“We will protect what is thriving and concentrate effort on areas with the greatest potential,” Xbox head Phil Spencer wrote in a memo.
Por Pablo Hierro el 02 de July de 2025
Microsoft has started another wave of layoffs in its gaming division, impacting staff at King and ZeniMax.
The cuts are part of a larger round of workforce reductions at Microsoft that will impact around four percent of its total employees, amounting to roughly 9,100 positions.
Bloomberg reports that King, the studio behind Candy Crush, is letting go roughly 10% of its workforce, or around 200 employees. ZeniMax has also confirmed job cuts, and according to VGC, British developer Rare has been affected as well, with Everwild canceled as a result.
“To position gaming for enduring success and allow us to focus on strategic growth areas, we will end or decrease work in certain areas of the business and follow Microsoft’s lead in removing layers of management to increase agility and effectiveness,” Xbox boss Phil Spencer wrote in a Wednesday memo to employees.
“I recognise that these changes come at a time when we have more players, games, and gaming hours than ever before. Our platform, hardware, and game roadmap have never looked stronger. The success we’re seeing currently is based on tough decisions we’ve made previously. We must make choices now for continued success in future years, and a key part of that strategy is the discipline to prioritise the strongest opportunities. We will protect what is thriving and concentrate effort on areas with the greatest potential, while delivering on the expectations the company has for our business.”
Microsoft recalibrates its gaming strategy
It’s hardly the first time Xbox has faced cuts in recent years. Back in January 2024, Microsoft trimmed nearly 1,900 jobs from Activision Blizzard and other Xbox teams.
Just a few months later in May, several game studios, including Alpha Dog Games, Roundhouse Studios, and Arkane Austin, were shuttered. Tango Gameworks, the developer behind the acclaimed Hi-Fi Rush, was the sole survivor of this move thanks to a rescue from South Korean publisher Krafton.
What makes this round feel especially rough is that June had been a busy and promising month for Xbox. The spotlight recently shone on the Xbox ROG Ally, a handheld gaming PC developed alongside Asus that marks Microsoft’s first major push into the portable gaming market.
Then, on June 17, Xbox president Sarah Bond announced a partnership with AMD to “co-engineer” the next Xbox console hardware, promising some serious power upgrades down the line.
“Together with AMD we’re advancing the state of art in gaming silicon to deliver the next generation of graphics innovation to unlock a deeper level of visual quality and immersive gameplay and player experiences enhanced with the power of AI, all while maintaining compatibility with your existing library of games” she said. “Our vision is for you to play the games you want, with the people you want, anywhere you want.”
