In a week when Xbox fans were hoping to hear a response from Microsoft to the PS5 Pro, the software giant is making a third round of gaming layoffs instead. 650 employees at Microsoft’s gaming business are being laid off, part of continued cuts at Xbox after Microsoft’s $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
Microsoft cut 1,900 Activision Blizzard and Xbox jobs earlier this year and then shuttered four studios it acquired as part of its $7.5 billion Bethesda acquisition in May. Thankfully, Hi-Fi Rush studio Tango Gameworks was eventually saved from Microsoft’s shutdown after Krafton, the South Korean publisher behind PUBG: Battlegrounds and The Callisto Protocol, acquired the Japanese studio from Microsoft instead.
It’s pretty sad honestly. Back in the PS3/360 days it felt like a healthy rivalry but ever since the Xbox One Kinect and always online debacle Xbox hasn’t really recovered and I feel both Sony and MS are both worse off for it.
I really miss the Kinect, but I think they expected way too much from it. It was a lot of fun for games like Just Dance and various sports games for casual play, and I probably would’ve bought a new XBox if they continued to support it.
Always online can go die though, screw that. If I get a console, it’s because it’s more convenient than a PC. Give me a unique playing experience in a living room setting and I’ll pick one up.
The 650 job cuts will primarily impact “corporate and supporting functions,” according to Spencer, meaning cuts to HR and marketing roles.
I was going to make a joke about HR and DEI getting the axe, but reality surpasses satire once again…
With layoffs happening in an election year I am a going to be a bit suspicious that executives are colluding to try to lower employment rates to influence voters to vote Republican so their millionaire executives and billion dollar corps can get lower taxes and less regulation. We’ll see if they start rehiring again for 2025 after the election is over.
Wouldn’t shock me in the slightest
I’ve been putting off buying an Xbox for like a year now because these kind of stores keep spooking me
