Credible reports from Bloomberg and The Verge earlier this week suggested another imminent big round of Xbox layoffs. These layoffs are supposed to be part of a wider Microsoft restructuring, and according to The Verge, some Xbox operations will actually cease in select regions.
Today, George Broussard, co-founder of Apogee Software (now 3D Realms) and one of the creators of Duke Nukem, shared whispers from within the industry that the layoffs could remove as many as 2K employees. This would be around 10% of the workforce if we consider Activision and Bethesda as part of the Xbox teams, which is likely the case. The companies will most likely be affected anyway, as they were in the previous rounds of layoffs. Even more worrying is the rumor that studio closures could happen, too.
The first big round of cuts happened in January 2023, when Microsoft slashed around ten thousand jobs, although that was across all its divisions and not just in gaming. The cuts involved Bethesda, The Coalition, and 343 Industries, among others. One year later, just a few months after the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Microsoft removed another 1900 employees between the Xbox and ABK teams, amounting to around 8% of its gaming workforce. That also caused the cancellation of Project Odyssey, a survival game in development at Activision based on a new fantasy IP.
In May 2024, Xbox shut down Arkane Austin (the development team behind Prey and Redfall, Tango Gameworks (The Evil Within, Ghostwire: Tokyo, and Hi-Fi Rush), Alpha Dog Games (The Mighty Doom), and Roundhouse Studios. Thankfully, Tango Gameworks was revived a few months later by KRAFTON and brought with it the Hi-Fi Rush franchise.
With Microsoft's financial quarter set to end on June 30, the announcement isn't far off and may come by the end of this week. Stay tuned to get all the official details as they come.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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