Last week, rumors surfaced that Microsoft was preparing for a large wave of layoffs in the Xbox development team. Bloomberg reports that on Wednesday morning, employees of the company’s gaming division were notified of job cuts. The computer giant has been on a cost-cutting mission lately, announcing earlier this summer that it would lay off 3% of its global workforce, and on Wednesday announced another 9,000 job cuts.
According to Bloomberg, Microsoft’s Stockholm-based King division, known for its Candy Crush game, is laying off 10 percent of its staff, which amounts to about 200 jobs. While some other European gaming offices are also making cuts, the U.S. units will reportedly be informed later on Wednesday.
Phil Spencer, the general manager of Microsoft Gaming, sent a layoff email to all Microsoft Gaming employees, which was obtained by Windows Central and confirmed by Microsoft as authentic. In it, Spencer said: “I recognize that these changes are coming at a time when we have more players, games, and play hours than ever before. Our platform, hardware and game roadmap have never looked stronger. The success we’re seeing now is based on the hard decisions we’ve made in the past. We have to make choices now to continue our success in the years ahead, and a key part of that strategy is the discipline of prioritizing our strongest opportunities.”
