Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard was one of last year’s biggest deals. It led to the already massive 23-studio fleet of Xbox Game Studios growing even more significant and having the two studios responsible for titles like Diablo, Call of Duty, Overwatch, etc., come under the Xbox Game Studios Umbrella.
Now, a statement made by Phil Spencer at the time when the acquisition deal between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard was happening has come to light. This statement doesn’t necessarily feel like it was kept in mind by the company’s executives and leaders. This is because Xbox just laid off 1900 people, forming an 8.6 percent share of its total workforce, and stated that it was done to keep things sustainable.
Phile Spencer’s statement during the Microsoft-Activision deal seems like a dead end after Xbox layoffs were announced
For those unaware, Xbox recently laid off 1900 employees working at Blizzard, Activision, and Xbox teams. This was announced by Xbox chief Phil Spencer in a memo stating that this was implemented to ensure that the studio was operating on a sustainable model.
Here is a short excerpt from the piece reporting the occurrence:
As we move forward in 2024, the leadership of Microsoft Gaming and Activision Blizzard is committed to aligning on a strategy and an execution plan with a sustainable cost structure… .As part of this process, we have made the painful decision to reduce the size of our gaming workforce by approximately 1,900 roles out of the 22,000 people on our team.
Now initially posted on Twitter by Charlie Intel, the statement above doesn’t match the statement made in October about the acquisition and the deal that was greenlit after much difficulty. As per the statement made after the deal was finalized, Phile Spencer, chief of Microsoft’s Gaming wing, stated that:
As one team, we’ll learn, innovate, and continue to deliver on our promise to bring the joy and community of gaming to more people. We’ll do this in a culture that strives to empower everyone to do their best work, where all people are welcome, and is centered on our ongoing commitment of Gaming for Everyone.
One can spot the difference between the Chief’s signals in the two emails spaced not years but four months apart. Understandably, being affected by layoffs is one of the worst things a professional can go through. Still, the fact that this comes after Microsoft’s Gaming Chief talked about empowering the workforce is saddening.
Whenever two organizations merge, layoffs happen and are more or less expected. In this case, an already humongous gaming studio umbrella, Xbox Game Studios, merged with not just one but three studios (Activision, Blizzard, and King), so layoffs were most certainly expected.
However, the primary point of discussion is that the Xbox chief chose to address the new employees joining Microsoft as part of the merger with such an optimistic tone and then announce mergers within 5 months. This doesn’t speak well of such a reputed organization, the subsidiary of the world’s second most profitable technology company.
While the statement didn’t directly mention that they would retain 100% of their staff, layoffs were expected to happen, as is the case with every merger deal that has ever taken place in recent times. The recent waves of layoffs that have been happening can be attributed to various structural and strategic changes in the way video game studios function. But the fact that so many of them are happening one after the other doesn’t paint a good picture of the industry.
For anyone who has ever aspired to be employed in the industry home to the most interactive form of art and media, this wave of layoffs is more than demoralizing. If a gaming and tech giant cannot sustain their entire workforce because they want to tip the market share in their favor by gaining more first-party studios, it is undoubtedly a problem.
What do you think of the conflicting statements put up by Microsoft? Do you think it was a case of promises the company couldn’t fulfill or that the statement in October was just meant to welcome new members and had nothing to do with the layoffs? Let us know in the comment section below!
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