Microsoft is laying off 1,900 employees at Activision Blizzard and Xbox this week. While Microsoft is primarily laying off roles at Activision Blizzard, some Xbox and ZeniMax employees will also be impacted by the cuts.
The cuts work out to roughly 8 percent of the overall Microsoft Gaming division that stands at around 22,000 employees in total.
Mike Ybarra left Blizzard:
Mike Ybarra has decided to leave the company. “As many of you know, Mike previously spent more than 20 years at Microsoft. Now that he has seen the acquisition through as Blizzard’s president, he has decided to leave the company,” says Microsoft’s game content and studios president, Matt Booty, in an internal memo.
Allen Adham, Blizzard’s chief design officer, is also leaving the company.
Blizzard’s survival game Odyssey is cancelled:
Blizzard’s previously announced survival game has also been canceled as part of these changes. Booty says Microsoft will be “shifting some of the people working on it to one of several promising new projects Blizzard has in the early stages of development.”
Unfortunately, these corps only look at end results. Anyway, acquiring ABK it was obvious there would have been redundant overlaps. At least, it’s less than 9% of the total, it’s the least worse jobs cut in recent times.
That’s mostly a US thing anyway, in EU you can’t lay off thousands of people just like that, only in special cases and/or bankruptcy. Higher average salaries come with a higher volatility.
If there is one company that could sit out a few slower years and not lay off anyone, it’s them. This is absolutely disgusting. I’m really sorry especially for the Activision employees who thought it would finally get better.
