Microsoft to lay off thousands of employees, hits Xbox hard

Microsoft axes around 4% of its workforce, hitting its Xbox division especially hard

Despite growing profits, Microsoft has decided to lay off around 4% of its workforce, affecting approximately 9,000 employees. These plans at Microsoft will impact the entire company, although the company’s Xbox division appears to be taking the most brutal hits. Below are Phil Spencer’s, the head of Xbox’s, comments on the layoffs. This was sent in a message to his team.

To position Gaming for enduring success and allow us to focus on strategic growth areas, we will end or decrease work in certain areas of the business and follow Microsoft’s lead in removing layers of management to increase agility and effectiveness.

– Phil Spencer – via The Verge

As part of these layoffs, Microsoft is cancelling its new Perfect Dark game and is closing down the studio behind it, The Initiative. Furthermore, Turn 10, the studio behind Forza Motorsport, is reportedly laying off more than 70 employees. King, the Xbox division behind the Candy Crush series of games, is reportedly laying off 200 employees, around 10% of its workforce.

Other units of Zenimax are reportedly making cuts. A Zenimax MMORPG project has been cancelled. Additionally, Rare’s Everwild project has been axed.

Seeing Microsoft lay off employees despite growing profits is unsurprising. This round of layoffs comes two months after its last major round of layoffs. In May, Microsoft announced 6,000 layoffs. Layoffs have become commonplace in the tech sector. As with most publicly traded companies, the needs of shareholders are placed far above the needs of employees and customers.

For those affected by these layoffs, we hope that you can find new and stable employment soon.

You can join the discussion on Microsoft’s latest round of layoffs on the OC3D Forums.