Microsoft is cutting a total of 3.200 jobs at Xbox and shutting down five studios. Because the layoffs will be spread out over the next twelve months, the teams are now gripped by sheer fear of a second wave.
Microsoft pulls the plug after its failed subscription strategy. 1.600 people fly immediatelyAnother 1.600 employees will follow over the course of the next year. In addition, there are massive budget cuts of 50 percent for external service providers, whose laid-off employees don't even appear in the official statistics.
The cruel salami tactic from Redmond
This division into installments is completely wearing down the workforce, as Bloomberg Those who stay have to cram more work into less time. And they tremble daily, wondering if it will be their turn next. This is no longer a normal environment. This is psychological terror.
Following the announcement, Blizzard CEO Johanna Faries sent internal emails to employees that raised more questions than they answered. Vague messages of support followed, along with confirmation of minimal cuts at the China office. Was that all? Nobody knows. After the waves of layoffs of the past two years, this uncertainty is crippling the teams right in the middle of preparations for the upcoming BlizzCon.
Bethesda's parent company, ZeniMax, has been hit particularly hard. Studios like ZeniMax Online and id Software have been decimated, and even at core developer Bethesda Game Studios, dozens of employees have been laid off. In contrast, an eerie calm prevails at European studios like MachineGames in Sweden. They are in limbo. Will the hammer fall there only in phase two? Quite possibly.
The situation at Arkane in Lyon is even more bizarre. Microsoft wants to completely divest itself of the studio behind "Dishonored" and the upcoming Blade game. Due to strict French labor laws, this process will drag on for months. The developers currently don't know whether they will be sold, spun off, or shut down. Paradoxically, the departure of Xbox could ultimately even be Arkane's salvation from internal management chaos.
Morale at Xbox is at rock bottom. Anyone expected to deliver peak performance for a year under the constant threat of termination is bound to burn out. Microsoft is exploiting the fear of its remaining workforce as a performance-driven tool, in typical Silicon Valley fashion. The development of major brands will suffer significantly in the coming months due to this shattered morale and staff shortage.
