It wasreportedyesterday that mega-corporation Microsoft was allegedly set to lay off over 10,000 employees due to stagnant macroeconomic conditions, and that has been confirmed today via an officialblog postfrom Microsoft itself. Furthermore,VGChas rounded up posts from severalXboxemployees confirming that they’ve been laid off, meaning that the cuts have affected the company’s gaming division.
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A senior designer at 343 Industries, the development studio currently responsible for theHaloFranchise,revealedthat they were being laid off, as didRenee SoguecoandSam Luangkhot, twoBethesdaPR workers. A source over atLords of Gamingstated that the layoffs had hit 343 Industries particularly hard, claiming that “at least 60 people” had been fired fromHalo Infinite’s development studio, most of them apparently from the “single-player side of the studio.”
This is particularly notable as 343 Industries has been under heavy scrutiny from Xbox fans over the past few months, due to what many consider to be poor management of one of the console’s most beloved brands, Halo. Many have felt that Halo Infinite’s free-to-play multiplayer platform had been slow to receive new content, with the game’s current Season 2 set to last about ten months.
Though many other large tech companies are going about mass layoffs, like Amazon and Meta, it’s possible that this cost-cutting may be somehow related to Microsoft’s planned acquisition of publisherActivision Blizzard. Besides the fact that Microsoft is set to pay nearly $69 billion for the company, it would also add approximately 9,000 more employees to its payroll. Microsoft only finalized its acquisition of Bethesda in early 2021, which it bought for $7.5 billion. That acquisition resulted in about 2,000 new employees.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella did state in the blog post that the company is “committed to ensuring all those whose roles are eliminated have our full support during these transitions.” US employees are stated to received “above-market severance pay,” healthcare coverage for six months post-exit, “continued vesting of stock awards for six months,” what he called “career transition services,” and 60 days notice prior to termination, meaning they are likely to no longer be employed at Microsoft sometime in March.
