In its quest to become the worst company in America, Microsoft has announced a new round of layoffs for the company today. In a memo sent out to the press as if it’s a time to celebrate, Microsoft revealed it will be laying off around 9,100 employees with the majority coming from its gaming divisions. This includes both Xbox and King, the company responsible for Candy Crush. Reportedly, Rare has been hit heavily with its upcoming game Everwild being outright canceled.
Industry pundit Jason Schreier mentioned on social media that the chaos surrounding Microsoft’s latest layoffs has led to employees at certain studios not even being informed of their recent layoffs ahead of time. “Some employees at ZeniMax Online Studios are now watching their Slack accounts abruptly get locked out. No message from HR, no word on whether they still have a job, just an ominous Slack deactivation,” Schreier writes.
If you recall, Microsoft laid off a tremendous amount of employees just last year once its deal to secure Activision Blizzard went through. In January of 2024, the company let go of 1,900 employees, then followed that up a few months later by closing down Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks in May. Not content to let the bad times stop there, Microsoft would lay off around 650 from its gaming division in September of 2024. In May 2025, in fact, Microsoft “relieved” 3% of its workforce of jobs, totaling around 6,000 employees. If we add up all of those numbers, we’re dangerously close to 20,000 employees out of work, or nearly 10% of Microsoft’s entire workforce of 228,000.
Not able to read the room at all, CEO of Microsoft Gaming Phil Spencer wrote in a memo, “I recognize 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 prioritize the strongest opportunities.” Sure thing, Phil.
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Written by Peter Glagowski
Peter has been a freelance gaming and film critic for over seven years. His passion for Nintendo is only matched by the size of his collection.
