Microsoft is going to conduct a new round of layoffs across the Xbox division. According to Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, this round of layoffs is set to be part of a company-wide reorganisation effort. While no concrete details have been revealed as of yet, the report indicates that managers from across teams in the Xbox division are expecting “substantial” cuts in workforce.
While details about the planned layoffs will likely become clearer over the coming days, this is turning into a surprisingly common occurrence at the company. This round of layoffs follows a major one from back in May, where the company cut around 6,000 of its employees from across various divisions and teams, including Xbox.
The cuts are likely being made following Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, which had cost the company $69 billion when it went through in 2023. Since then, the Xbox division is said to have been under pressure from Microsoft’s upper management teams to boost revenue and profit margins.
Interestingly, the fact that Microsoft will be cutting jobs across Xbox comes shortly after the company announced its latest hardware collaboration project – this time around with Meta for an Xbox-themed Quest 3S headset. Dubbed the Meta Quest 3S Xbox Edition, the VR headset is a limited edition launch with a $400 price tag. For more details, check out our coverage of the announcement.
In the meantime, Microsoft has also announced team-up with AMD to make more gaming-oriented chips for hardware, from consoles, to desktop PCs, and even handheld gaming systems.
“AMD and Microsoft are advancing a bold, shared vision for the future of gaming; one that enables seamless gameplay across any screen, placing gamers at the center of the experience anywhere,” said AMD CEO Lisa Su about the chip maker’s partnership with Microsoft. “We’re so excited to be deepening our relationship with Microsoft and build on the over two decades of partnership, innovation, and trust. From the earliest days of the Xbox 360 to the most advanced consoles, such as the Xbox Series X and S, and the recently announced ROG Xbox Ally handhelds.”
“Together, we are building a vibrant, open ecosystem that delivers the next generation of graphics and immersive gameplay, powered by AI that includes new foundational models to accelerate the state of the art in rendering. From console to cloud to handheld, AMD and Microsoft are building the future of immersive gaming. We are so excited to be working with Microsoft to bring all of this tech to gamers everywhere.”
Microsoft had recently also unveiled new handheld gaming systems made by Asus. Dubbed the ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X, the two systems are powered by AMD’s Ryzen Z2A and Ryzen Z2 Extreme chips respectively, and run on a modified version of Windows.
Leading up to the announcement of the two handhelds, reports had indicated that Microsoft had halted internal development on its own Xbox handheld. Instead, according to the reports, the company had diverted the team to work on Windows to make the operating system more gaming oriented.