Key Takeaways
- Xbox is eliminating 650 jobs, mostly corporate and support staff.
- Most of these cuts affect Activision-Blizzard.
- No games are being cancelled and no studios are being closed.
According to an internal email from Xbox head Phil Spencer, Xbox is eliminating 650 jobs across its gaming ecosystem (thanks Game File).
Spencer has framed this round of layoffs as stemming from Microsoft’s $75.4 billion acquisition of Activision-Blizzard, a similar rationale to Xbox’s elimination of 1,900 jobs in January.
“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,” Spencer wrote in the aforementioned internal email.
Xbox continues to cut jobs at Activision-Blizzard
According to Game File’s sources, most of these cuts affect support and corporate staff at Activision-Blizzard, something Spencer implies in his email.
Unlike the job cuts in January that resulted in the cancellation of one project and the studio closures of Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks in August, Spencer stresses “No games, devices or experiences are being cancelled and no studios are being closed as part of these adjustments today.”
Job cuts at Xbox will likely continue into the near future as Spencer continuously states his goal is to make Xbox a profitable enterprise within Microsoft, and the company’s massive acquisition of Activision-Blizzard has likely introduced some role duplication.
You can read Spencer’s full email below.
Subject: Changes to Microsoft Gaming
For the past year, our goal has been to minimize disruption while welcoming new teams and enabling them to do their best work. 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.
I know that this is difficult news to hear. We are deeply grateful for the contributions of our colleagues who are learning they are impacted. In the US, we’re supporting them with exit packages that include severance, extended healthcare, and outplacement services to help with their transition; outside the US packages will differ according to location.
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. Separately, as part of running the business, there are some impacts to other teams as they adapt to shifting priorities and manage the lifecycle and performance of games. No games, devices or experiences are being cancelled and no studios are being closed as part of these adjustments today.
Throughout our team’s history, we have had great moments, and we have had challenging ones. Today is one of the challenging days. I know that going through more changes like this is hard, but even in the most trying times, this team has been able to come together and show one another care and kindness as we work to continue delivering for our players. We appreciate your support as we navigate these changes and we thank you for your compassion and respect for each other.
