Microsoft cuts 4,800 jobs and restructures Xbox
Microsoft said on July 6 it will cut about 4,800 jobs, roughly 2% of its global workforce, in a restructuring that hits its gaming business hardest. The company plans to shed around 3,200 roles in Xbox over the coming fiscal year in what it described as the division’s largest overhaul, alongside a revamp of its sales organization.
Several studios are being cut loose rather than shut outright. Compulsion Games and Double Fine will become independent , keeping their intellectual property, while Ninja Theory and Undead Labs are being sold to new owners with funding to continue current projects. France’s Arkane enters a formal works-council consultation that could lead to closure.
The cuts extend a run of layoffs at Microsoft even as revenue grows, and the framing is telling: the company is trimming headcount in mature businesses to fund enormous capital spending on data centers and AI. Gaming, an expensive bet that has not delivered the growth Microsoft hoped for after its Activision Blizzard purchase, is bearing much of the adjustment.