Microsoft cuts 4,800 jobs

Microsoft has announced it has cut 4,800 jobs – roughly 2.1% of its workforce – with Xbox to bear a large number of its latest layoffs

Amy Coleman, executive vice president at Microsoft, told employees in a memo that the tech giant needed to focus on areas that can deliver for customers amid a “fast-changing industry”.

The sweeping layoffs will see more than 1,600 roles immediately axed at Xbox.

Asha Sharma, who recently took over as Xbox’s chief executive, said in a note to staff it was “beginning the most significant restructure in Xbox history”.

Four Xbox game development studios – Compulsion Games, Double Fine Productions, Ninja Theory and Undead Lab – would also be spun off as part of the changes, she added.

Another 1,600 roles will be reduced from Xbox as a result.

“These changes are about a bigger future for Xbox, not a smaller one,” Sharma said in a note, shared on X.

“History is full of companies that mistake longevity for inevitability. We will not be one of them.”

Coleman meanwhile pointed to a changing customer needs in announcing Microsoft’s company-wide cuts.

“Companies don’t get to choose whether their industry changes; they only get to choose whether they change with it,” she said.

She noted that while the company would not replace the lost roles with AI, “what is true is that AI is changing how work gets done”.