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After Xbox closed down four studios on May 7, new reports suggest Microsoft’s cuts are far from over. Jason Schreier and Tom Warren, two popular industry journalists, are reporting the company has offered Zenimax employees “voluntary buyouts” as a cost-cutting measure.
Microsoft decided to cut down on Arkane Austin, Tango Gameworks, Alpha Dog Games, and Roundhouse Studios. But Microsoft employees fear the company is planning on laying off even more workers, from Q&A to producers, testers, and more—all part of Zenimax, a company that they bought in 2021 for 7.2 billion dollars.
According to Schreier, Xbox is offering all these employees “voluntary severance agreements.” Microsoft is also reportedly warning staff that more cuts are coming, so this restructuring has not finished.
“It’s hard to support nine studios all across the world with a lean central team with an ever-growing plate of things to do,” Jill Braff, head of Zenimax, reportedly said about the cuts. “I think we were about to topple over.” Now, the company will allegedly concentrate on fewer titles with a higher success rate, such as DOOM or Fallout, all of which have sold millions.
This struck a deep chord and garnered mentions on social media across various studios within the same company. Arkane Lyon head Dinga Bakaba pleaded on X for executives to keep in mind that the artists behind these games are humans, and the company has to take care of them. He also talked about how Microsoft praised these companies, but didn’t take care of the staff in tougher times. “You say we make you proud when we make a good game,” Bakaba said. “Make us proud when times are tough. We know you can, we seen it before.
The decision made by Xbox to close down a studio like Tango Gameworks, which had recently launched the seemingly successful Hi-Fi Rush, highlights the dire shape the games industry is in with some of the biggest media conglomerations in the world at the helm. Many developers have no certainty about their future, and the people who will lose the least are ones pulling their strings.
