Microsoft goes through another round of layoffs

Microsoft confirmed that another round of layoffs would take place in the first quarter of its fiscal year 2024, and the number of employees affected has now been confirmed.

The details:

• According to a new filing with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification system (WARN) in Washington, the company has laid off a total of 276 employees. 210 were based in the company's Redmond and Bellevue offices, with the remaining 66 working remotely. Microsoft confirmed that the layoffs would take effect after the end of its fiscal year 2023 in June. "Organizational and workforce adjustments are a necessary and regular part of managing our business," a company spokesperson explained (via CNBC). "We will continue to prioritize and invest in strategic growth areas for our future and in support of our customers and partners.”
• This is the latest round of layoffs at the company, which began in 2023 by laying off 10,000 employees across many of its divisions, including game studios Bethesda, 343 Industries, and The Coalition. The redundancies were made to cut costs amid a struggling economy. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella stated that the layoffs accounted for approximately 5% of the company's workforce at the time and that it would cost the company $1.2 billion to cover "severance costs, changes to [the company's] hardware portfolio, and the cost of lease consolidation.”
• Microsoft is not the only tech company that has reduced its workforce significantly, with Niantic, Sega's Relic Entertainment, and EA all announcing layoffs in recent months due to similar concerns about the current economic climate and overall spending. So far in 2023, EA has undergone significant internal restructuring, with 6% of its workforce being cut in March and its EA Games and EA Sports divisions being separated.

More Microsoft news:

• Xbox and Bethesda have confirmed they will attend Gamescom 2023, marking another Microsoft appearance at a trade show. The company may make some new announcements, but it's more likely that it will focus on the projects that were revealed at Summer Game Fest, such as Fable, Forza Motorsport, and Starfield.
• A team of modders is working alongside 343 Industries to resurrect cut content from the original version of Halo: Combat Evolved, which was intended to be a real-time strategy title for the Mac. So far, several maps, models, and features have been discovered and restored within the Master Chief Collection.