Microsoft has barely finished digesting a first massive wave of job cuts, and its Xbox gaming arm is apparently already lining up another. According to The Information, hundreds of employees could be laid off this week, with several studios caught up in a major restructuring/consolidation operation. It's the latest step in the sweeping "reset" Microsoft has embarked on, trimming and reorganising its teams while pouring money into some very big projects at the same time. Because yes, it's worth remembering that only a few days ago Xbox deepened its partnership with Hideo Kojima, picking up Physint, the Japanese creator's new action-espionage game, dropped along the way by Sony. The project is billed as particularly ambitious, and Xbox is now backing Kojima Productions on its development, with a collaboration that's even set to extend into film and television. And that's without mentioning OD, also in development and due to arrive first.
Several studios could be merged together
According to The Information, this new wave could affect hundreds of staff and come with the merging of several studios belonging to Xbox, Bethesda, Activision and Blizzard. Microsoft has yet to confirm anything about this latest round, but it follows on from the roughly 3,200 job cuts announced this year, some 1,600 of which have already been carried out in the first wave. Rumours are already swirling about which teams might be affected, with Halo cropping up in particular and the suggestion that the franchise could move under the Activision banner, while other studios could be shifted to different parts of Microsoft.
Blizzard is reportedly in the firing line too, with Jason Schreier recently indicating that layoffs there were imminent, which would make this new restructuring even bigger in scope. All of this should be treated with caution until Xbox says something officially. But in our humble opinion, that shouldn't be long now...
Xbox cuts on one side, invests on the other
The timing obviously doesn't do Microsoft any favours, as it keeps scaling back its organisation and cutting jobs while stepping up certain strategic investments. Physint is a good example, though it would be wrong to frame the two as if the layoffs were directly funding Kojima's game. The interesting point lies elsewhere: Xbox is clearly trying to concentrate its resources on a handful of big franchises and projects deemed strategic, while other teams are merged, shrunk or leave the Microsoft fold altogether. Either way, social media is in for another noisy few days.
