Microsoft toss another 650 jobs onto the layoff pyre in the name of "sustainable future growth"

No game cancellations or studio closures involved

“For the past year, our goal has been to minimize disruption while welcoming new teams and enabling them to do their best work,” Xbox chief Phil Spencer explained to Microsoft employees in an internal memo, sent this week and obtained byIGN. “As part of aligning our post-acquisition team structure and managing our business, we have made the decision to eliminate approximately 650 roles across Microsoft Gaming - mostly corporate and supporting functions - to organize our business for long term success.” US people let go will be supported “with exit packages that include severance, extended healthcare, and outplacement services to help with their transition” while the layoff terms will vary outside the US according to location.

“With these changes, our corporate and supporting teams and resources are aligned for sustainable future growth, and can better support our studio teams and business units with programs and resources that can scale to meet their needs,” the memo continues. “Separately, as part of running the business, there are some impacts to other teams as they adapt to shifting priorities and manage the lifecycle and performance of games.” Spencer doesn’t specify which games have been “impacted”, but he does add that “no games, devices or experiences are being cancelled and no studios are being closed as part of these adjustments today.”

The Acti-Blizz merger appears to have done reasonably well for Microsoft as a whole. According to the company’smost recent quarterly results, gaming revenue was up 44% year-over-year, albeit with “48 points of net impact” from the acquisition. I don’t quite understand what a “point of net impact” is, and I’m not convinced anybody else reporting on this story does either. But the upshot is that Microsoft executives continue to feel the need to trim the books. Back in May, theyannounced the closuresof Prey developers Arkane Austin andHi-Fi Rushdevelopers Tango Gameworks, though Tango and Hi-Fi Rush wererescued by Kraftonin an 11th hour deal.