Microsoft is laying off 4.800 employees at the start of the new fiscal year, with the Xbox division, affecting 1.600 jobs, and the planned sale of four internal studios forming the strategic core of the cuts.
The software company is thus reducing its global workforce by approximately 2,1 percent, primarily in commercial sales and the gaming segment. This latest round of cuts follows the elimination of 9.100 jobs last year and was unprecedented in its scope. expected.
According to an internal email from HR director Amy Coleman, who The Verge The company is responding to market changes brought about by the influence of artificial intelligence, but clarifies that the eliminated roles will not be directly replaced by AI systems.
Team Xbox: 20 percent of jobs will be cut
The gaming division is being hit particularly hard this time. The 1,600 layoffs announced today are just the beginning of a comprehensive restructuring. By the end of the current fiscal year, a total of 20 percent of all jobs at Xbox are to be eliminated. That's one in five jobs.
At the same time, Microsoft is divesting itself of physical assets and sells four in-house Xbox studiosWhile the sale of a fifth studio is currently under review, these measures follow years of stagnation in the console division and the extremely expensive acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the financial burden of which now has to be absorbed through structural cost-cutting. The expansion course of recent years has thus officially come to an end. Strategic retreat instead of growth.
Structural crisis instead of AI scapegoat
The official corporate explanation blames technological change and altered working methods brought about by AI. This doesn't go far enough. The real reason lies in the flawed hardware and software strategy of the Xbox division compared to the PC market and its competitor Sony.
Microsoft's gaming ecosystem is suffering from weak Xbox Series X/S hardware sales and a saturation of the Game Pass model, which can no longer cross-subsidize the high development costs of first-party studios. The sale of these studios is an admission that the sheer number of development teams was not economically sustainable.
For end customers, this change means the end of the Xbox as we knew it. Microsoft is streamlining its gaming division and abandoning the traditional console wars. Fewer studios mean fewer exclusive first-party titles in the long run and a stronger focus on multiplatform releases for PC and PlayStation to maximize revenue. Those who buy Xbox hardware only are betting on a shrinking ecosystem. From now on, Microsoft will operate as a pure software publisher on a massive scale.
Now Sony can reactivate their social media channel and the mob will really go after Microsoft, and Sony will forgive and forget everything.
What's with this comment again? Everyone's cutting costs wherever possible. They're all making unpopular decisions because the good times are long gone. Your hate is practically compulsive! You must do it once a day... you can consider that point closed for today.
This isn't hate, it's going to happen. I don't understand why you're defending Sony; there must be a reason.