On October 17th, Microsoft announced that it was forced to lay off almost 1,000 employees due to “business priorities” as The Washington Post said. One source told The Washington Post that these layoffs directly impacted Xbox’s gaming division.
Greg Chapman later confirmed the layoffs hit his Studio Alpha team in a statement he posted publicly on Twitter before setting his account to private. Chapman declined to provide The Washington Post with a comment.
“I didn’t know that I expected [layoffs] in gaming. Azure is a big direction,” an anonymous Microsoft employee said. “Ultimately I thought that those areas and gaming were relatively safe.”
“Like all companies, we evaluate our business priorities on a regular basis, and make structural adjustments accordingly,” the company said in a statement. “We will continue to invest in our business and hire in key growth areas in the year ahead.”
While some companies in the technology industry have been able to stave off layoffs and downsizing, that has not been the case with Microsoft. According to Bloomberg, the organization was forced to lay off 1% of its 180,000-person workforce back in July.
(All information was provided by The Seattle Times and The Washington Post)
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