As most people are already aware, Microsoft decided to layoff 10,000 employees across all their gaming divisions, including 343 Industries, The Coalition, ZeniMax Media and Bethesda Game Studios. The news comes after just one year after their crazy acquisition of Activision Blizzard for $70 billion.
Just yesterday, Phil Spencer, Xbox CEO, released a statement in response to the layoffs:
“This has been a difficult week across Microsoft, and here, inside our teams. Now that many of the 1:1 and team conversations have happened, I want to take a moment to reiterate the message that you heard from your leaders.
This is a challenging moment in our business, and this week’s actions were painful choices. The Gaming Leadership Team had to make decisions that we felt set us up for the long-term success of our products and business, but the individual results of those decisions are real. I know that hurts. Thank you for supporting our colleagues as they process these changes.
Over the coming weeks we will have many opportunities to connect and answer your questions, including the Monthly Gaming Update next week for teams who attend that meeting, and I am in close contact with teams at ZeniMax to provide support. The GLT and I are committed to being as transparent as we can. Moving forward with ambiguity is challenging, but I am confident that together, we will get through this difficult moment in time.
Xbox has a long history of success thanks to the work you do in service of players, creators, and each other. Your work is so deeply appreciated and valued in these times of change and is integral to our business momentum. I am confident in our future and proud to be part of this team, but also conscious that this is a challenging time and I want to thank you for everything you do here.
Phil”
According to several sources, the layoffs have hit veteran developers who had been working at Xbox for a long time, as well as senior designers. Employees are due to hear about their own situation in the coming days. Unfortunately, this isn’t the first set of layoffs in recent times as they also laid off 1,000 people back in October and others prior to that.
With the news of this also hitting the gaming studios owned by Xbox such as 343 Industries, The Coalition, ZeniMax Media and Bethesda, it worries the gaming community as we are not sure how this will affect the development of their up-and-coming titles. It was also confirmed recently that 343 will be taken away from Halo and will just oversee the series development, instead of actively being involved with creation of the games.
We shall keep this article updated with any further updates as soon as they come in.
