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Nearly a year after it finished its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Microsoft is making another round of cuts to its gaming division. This time, it's laying off 650 employees, Microsoft Gaming CEO and Xbox chief Phil Spencer said in a memo to staff Thursday.
"For the past year, our goal has been to minimize disruption while welcoming new teams and enabling them to do their best work. 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," Spencer writes.
Some other roles on its gaming teams will be impacted by the layoffs as Microsoft tries to "adapt to shifting priorities and manage the lifecycle and performance of games," according to the memo. Microsoft won't be closing any studios as part of these announced layoffs, however, and no games or devices are being cancelled.
Earlier this year, Microsoft laid off over 1,900 employees across its gaming division, impacting Activision Blizzard, Xbox, Starfield developer Bethesda, and Bethesda parent studio ZeniMax. And just a few months ago, Microsoft shut down subsidiary studios Tango Gameworks, Alpha Dog Studios, and Arkane Austin, while Roundhouse Games was absorbed into the larger ZeniMax.
Outside its gaming division, Microsoft previously cut staff in its Azure cloud division earlier this year, impacting an estimated 1,500 employees.
Riot Games, Sony's PlayStation, Electronic Arts, Take Two, and Bungie have all also laid off hundreds of workers this year as broader, post-pandemic market tightening continues. About 11,500 game industry workers have been laid off this year so far, according to one tracker. The industry has seen ongoing layoffs for years now, logging an estimated 10,500 cuts in 2023 and 8,500 in 2022.
PCMag has reached out to Microsoft Gaming for comment.