I have mixed feelings about the Xbox Gaming layoffs. On the one hand, ABK was a behemoth that needed to be streamlined, particularly Blizzard, I have long heard tales of a vastly oversized middle-management compared to other game developers, as well as alot of other redundant jobs at Blizzard, and cutting those redundant jobs from the payroll is necessary not only to reduce Xbox gaming's bottom line, but also to aid game development, becuse an oversized middle-management in each department quickly becomes too many cooks in the kitchen, fighting against one another.

On the other hand, the Blizzard survival new IP is dead, that was the only game that Blizzard was working on that might have been Xbox exclusive, not to mention their only game thay might have released this gen or early next gen, with it now dead Blizzard will be nothing but WoW expansions, Diablo 4 expansions, Overwatch 2 seasons, Hearthstone updates, and maybe a HOTS revival for the next 8-10 years most likely. Our only hope now of a significant new Blizzard release anytime soon would be WoW console ports. On top of that Activision layoffs probably aren't a good thing since Xbox seems to be sticking with yearly CoD as revealed in yesterday's CoD roadmap leak through 2027, fewer total Activision devs mean more will need to be taken away from working on individual games and forcing them into a CoD support role to keep up with that grueling yearly release cycle.

2024 is definitely looking to be a record year for gaming industry layoffs, we're not even a full month into the year yet and I've heard about over 5,000 laid off employees between Microsoft Gaming, Twitch, Riot, Embracer Group, and more. 2023 had 11,000 laid off employees in the gaming industry, so we're nearly halfway to passing 2023 in layoffs in not even a full month of 2024.

I would have actually been surprised if there were no layoffs after MS has made some really big purchases where a lot of roles are redundant. The thing is, its not just game studios and publishers that are getting hit with layoffs its the whole tech industry. Going back to MS, having basically 3 publishing arms really is not efficient. I expect more consolidation of Bethedsa and ABK and more jobs being cut by the end of this year. I believe this is just the first pass.

Jason said that Blizzard's Survival IP was many years away from release, I had heard good things about the team but maybe the development on the game itself wasn't going well? I don't think Mike was a particularly good leader of Blizzard Tbh..Being a fan isn't good enough sometimes, Odyssey was "many years away" and now cancelled, OW2 PVE was cancelled, Diablo IV was great on launch but then took a nosedive post-launch, OW2 does well but is a major decline from OW1 popularity, WoW is arguably the only Blizzard IP on the up recently but that is probably largely due to Chris Metzen.

I think these jobs being cut won't largely be development staff, I think it will primarily be marketing, business, community support, etc. Lots of overlap with Microsoft Gaming, these sorts of jobs weren't really hit when Zenimax was acquired but it appears as though MS is merging ABK into their structure far quicker than they did Zenimax. ABK has thousands of "non-development" staff so I think for your example, COD development teams, won't be affected much. I mean, Odyssey has been cancelled but it sounds like most developers from that are being moved to other projects in Blizzard.

Found ABK's numbers for 2022.

"Overview: As of December 31, 2022, Activision Blizzard had approximately 13,000 full-time and part-time non-temporary employees, Of these employees, approximately 69% either work directly on, or support, our game and technology development." 31% in non-development roles, which is 4030 employees.

13,000/22,000 for MS Gaming are ABK at minimum, likely more than that 13,000 by this point.

Doesn't change how much it sucks to see people lose their jobs and how horrific this industry is lately.

Hard to even enjoy gaming lately when all the news surrounding it is fucking over the employees giving us the games.

We're going to have this all year and people still stick their head in the sand and pretend everything is fine with this industry.

Add on Unity. I was surprised at Riot's layoffs, it really goes to show that nobody is safe and even the incredibly successful companies are being hit hard. The tech industry in general is taking a battering, part of it is due to over-hiring during the pandemic but it feels like the gaming industry in particular is taking quite the beating and it feels more than just "over-hiring" it feels like we're heading towards a slow moving train crash.

Budgets which continue to balloon are outpacing profits, either you're incredibly successful or you're a failure, the middle-ground is fading, a shortage of developers but at the same time, thousands of layoffs non-stop which will discourage people from entering the industry and cause others to leave the industry, when you need those developers again in the future, they won't be around, cause you've broken their spirits. Games requiring thousands of employees nowadays on average, the churn rate is high, people jump from studio to studio like musical chairs, the burnout rate is high, the profit margins are slim.

Imma need a break from the internet again maybe, Lol.

Just go play Yakuza, until Sega gets layoffs again.

Honestly it isn't really a problem exclusive to the games industry, many industries are suffering right now. Covid fucked pretty much the whole planet up royally, first the lockdowns, then the stimulus payments many countries did which were largely a mistake and seem to have contributed to mass inflation. Pay ended up shooting way up due to the mass inflation (I know companies in my area where pay has shot up 40% or more in just 4 years), and because of money devaluing and corporations being forced to pay more, they are really suffering as they watch the value of the mass wealth they have accumulated decrease, so now they feel the need to layoff people to try and protect their bottom line.

Honestly, I think 2024 is not even the tip of the iceberg, the economy is only going to continue to get worse the way things are headed right now. I fear we are headed for the 2nd Great Depression.