Microsoft Layoffs at Xbox Leave Staff Reeling, Workers Say

On the morning of 6 July, an email from Asha Sharma, chief executive of Xbox, was sent to all employees of Microsoft's gaming division, announcing what The Guardian described as the most significant restructuring in the history of the company's console business, according to the report.

The email, headlined "Resetting Xbox," said 3,200 jobs would be cut across the division through the financial year to 2027, with 1,600 of those roles eliminated immediately, The Guardian reported.

According to the report, affected staff at studios throughout the company began receiving Teams meeting invitations within an hour of the email being sent.

Anne Barrett, who was laid off from Bethesda Game Studios Austin, told The Guardian that she learned of her termination on a virtual call with her studio manager during which cameras and microphones were disabled. "We were just brought in, told the news and it was like: 'You guys are going to lose access to your Slack channel,'" Barrett said, according to the report. She said a flurry of goodbye messages appeared among colleagues before access to internal communication channels was cut off.

The Guardian reported that some employees and industry observers say the layoffs will have significant consequences for game development at the company, in addition to the personal impact described by affected workers.

Microsoft has not provided additional public comment beyond the internal communication described in the report.