Microsoft Laying Off 1,900 Activision Blizzard and Xbox Employees, Nearly 9% of Gaming Staff

[ificandream]

Source: Variety.com

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By Todd Spangler

A little over three months after Microsoft closed its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the tech giant is slashing the ranks of its gaming division.

Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer announced the layoffs in a memo to staff. He said as part of integrating Activision Blizzard with the rest of the gaming operations, “we have made the painful decision to reduce the size of our gaming workforce by approximately 1,900 roles out of the 22,000 people on our team.” That represents about 8.6% of Microsoft Gaming’s headcount (and less than 1% of Microsoft’s total workforce).

With the layoffs, Blizzard Entertainment president Mike Ybarra said he is leaving the company. “It’s an incredibly hard day and my energy and support will be focused on all those amazing individuals impacted – this is in no way a reflection on your amazing work,” Ybarra wrote on X.

Those “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,” Spencer wrote in the memo. “We are grateful for all of the creativity, passion and dedication they have brought to our games, our players and our colleagues.”

Read more: https://variety.com/2024/digital/news/microsoft-layoffs-activision-blizzard-xbox-1235887672/

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[AllaN01Bear]

1. more money for gates? and lax sales ?

[jimfields33]

2. Thankfully it's a very small number compared to how

many they have. 22,000 workers is huge.

[DetroitLegalBeagle]

8. Especially for video game development

AAA titles are usually developed by studios with around 500-600 people. To have 22,000 in gaming development under one roof is absolutely massive.

[iluvtennis]

3. In my opinion, it's simply corporate greed. MS can increase it's profit margins with these layoffs.

Sending positive energy to those affected that they find new positions quickly.

[AllaN01Bear]

4. ding. this .

[Archae]

5. I don't like seeing news like this because...

I'm part of a group who wants to see from those companies a game, "Spyro 4."

It's been 5 years now since the company released "Spyro: Reignited," which is a revamping of the original PS1 games.

And these companies have just released a "Crash Bandicoot: Rumble" game, where Crash characters can fight like the "Smash Brothers" games on Nintendo.

The Crash fight game just added 3 characters from the Spyro games, including Spyro.

[cstanleytech]

10. Article doesn't specify what positions are being eliminated but odds are the majority of there are not developers but

rather things like excessive support personal and those at the administration level.

[Kennah]

6. Acquire, then lay off

It's the cycle of software. Company A buys Company B to counter competition and deprecate software and products so they can sell the latest, greatest version.

[Farmer-Rick]

9. It's typical monopolistic capitalism

They buy up a company then lay off half the workers because they have in house workers who they can shuffle the work off to. Yeah, it's tough on in house labor but corporate greed always wins out.

If you have 2 grocery stores in town. Then one buys up the other. Well they close the one they bought because they don't need double of everything in that one town. Yeah, there might be a small expansion of workers in the one store, now doing the work of 2 stores, but they'll wait and see if they can't just force labor to work harder and longer.

[Kennah]

12. Krogers Albertsons merger, case in point

[LiberalFighter]

7. Did Trump tell them to lay them off?

[eggplant]

11. If they didn't do this it would be very unusual.

Software companies get acquired, layoffs occur within a year. The execs who are leaving will be cashing very large checks, leaving a gaping hole in managerial direction, so the acquired company will be left reeling and falling behind. The very best technical talent, the real thought leaders, will all leave for greener pastures after their accelerated options blackout period is over. And that will leave... middle management and underperforming labor, plus a new executive team which will take 6-12 months to figure out what should happen next. Meanwhile, new releases will be delayed or killed, while the industry rolls on past them.

This is always the cycle. It always has been and always will be.

If you want to fall down a rabbit hole for a few hours, check out https://www.thelayoff.com/