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January 2024 has started with the tech sector undergoing ruthless job cuts across several high-profile companies that include Google, Discord, Twitch, eBay, and now Microsoft joins the group with 1,900 employees shed from its Activision Blizzard studios.
As The Verge is reporting, Microsoft is cutting eight percent of its 22,000 employee Microsoft Gaming workforce and that includes 1,900 positions from its recently acquired Activision Blizzard publishing arm as well as ZeniMax and its own Xbox teams.
Microsoft CEO Phil Spencer addressed the planned layoffs through a company memo issues internally.
It’s been a little over three months since the Activision, Blizzard, and King teams joined Microsoft. As we move forward in 2024, the leadership of Microsoft Gaming and Activision Blizzard is committed to aligning on a strategy and an execution plan with a sustainable cost structure that will support the whole of our growing business. Together, we’ve set priorities, identified areas of overlap, and ensured that we’re all aligned on the best opportunities for growth.
As part of this process, we have made the painful decision to reduce the size of our gaming workforce by approximately 1900 roles out of the 22,000 people on our team. The Gaming Leadership Team and I are committed to navigating this process as thoughtfully as possible. The people who are directly impacted by these reductions have all played an important part in the success of Activision Blizzard, ZeniMax and the Xbox teams, and they should be proud of everything they’ve accomplished here. We are grateful for all of the creativity, passion and dedication they have brought to our games, our players and our colleagues. We will provide our full support to those who are impacted during the transition, including severance benefits informed by local employment laws. Those whose roles will be impacted will be notified, and we ask that you please treat your departing colleagues with the respect and compassion that is consistent with our values.
Looking ahead, we’ll continue to invest in areas that will grow our business and support our strategy of bringing more games to more players around the world. Although this is a difficult moment for our team, I’m as confident as ever in your ability to create and nurture the games, stories and worlds that bring players together.
Phil
Microsoft
Microsoft’s Gaming business underwent an executive reorg following the official acquisition of Activision Blizzard that saw the publisher’s CEO Bobby Kotick being sent off with a comfortable pay day, Microsoft’s Matt Booty moving to president of game content and studios, CFO Chris Capossela departing, and Sara Bond sliding into the role of Xbox.
Microsoft is still settling into its ownership of Activision Blizzard and hopefully the company has measured this out to avoid supplemental firings throughout the year.
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