Microsoft announced plans to layoff 10,000 employees, a decision that CEO Satya Nadella calls "difficult but necessary." A statement issued to employees, made public by Microsoft, does not go into detail just how many departments are being impacted. However, we do know that the Xbox division at Microsoft did not come away unscathed.
Several studios under Xbox were impacted by today's massive number of layoffs. Reports from both Bloomberg and Kotaku say that a number of developers from at least three Xbox studios were laid off today. The studios we know hit by layoffs include 343 Industries, The Coalition, and Bethesda Game Studios.
Bloomberg's report specifically notes that at least 878 positions at Microsoft's Washington location were cut today. The remaining layoffs are expected to be completed by Q3 of this year. In his public statement, Satya Nadella put a bit of spin on the fact that 10,000 people are losing their jobs by saying it's "just" 5% of the company's total workforce.
Today, we are making changes that will result in the reduction of our overall workforce by 10,000 jobs through the end of FY23 Q3. This represents less than 5 percent of our total employee base, with some notifications happening today.
It is not clear how any of the projects that any of these studios were working on will be impacted by this. These layoffs were announced exactly one year after Microsoft announced plans to purchase Activision Blizzard for almost $70 billion (USD).