Microsoft reportedly lays off 1,900 employees from gaming division [UPDATED]

Updated on 1/25/24 at 9:44 a.m. ET: A report from The Verge claims that the majority of today's layoffs at Microsoft impact Activision Blizzard, though there have been some layoffs at ZeniMax and Xbox proper. As a result, Blizzard's previously-announced survival game has been cancelled. Blizzard President Mike Ybarra is also leaving the company.

Original story: A massive round of layoffs may have just hit the gaming industry as IGN is reporting that Microsoft is cutting the jobs of 1,900 employees. This comes just a handful of months after the trillion-dollar company was able to close its acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Xbox’s Phil Spencer reportedly shared the following memo internally.

As part of this process, we have made the painful decision to reduce the size of our gaming workforce by approximately 1900 roles out of the 22,000 people on our team. The Gaming Leadership Team and I are committed to navigating this process as thoughtfully as possible. The people who are directly impacted by these reductions have all played an important part in the success of Activision Blizzard, ZeniMax and the Xbox teams, and they should be proud of everything they’ve accomplished here. We are grateful for all of the creativity, passion and dedication they have brought to our games, our players and our colleagues. We will provide our full support to those who are impacted during the transition, including severance benefits informed by local employment laws. Those whose roles will be impacted will be notified, and we ask that you please treat your departing colleagues with the respect and compassion that is consistent with our values.

Microsoft has yet to provide a statement on the layoffs. We’ll be sure to update this article with new information if that changes.