Instead of spoiling Nintendo’s PS5 Pro launch with a positive announcement, Vole is conducting a third round of gaming layoffs. 650 employees are expected to collect their P45s and pink slips.
The exits are part of continued cuts at Xbox after Microsoft’s $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
Microsoft cut 1,900 Activision Blizzard and Xbox jobs earlier this year and closed four studios it acquired in May as part of its $7.5 billion Bethesda acquisition.
Hi-Fi Rush studio Tango Gameworks was due to be canned but Krafton, the South Korean publisher behind PUBG: Battlegrounds and The Callisto Protocol, acquired the Japanese studio from Microsoft.
In an internal memo, Xbox chief Phil Spencer announced the latest layoffs to employees. He said that “no games, devices or experiences are being cancelled,” says Spencer. Unlike prior layoffs, no studios are being closed this time, either. The 650 job cuts will primarily impact “corporate and supporting functions,”