The American group has already laid off 1,900 employees this year and closed several production studios following its acquisition of the giant Activision-Blizzard.
Microsoft’s video game division is not done with its layoff plans. This Thursday morning, its president Phil Spencer made it official in an email sent to his teams that 650 positions were being eliminated within Microsoft Gaming. “These are mainly jobs in support and corporate functions”he specifies in his letter. According to the specialized newsletter GameFile, the Activision-Blizzard group, acquired at the end of 2023 by Microsoft for 69 billion dollars, is the most affected by this plan.
“No games, no gaming device projects, no experiences are being cancelled, and no production studios will be closed as part of these adjustments.”says Phil Spencer.
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Microsoft Gaming had already announced the layoff of 1,900 employees in January. The aim was to eliminate “redundancies” in positions between the American group and Activision-Blizzard. At least one game currently being developed at Blizzard had also been cancelled. But the cuts had also affected entities external to this acquisition. Four production studios, including Arkane Austin (Prey) and Tango Gameworks (HiFi Rush), were closed in May. The latter studio has since been saved by the Korean group Krafton (PUBG).
The video game industry has been hit by a crisis for over a year. More than 20,000 jobs have been cut since the summer of 2023, from the biggest players like Sony, Riot Games or EA to more modest entities.
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