Leading American Multinational tech giant, Microsoft is reportedly downsizing its video game workforce by 1,900 employees, as revealed by sources to IGN. The reduction in workforce amounts to approximately 8 percent of the entire Microsoft Gaming division, which encompasses a total of around 22,000 employees.

It’s been a little over three months since the Activision, Blizzard, and King teams joined Microsoft. As we move forward in 2024, the leadership of Microsoft Gaming and Activision Blizzard is committed to aligning on a strategy and an execution plan with a sustainable cost structure that will support the whole of our growing business. Together, we’ve set priorities, identified areas of overlap, and ensured that we’re all aligned on the best opportunities for growth.

As part of this process, we have made the painful decision to reduce the size of our gaming workforce by approximately 1900 roles out of the 22,000 people on our team. The Gaming Leadership Team and I are committed to navigating this process as thoughtfully as possible. The people who are directly impacted by these reductions have all played an important part in the success of Activision Blizzard, ZeniMax and the Xbox teams, and they should be proud of everything they’ve accomplished here. We are grateful for all of the creativity, passion and dedication they have brought to our games, our players and our colleagues. We will provide our full support to those who are impacted during the transition, including severance benefits informed by local employment laws. Those whose roles will be impacted will be notified, and we ask that you please treat your departing colleagues with the respect and compassion that is consistent with our values.

Looking ahead, we’ll continue to invest in areas that will grow our business and support our strategy of bringing more games to more players around the world. Although this is a difficult moment for our team, I’m as confident as ever in your ability to create and nurture the games, stories and worlds that bring players together.

Phil

The staff reductions coincide with Microsoft’s substantial $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the proprietor of Call of Duty, and the departure of its controversial former leader, Bobby Kotick. Notably, Microsoft has now surpassed a valuation of over $3 trillion, making it only the second company in history to achieve this remarkable financial milestone.

I want to thank everyone who is impacted today for their meaningful contributions to their teams, to Blizzard, and to players’ lives. It’s an incredibly hard day and my energy and support will be focused on all those amazing individuals impacted – this is in no way a reflection…

— Mike Ybarra 🎄 (@Qwik) January 25, 2024

In conjunction with the workforce reductions, Blizzard president Mike Ybarra has opted to depart from the company. Microsoft’s game content and studios president, Matt Booty, explained in an internal memo, “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.”

Microsoft is set to announce a new president for Blizzard next week as part of its restructuring plan. Alongside this, Allen Adham, Blizzard’s chief design officer and one of the company’s co-founders, is also departing. Matt Booty, Microsoft’s game content and studios president, acknowledged Allen’s significant impact on Blizzard’s games, stating, “His influence will be felt for years to come, both directly and indirectly as Allen plans to continue mentoring young designers across the industry.”

As a result of these changes, Blizzard’s previously revealed survival game has been canceled. However, Booty assured that Microsoft will be reallocating some of the team members working on the canceled project to contribute to one of several promising new projects currently in the early stages of development at Blizzard.