Xbox Is Cutting 650 More Jobs, Confirms Phil Spencer In Letter To Employees

It’s been confirmed today by Xbox boss Phil Spencer that the Microsoft Gaming division will be cutting 650 jobs across “mostly corporate and supporting functions” to ensure the business is sufficiently organised for long-term success.

This was first reported by Stephen Totilo at Game File, who shared Spencer’s message to employees in full. In the statement, Spencer acknowledged that it was a “challenging” moment for the business and affected employees would be supported with exit packages that include severance, extended healthcare, and outplacement services.

Here’s a bit more about the reasoning behind these 650 job losses:

“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.”

According to a source at Game File, the majority of the cuts are Activision Blizzard related.

It was also mentioned by Spencer that nothing is being cancelled in terms of games, experiences or even full studios this time around – unlike when a handful of studios were shut by Microsoft earlier in the year.

Obviously it’s always terrible to hear news like this, and our best wishes go out to the 650 affected employees.