Microsoft’s Xbox turmoil isn’t slowing down

In a week when Xbox fans were hoping to hear a response from Microsoft to the PS5 Pro, the software giant is making a third round of gaming layoffs instead. 650 employees at Microsoft’s gaming business are being laid off, part of continued cuts at Xbox after Microsoft’s $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

Microsoft cut 1,900 Activision Blizzard and Xbox jobs earlier this year and then shuttered four studios it acquired as part of its $7.5 billion Bethesda acquisition in May. Thankfully, Hi-Fi Rush studio Tango Gameworks was eventually saved from Microsoft’s shutdown after Krafton, the South Korean publisher behind PUBG: Battlegrounds and The Callisto Protocol, acquired the Japanese studio from Microsoft instead.

Xbox chief Phil Spencer announced the latest layoffs to employees in an internal memo, seen by The Verge, at 3AM PT this morning. The cuts are part of the continued restructuring around the Activision Blizzard deal, and “no games, devices or experiences are being canceled,” says Spencer. Unlike prior layoffs, no studios are being closed this time, either. The 650 job cuts will primarily impact “corporate and supporting functions,” according to Spencer, meaning cuts to HR and marketing roles.