Microsoft emblem is seen on a smartphone positioned on displayed Activision Blizzard emblem.
| Photo Credit: REUTERS
Microsoft is laying off about 1,900 employees in its gaming division, in line with an inside firm memo, simply over three months for the reason that tech big accomplished its $69 billion buy of online game maker Activision Blizzard.
The job cuts signify about an 8% discount of Microsoft’s 22,000-person gaming workforce, the memo, obtained Thursday by The Associated Press, notes. Those impacted labored on groups for Activision Blizzard in addition to Xbox and ZeniMax — that are additionally owned by 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,” Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer wrote in the memo.
Microsoft didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark from The Associated Press.
Also on Thursday, Blizzard President Mike Ybarra introduced that he could be leaving the corporate in a submit on X, the platform previously often called Twitter, showing to acknowledge the layoffs.
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“It’s an incredibly hard day and my energy and support will be focused on all those amazing individuals impacted — this is in no way a reflection on your amazing work,” Mr. Ybarra wrote — later including that his time main Blizzard “was an absolute honour.”
Microsoft closed its $69 billion Activision Blizzard deal in October, practically 22 months after the deal was first introduced after overcoming opposition from antitrust regulators in the United Kingdom and European Union.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission misplaced a court docket combat to dam the acquisition however its antitrust enforcers are nonetheless pursuing a case that seeks to unwind the deal. The FTC has described the merger as a risk to competitors in the online game trade, enabling Microsoft to create “walled gardens” round its Xbox Game Pass subscription service and the rising enterprise of streaming video games on demand.
The newest layoffs at Microsoft comply with a sequence of job cuts throughout the tech sector in current weeks — together with these at Google, Riot Games, TikTok, eBay, and Amazon. Retail, hospitality, media and different sectors have been it by job cuts as properly.
Microsoft eradicated a major variety of roles only one yr in the past. In January 2023, Microsoft mentioned it might be slicing 10,000 staff, then nearly 5% of its workforce, as the corporate joined different tech gamers scaling again on pandemic-era expansions.
The newest Microsoft layoffs “underscores the importance of having a union voice on the job,” mentioned the Communications Workers of America — which has been working to arrange online game employees, together with some at gaming divisions at Microsoft.
In an uncommon association for the gaming trade, Microsoft has pledged to remain impartial if Activision Blizzard staff in the U.S. and Canada search to organise right into a labour union. The union deal was a part of a 2022 settlement with the CWA that helped handle U.S. political considerations in regards to the merger’s results. So far, nevertheless, solely a small set of Activision Blizzard divisions have shaped unions.
