Microsoft lays off nearly 2,000 employees, cancels upcoming Blizzard game

microsog.png

The first substantial fallout of the Microsoft-Activision Blizzard merger has arrived. Microsoft has let go 1,900 of its employees across Zenimax, Xbox, and Activision Blizzard, with the majority of the layoffs affecting the latter. Amidst this, Blizzard's current president, Mike Ybarra, is stepping down from his role at the company, as well as Blizzard co-founder Allan Adham.

Xbox's CEO Phil Spencer explained the reasoning for the massive layoffs in an email to staff (courtesy of The Verge).

It’s been a little over three months since the Activision, Blizzard, and King teams joined Microsoft. As we move forward in 2024, the leadership of Microsoft Gaming and Activision Blizzard is committed to aligning on a strategy and an execution plan with a sustainable cost structure that will support the whole of our growing business. Together, we’ve set priorities, identified areas of overlap, and ensured that we’re all aligned on the best opportunities for growth.

As part of this process, we have made the painful decision to reduce the size of our gaming workforce by approximately 1900 roles out of the 22,000 people on our team. The Gaming Leadership Team and I are committed to navigating this process as thoughtfully as possible. The people who are directly impacted by these reductions have all played an important part in the success of Activision Blizzard, ZeniMax and the Xbox teams, and they should be proud of everything they’ve accomplished here. We are grateful for all of the creativity, passion and dedication they have brought to our games, our players and our colleagues. We will provide our full support to those who are impacted during the transition, including severance benefits informed by local employment laws. Those whose roles will be impacted will be notified, and we ask that you please treat your departing colleagues with the respect and compassion that is consistent with our values.

Looking ahead, we’ll continue to invest in areas that will grow our business and support our strategy of bringing more games to more players around the world. Although this is a difficult moment for our team, I’m as confident as ever in your ability to create and nurture the games, stories and worlds that bring players together.

However, it appears that the employees who were let go from the company were not well informed as to who lost their job and who got to stay, as notable journalist Jason Schreier commented that those within Xbox were not directly told, and had to wait to be notified as to whether or not they were still employed by Microsoft. These firings represent 8% of Microsoft's gaming divisions across the board.

Also affected by this was one of Blizzard's upcoming titles, which was originally announced in 2022. It was set to be a survival game, and had been in development for over six years. Now, the game is canceled, and a majority of the team working on the title have been fired, with the remainder being moved to other Blizzard projects.

:arrow: Source
 

LightBeam

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Oct 1, 2018
Messages
1,134
Trophies
0
XP
2,791
Country
France
People blame Microsoft but that's something that's been happening everywhere

That's sad, but not surprising. Disappointed about that Project Odyssey cancelation, but it was going nowhere anyway
 

LightBeam

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Oct 1, 2018
Messages
1,134
Trophies
0
XP
2,791
Country
France
And other things! Rip in peace Skype
Nah Skype was garbage tho, I hated that thing it always ran so poorly

RIP MSN tho, that thing was a banger and I was so disappointed it got replaced by Skype
Post automatically merged:

Nintendo absolutely should have! As for Microsoft… Money=Power and that’s just sad
At that time Rare was already just a shell of it's former self. I used to think that Nintendo should have bought them but considering that the games they were making then weren't as good as they used to be. Microsoft actually got robbed on that one (tho SoT is actually great now)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Pachee

Maximo101

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Sep 16, 2022
Messages
254
Trophies
0
Location
southwest
XP
616
Country
United States
Not sure how to feel about this honestly. With the outcome of Blizzard and the general actions of Microsoft, I don't know to feel bad, feel just fine, etc. Finding out late sucks already, losing a job sucks even more, I hope these folks find a good alternative career at least.
Maybe they can make solar panels...
 

Pachee

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Nov 3, 2015
Messages
482
Trophies
0
XP
575
Country
United States
Nice, hopefully they got rid of the deranged activists who discriminate against men and competent people in the name of "diversity".
 
  • Like
Reactions: SeventhSon7

subcon959

@!#?@!
Member
Joined
Dec 24, 2008
Messages
5,995
Trophies
4
XP
10,691
Country
United Kingdom
Apparently, the FTC has filed a complaint that these layoffs contradict how Microsoft presented their case that the acquisition wasn't monopolistic because the two entities would continue to operate independently.
 

The Catboy

GBAtemp Official Catboy™: Entropy Trap
Member
Joined
Sep 13, 2009
Messages
28,679
Trophies
6
Location
Making a non-binary fuss
XP
42,207
Country
Antarctica
They should stick to making good os
I hate to break it to you but the last good OS was Windows 7. Since then it’s been progressively becoming worse. The more accurate statement is that they should return to making a decent OS
 
  • Like
Reactions: EPgrouch

Site & Scene News

Popular threads in this forum

General chit-chat
Help Users
    Psionic Roshambo @ Psionic Roshambo: Richard Simmons and Gene Simmons should have teamed up for a workout video +1