Over 6,000 people have lost their jobs at Xbox in less than two years | Metro News

The full cost of Microsoft’s most recent round of layoffs is becoming clear, as Rare loses one of its most experienced developers.

metro.co.uk

TL;DR

Microsoft’s latest round of cuts slashed roughly 4,000 Xbox roles (under half of the 9,100 total layoffs), adding to the 650 jobs lost last September and 1,900 before that—pushing the total Xbox headcount hit past 6,000 in under two years. This deep trim follows the Activision Blizzard and Bethesda buy-outs, where you’d expect some belt-tightening, but the scale here far outstrips simple role duplication.

On the ground, veteran Rare dev Gregg Mayles (of Banjo-Kazooie and Sea of Thieves fame) has already bowed out, Perfect Dark’s Stateside reboot got canned and even a long-in-the-works ZeniMax project has been quietly shelved. Microsoft’s staying tight-lipped beyond a boilerplate about “necessary organisational changes,” leaving Xbox’s roadmap—and how much AI will fill those empty desks—a big question mark.