Microsoft Lays Off 4,800 Workers as Xbox Revenue Slides
Microsoft is trimming its workforce by 4,800 jobs, hitting both its commercial division and a struggling Xbox gaming unit.
Microsoft is handing pink slips to roughly 4,800 employees, and the cuts are landing hardest in two places: the company's commercial business and its Xbox gaming group. If you've been following Xbox's rocky recent stretch, this probably isn't a huge surprise — the unit has been dealing with shrinking revenue for a while now.
Beyond the layoffs, Xbox is going further than just trimming headcount. The gaming division is also planning to spin off four of its studios, a move that signals Microsoft may be rethinking how tightly it wants to hold onto parts of its gaming empire. Spinning off studios is a pretty significant step — it means those teams would operate outside of Microsoft's direct control, at least to some degree.
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For Microsoft as a whole, this is part of a broader effort to right-size a business that expanded rapidly in recent years. The commercial side of the company — think enterprise software, cloud services, and business tools — is also absorbing some of the job cuts, suggesting this isn't purely a gaming problem but a wider organizational reset.
If you work in tech or follow the gaming industry, these moves are worth watching closely. Xbox has been one of Microsoft's higher-profile bets, especially after its massive acquisition push in gaming. Scaling back now, through layoffs and studio spin-offs, raises real questions about where the division goes from here and what Microsoft's long-term gaming strategy actually looks like.
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