In July, Asha Sharma announced she planned to lay off a total of about 3,200 employees from Xbox within a year. At the same time, the first wave of layoffs began, affecting 1,600 employees. When announcing the “continued reopening” in September, Matt Booty said another 268 people had been laid off.
Booty said in a statement that Halo Studios and several other divisions will be affected by the layoffs:
We’re cutting 268 positions at Halo Studios, other development studios, and XGS management [Xbox Game Studios] and central departments.
After the announcement, data about fired employees began to appear on social networks. The following studios are currently known to be affected:
- edge of the world —Adam Isgreen, former creative director of the studio, reportthe reduction affected himself and “just under half” of his team members.
- coalition party —Juan Vaca, Story Director, Tell He said on social media that he had suffered a wave of layoffs and was looking for a new job.
- Treach — Multiple employees reported news of studio layoffs on social networks; there was also information revealed by insiders Charlie Intel.
- crow software —Studio employees reported layoffs on social media.
- halo studio –Studio employees report massive layoffs. Xbox previously confirmed that Halo Studios will continue to support the current game, but Activision will now be responsible for the new installment in the series.
- rare — Employees also reported layoffs today. At the same time, Xbox officially announced that Rare will be handed over to Activision leadership.
Layoffs are also taking place in various management departments. Matt Booty said in a statement that Microsoft wants to “reduce the number of business units” to make it easier to develop games and franchises.