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.

Source

 

[The Catboy]

If Microsoft is good at anything it's destroying game studios

*Cries in rareware*

And other things! Rip in peace Skype

 

[subcon959]

Just Microsoft being Microsoft at the end of the day. It's all about IP collection, the human beings are irrelevant.

 

[Naster]

Microsoft needed a big name not games or developers.

 

[Jayro]

We're never going to get StarCraft: Ghost, are we?

 

[subcon959]

We're never going to get StarCraft: Ghost, are we?

No, but maybe Minecraft: Toast.

 

[Jayro]

No, but maybe Minecraft: Toast.

 

[RAHelllord]

This is just standard practices at this point, and quite frankly I'm more shocked it's only 1.900 people. Remember when Google just fired 12.000 out of the blue last January and people had to come to the office and test their badges to see whether they still had a job or not because they couldn't even be arsed to write an email?

This is entirely normal to ensure the company looks healthy to shareholders and to improve profit margins as people continue to be one of the more expensive resources of a company. This is also the exact bullshit unions are for, don't let yourself become a pawn with no recourse to your employer, unionize and force the bosses to the table if they want to get any work done by anyone.

 

[Maximumbeans]

We're never going to get StarCraft: Ghost, are we?

View attachment 416247

Wait no because maybe they're firing these people to free up the money to FINISH Ghost??

 

[Viri]

If Microsoft is good at anything it's destroying game studios

*Cries in rareware*

They have "reverse Midas touch". lol

And other things! Rip in peace Skype

People are nostalgic over Skype. I fucking hated Skype even before Microsoft bought them. I always found the program to be overbloated,. I hated being "forced" to use Skype.

 

[DungeonS1]

Just your usual microsoft… a sad day for the gaming industry

 

[Marc_LFD]

This is why M$ shouldn't be able to buy companies/studios they just end up ruining them.

Nintendo should have rescued Rare from M$.

 

[DungeonS1]

This is why M$ shouldn't be able to buy companies/studios they just end up ruining them.

Nintendo should have rescued Rare from M$.

Nintendo absolutely should have! As for Microsoft… Money=Power and that’s just sad

 

[assassinz]

Oh well. Eventually AI will be doing most of the coding and developing of games, etc. for Microsoft.

 

[Purple_Shyguy]

It's time we acknowledge that there were a lot of fluff jobs in gaming company's and there's nothing wrong with trimming the fat.

Every month we discuss the ludicrous cost of modern games but people won't seem to acknowledge this is in part to the over bloated staff.

 

[eyeliner]

Activision was always too bloated. Nearly 2000 people making 8% of the workforce is impressive.

From what I read, and expected as well, is that a lot of positions were redundant, as happens frequently in these mergers, and people working there are always waiting to receive the notification in these events.

Sucks, true, but not at all unexpected.

 

[x65943]

Activision was always too bloated. Nearly 2000 people making 8% of the workforce is impressive.

From what I read, and expected as well, is that a lot of positions were redundant, as happens frequently in these mergers, and people working there are always waiting to receive the notification in these events.

Sucks, true, but not at all unexpected.

I have zero confidence that Microsoft fired the right people

 

[eyeliner]

I have zero confidence that Microsoft fired the right people

Because Microsoft bad?

 

[Marc_LFD]

Because Microsoft bad?

They haven't been making good decisions.

 

[DragonMals]

Maybe they laid off some of their employees because of their new technologies surrounding AI

I'm kidding lol. But in all seriousness, Idk what to say about this. Stuff like this happens, and it could only mean for the company itself to make it for a good case, or, most of the time, a bad cause.

 

[eyeliner]

They haven't been making good decisions.

They are extremely good at retaining talent, so I am sure that the ones left behind are not necessarily the best of the bunch.

I can't give an opinion about the games they decide to produce, and can't get behind the hate after they dissolved Rare. They left the studio go around with free reign and the results were not that good.

They do what they need and are, for now, the only company that SEEMS to give a damn about their user base.

Mote than that, I can't speculate.

In a massive merger like this there was bound to have a pretty significant cut on the workforce. 8% is quite low. There are tales of a bigger company scooping another and making it dissappear in its entirety (I worked at a company that did that).

So yeah, all I see are standard business processes.