Microsoft Slashes 10K Jobs, Including At Xbox And Halo Studios

Following rumors earlier this week from Sky News, tech giant Microsoft has announced a slew of layoffs affecting 10,000 workers, some within its game studios, blaming slowing e-commerce sales and a potential economic recession. Kotaku has confirmed that a number of developers at 343 Industries, The Coalition, and Bethesda Game Studios are being laid off.

[masterfox]

probably a Former Bethesda employee at this moment: Will be fun they say, everything will be ok with MS they say.

[Orchard]

Layoffs are pretty common during economic downturns.

But the reality is, it will be ok for 99.999% of those @ Zenimax.

[MrNinosan]

So you mean that only 0.1 of the 10.000 that lost their job will not be ok?

[LucasRuinedChildhood]

Orchard, don't be saying things like this.

4.5% of MS's employees are being laid off, not 0.001%.

Claiming that just 0.023 people of 2300 Bethesda employees are being laid off is ... a bit extreme, to put it lightly.

Someone who was fired could see your comment, and they're not as rare as you're implying.

[VenomUK]

Bethesda Game Studios is not protected it will also lose 4.5% of its staff. Whilst the public was told that it would have some degree of autonomy Microsoft still can make layoffs. I wonder who then has to decide the layoffs is it Microsoft's HR or does Bethesda execs have to make the choice on who to fire? That must sting pretty hard if they never wanted to get rid of anyone.

[Godmars290]

But this isn't an economic downturn. Its a POTENAL downturn. MS is acting on fears of ones. Will likely cause one, as they are certainly causing for former employees.

[1Victor]

@orchard so what you’re saying is since it’s not Sony it’s ok and they’ll be alright but if it was Sony it would be a sign that the company is closing and going bankrupt, got it.

No matter how big a company is no employees will be alright after been layoffs and his livelihood uprooted with the uncertainty of when the next pay check will come and bill knocking at the door.

The Xbox hardcore are quick to point all the billions Microsoft have and how they can afford to buy the gaming industry and have money left to buy whatever they want but in reality at the first sign of share holder’s money going one penny down they have to layoff any the thousands massive layoffs like that should be regulated by the government and corporations and big businesses should provide evidence that it would irreparably harm their company if they don’t layoff those thousands of people.

[Outside_ofthe_Box]

"Layoffs are pretty common during economic downturns."

So are price hikes during inflation. . . But for one you say it's common, the other you say they should eat the cost. . . I wonder why that is, surely it has nothing to do with which company is going through the circumstance, right? 😜

[crazyCoconuts]

Most of us probably have no idea what the impact was to any given division. From what I've seen companies try to be intelligent about how they do it and cut more from non-strategic areas. Also many do it performance based so the bottom performers are usually the first to go. But it's all speculation....
Unless....@Orchard... You are a MS executive and you happen to know the real numbers? Does your first name start with P? 😉

[Lifexline]

Yeah they are but it’s not surprising they did hire 40,000 in the past two years so probably just getting rid of the bloat.

But hopefully they all land somewhere. It sucks that this is standard practice for corporations to make investors happy. Hopefully something gets done to regulate that. People shouldn’t suffer for corporate greed.

[shinoff2183]

Sure thing orchy. White knighting

[Sonic1881]

Gamepass price increase incoming. I'm calling it out now

[TheCaptainKuchiki]

Let's not act like MS isn't making record profits. Let's not.

[Angyobangyo]

When you confuse math with meth, you land up thinking 10,000 lay offs equate to 0.1% when it's really 4.53%. Just slightly off target there.

[HardKnockKid24]

I just want to say, I hope Sony fans flocking to this news are being very careful right now. Microsoft is a huge company, as is Sony. Companies protect their bottom line always, Sony may not be far behind in announcing layoffs. Keep that in mind before the dirt throwing begins

[SullysCigar]

Sure, they should be really careful. They should be every bit as careful as the Xbox diehards were when Sony put a price up. Recall that? And what did Microsoft do right afterwards? Yeah...

[HardKnockKid24]

@Sully Yeeeeaaa except that’s a terrible example as Sony opened the gen at the new price point and in Year three Xbox has yet to release a $70 base price first party title. So when you say “right after” some serious inflation has to occur to make that statement true. But I agree that fans on both sides should just stop throwing all the damn shade all the time. Just play games… there are great options for all platforms

[SullysCigar]

I was actually referring to the fact they've increased the prices of their consoles in some regions (with more to follow according to Phil), but you're quite right, they're putting their game prices up too - and no doubt gamepass will follow soon after.

Agreed though, we should all be sticking to the facts where we have them. Well-founded speculation also seems fair.

[isarai]

Ok well how about the example of Sony canceling their presence at a conference as to not put more people in danger when the pandemic started, and MS fanboys came in by the dozens to spout BS about how it's just a copout cause they dont have games to show. Easily the most disgusting display of not only fanboy mentality i've seen on N4G, but also the prime example of how the mods on this site are insanely biased for letting that argument continue AND marking anyone who argued otherwise as spam. But what did EVERYONE including MS do shortly after? But you guys dont want to remember that do you?

[HardKnockKid24]

@Sully just want to shout you out. Not everyone on this site is open to having a mature conversation including giving and receiving feedback like we just exchanged. I appreciate gamers like you. Thanks!

[HardKnockKid24]

@isarai….. i don’t even have the energy, sorry you feel this way. Hope things get better

[shinoff2183]

Any chance Sony price hike was due to not wanting to lay off employees.

[Ra3030]

There is a massive solar system of difference between A billion dollar company and a trillion dollar corporation. Microsoft should be firing execs sitting in the Microsoft Ivory Tower. What's odd is the Billion dollar company has a gaming division that's doing great while the trillion dollar corporation has a gaming division that's a outta control dumpster fire.

[Sirk7x]

It's more like Xbox is failing spectacularly right now. MS has bought all these studios, and they've released nothing worthwhile. In the last 5 years, I can't think of any decent games they've managed to put out aside from Horizon 5, Ori and Sea of Thieves. This is abysmal management all around. Halo Infinite could have been great, but after years of development, 343 only had half a game, and now they're getting busted down to a support team for the franchise. MS is spending BILLIONS, and they have done absolutely nothing to show for it lol. People don't need to be getting laid off, they need to axe and completely restructure their management from top to bottom. I really want the Xbox to succeed; I've owned every one, but I'm done with MS until they fix their shit. This is coming from somehow who bought hundreds of digital games from them last gen, who ended up canceling his Ultimate subscription, selling his Series X and just getting a PS5 instead.

I'll be concerned when Nintendo starts announcing layoffs lol.

[SullysCigar]

With this news, I'd imagine the Activision employees have just collectively added a fair old whack to the methane in our atmosphere.

[neutralgamer1992]

Maybe stop spending 69 billion on acquisition and keep these people and provide the resources and support

2019: ~144,000 Microsoft employees
2020: ~163,000 Microsoft employees
2021: ~181,000 Microsoft employees
2022: ~221,000 Microsoft employees

[darthv72]

I think those were the years they ramped up employees due to the increase in people being home during covid. Now that people are returning to some semblance of normalcy, things have declined in terms of needing that many employees to provide the services that had spiked previously. I get it... anyone who works for a big company can be laid off at any moment due to changing economic conditions.

The really odd take is how this is happening at the same time they are about to inherit thousands of employees due to a big acquisition they have been working on. So it could also stem from that and those they are okay with losing are similar positions that will automatically be filled with incoming staff. They dont need two of the same person (as an example) so they keep the incoming as part of their deal and have to sacrifice the outgoing who may have been there already. Longevity is not a guarantee of employment, especially if the terms of the deal require them to provide jobs for incoming staff.

Personally speaking, i have been in a company like that. They made room for me when the company I worked for was purchased. Then after a few years found they no longer needed me so i was let go. Something like that can (and will) happen here. Adding 77k employees in 4 years only to turn around and let go of 10k... I guess it could have been worse.

[Lightning77]

I feel bad for Coalition and Bethesda but not so much for 343 as much. I haven't cared for Halo and 343 for awhile. My least favorite Studio and game tbh. Hearts go out to 343 employees of course but Halo needs a long hiatus. Maybe the Halo BR will be good maybe.

[Orchard]

My thoughts are with those laid off (inside and outside of gaming), hopefully they don't have too much upheaval and land new roles soon.

Unfortunately, this is the economy & world we live in currently. This isn't the first and won't be the last time we see layoffs and/or studio closures this year.

[SullysCigar]

Ah yes, the economic downturn. Hard times for everyone.

Even $2tn companies like Microsoft have to pull in their belts and sadly that means that, reluctantly, they have NO other choice but to remove the income of 10,000 families... as they spend $69bn on buying publishers, just because.

[BehindTheRows]

Exactly

[bloop]

Was about to post the same thing until I saw your comment. The likes of MS, Amazon and all these other billion dollar companies laying off thousands of staff to cut costs because growth has slightly slowed down is despicable. And what better way to make the possibility of recession a certainty than putting thousands of people out of jobs.

[onisama]

2 tn company doesn't make it a charity...its business ...i dont know about your country ...the company im working in is a huge company and fires poeple constantly for underperformes just in our drand (around 60 total) they fire 2 quarterly to keep only the best...same here that cut the fat and hire new blood

[SullysCigar]

^ @onisama, can you link to where it's been clarified that they've only cut underperformers?

You're correct of course; companies constantly cut underperformers, but the key there is 'constantly'. If you're company has 10,000 'underperformers' at any one time, you're doing it wrong. This has cost reduction written all over it. The first thing you look at is headcount/people, because they're usually the most expensive cost.

I'd wager entire departments will have been wiped out as part of structure reorganisations. It's doubtful only underperformers were affected.

[blacktiger]

onisama you are missing even bigger points. It's like we got paid 1 week job for 1 week pay but the result of the job has got them 900 million dollar, now imagine after 1 week the growth slow down, they lay you off. That's the type of game they play against us and then say it;s alla bout business. No kidding they treat us like we are robots. Dissposable like you!

[onisama]

@sullycigar you know how many emplyees working for MS?? 221 000 ....10 is less than 5% and this is not wiping entire division is all around...poeple just love to hate on MS on this site...its business and cutting fat and renewing blood is necessary if you need them to tell you this maybe you didnt get to the age to have a job...i worked for 3 companies ...and cuting fat is normal its just hard when someone har working and get fired because his boss doesn't like him thats another matter

@blacktiger welcome to capitalism ! this is one reason im saving money to make my own little business their is not much difference between a salarie man and a slav* ....go look how many dies in Japan with tireness and how many of them suici**

[SullysCigar]

^ onimasa, are you okay? I said 'departments', not 'divisions'. If reading is too hard for you, get an someone to help, but do try to make sure you've got a good grasp of what's been said before you attempt to argue with it.

To respond to your rant, "maybe you didnt get to the age to have a job...i worked for 3 companies", allow me to enlighten you. I worked the corporate world in banking over a 16 year period. This culminated in a senior executive role at Barclays, which has approximately 90,000 employees globally. I personally oversaw restructures in 2 different countries during that time. Earlier in my career, I was responsible for commissions and remuneration, so I also have a good understanding of these 'underperformers' you mention. In case you're curious, I now run my own business, mainly from home.

Any other questions? It's easy to assume you're talking to kids because this is a gaming forum, but kids grow up and gather life experience. I'd like to hear your credentials, given you wish to make judgements of people you don't know. I'm all ears, the floor is yours...

[SullysCigar]

*crickets*

[Outside_ofthe_Box]

Interesting take from you (that I actually agree with, but you shouldn't be the one saying it). Can't Microsoft just "eat the cost" instead of affecting the lives of thousands of employees? When Sony cited the "economic downturn" as their reasoning for increasing their price, I don't remember you being this understanding. Gee I won't why? 🙄

[shinoff2183]

That's some of the point though. If Sony increased prices to save people's jobs I can respect that.

I'm kinda with the camp that it certainly sucks but it's nothing new in the corporate world he'll even in the poor and middle class world.

My shop I work at got real slow some 8 years ago. Instead of laying people off they dropped Fridays for everyone. Paid us for 36 hours for Monday through Friday. I respected the shit out of that. I feel it was a good call instead of laying off. It is alot smaller of a company with about 30 people though

[darkrider]

Of course it's normal for you.... Its Microsoft. You tried to stop this news from being posted. Like others, that don't work with your agenda. But the reality is that the trillion dollar company fired 10000 workers. There no spin... While tryng to buy another publisher. For this, the other deal should be canceled

[shinoff2183]

Happened to me with the rumored starfield delay. It was reported due to anonymous source. Wtf aren't most sources anonymous

[Asplundh]

https://www.google.com/amp/...

They acquired 3 companys that same year. It is normal of businesses to do this, they care little for the people under them.

[AmUnRa]

Yeah keep damgecontrolling Orchad, in your world nobody should criticise MS cous of "reasons" but when Sony raising the prices you are foaming out of your mouth. When MS does the same you are the first one to sugercoat. And when Phil Spencer is saying one thing and doing the other you the first one to defend him.
Your exposed for the uncountable time on N4G and you keep spouting your bullsh*t "reasons".
Give it a rest nobody takes you serious anymore only your buddys on N4G.....

[Flawlessmic]

Can't make this stuff up if you tried.

Laying off 10000 people including devs from your biggest studios but also spending 70 billion to buy acti lol

[DarXyde]

I was thinking the same, but I think there's a broader implication here and kind of gives away the game:

The acquisitions are not, nor have they ever been, about the people making the games. It's the IPs. It's always been the IPs. Microsoft has never shown any interest in retaining the talent from those studios/publishers and very much explains the scorched earth acquisitions we're seeing. They're making an effort to recession-proof their model by gobbling up profitable, popular franchises. In fact, it's bloody genius (and diabolical): if you get a sub to XGP, you get a ton of games cheap. But if you fall on hard times and cannot commit to the monthly cost, they've also bought up a ton of time sink titles in their acquisitions (Fallout, Elder Scrolls, and possibly soon to join Diablo and Call of Duty). Clever. Extremely clever.

I want to be clear that I am not cheering for this downturn. A lot of people are going to be hurt by this and it's an omen of what's to come. That said, I genuinely hope the execs are also cutting their own benefits packages before they did this. Otherwise, that is outrageous. But I do find it off this happens after the union effort last month. They agreed not to stop it, but it does make me think...

[Flawlessmic]

Execs cutting there packages, yea no chance of that.

I hear ya but still, one they have an issue with getting games out there door so getting rid of devs ain't a good look, especially from your new crown jewel Bethesda who part of the reason everyone loved the deal and the upcoming acti deal is Microsoft is sooo fantastic teams will have more money and more job security, or so they said lol.

More cuts will come from acti.

Ms is strong arming there way to market leader and God help gaming when they do.

[KillBill]

Not correct. Most acquisitions are for the resources as in the case of ABK the acquisition would not be going through if not for the mobile infrastructure that Microsoft Xbox is looking for. The IPs are only of importance in that of what they are supplying in terms of revolving funds from resources already put into place. If an IP is not profitable then Microsoft nor Sony really factors it as much in the business plan.

Very rare difference to their plan was Zenimax where they were looking for a well of potential IPs in place and as well teams working on new projects. But it was the complete business model that made them look at said acquisition. ABK is hardly the motive of franchise as much what is simply a profitable business in place.

Reason why Ubisoft and Square are not really on Microsoft's radar. Their business models are floundering at best.

[onisama]

i agree with you in many aspect...buying bathesda was about getting RPGs titles that has infinite playing time...Fallout elder scroll and Stanfield you can spend hundreds of hours on those games...hell i spend about +2h a week just looking for mods...and ABK is Microsoft way to multiplayer games which of course have ilimited time of play and also getting into mobile....
but i disagree with you on keeping talents...of course they want skilled workers but looking at how slow those studios making games and delaying releases and producing unfinised games....they need to fire all the lazy workers and unproductive employees this is how capitalism work

[DarXyde]

onisama,

I am always willing to engage in open and honest discourse. Some things I say are fairly mainstream, others are more controversial hot takes. But that said, I'm really hoping that your disagreement with my point about talent retention is trolling.

If you disagree as a matter of Microsoft actually caring about talent, you're fully within your right to believe that. I personally don't see the evidence to support your position, but if you believe that, fair enough. What I take umbrage with is your criticism of "lazy" or "unproductive" workers. Game delays are extraordinarily common and you need to understand that developers are committing a ton of time to their work. Games have become extremely complex - back in the PS1 era, it took 100-150 people to make Final Fantasy VII, which was considered extremely large compared to what was common back then (approximately 20 people). This is a testament to what is required now.

Developers find bugs, glitches, need time to polish, etc. etc. It gets to the point that developers are often the subject of crunch. It is not about being lazy or unproductive. And frankly, if that's "how capitalism work[s]", it sounds astonishingly broken - if employees are unproductive (using your words), maybe they should be spending 32-40 hours per week at work and the remaining time with their families so they have a chance to recharge and view things with a fresh lens, which studies have actually shown a 4-day work week with regular hours (not the typical 10h Amazon work day) either enhances or keeps productivity the same. It sounds like you're making excuses for callous leadership, mate.

That all aside, I disagree with you about Microsoft's desire to retain talent. If they did, they would have (i) provided financial incentive to retain key staff as part of their deal a la Sony and Bungie; and (ii) would not be extremely invested in AI solutions, which I'm very certain they intend to use to develop games and eliminate a large sector of their human workforce.

[wiz7191]

@Flaws who said the lay off was because of money ???

[SullysCigar]

Why else do you lay off 10,000 people? Fun??

[1Victor]

@sully they was playing the layoff roulette 🤷🏿
In my opinion this is a pre emptied measure for when the ABK deal fail and they have to pay activision up to 10 billion in compensation

[shadowT]

According sources of lordsofgaming, 60 people of 343 have been laid off. mainly developers of the single-player side of this studio.

[Jin_Sakai]

And Joseph Staten has left 343i that was brought in to save the game and was working on the Campaign expansion. He moved to Xbox Publishing.

[Workshyskiver]

He went back to his role he had before he stepped in to get Halo Infinite to launch.

[Stanjara]

So to finish a campaign and launch a game, they brought in Publishing guy?

Omg that explains it!

[Zhipp]

He's currently a publishing guy. He worked as a narrative director for Halo back in the Bungie days afaik and most people seemed pretty happy with what he managed to achieve for Halo infinite.

[blue88]

This is why I don’t want Microsoft to own Activision because Microsoft has a long history of running they’re studios into the ground. Microsoft never really been good at managing they’re studios and no amount of money will fix that problem. Activision own some of the biggest ips in gaming I don’t want Microsoft to kill a big ip like call of duty like they did halo.

[Sonyslave3]

Bruh every big company that over hire during Covid is doing this Facebook cutting 11,000 and Amazon cutting 18,000 and Cmr cutting 10%.

And please name what studio Ms is running to ground 343i is never going to please the hardcore halo fans or haters. Their Metacritic studio score is higher than SuckerPuch & Insomniac & GG games🥱.

Most of the cuts coming from their other sectors lol Ms went from 144k full time employees to 221k. It suck people’s are losing their jobs but this is the cycle of these big tech companies and Amazon,Microsoft,Mets still going to invest in new technologies and acquisitions.

[mkis007]

Lower than suckerpunch actually 80 vs 83. If you are going to cherry pick your battleground at least don't make a mistake.

[MikeMbz8]

Facebook and Amazon aren't also trying to buy up an industry for billions of dollars at the same time they're laying people off. You're right it does suck that people are losing their jobs, it's gotta be an even bigger insult to those people for Microsoft to claim they're doing it for economic reasons while at the same time pushing to spend billions of dollars to purchase Activision/Blizzard.

[1Victor]

Sonys “ And please name what studio Ms is running to ground“
lion heart also can you please remind me when was the last time RARE made a critically acclaimed good game 🤔

[thesoftware730]

Sonyslave3,
you are absolutely correct,

It's not an MS thing, almost all big tech and other industry companies do very similar layoffs. I love how people are acting as if when this happens, companies stop investing/buying/spending..lol , it's such a strange thing to think, I'm actually surprised to see people think layoffs or cuts would stop other endeavors of giant companies..it just doesn't work that way at all.

[1Victor]

Sony: “Most of the cuts coming from their other sectors lol Ms went from 144k full time employees to 221k.”
Bruh stop making excuses for a multibillion company that you and others think is your imprinted mother this is inexcusable from any company and should be highly regulated I would understand if it was told it was seasonal employees like Amazon does after the holidays but we are talking about people that has been working for years with the company not some grunt that got hired to swing packaging in a wear house for the holidays

[Sonyslave3]

Right just like Sony killed Killzone& Slycooper& Jak & Dexter lol Halo is fine and please spare me 343i is run poor crap compare to the stuff that happened at Naughty Dog we’re like 2k devs left and hate the work environment there but nobody talk about that.

[Flawlessmic]

Killed?

They teams behind those games moved onto bigger and better things.

Horizon is bigger than killzone ever was,

same goes for the infamous and GOT compared to sly Cooper.

Same goes for uncharted and last of us when it comes to jak and daxter which is a series I love dearly.

To prove my point further ND actually were working on a new jak and daxter and they just didn't know which direction to take it in so they canned it them selves.

Smart play would be Sony pushing them to make sequels to games people know and love, but Sony do the opposite and say hey make whatever you want and here's a ton of money to make it the best it can be.

You got no idea what ur talking about in this regard.

Those games arent being made cause devs don't want to make then not the other way around.

They clearly wanted to move on to new things and have been vindicated in doing so.

Unless ur saying Sony should force there devs to make endless sequels?

[ModsDoBetter]

No point trying to be logical with a fanboy, mate.

[NotoriousWhiz]

@Flawlessmic,

I agree with Sony letting the studios work on what they want. And those are great IPs that they made, but those IPs do not replace the ones that were lost. Jak and sly Cooper were great alternatives to Banjo Kazooie. Killzone and Socom were also great shooter IPs. It would be nice to bring those back even if it was a different studio that made it happen.

There's gotta be someone out there willing to revive those games, they can lend out the IP and see what they can do. Similar to what Sega did with Sonic Mania, or Nintendo with Cadence of Hyrule, Fire Emblem Warriors, even Bandai Namco played a large part in the development of Smash bros ultimate, so those partnerships can happen.

[Flawlessmic]

@notorious

Would absolutely would love to see those series return, especially jak, Sodcom and killzone but if none of Sony devs want to make it then its hard to make happen.

And I can't see outsiders asking for a chance on to make but I would love it if they did.

Here hoping they return but yea Sony letting there devs make the games they want is a good thing in more way just working environment where people are motivated and excited to work on what there passionate about but we also get great new ips.

[tay8701]

Lmao way to overexaggerate dude. 2k devs, give me a break. naughty dog only has around 500 employees. So let me get this straight, they hired and lost all their workforce 4 times over Rotfl. Another thing don't even attempt to compare any xbox ran studio with naughty dog, they are so far and away ahead of ANY xbox studio, it is not even funny.

[Flawlessmic]

@megaman

Never said they don't make sequels, I said sony doesn't force the issue one way or the other with there devs

There are sequels to the games you listed because the devs wanted to continue those games unlike the ones that were listed earlier that the devs clearly did not want make more sequels for.

But you knew what I was saying, you were just trying spin it

[Ozzy2407]

Killzone is rumored to be coming to PSVR 2

[darkrider]

Sony isn't spending 70 billions on buying publishers. Dude, there isn't any damage control possible.

[Christopher]

https://twitter.com/Witdark...

***stuff that happened at Naughty Dog we’re like 2k devs left***

Source please.

[DazaMc]

Their studios, they’re means they are.

[ZwVw]

Sizing up for the Acti-Blizz purchase.

[Justo909]

Wait so they laid off 1,000 people just not long ago - https://www.computerworld.c...

Now they laid off another 10,000 people on top of that?

[Deathdeliverer]

Gotta pay for all that spending somehow. Remember, they tried to Jack up the Xbox live or gamespass price by like double. Gamers pushed back. Mission aborted. Those funds still need to be recouped though. Get ready cause this is a piece of the puzzle. Price increases for gamespass and/or gold will get its price increased soon.

[onisama]

ps plus extra is 15$ and gamepass is 10$ considering how much gamepass offers ...its fair to at least put it on 15$

[ModsDoBetter]

Careful, you’re speaking sense.

[MrNinosan]

I am certain very few are paying monthly.
The yearly subscription for PS+ Extra is both cheaper and have a larger library than GamePass.

[ModsDoBetter]

@Mr

Having owned PS since the PS1 and Xbox since the One X. I can assure you that in no way PS+ Extra is comparable to GamePass.

That’s a blind fanboy comparison if every I’ve seen one. The PS+ overhaul is widely criticised for its lackluster changes. Credit where credit is due, at least it’s better than PSNow because that service was abysmal, especially at launch all those years ago.

Until Sony start putting first party exclusives or bigger titles on PS+ Extra, they don’t hold a candle to GamePass.

[andy85]

15? A yearly extra was under 50 on sales week that's 4 a month. There can't be many paying monthly when you can get a huge discount like that yearly

[andy85]

@olMyerslo I wouldn't say "in no way". Gamepass is great I have both consoles so I have it too. But Extra is fantastic value in my opinion. There's far more quality games on the service than GP, more games in total and it's a fair bit cheaper. I grant you having day one games is great, but Sony doesn't have that money pit to dip into to fund day one games and the quality seems to drop when a game is offered 'free' day one. Now 2023 with all the supposed releases from MS the gap will probably widen, but right now, not so much.

[ModsDoBetter]

@andy - completely disagree.

It’s all a matter of taste.
You think the quality of games on PS Extra is better than that of GamePass, I do not, & that’s alright, it’s subjective.

Not really excellent value for money when it cost me £90 odd for the year. They recently ran a promo where you could extend your PS plus. I wanted to downgrade and extend because I wasn’t making use of the higher tiers due to them only really adding older games but Sony wouldn’t allow that so I got roped into another year at the top tier.

Lol @ the disagrees I got though. God forbid you criticise Sony on this site, it’s pathetic. You’d think most of the users here are major shareholders in SCE.

[andy85]

olMyerslo yeah I agree there, it was ridiculous to not let you downgrade and extend. But last week or the week before you could get a years Extra sub for £42 and that was a massive bargain for what you get

[darkrider]

But Microsoft is losing money on gp to have that price and this happend.... Sony doesn't have day one games, therefore isn't in the same situation.... And it's more expensive and got much more subcribers and didn't cut the price of the ps5....

[Christopher]

***ps plus extra is 15$ and gamepass is 10$***

The problem there is your game pass cost doesn't include multiplayer online—only game pass access. You only get that with the $15/month subscription (Game Pass Ultimate).

As to which is more valuable, that's purely subjective at this time.

Game Pass also doesn't have an "annual subscription" discount.

***Until Sony start putting first party exclusives or bigger titles on PS+ Extra, they don’t hold a candle to GamePass.***

There are very big titles on PS+ Extra. You just don't care about them the way you do game pass day-one releases.

[Knushwood Butt]

Just got a 12 month Extra extension for 25% off.

Crazy value for me.

[SoulWarrior]

Thoughts go out to those who lost their roles, especially those at Bethesda who've been owned for little over 2 years, who may not have lost their job if MS wasn't calling the shots, I hope they will be able to find dev roles elsewhere soon.

As for MS, shame on them for cutting all these jobs while splurging 70 billion trying to buy Activision and still making enormous profits.

[Futureshark]

So long Phil....
Dare to dream.

[Knushwood Butt]

Phil is busy picking up awards.

[onisama]

with how long microsoft studios takes in dev of games (5 to 8 years) i imagine lot of them are hiding eating donuts ...im an employed myself...and i hate those that just doesnt care about their jobs

as long as its fair layoff cutting the fat im all for it hopefully the ones that stays have some fear and work harder

[zero_jp]

My theory and don’t quote me is that ACT/BLIZZ has nearly 10,000 employees around 9800.

Either Microsoft is extremely confident the deal will close and need to make room to take on those types of salaries, contracts, and gaming budgets.

Or Microsoft realizes that they need to start cutting costs now because they’ll owe a breakup fee of 4 billion if the deal falls through. One never knows with these things it could be either or at this point.

[Zhipp]

These layoffs are across the entirety of Microsoft. Gaming only accounts for a small fraction of their business. Of the 10,000 layoffs, as far as has been reported only a few hundred are from the gaming division. There's just no way this is to make room for Activision.

Also i must add that 4billion is nothing to a company the size of MS.

[Thundercat77]

All that spending buying mayor publishers and putting games on a subscription rather than making regular sales was always going to bite Xbox somehow in the long run.

Looks to me they are not interested on developing or expanding those studios but just interested on keeping those games away from Playstation.

This is why most people say Xbox is corrupting the industry or are like a cancer.

[CobraKai]

Spend almost $8b on Zenimax and with the Activision deal ahead, you gotta make cuts somewhere.

[badz149]

would be ironic if any of the 10k laid-off was in full support of the buyout, which there most probably were.

[Knushwood Butt]

I thought GP was sustainable.

[badz149]

it is, these 10k staff aren't

[isarai]

You the 10k staff making GP games?....🤔

[jznrpg]

Or the next 10k

[Vithar]

yet wants to spend 68 billion on Activision

[StarkR3ality]

That's shit. I hope it's not the Devs but the people actually making all the shit show decisions that have left Xbox with like 2 competent studios out of 20+, it's a joke.

[Asplundh]

Hate to see people lose their jobs. When the WiiU flopped the executives at Nintendo decided to take a 50% pay cut to avoid laying off employees. We need more companies doing that, the people in charge should be paying for bad management and not the people under them.

[Spenok]

Ms just writes this binge worthy content for us.

It's too bad they can't seem to do it for a video game though.

[Flewid638]

Work for a company or start a business...neither one comes with any guarantees. Pick your poison.

[S2Killinit]

Oh boy… they sure are a good force in the industry.

[darkrider]

Keep buying publishers.... God job. Now I understand the playground exodus. Really easy to see.

[Nacho_Z]

Been a hell of a bad day for the Microsoft PR machine. Shame for those being laid off.

[rlow1]

With a coming world recession coming does anyone seriously think that this stops with MS?

[Orchard]

Exactly. Amazon laid off 18k yesterday. Riot Games laid off a bunch today, as did a lot of media sites like GameSpot. Sony will likely do the same, Nintendo too.

This is just the start of things to come, 2023 will be a bumpy year for gaming in general as consumer spending goes down.

[Outside_ofthe_Box]

Hopefully no more price increases during this bumpy 2023 especially from Microsoft since they're the most consumer friendly of the 3.

[Nuclearmoon]

Game Pass is partly to blame here. Money made from subs cannot sustain game development in the same way traditional game sales do. Adjusted for inflation Skyrim made $1.31bn in its first 30 days, equal to a third of the yearly revenue (not profit) of Game Pass. To boost profit they either need to develop games cheaper or take more money from the subs.

[PhillyDillyDee]

Can we try a new economy now please? The capitalist one just isnt doin it for the working class anymore.

[GamingSinceForever]

Well that sucks.

[zaanan]

This is shitty in light of their expensive pursuit of publishers. It reminds me of when Exxon announced no raises for anybody, yet spent $1 million on relocating an old tree on their new campus. My coworkers and I were not happy campers that year.

[Pickledpepper]

I own all platforms including all recent consoles but favour xbox.
Everyone who works for a reasonably size company has noticed that some fellow employees are just dead wood and when they take time off from work the productivity does not lower and in some cases the productivity actually increases when certain employees are no present and you think to yourself how much money the company would save with without these individuals.
Or am I the only one?

[darkrider]

10k, not 100 or 500 people and even that would be big. Microsoft can't manage all this studios. I heard bungie, bluepoint and Santa Monica can be where they are going next!

[Orchard]

It's not 10k games industry employees lol. Xbox studios won't even have 10k employees.

For context, Zenimax has around 2000 employees. PlayStation studios 4000.

Also, don't be surprised when Sony announces layoffs too. The current economy isn't exclusive to Microsoft.

[S2Killinit]

… 10,000 ….

I wonder if the Activision employyes saw this one coming. Is Kotik one of them at least?!?

[Orchard]

Activision aren't part of Microsoft... so they aren't affected by this at all.

Also, it's 10,000 all across Microsoft, not in gaming.

[darkrider]

Dude, no damage control will work here. Not all eat ice cream with the forehead. But don't worried bungie will welcome many if them.

[darkrider]

They must be already afraid and very happy....Beteshda is theit hands just in the last two years...

[Father__Merrin]

I blame game pass. Game pass mist make less return rather than outright blockbuster sales

[Orchard]

GP as a project isn't big enough to cause 10k layoffs at the corporate level of a company like Microsoft. Most of the 10k are non-gaming layoffs.

Ultimately, GP revenue and Sony 1st party game sales combined are pocket change compared to the money that teams like Azure etc deal with.

[rlow1]

I blame the economy. The downturn had already started in October/December of 2022. Unfortunately, it’s going to get worse across board in the gaming industry and beyond.

[ironmonkey]

Definitely not small layoff

[Orchard]

In terms of numbers affected, yes. In terms of overall employee count, not really. Microsoft had 221k employees as of 2022.

[headshotfrosty]

Consolidation post merger. Standard but still sucks for all affected. Hopefully they find real value at other agencies in their industry. AND Hopefully this increases MS quality and leads to more jobs established in the future as a result of successful strategy. No hate.

[MrBeatdown]

Thoughts and prayers for Microsoft stockholders. Stay strong. We're counting on you so we can get free Call of Duty.

[Angyobangyo]

Yet they're able to buy Activision Blizzard for $70 billion all in cash.

[esherwood]

Hopefully it’s because they wanted to get rid of them and not because they had to. Just spent 80 billion on studios kinda crazy if they’re just going to gut them . 10k sounds like a lot but they have a ton of employees and I bet the bottom 5% probably had it coming and this will make the rest more appreciative .I’m an union electrician and during the worst times they cut 30% of us and honestly it wasn’t hard to keep working, lot of lazy people out there

[MegaLogic]

Only despicable human beings would make fun of something like this.

[banger88]

Between 2021 and 2022 they hired 40K people.

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