Xbox’s latest round of layoffs has left thousands without jobs and many of those still employed uncertain about what comes next. Microsoft cut 1,600 positions across its gaming division earlier this week, while another 1,600 reductions are planned across the coming fiscal year.
The cuts have also affected Xbox’s studio structure. Four first-party teams are being spun off or put up for sale, and Arkane Studios, the developer behind Marvel’s Blade, is also being divested. Its future remains tied up in French labor laws.
That uncertainty is now spreading through the teams that remain. A Bloomberg report by Jason Schreier described employees as being asked to do more with fewer resources while they wait to learn whether their own positions will survive the next round.
“Parts of the organisation will have to spend the next 12 months trying to keep up morale in the often grueling circumstances of making video games – a difficult endeavor even during the best of times – while wondering if they will be next,” Schreier wrote.
The report also described deep reductions at ZeniMax Online Studios and id Software. id Software has reportedly been reduced to roughly the size of a support team, although the studio is said to retain enough staff to work on new games.
Bethesda Game Studios has not been spared either. The team behind The Elder Scrolls 6 has also faced cuts, adding to the sense that no part of Xbox’s development organization is fully protected.
For the employees who remain, the next year now carries a difficult mix of heavier workloads and job insecurity. They are expected to keep projects moving while waiting to see whether another announcement will affect their team.
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