Microsoft Has Reportedly Considered Bringing Sea Of Thieves To PS5 And Switch

Just days after laying off 1,900 workers under the recently acquired Activision Blizzard, Microsoft has become only the second company ever to reach a $3 trillion market value. The recent layoffs by Microsoft were met with inquisition from audiences concerned about the company's profits, though it would seem Microsoft is showing no signs of declining value.

Microsoft's decision to cut 1900 staff members has reportedly seen the company's games retail teams reduced, prompting fresh questions over Xbox's future in the physical games business.

Microsoft is laying off around 1,900 members of staff from its games division.

2023 was a brutal year for the games industry with its never-ending wave of layoffs, but 2024 is somehow turning out to be significantly worse. Less than a month into the year, the industry has already seen thousands of jobs being cut, and another significant number has now been added to that total, with IGN reporting that Microsoft’s gaming division is cutting 1,900 jobs out of its total workforce of about 22,000.

Microsoft is the latest big tech and gaming company to announce a sweeping wave of layoffs across the company, with around 8% of Microsoft’s Gaming group to be affected. That might not seem too awful, but with around 22,000 employees across Xbox, Activision Blizzard King and ZeniMax, it will add up to around 1,900 redundancies.

Update: This story has now been updated with a response from a Microsoft spokesperson.

Microsoft is laying off 1,900 workers — or around 8% of Microsoft Gaming’s 22,000 employees — from its gaming division. The majority of layoffs are at Activision Blizzard, according to the Verge, though cuts will impact Xbox and ZeniMax employees, too.

Microsoft is laying off 1900 people across its video game teams, including Activision Blizzard, ZeniMax and Xbox, equating to approximately eight percent of its gaming workforce.

According to IGN, Microsoft has fired 1,900 employees from its video game divisions including Xbox and Activision Blizzard. The layoffs affect almost 9% of the 22,000 employees at the company. In a memo to staff, Microsoft Gaming CEO claims the layoffs come after leadership at Microsoft Gaming and Activision Blizzard identified areas of overlap following the recent acquisition of Activision, Blizzard, and King.

Microsoft has laid off 1,900 employees from its gaming division—mainly roles at Activision Blizzard King, but also some at Xbox and ZeniMax Media.

Given that Microsoft have spent considerable time and effort becoming the biggest cock-of-the-walk possible, it does, I suppose, make sense that their layoffs are correspondingly massive. In an internal memo obtained by The Verge, Phil Spencer is very sad to reveal to the staff that, in order to grow, the combined powers of Microsoft's 22k-strong Gaming Division have to be denuded to the tune of 1,900 human beings. That amounts to about 8% of the division.

Just four months after the merger with Activision-Blizzard, Microsoft has announced that it will lay off 1.900 Activision-Blizzard and Xbox employees.