2024-01-25 16:55:57
Published25. January 2024, 5:55 p.m.
Technology giant: Microsoft will lay off 1,900 employees in its games division
This wave comes a few months after the finalization of the acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
The Xbox division is hit by a new wave of layoffs.
Reuters
Microsoft will lay off 1,900 employees from its Xbox console subsidiary and Activision Blizzard, several American media said on Thursday, barely more than three months after finalizing the acquisition of the video game publisher.
In a message posted on
“An incredibly difficult day”
“This is an incredibly difficult day,” the manager wrote, indicating that Thursday was his “last day” within the company, which has 22,000 people assigned to video games, consoles or software.
Microsoft had to wait more than 20 months before finalizing the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, for $69 billion, due to regulatory obstacles, which were finally removed.
Phil Spencer in an internal letter
In an internal letter, published by several American media, the head of video games at Microsoft, Phil Spencer, justified the decision by the desire to calibrate the entity “with a sustainable cost structure”.
He noted “duplication” and Microsoft’s intention to prioritize projects that generate potential growth.
Waves throughout the area
These job cuts come at a time when other major players in video games have also recently announced layoffs.
On Monday, Riot Games, publisher of the League of Legends game and a subsidiary of Chinese Tencent, indicated the upcoming reduction of its workforce by around 11%, or 530 jobs.
At the beginning of January, the streaming platform Twitch, an Amazon subsidiary made popular by “gamers”, said it planned to let go of 500 employees, or around a third of the whole.
Already in 2023
Last year, Microsoft, like most technology giants with the notable exception of Apple, had already cut its workforce, with a first wave of 10,000 job cuts, announced in January, followed by another, during the summer.
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