Microsoft’s Xbox Branch To Reportedly Face Third Round Of Layoffs This Year
According to a new report, Microsoft may soon be handing out yet even more pink slips to their already-embattled Xbox workforce.
The first tease of the the company’s upcoming misfortunes was provided to the public courtesy of their now-former Gaming Learning Lead Jessie Thomas.
Taking to her personal Twitter account on July 2nd, Thomas informed her followers, “Sad to announce that my role with Microsoft has been eliminated.”
“To all those who have been a part of Team Xbox,” she added. “Thank you. Hope I made you proud.”
From there, noted industry insider and The Verge Senior Editor Tom Warren would subsequently reveal that, rather than a one-off situation, Thomas’ job cut was actually the result of a larger round of impending Xbox layoffs.
Retweeting Thomas’ initial announcement later that same day, Warren detailed, “More Xbox layoffs happening this week. Microsoft laid off Jessie while she was on vacation.”
Unfortunately, Warren did not provide any details as to which specific Xbox divisions or positions would be effected by these layoffs.
As noted above, should these layoffs actually come to fruition, they would be but the latest to hit Microsoft in 2024 alone.
In January 2024, in a decision partially motivated by shrinking profit projections for the coming year, Microsoft axed a rough total of 1,900 positions across their Activision Blizzard, Xbox, and ZeniMax studios.
Then, in May, the company shuttered the Bethesda subsidiary studios Arkane Studios and Tango Gameworks, the pair best known for their respective developments of Redfall and Hi-Fi Rush.
“These changes are not a reflection of the creativity and skill of the talented individuals at these teams or the risks they took to try new things,” wrote Head of Xbox Game Studios Matt Booty in an all-company memo announcing the closures. “I acknowledge that these changes are also disruptive to the various support teams across ZeniMax and Bethesda that bring our games to market. We are making these tough decisions to create capacity to increase investment in other parts of our portfolio and focus on our priority games.”
Further, the undertaking of these potential cuts would also leave Microsoft as the latest casualty (yet again) of the ongoing wave of wider Western video game industry layoffs.
This year alone, Grand Theft Auto publisher Take Two pink slipped 500 employees, Valorant heralds Riot Games let loose 530, Dead by Daylight studio Behavior Interactive axed 95, and Final Fantasy developer Square Enix slimmed down their US and European teams.
At current, Microsoft has yet to either offer a public comment on Warren’s reporting or formally commence the rumored layoffs.
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