Xbox thông báo sa thải 20% nhân sự, ảnh hưởng 3200 người, lãnh đạo Microsoft cảnh báo: Thay đổi tại nhiều bộ phận kinh doanh khác đang trên đường tới.

Microsoft's gaming business is undergoing its largest strategic adjustment in recent years.

According to Bloomberg on July 6, Microsoft's Xbox announced a strategic reorganization, planning to lay off approximately 3,200 employees, accounting for 20% of its total workforce, and simultaneously spin off five game development studios. This adjustment aims to cut costs and concentrate resources on core businesses. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma stated frankly: "Our business is currently not healthy."

This adjustment is also an important part of Microsoft's overall cost reduction and efficiency improvement actions. In addition to Xbox, sales and other departments will also cut about 3,200 positions, with a total of about 6,400 layoffs across the two departments, accounting for less than 3% of Microsoft's global workforce of 228,000. At the same time, Microsoft's senior management has sent a clearer signal: As AI investment continues to expand, more business departments will face similar restructuring in the future.

Xbox profitability far lags peers, layoffs and restructuring initiated

Asha Sharma, who took over as Xbox CEO in February, inherited a business facing slowing growth and profitability pressures.

In a letter to employees on Monday, she stated that Xbox's current profit margin is 3 to 10 times lower than peers, and the company must realign resource allocation to focus investment on products with greater scale effects, with the ultimate goal of driving Xbox's daily active player base to 1 billion.

Sharma had previously revealed in an internal memo that Xbox's "accountability profit margin" for measuring profitability had dropped to just 3%, and revenue had also declined significantly. "This situation cannot continue."

Although Microsoft has continuously increased investment in gaming in recent years, including the $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard in 2023, Xbox has never been able to establish a stable hit game output capability. Console hardware sales remain weak, and Game Pass subscription growth has gradually slowed. According to data disclosed by Sharma, Xbox loses 64 cents for every $1 invested in a typical year.

The layoffs will be phased, with about 1,600 people leaving immediately this week, and the remaining positions will be cut over the next 12 months, involving almost all Xbox business departments.

Five studios spun off, Xbox returns to core IP strategy

In addition to layoffs, Microsoft will also make significant adjustments to its game studio system.

Among them, Ninja Theory (Hellblade) and Undead Labs (State of Decay) will be sold. The specific buyers have not yet been announced, but both parties will continue to cooperate to complete already-started projects such as Senua and State of Decay 3.

Double Fine (Psychonauts) and Compulsion Games (South of Midnight) will return to the control of their founding teams. Microsoft will provide transitional funding and retain the existing intellectual property and game copyright assets of both companies.

Arkane Studios (Blade) in Lyon, France, will launch a strategic review to study sales or other spin-off options. Due to French labor law requirements, the process is expected to take significantly longer than for other studios.

All five studios were acquired under former Xbox head Phil Spencer. At the time, Microsoft hoped to drive Game Pass subscription growth by continuously expanding its first-party content lineup, but this strategy ultimately failed to meet expectations.

Meanwhile, ZeniMax will undergo internal restructuring, with future resources concentrated on core IPs such as Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, Doom, Quake, and Wolfenstein.

AI capital expenditure continues to expand, Microsoft hints at more departments to adjust

Behind the Xbox restructuring is the larger context of Microsoft's continuous investment in AI.

As one of the world's largest software companies, Microsoft has continuously expanded AI infrastructure investment in recent years, building large-scale data centers, with capital expenditures rising, prompting the company to continuously compress non-core business costs. Last year, Microsoft conducted two consecutive rounds of layoffs, affecting a total of about 15,000 positions.

Microsoft's Chief People Officer Amy Coleman stated in an internal memo that this round of adjustments stems from fundamental changes in product development methods and customer demand, and the current organizational adjustment is only the beginning. She said:

"We are still in the early stages of this transformation, and there will be more changes to come. Other business departments of the company also need to undergo similar adjustments."

Sharma emphasized that this restructuring will not cancel any publicly announced game projects. Microsoft will continue to increase investment in flagship products such as Minecraft, while further flattening management layers and improving studio management efficiency. She stated that this adjustment does not mean Xbox is shrinking, but rather aims to return the business to a sustainable growth trajectory, "These changes are for a bigger Xbox future, not a smaller one."

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