Amidst the uncertainty of the global economic landscape, American tech giant Microsoft has announced a round of layoffs totaling 9,000 employees, impacting its gaming division, Xbox. While the exact number of affected employees has not been disclosed, several game development projects under Xbox have already been canceled.
The currently confirmed changes to Xbox include:
- The action-adventure game Everwild, developed by Rare Studios, has been canceled.
- The development of the Perfect Dark reboot has been halted.
Additionally, the game director Matt Frior of The Elder Scrolls Online announced that he will be leaving ZeniMax Online after a decade, but emphasized that this decision is unrelated to Microsoft’s personnel changes. Meanwhile, the game directors of Banjo Kazooie and Sea of Thieves will also be departing from Rare Studios.
Other affected studios, such as Bethesda and Blizzard, may also experience impacts on their development projects, with specific circumstances depending on further announcements from each studio. We will continue to monitor and bring you the latest updates.
According to data, Microsoft had approximately 228,000 employees worldwide as of last year, and the current number of layoffs accounts for about 4% of the total workforce.
