Staff at the studios are among 10,000 workers being let go
Microsoft has announced mass layoffs that will affect the developers behindStarfield,Halo Infinite, andGears Of War.Bloombergreport that it’s not yet known what the scale of the job losses at Bethesda and 343 Industries will be, and Kotaku has alsoconfirmedthat The Coalition will also lose staff. Sources claim that some of the staff who’d lost their jobs at the affected studios were veterans who’d been with Microsoft for more than a decade. This layoff announcement from Microsoft has been made exactly a year after the company revealed they were buying Activision Blizzard.
Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella addressed the layoffs in ablog postpublished on Wednesday, which blamed the global economy and shifting consumer spending patterns for the need to let employees go. “It’s important to note that while we are eliminating roles in some areas, we will continue to hire in key strategic areas,” Nadella said. “These decisions are difficult, but necessary.” Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreiertweetedthat several 343 staff had told him the company was “hit hard” and alsopoints outthat Nadella made $55 million last year.
Although they’re cutting staff now, Microsoftannouncedlast January that they plan to buy Call Of Duty andOverwatchpublisher Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion (£56 billion). That’s the most expensive takeover in tech history. Microsoftinsistedback in August that Call Of Duty and the rest of Activision Blizzard’s output weren’t “must have” games, but competition and markets authorities in the US, UK, and EU have begun investigations into whether the buyout could lead to issues within the industry that would affect developers and consumers. Earlier this week, the EU seemed to be readying anantitrust warningover the proposed deal.
