According to Engadget , the gaming industry continues to face bad news. Recently, Microsoft announced further job cuts at two game developers owned by Activision Blizzard: Toys for Bob and Sledgehammer Games.
According to a report from the San Francisco Chronicle, 86 employees at Toys for Bob, the studio famous for the Skylanders game series, will lose their jobs on March 30th. In addition, the studio's offices will be closed. This number is significantly higher than the initial estimate that only about 35 employees would be affected.
Additionally, 76 other employees at Sledgehammer Games, the studio that developed Call of Duty: Vanguard , will also be laid off. The developer was founded in 2009 and has contributed to many popular Call of Duty titles. According to reports, Sledgehammer Games will transition to a fully remote work model after closing its offices.
Microsoft announces layoffs of an additional 162 employees in its gaming division.
In total, this round of layoffs affects 162 Microsoft employees. This is part of a plan to cut 1,900 jobs across all of Microsoft's Xbox, Activision Blizzard, and ZeniMax (Bethesda) teams, announced at the end of January.
These layoffs attracted the attention of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The FTC argued that the job cuts contradicted Microsoft's commitments made during negotiations to acquire Activision Blizzard. The commission ordered a temporary halt to the $69 billion deal pending further investigation.
Job cuts in the gaming industry have become a serious concern. In 2023, an estimated 10,500 employees lost their jobs. In the first month of 2024 alone, that number reached 6,000, indicating a rapidly evolving situation. These cuts are part of a larger wave of layoffs occurring across the technology industry as a whole.
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