Just over three months after completing its acquisition of the video game publisher, Microsoft will lay off 1,900 employees at its Xbox console subsidiary and Activision Blizzard.
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The figure, which represents about 9% of the 22,000 employees in the video games sector, appears in an internal letter published by several American media outlets, the authenticity of which was confirmed by Microsoft to AFP.
The internal message is signed by Microsoft's head of video games, Phil Spencer, who justified the decision with the desire to align the company with “a sustainable cost structure”.
He pointed to “duplication” and Microsoft’s intention to prioritize projects that generate potential growth.
In a message posted on X (formerly Twitter), Activision Blizzard President Mike Ybarra confirmed a wave of job cuts and his immediate resignation.
“This is an incredibly difficult day,” the manager wrote, suggesting that Thursday would be his “last day” with the company.
Microsoft had to wait more than 20 months to complete its $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard as regulatory hurdles were finally cleared.
These job cuts come at a time when other major video game companies have recently announced layoffs.
On Monday, Riot Games, publisher of the game League of Legends and a subsidiary of China's Tencent, announced the upcoming reduction of its workforce by around 11%, or 530 jobs.
At the beginning of January, the streaming platform Twitch, an Amazon subsidiary popular with gamers, announced that it wanted to lay off 500 employees, around a third of the total.
Last year, Microsoft, like most tech giants with the notable exception of Apple, had already been cutting its workforce, with an initial wave of 10,000 job cuts announced in January, followed by another wave in the summer.
Microsoft's announcement “makes it clear that even if you work for a successful company in a highly profitable industry, you are not protected if you don't have a representative,” the Communications Trade Union (CWA) responded.
Only a handful of employees are unionized at Microsoft, namely employees of its video game subsidiary ZeniMax Media.
The CWA encouraged Microsoft teams working on video games, as well as the entire industry, to “come together and exercise their right to union representation.”
In the broader tech sector, union activity has traditionally been very low.
In mid-December, Microsoft committed to a neutral stance on union matters as part of a partnership with the powerful American union AFL-CIO.
This means that the group will not attempt to dissuade those of its employees from forming a union organization.