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[remember_spinal]

Microsoft lays off nearly 1,000 people across the company.
A week after Microsoft announced new hardware and big moves in the VR and AR space it's reportedly laid off nearly 1,000 people across the company, including on the Xbox and Edge teams. Also affected was the MSMT division, which is focused on developing next gen tech.

From Business Insider:

Microsoft laid off employees in teams across the company, according to affected employees who spoke to Insider. This week's layoffs affect less than 1,000 employees, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The cuts appears widespread across the company: conversations with people close to the company and posts on social media sites like Blind and Twitter indicate that the cuts affected everything from the Xbox console gaming division to the cutting-edge Microsoft Strategic Missions and Technology organization. KC Lemson, a longtime Microsoft veteran and a product manager in the office of the Chief Technology Officer, tweeted on Monday night that she lost her job earlier in the day.

"Like all companies, we evaluate our business priorities on a regular basis, and make structural adjustments accordingly," a Microsoft spokesperson said. "We will continue to invest in our business and hire in key growth areas in the year ahead."

Microsoft in July said it planned to lay off less than 1% of its 180,000-person workforce and significantly slowed hiring as the risk of a recession looms. It's unclear whether this week's layoffs are included in the previous figure, but one person who told Insider they have been laid off said they were first hired about a month ago.

 

[solidus12]

Good thing for him that he didn't go to work there, considering all the dick riding he's been doing.

 

[Cornbread78]

Fuck laying people off to make investors happy.... Merger approval incoming....

 

[Cert.in.Death]

MS has new employees to feed.

Unlucky. I’ve been there, sucks ass.

 

[quest]

Fuck laying people off to make investors happy.... Merger approval incoming....

I say the opposite planning on losing 3 billion on the deal failure plus court costs fighting the CMA.

 

[Zok310]

Fuck laying people off to make investors happy.... Merger approval incoming....

Yup, laying off workers to take on more workers.

 

[adamsapple]

Hoping all effected land on their feet quick

 

[FalsettoVibe]

MS has $105B in the bank. Hope they get nice severance packages.

 

[LordOfChaos]

Fire 343i and put some of Zenimax's teams on Halo

 

[Jaybe]

Potentially getting ahead of a middling quarterly report due out next week, in a look we’ve already taken action move. Hope those affected bounce back soon.

 

[Pharaoh 117]

Let's wait for Good Guy Phil to put a positive spin on it.

 

[legacy24]

is Matt Booty one of them?

 

[remember_spinal]

Potentially getting ahead of a middling quarterly report due out next week, in a look we’ve already taken action move. Hope those affected bounce back soon.

Keep your console prices low, fire senior staff members/devs, genius

 

[jakinov]

Fuck laying people off to make investors happy.... Merger approval incoming....

Everyone is laying people off right now. Because shit was hot for a while and companies were hiring like crazy and taking a lot of risk on several different projects. Willing to take massive lists in efforts of growth. There’s a looming recession, ad spend is down, people are purportedly spending less, companies are taking less risk and cutting cost all around. Since times are bad companies are tightening their purse strings and slowing down or backtracking on initiatives from when times were bad. Part of it is to keep investors happy but the other part is that now is not the time to be taking lots of risk and burning money.

 

[Ghost of Caelid]

Layoffs when every quarter your profits are in the tens of billions. Capitalism , never change. /s

 

[akaFullmetal]

That sucks, especially the guy that was there 12 years. I hope they find work soon.

 

[remember_spinal]

Everyone is laying people off right now. Because shit was hot for a while and companies were hiring like crazy and taking a lot of risk on several different projects. Willing to take massive lists in efforts of growth. There’s a looming recession, ad spend is down, people are purportedly spending less, companies are taking less risk and cutting cost all around. Since times are bad companies are tightening their purse strings and slowing down or backtracking on initiatives from when times were bad. Part of it is to keep investors happy but the other part is that now is not the time to be taking lots of risk and burning money.

This would make sense if ti weren’t juxtaposed with a 70 billion dollar acquisition lol

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

I don't remember where (windows weekly) I believe. That thech companies are going to be laying off people.

Edit: I wonder if MS has/will have the power to layoff "redundancies" across Bethesda/Activision

 

[akimbo009]

Boo that's sucks. Not sure why that happened considering what MS profits are. Seems shitty... And an opportunity to rotate them onto projects they may be passionate about or can contribute to in a new setting.

 

[marjo]

Amazing how a sad piece of news like this is immediately turned into fodder for the console warriors. Some of you are pathetic.
I hope everyone affected lands on their feet.

 

[remember_spinal]

 

[Pidull]

Microsoft has been making loads of money, but there's no way you can convince me Xbox division hasn't been hemorrhaging money. This doesn't surprise me at all.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

The oldest MS trick in the book

ACQUIRE AND FIRE

 

[Foilz]

It sucks that these people lost their jobs but 1000 people out of 220,000 really doest warrant "massive layoff"

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

Amazing how a sad piece of news like this is immediately turned into fodder for the console warriors. Some of you are pathetic.
I hope everyone affected lands on their feet.

I bet there are people getting layoff every day around the world. Even worst; there are people that can't even find a job and live in the streets.

I think these people getting layoff by MS are going to be fine.

 

[nush]

Yup, laying off workers to take on more workers.

With all the acquisitions they have been making there's definitely some duplication of roles, some of that's probably getting cleaned up.

 

[remember_spinal]

It sucks that these people lost their jobs but 1000 people out of 220,000 really doest warrant "massive layoff"

1000 people is massive no matter which way you slice it, entire departments were bulldozed

Its the equivalence of buying Activision and shuttering Treyarch, Infinity Ward, and Raven.

 

[Ezekiel_]

Amazing how a sad piece of news like this is immediately turned into fodder for the console warriors. Some of you are pathetic.
I hope everyone affected lands on their feet.

 

[FalsettoVibe]

Amazing how a sad piece of news like this is immediately turned into fodder for the console warriors. Some of you are pathetic.
I hope everyone affected lands on their feet.

Criticizing Microsoft's decisions does not equal console waring.

 

[Kurimao]

Now they can buy Rockstar on Wednesday.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Everyone is laying people off right now. Because shit was hot for a while and companies were hiring like crazy and taking a lot of risk on several different projects. Willing to take massive lists in efforts of growth. There’s a looming recession, ad spend is down, people are purportedly spending less, companies are taking less risk and cutting cost all around. Since times are bad companies are tightening their purse strings and slowing down or backtracking on initiatives from when times were bad. Part of it is to keep investors happy but the other part is that now is not the time to be taking lots of risk and burning money.

That's not entirely true.

Many companies take a longer view of things and will hire talent through the recession with the focus on building things that will benefit them after the fact.

Layoffs in video gaming especially can be puzzling when there is a massive shortage of talent.

Surprised they haven't closed 343i but that is probably coming.

 

[Zok310]

With all the acquisitions they have been making there's definitely some duplication of roles, some of that's probably getting cleaned up.

One would argue its easier to keep current talent in those dup roles.

 

[pqueue]

1. Layoffs suck.

BUT

2. Microsoft employs almost a quarter million people, and contracts probably 100,000 more.
1,00 people were let go. Not all were from gaming. In fact less than 20% of the layoffs were in the HUGE umbrella division that includes Xbox, and not all were xbox subdivision specific.

Goddamn, some of you jump to so many uninformed conclusions for the sake of your console warring.

 

[Raonak]

Hope they fire more developers and replace with with short term contractors instead. that always seems to go well.

 

[Hobbygaming]

Wow I bet they never saw that coming. Imagine being at a trillion dollar company for 12 or 20 years and hearing that you're being laid off

I wish them good luck

 

[Neilg]

It's less than 1%, probably the smallest layoff we'll see before the recession hits.
Sucks for people caught in it but this isn't government work where you can post up and ride it until retirement. They're very, very well paid tech workers, most of which had stock as part of their compensation too. They'll be ok.

 

[killatopak]

Spinning this to a positive already?

 

[Robb]

Seems like there are layoffs all around. Hope they get back on their feet quickly.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

is Matt Booty one of them?

Was gonna ask this. Outside of Gears and Forza first party development has been awful under his watch.

 

[MatrixReloaded101]

Hopefully everyone is able to land on their feet soon. Getting laid off right before the holidays sucks.

 

[Arachnid]

Step 1: Aquire 50 different studies
Step 2: Fire half of the employes
Step 3: ???
Step 4: Lose another gen

Spoiler

Kidding, I lean green myself (though I don't really believe in console wars).

 

[Ansphn]

Criticizing Microsoft's decisions does not equal console waring.

Some people only see the world through console warring glasses. No one mentioned Sony or PlayStation once in this thread.

 

[Fess]

Hmm what is this about? Haven’t kept myself updated lately, are they losing money now?

 

[Oddvintagechap]

playstation.

Some people only see the world through console warring glasses. No one mentioned Sony or PlayStation once in this thread.

wrong.

 

[reksveks]

The upcoming recession will be interesting

 

[THE DUCK]

Sounds like they are laying off in areas where they have overlap and redundancy. But what I don't get is in a company this size, why they aren't first trying to find them other positions in other areas.

 

[Chukhopops]

Hmm what is this about? Haven’t kept myself updated lately, are they losing money now?

Pretty much all tech companies have had layoffs this year, over 44,000 jobs were slashed according to Crunchbase.

Those companies are not losing money (with a few exceptions like Peloton or Snap).

 

[jakinov]

This would make sense if ti weren’t juxtaposed with a 70 billion dollar acquisition lol

Why would they layoff people because of the acquistion? Microsoft is just joninng in on all the other tech companies in downsizing.

Meta and Google cut staff via quiet layoffs

You're not being fired, we're just unable to facilitate your sustained employment

www.theregister.com

Uber Lays Off 3,500 Employees Over A Zoom Call—The Way In Which A Company Downsizes Its Staff Says A Lot About The Organization

In cost-cutting measures, businesses have had to make the hard decisions to layoff staff. Some are empathetic, while others take a more callous and uncaring approach to this sensitive matter.

www.forbes.com

Amazon shrinks workforce by 100,000, as hiring freezes and layoffs hit the tech sector

Apple and Alphabet are tapping the brakes on staffing, but others in the industry are cutting staff as an economic pullback looms. Read on

financialpost.com

Apple Reportedly Begins Layoffs as It Prepares for Yet Another Return-to-Office Push

Apple reportedly laid off around 100 contract-based recruiters and expects to bring most workers back to offices at least three days per week in September.

gizmodo.com

Netflix lays off 300 employees in second round of job cuts

150 employees were also cut last month in a move to curb losses from dwindling subscription numbers

www.theguardian.com

Facebook may quietly sack 12,000 employees, 15% of its workforce: report

The Facebook parents decision follows similar moves by other tech majors such as Apple, Microsoft and Google. “I had hoped the economy would have more clearly stabilised by now, but from what we're seeing it doesn't yet seem like it has, so we want to plan somewhat conservatively," Zuckerberg...

economictimes.indiatimes.com

Snap plans to lay off 20 percent of employees

Snap’s stock price has declined nearly 80 percent this year.

www.theverge.com

Instacart's mass layoffs reflect shifting operations in grocery pickup

The terminations of nearly 1,900 in-store shoppers come as grocers like Kroger are relying more on their own workers to fulfill orders.

www.grocerydive.com

The Dish: Warner Bros. Discovery Braces For New Round Of Layoffs This Week

Another wave of Warner Bros Discovery post-merger layoffs is coming. We hear multiple divisions of the merged company will be impacted, with Warner Bros. Television Group considered a main target. The staff reductions are expected this week, as soon as (and likely) Tuesday. Speculation about the...

deadline.com

 

[I Master l]

Hope Matt Booty is next

 

[jakinov]

That's not entirely true.

Many companies take a longer view of things and will hire talent through the recession with the focus on building things that will benefit them after the fact.

Layoffs in video gaming especially can be puzzling when there is a massive shortage of talent.

Surprised they haven't closed 343i but that is probably coming.

A lot of tech companies have hiring freezes currently. It's not that they don't invest in long term investments, they are just less willing to and aren't as eager to take big bets. Betting on things like the Cloud is not so risky but betting on things such as mixed reality and gamepass is more risky. They'll keep people investing for post recession but like many tech companie sthey are goint o be conservative in spending.

These cuts related to gaming likely affect more xbox as a platform than the specific studios making the games.