LogInThe two rounds of massive layoffs at Microsoft affect more than 2,500 staff.
Microsoft is planning a new round of layoffs, which will affect around 650 employees, announced Phil Spencer, the CEO of Microsoft Gaming, in a company-wide email that was sent on Thursday.
The action is part of the strategies to optimize team structure after Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard in October last year for $69 billion. Spencer writes:
“As part of aligning our post-acquisition team structure and managing our business, we have made the decision to eliminate approximately 650 roles across Microsoft Gaming —mostly corporate and supporting functions — to organize our business for long term success.” (Thanks, Game File)
According to Stephen Totilo’s source, two mobile teams at Blizzard — the Warcraft Rumble team and the Call of Duty Warzone Mobile team — were also impacted by the cutoff. This is not due to the merger but rather because they needed to “adapt to shifting priorities and manage the lifecycle and performance of games.”
This is Microsoft’s second round of massive cuts this year, following the letting go of 1,900 staff back in January and the shutdown of four studios in June, including Tango Gameworks, developer of Hi-Fi Rush, and Arkane Austin, who made Redfall. Spencer promised that “no games, devices or experiences are being cancelled, and no studios are being closed as part of these adjustments.”
Amidst the massive layoffs officially announced, small-scale cutoffs were sporadic. In July, several Microsoft employees took to social media to announce their departure and positions being “eliminated.”
Blizzard
This new layoff announcement is not the first layoff news we’ve seen in the third quarter of this year. At the beginning of this month, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League developer Rocksteady let go over half of the QA department. Last month, Destiny developer Bungie let go of 220 employees, which is about 17% of its workforce; Ubisoft also cut 45 positions from its San Francisco and North Carolina branches.
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