More Xbox workers let go as the year of layoffs continues to slam the beleaguered video game industry.
The hits just won't stop, it seems. While many other companies throughout the video game industry have been laying off workers since the end of 2023, Microsoft is in rarefied air as it has now added to the 1,900 workers that were already laid off at the start of 2024 and four entire game studios at Bethesda. An additional 650 staffers from the company's games division have been let go.
Xbox head Phil Spencer used the oft-cited excuse of "redundancies" as the reason for the layoffs, stating that Microsoft is still "organising [its] business for long term success" in the wake of its acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Here's a bit more from Spencer regarding this latest round of layoffs:
With these changes, our corporate and supporting teams and resources are aligned for sustainable future growth, and can better support our studio teams and business units with programs and resources that can scale to meet their needs.
Spencer insists that these layoffs will impact corporate and support the most, and that it will not mean the closure of anymore studios, nor the cancelation of any upcoming games, devices, or experiences. Silver linings, as they say, but that won't do much for the 650 souls without work.
It has been a year-plus of upheaval in the video game industry. Ubisoft, for instance, has seen its stock price tumble in recent weeks as it struggles with the seemingly low sales of Star Wars Outlaws. PlayStation, meanwhile, is reeling from the outright rejection of its failed hero shooter Concord. We'll continue to report on these developments, so keep it tuned to Bits & Bytes for more.
Source: IGN
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