Bad times for the video game industry, which is experiencing a truly black January in terms of layoffs. The latest company to announce a major restructuring is Microsoft, a company that has confirmed that will lay off more than 1,900 workers.
The releases will occur, practically entirely, in the company's video game area. They take place only three months after Microsoft completes acquisition of Activision Blizzardone of the most important video game firms in the world, for which it paid 68.7 billion dollars.
The layoffs mean that 8.6% of the 22,000 jobs in the gaming and video game areas at Microsoft are destroyed. Among those who will leave the company is Mike Ybarra, president of Blizzard, who has announced his resignation now that the company's acquisition process has been completed.
According to Microsoft, the layoffs are part of a plan to adjust the company's structure and make it sustainable. After the purchase of Activision Blizzard, some of the divisions of both companies overlapped in their functions, so it did not make much sense to keep them as is.
Microsoft has promised help for people who will leave the company, along with social benefits and other advantages to find future employment. They may not have it so easy after the gaming industry has been especially affected in this new black January for technology companies.
So far this month, Twitch, the leader in video game streaming, has laid off 35% of its staff, while Discord did the same with 17% of its jobs. In addition, Riot Games, developer of, among other titles, “League of Legends,” has laid off 530 employees. The record at the moment is held by the Unity video game engine, which has laid off 1,800 employees (25% of the company's total).
Along with these layoffs, other technology companies are also experiencing their particular January business in addition to Microsoft. This is the case of Google, which has laid off a thousand workers around the world. YouTube has done the same with a hundred employees and TikTok has dispensed with the services of 60 workers.
