2024 has been a year of heavy cuts for Microsoft’s gaming division (as it has been for much of the rest of the industry), but it seems like more cuts are coming. As reported by Game File, Microsoft is cutting another 650 jobs in its gaming division, as confirmed by Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer in an email sent out to company employees earlier today.
In his email, Spencer explained that the job cuts will largely be limited to “corporate and supporting teams”, and that the layoffs will not entail any studio closures or cancellations of games, devices, or features. This round of cuts is also tied to Microsoft adjusting its framework following its acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
“For the past year, our goal has been to minimize disruption while welcoming new teams and enabling them to do their best work,” the email reads. “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.”
“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,” Spencer later adds. “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.”
Reported by Game File and not mentioned in Spencer’s email, this newest round of job cuts has also affected the development teams working on Activision mobile duo Warcraft Rumble and Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile, though allegedly, both games will remain live and continue to receive support.
In January this year, Microsoft announced that it was eliminating 1,900 jobs from across its entire gaming division, affecting Microsoft Gaming, Activision Blizzard, and ZeniMax Media, with the company looking to “align on a strategy and an execution plan with a sustainable cost structure”. Later, in May, Microsoft closed four studios under ZeniMax, including Redfall and Prey developer Arkane Austin and The Evil Within and Hi-Fi Rush studio Tango Gameworks. The latter, however, was recently acquired and revived by Krafton.
