Microsoft are reportedly laying off staff yet again, with “substantial cuts” at Xbox

Microsoft are reportedly gearing up to lay off more staff next week, in what would be the fourth round of major job cuts at Xbox in 18 months.

This is according to a report from Bloomberg, which says that Xbox managerial staff are “expecting substantial cuts” across Microsoft’s gaming arm.

“Not yet clear how many people, but it’s expected to be big,” reporter Jason Schreier wrote in a Bluesky post about the report. Bloomberg had previously reported that Microsoft was set to cut thousands of jobs next week, with its salespeople being the main folks affected.

The site notes that Microsoft declined to comment on this latest report.

Microsoft has been laying off staff en masse on a depressingly regular basis over the past couple of years, with 10,000 workers being let go in January 2023, 1,900 in January 2024, and 650 in September 2024. They also let go of around 6,000 people across the company just last month.

It’s a frankly horrifying rate of contribution to the ever-deepening sea of layoffs that the games industry’s been drowning in for the past few years. A lot of it has come following Microsoft acquiring Activision Blizzard – it’s the usual cost-cutting after a massive investment. That said, Microsoft aren’t exactly struggling on the money-making front. They reported net income of $25.8 billion for their most recent financial quarter.

Bloomberg notes that this latest round of Microsoft layoffs would come just before the company rolls into a new financial year after June 30. Is it cool to chuck human beings out of their livelihoods just to make a spreadsheet look a bit tidier?? No, but sadly it keeps happening.