the culture of harassment and recycling, it's never pleasant to lose your and your family's livelihood. I don't like what they did, but I wish them (and others at other studios) the best.

That said, I'm very skeptical. I'm thinking AI game development is at a point where MS is comfortable downsizing (which I think most of us see coming). It's likely why they didn't resist Bethesda unionization: it wouldn't matter.

But it begs the question... Why wait until Kottick is out to do this?

I don't understand it and I'm speculating. Layoffs have been happening everywhere, including Bungie. I guess the difference is that such an outrageous amount of money was spent buying ABK, only for them to axe jobs. It's like buying a mansion in Dubai and selling the air conditioners: when you flex that hard, one would think you're keeping everything intact.

Either way, let's hope these people land on their feet. At the very least, it would be nice to hear from those affected.

Side note: email notices are the worst. It's such a layer removed to avoid seeing the people impacted. I don't know how companies do that.

[Hedstrom]

https://youtu.be/YonS9_QJbp...

[YourMommySpoils]

They had a gaming division?

[anast]

It doesn't take many people to make mobile games, it's the right move.

[chobit_A5HL3Y]

ms is just extremely desperate at this point. some people seem to think they have this grand scheme, or well thought out game plan where they're gonna eventually just take over; they're not. they're hemorrhaging money trying force game pass and throwing money at random stuff.

for example, most of you have probably never heard of darktide, right? ms threw money at fatshark, the developer, to make it a xb/ms exclusive. why? it's not even a big name or big company. i get them trying to seek out opportunities for hidden gems and stuff like that, but not only are they doing it the wrong way, they also have pretty much no reliable first-party studios. they just throw money at everything and hope something sticks.

i don't doubt ms has the power to buy out any company they want, but if they do end up taking over the industry, it's gonna be bad for everyone, because ms doesn't stand for quality games.

[BrainSyphoned]

Just think about how many more game pass titles they can buy with the salary of 1900 employees! It's good for gaming!

[Plague-Doctor27]

What's crazy is COD still isnt even on GamePass yet. Not a single gamer has benefited from this acquisition yet (and honestly probably won't) and now 1900+ families are in financial hell

[ModsDoBetter]

Recent rumour of them pulling out of all physical sales too. *Buys Bethesda and ABK* *quits the market* makes zero sense. They must be going all in on GamePass and focusing on being a publisher first.

[zacly]

Great. Add those to the list of companies we wont see games from for years because there aren't any workers to make the games. Spend $68.7 billion to buy Blizzard/Activision and fire a bunch of workers immediately. Great look

[Ninver]

The RARE effect has already started.

[Tedakin]

Sony wishes they could make a live service game as successful as Sea of Thieves.

[Ninver]

Playstation gamers have made it quit clear their not interested in live service games. I'll take a full fledged SP any day.

[WelkinCole]

Who didn't see this coming?

People forgot MS previous gaming acqusitions?

[YourMommySpoils]

Seriously though, what was the point buy such a big company, if you're not going to have the talent that made it. Microsoft simply destroying another company like RARE, I suppose.

[Tzuno]

Fire the entire D4 team responsible for the end game

[jjb1981]

Welp, there goes the Perfect Dark reboot.

[Profchaos]

So from what I've read Ms is shutting down their physical games department meaning they are switching to an all digital model at least for first party.

One thing about this is that they have now given up retail shelf space outside of selling the console itself to its competition. I know most sales are digital but come the holidays when parents walk into a store to buy their kids a gaming system if it's wall to wall switch and PlayStation games but no Xbox guess which console will disappear from the Xmas list.

Parents buying kids consoles these days are the same group of people mostly aged between their late twenties and late thirties on average they grew up on NES, SNES, PS1 etc and may no longer be hardcore gamers but know you buy a console and buy games.

So already that's a portion of a potential customer base you lose.

The third party publisher stuff is look more and more realistic by the day

I know we are looking at a all digital future I'm not blind but this seems to be a case of Xbox jumping in to early.