Microsoft is rumoured to be getting ready for yet another round of layoffs, this time around affecting Xbox Game Studios. According to The Verge’s Tom Warren, several current employees in the company has been concerned about layoffs, and more are expected to happen to various Xbox-centric divisions in the company by the end of the month.
The most recent round of layoffs involved more than 300 employees at Microsoft, some being from the company’s legal teams. According to Warren, employee morale has also been affected by the fact that Microsoft has been staggering its layoffs, which has ended up making several employees feel uneasy about their jobs.
“I’ve spoken to nearly a dozen current employees and every single one of them is concerned about the ongoing layoffs,” wrote Warren. The random nature of these cuts and the fact Microsoft isn’t doing them all in one go has really hit morale inside the company.“
Back in May, Microsoft had announced that it would be laying off 3 percent of its workforce from across all departments, teams and regions. Reports indicated that more than 6,000 employees were affected by this. In a statement, a Microsoft spokesperson said that the layoffs were meant to help the company implement organisational changes that it deemed necessary.
“We continue to implement organizational changes necessary to best position the company for success in a dynamic marketplace,” said the spokesperson in a statement.
The gaming industry has been seeing quite a few layoffs this year. Back in May, Codemasters had announced that it would be hit by layoffs as well. After confirming that it was stopping development on EA Sports WRC, as well as suspending work on future rally racing games, the company then said that it was “eliminating roles.”
“As a business, we are constantly evolving to meet the growing needs of our players and driving greater focus across our portfolio,” a Codemasters spokesperson said. “This has led us to look at reducing some roles, while we redeploy as many as possible against our strategic priorities.”
EA has also been on a spree when it comes to layoffs, with the most recent ones being from March, affecting 300 employees across multiple teams, including Apex Legends and Star Wars Jedi franchise developer Respawn Entertainment. The studio has also seen a number of its incubation projects being cancelled while they were still in early stages of development.
The company also recently cancelled a game based on Black Panther, shutting down Cliffhanger Games in the process. EA Entertainment president Laura Miele wrote in an email about the studio’s closure being a “hard” decision, and that the decision was made in order to “sharpen [EA’s] focus and put our creative energy behind the most significant growth opportunities.”
“These decisions are hard,” wrote Miele in the email. “They affect people we’ve worked with, learned from, and shared real moments with. We’re doing everything we can to support them – including finding opportunities within EA, where we’ve had success helping people land in new roles.”
These layoffs have led to morale at Respawn hitting an “all-time low”, according to Star Wars Jedi: Survivor senior encounter designer Patrick Wren.
