Microsoft is reducing 3,200 jobs in divisions outdoors of Xbox immediately, principally focusing on the group’s Industrial Enterprise section. The layoffs come along with a large but expected firing spree that additionally hit Microsoft’s Xbox arm on Monday, July 6.
Microsoft EVP and Chief Individuals Officer Amy Coleman introduced the Industrial Enterprise layoffs in a blog post studying, “Throughout my time at Microsoft, I’ve seen this firm reinvent itself repeatedly. What makes that doable has all the time been our folks — their resilience, creativity, and willingness to continue learning.”
Microsoft is firing 4,800 folks throughout Xbox and different divisions immediately, equating to 2.1 % of its international workforce. Whereas Coleman made it clear that AI is not going to instantly substitute the eradicated workers’ jobs, she hinted that this might and doubtless would occur within the close to future.
“I additionally wish to be direct that the roles eradicated immediately will not be being changed by AI,” Coleman wrote, apropos of nothing. “On the identical time, what is true is that AI is altering how work will get executed. Among the duties we do day-after-day can now be automated, and meaning all of us must continue learning, hold constructing new expertise, and hold adapting because the work evolves.”
We knew the Xbox layoffs and studio gross sales have been coming, however the extra lack of 3,200 non-gaming workers landed as a shock on Monday.
Within the case of Xbox, Microsoft laid off 1,600 workers immediately and is getting ready for an additional 1,600 firings within the coming months. Moreover, it is spinning off 4 studios — Compulsion Video games, Double Advantageous, Ninja Idea and Undead Labs — and probably shuttering a fifth, Arkane.
Xbox workers have been bracing for layoffs since an ominous memo despatched out by new CEO Asha Sharma and COO Matt Booty on June 10. They wrote that after a decade of massive studio acquisitions and poor current-gen {hardware} gross sales, the Xbox division was over-extended and shedding cash. Sharma reiterated these sentiments with extra pressure in a blog post formally saying the Xbox layoffs on July 6.
One week earlier than the job cuts, Xbox union members beneath Communications Staff of America urged Microsoft to interact in good-faith negotiations round job safety and layoff processes. Microsoft fired 9,000 people throughout its divisions in July 2025, together with a whole lot of Xbox workers, and it laid off 1,900 Xbox employees in early 2024.
