Microsoft is shedding 1,900 staff — or round 8% of Microsoft Gaming’s 22,000 staff. Nearly all of layoffs are at Activision Blizzard, although cuts will affect Xbox and ZeniMax staff, too. The memo from Microsoft Gaming chief Phil Spencer: It has been just a little over three months because the Activision, Blizzard, and King groups joined Microsoft. As we transfer ahead in 2024, the management of Microsoft Gaming and Activision Blizzard is dedicated to aligning on a technique and an execution plan with a sustainable value construction that can help the entire of our rising enterprise. Collectively, we have set priorities, recognized areas of overlap, and ensured that we’re all aligned on the very best alternatives for development.
As a part of this course of, we’ve got made the painful resolution to scale back the scale of our gaming workforce by roughly 1900 roles out of the 22,000 folks on our workforce. The Gaming Management Workforce and I are dedicated to navigating this course of as thoughtfully as potential. The people who find themselves straight impacted by these reductions have all performed an vital half within the success of Activision Blizzard, ZeniMax and the Xbox groups, and they need to be pleased with every thing they’ve completed right here. We’re grateful for all the creativity, ardour and dedication they’ve dropped at our video games, our gamers and our colleagues. We are going to present our full help to those that are impacted in the course of the transition, together with severance advantages knowledgeable by native employment legal guidelines. These whose roles will likely be impacted will likely be notified, and we ask that you just please deal with your departing colleagues with the respect and compassion that’s in step with our values.
Trying forward, we’ll proceed to spend money on areas that can develop our enterprise and help our technique of bringing extra video games to extra gamers around the globe. Though it is a troublesome second for our workforce, I am as assured as ever in your means to create and nurture the video games, tales and worlds that carry gamers collectively.