Microsoft's pending job cuts reportedly will include layoffs in their Xbox division, 343 Industries, and Bethesda. After a series of high-profile acquisitions over the past few years, the massive tech company is scaling back the number of its employees. Rumors of Microsoft's job cuts were confirmed earlier today, but it remains unclear which divisions will be the most affected by it.
In the mid-2010s, Microsoft began to acquire a number of game developer studios and publishers. When this period began is somewhat up to interpretation, as the mega company began acquiring outside game studios as early as the 2000s. Purchases began to ramp up after the company acquired Obsidian Entertainment and Ninja Theory in 2018. Concerns began ramping up when it acquired ZeniMax Media in 2020 before Microsoft announced it would acquire Activision Blizzard in early 2021. Now it appears that all of that spending may have caught up with the company.
Earlier today Microsoft officially confirmed that it would be cutting ten thousand jobs. However, it was not clear which divisions would be hit the hardest. According to new reports, the company's Xbox divisions, Halo developer 343 Industries, and Fallout/Elder Scrolls studio Bethesda would all be affected by this. While it's not clear how many jobs will be cut, sources stated that 343, in particular, was set to be hit hard by these layoffs.
The story of Microsoft's upcoming layoffs broke earlier this week, though details at the time were relatively sparse. The various layoffs will be happening throughout the year, and are expected to be done by the third quarter of Microsoft's 2023 fiscal year. This is said to represent less than 5% of the company's overall workforce. At the same time, Amazon is also set to eliminate over 18,000 jobs as spending slows, the tech slump continues to deepen, and concerns over a pending global recession keep companies on the cautious side.
Since it was revealed that Microsoft revealed that it was set to acquire Activision Blizzard, the company has been under more scrutiny than ever before. The FCC itself has looked into the merger and reports have indicated that the European Union will object to Microsoft's acquisition. The company's latest line of layoffs will likely make the pending acquisition all the more difficult to finalize, as more concerns are raised over an increasingly small number of companies dominating marketplaces. Whether these concerns will result in anything detrimental to the acquisitions, however, remains to be seen.
Source: Bloomberg