Another Large Round Of Layoffs Affecting Staff Of Microsoft's Xbox Studios

Video Games

Jul 5

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Despite high revenues from Microsoft, brutal staffing cuts to their gaming division have been announced that will gut multiple Xbox-owned games studios and cancel various in-development games.

9,000 jobs will be collectively lost from across the different studios, with exact details on what is being lost where largely unclear, though a few examples have broken through this uncertainty. King, the noted developers of Candy Crush, who were acquired by Activision Blizzard and were then drawn into the Microsoft ecosystem following Microsoft’s purchase of the company in 2023, will lose 10% of their staff, roughly 200 jobs. Some other European studios are set to feel the effects, but the majority of the cuts have apparently landed on teams in the USA.

Meanwhile, Rare’s Everwild and the ongoing Perfect Dark reboot are among the fatalities of now-cancelled in-development projects, though the Perfect Dark situation is notably worse due to the attached studio, The Initiative, fully closing its doors. Various executives, like Phil Spencer and Matt Booty, put out statements to their staff and employees that speak about tough choices made in the name of future success.

This does not change the fact that like much of the gaming industry, Microsoft Games has been on a warpath in recent months. 2,000 jobs were lost in 2024, while a trio of Zenimax Games studios were shuttered, including Tango Gameworks, developers of the recent fan-favorite Hi-fi Rush. That particular company and IP were saved from oblivion thanks to an intervention from Krafton, which bought the studio and its IP. With 11% of all game developers losing their jobs in 2024, 2025 is looking to be an even worse year.

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