Microsoft layoffs: only half of the 9,000 affected devs worked for Xbox alone

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Yesterday, it was announced that Microsoft is planning significant job cuts affecting approximately 9100 employees due to layoffs. This decision has led to the termination of several projects, including Everwild, Perfect Dark, and an unspecified MMORPG from Zenimax Online studio. Additionally, The Initiative team was disbanded. Simultaneously, teams at Turn 10 Studios, Raven Software, Sledgehammer, and High Moon Studios experienced substantial reductions in staff.

Now new reports on this subject have appeared:

  1. Out of the 9100 employees affected by the reduction, less than half were working in Microsoft’s gaming department.
  2. Gregg Mayles will leave Rare studio. He worked in this team for 35 years and was the director of such hits as Donkey Kong Country, Banjo-Kazooie, and Sea of Thieves. He’s one of the few remaining Rare veterans who worked there before the team was acquired by Microsoft in 2002. This is another big name that will leave Microsoft as a result of the layoffs. Yesterday, we reported on the departure of ZeniMax Online’s CEO, Matt Firor, who spent 18 years at the company.
  3. Layoffs at Turn 10 were to affect almost 50% of the team. The remaining employees will be able to continue developing Forza Motorsport, but it’s hard to imagine they’ll have the resources to work on the next installment of the series. Many indications suggest that the team will be reduced to the role of a group assisting other studios.
  4. Jason Schreier reports that these layoffs were conducted in an exceptionally chaotic manner. ZeniMax Online employees didn’t receive any information from the management. Instead, some of them discovered that their access to corporate accounts on Slack had been closed. These people still had not received confirmation of who among them would be saying goodbye to their jobs.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=-53148

The athletes are equally frustrated since, instead of addressing them directly, Phil Spencer merely sent an email to staff members and proceeded to engage in playing ‘Indiana Jones and the Great Circle’ on such a day.

It’s noteworthy that Microsoft has been reducing its staff substantially in recent times. Specifically, in May, the company let go of approximately 3% of its workforce, which translates to over 6,000 employees. A few weeks following this announcement, they disclosed additional layoffs, impacting around 305 individuals.

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2025-07-03 18:01