Microsoft cuts 4,800 jobs and shrinks Xbox

2026-07-06 22:35:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Microsoft has announced that it has cut 4,800 jobs - roughly 2.1% of its workforce - with Xbox set to face a large number of the latest cuts.

Amy Coleman, executive vice president at Microsoft, told employees in a memo that the tech giant needed to focus on areas that could serve customers in a "rapidly changing industry."

The sweeping cuts will see the immediate reduction of more than 1,600 roles at Xbox.

Asha Sharma, who recently took over as Xbox CEO, said in a note to staff that the "most significant restructuring in Xbox history" was beginning.

Another 1,600 jobs will be lost next year, Sharma said in the X-divided note.

Four Xbox game development studios - Compulsion Games, Double Fine Productions, Ninja Theory and Undead Lab - will also be split up as part of the changes, she added.

"These changes are about a bigger future for Xbox, not a smaller one. History is full of companies confusing longevity with inevitability. We won't be one of them," Sharma said.

Meanwhile, Coleman noted changing customer needs when he announced employee layoffs across Microsoft's company.

"Companies don't have the right to choose whether their industry will change; they only have the right to choose whether they will change with it," she said.

She noted that, while the company would not replace lost roles with artificial intelligence, "what is true is that artificial intelligence is changing the way work is done."

Industry Challenges
The announcement comes at an already difficult time in the games industry, with many studios still facing brutal job cuts in recent years.

In 2024, Xbox laid off more than 2,000 employees and closed four studios it had acquired before its major acquisition of Call of Duty maker Activision-Blizzard.

A little over a year later, Microsoft said it would lay off up to 9,000 employees after setting out plans to double its billion-dollar spending on artificial intelligence.

Rising hardware costs have also prompted firms, including Microsoft, to raise the price of perennial consoles and similar consumer devices - with many blaming artificial intelligence data centers for increasing demand too quickly for supply to catch up.

Sharma said Monday that, while he knew the cuts were "painful," a "reset" was needed across Xbox's entire content portfolio, platform and operations.

Analisti i teknologjisë, Paolo Pescatore, i tha BBC-së se ndryshimet shënuan një "rivendosje të madhe" për kompaninë, e cila ka përpara prova të mëtejshme.

"Sfida nuk është vetëm ulja e kostove; por edhe përcaktimi i asaj që përfaqëson Xbox në një botë ku lojërat po përhapen nëpër platforma konsolash, PC, cloud dhe abonimesh", tha ai.