Microsoft has decided to lay off 1,900 workers in its gaming sector, according to a report, making it the latest technology company to make layoffs related to video games.
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Gaming CEO Phil Spencer told employees that the cuts were intended to reduce “areas of overlap” following the tech giant's acquisition of Activision Blizzard last year, CNBC reported, citing a memo sent Thursday. Spencer said in the memo that the people affected by the cuts played a “significant role” in the success of the Activision Blizzard, ZeniMax and Xbox teams. Microsoft acquired ZeniMax Media, the parent company of game publisher Bethesda Softworks, in 2021.
The Verge reports that Microsoft is mainly laying off roles at Activision Blizzard, but adds that some Xbox and ZeniMax employees will be affected. Blizzard president Mike Ybarra has also decided to leave the company, according to the Verge, citing an internal memo from Matt Booty, head of Xbox Game Studios and Microsoft Studios.
Related: Microsoft's acquisition of Activision makes big tech companies bigger — and harder to rein in
“To the Blizzard community: I also want to let you all know that today is my last day at Blizzard,” Ybarra wrote Thursday on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “Leading Blizzard through an incredible time and being part of the team, shaping it for the future ahead, has been an absolute honor. Having spent over 20 years at Microsoft and with the acquisition of Activision Blizzard behind us, it is time for me (once again) to become a Blizzard fans from abroad.
Recent layoffs in the technology sector have affected the gaming industry as a whole. Earlier this month, Amazon.com Inc. AMZN,
announced plans to cut 500 jobs at its Twitch live-streaming business, which is popular among gamers, and Unity Software Inc. U for the video game software industry.
It said it plans to lay off about 1,800 employees, or 25% of its workforce. On Monday, video game maker Riot Games, owned by Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. 700,
It said it would cut about 530 jobs globally, or about 11% of its total workforce.
In the first few weeks of 2024, the video game industry has already seen more than half the number of layoffs it saw in all of 2023, game developer and game industry consultant Rami Ismail wrote on Thursday.
RELATED: Amazon's Twitch Plans to Cut 500 Jobs, in the Latest Layoffs in Tech
“I just checked the numbers,” Ismail wrote. “with today” [sic] Adding in the Activision-Blizzard/Microsoft layoffs, at just 25 days into 2024, we're already more than halfway to 2023's total layoffs (5,600 vs. 10,500).
Layoffs in the tech sector have been a topic for 2023 and have remained in the spotlight. Earlier this month, Xerox Holdings Inc.
eBay Inc. announced plans to cut 15% of its workforce. ebay,
It said it would cut about 1,000 jobs, or 9% of its full-time workforce. Amazon is also cutting “several hundred” roles across its Prime Video and MGM Studios businesses.
Earlier this week, Bloomberg reported that Alphabet Inc. GOOGL, the parent company of Google,
Google,
It lays off dozens of workers at its X-Tech lab.
Alphabet has not yet responded to a request for comment from MarketWatch.
Related: Technology layoffs are in the spotlight again as 2024 kicks off with Xerox job cuts
So far this year, 82 tech companies have laid off 23,670 employees globally, according to data compiled by Layoffs.fyi. If this pace of layoffs continues throughout 2024, it will exceed the total from 2023, when 1,183 technology companies laid off 261,997 employees globally. This represents a significant increase from 2022, when 1,064 technology companies laid off 164,969 employees, according to the site.
John Swartz and Bill Peters contributed.
