The video game industry, like most sectors of the tech industry, can see rapid growth as quickly as declines, even for its biggest companies. With such volatility often comes tough decisions, such as deciding to lay off employees when needing to cut costs. Even companies that have had successful periods of high revenues like Activision Blizzard will still resort to mass layoffs at times. Microsoft has undoubtedly seen some chaotic times in the past few years, with its video game enterprises potentially growing even more with pending acquisitions. However, it seems that this could not stop nearly a thousand Microsoft employees from being laid off.

Microsoft became the latest tech company to show signs of concern about future demand as it laid off employees this week #WSJWhatsNow https://t.co/yK7V1XB5fy pic.twitter.com/Zkxg5JEYFO

— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) October 18, 2022

Several sources like The Wall Street Journal have reported on a new message from Microsoft that was recently sent internally to many Microsoft employees. According to the outlet, the company has decided to lay off hundreds of employees across several different departments within the company, including gaming divisions such as Xbox. As for the reason behind these layoffs, Microsoft’s spokesperson had this to say:

“Like all companies, we evaluate our business priorities on a regular basis, and make structural adjustments accordingly. We will continue to invest in our business and hire in key growth areas in the year ahead.”

Microsoft has not specifically disclosed which departments have seen cuts, but some Microsoft employees have made it known on social media that they have been ousted from the company. Some of the big names include product manager KC Lemson and Studio Alpha Principal Architect Greg Chapman. Chapman also confirmed that the rest of his gaming-focused team at Studio Alpha had been let go along with him.

Greg has been at Microsoft for 10+ years, and had been working at Microsoft’s Studio Alpha to combine Azure, gaming, and AI on some early work for commercial and military https://t.co/qIUDWcSQR6

— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) October 18, 2022

While nearly 1,000 employees is still a fairly small number compared to the hundreds of thousands of employees that Microsoft employs, this does come as a sobering reflection of the recent slowing in growth that Microsoft has seen on the market lately. Hopefully, no further mass layoffs like this have to occur. We’d hate to see Microsoft bring Clippy the paper clip to pick up the vacancies.

What do you guys think about nearly a thousand Microsoft employees being laid off by the company? Let us know in the comments below! Be sure to stay tuned for the latest Microsoft news, such as US Senators raising concerns in a letter over the potential Activision Blizzard acquisition by Microsoft, here on Don’t Feed the Gamers! Follow us on Twitter to see our updates the minute they go live!