Layoffs at Activision are quite small, apparently just 88 people of the 1600 layoffs are at Activision, in spite of it being their 2nd biggest division after Blizzard. Clearly Asha doesn't think they can keep up yearly CoD with much less devs than they have now at the 4 main and 7 support studios that fuel the yearly CoD machine.

Gamepass currently has 30m subs. Timeline of sub numbers:

April 2020- 10m

September 2020- 15m

January 2021- 18m

January 2022- 25m

February 2024- 34m

September 2025- 35m

October 2025- 50% price hike

April 2026- Price drop to pre-hike levels

July 2026- 30m

Yeah, and Blizzard doesn't seem to have been touched at all.

Not too much messing with their biggest money makers. Majority of the layoffs seem to have been middle management. When I read there were upwards of 14 layers of management, I immediately wondered how the hell does something like that happen. Then it popped up that there was no COO for Xbox this entire time lol. Amazing that they've somehow been operational at all.

• The hardware division reportedly had the lowest number of layoffs at the main Xbox campus in Redmond Washington. 
• Asha shielded them from the brunt of the layoffs because she believes strongly that dedicated hardware needs to be the primary pathway to playing Xbox games next generation
• Project Helix is safe and on-track for release in 2027 or 2028 still
• Rather than delaying Project Helix or scaling back it's specs, the hardware team is currently trying to innovate their way around the RAM and SSD shortage and price boom, and reduce the bill of materials as much as possible elsewhere without scaling back the specs
• Asha plans to cut down the previously stated "up to 14" layers of management down to 4 layers at most across all divisions. 
• Chief Operations Officer (a newly created role at Xbox) Helen Chiang (formerly Mojang's studio head) has delivered a clear mandate to the hardware team, deliver a powerhouse console that is financially viable from day one. 

Schreier reporting that Blizzard layoffs will happen later. I'm guessing studios like that will be part of the second half of layoffs that are supposed to happen next year?

It did seem odd Blizzard wasn't hit at all when they are by far bigger than anyone else at Xbox. I am guessing the future layoffs will mainly hit Blizzard and less at XGS and Zenimax.

Today it feels like it was mainly XGS and Zenimax that was hit. ABK was barely hit at all.