The news surrounding the massive layoffs at Xbox and Activision Blizzard continues to trickle out after they were revealed Thursday morning. The layoffs, which include positions ranging from the executive level to QA have taken the gaming industry by surprise and remain the talk of the world. Now, a few hours later, there are new updates on what departments were impacted by the layoffs at Xbox and Activision Blizzard.
Jez Corden of Windows Central reports that the “entire internal customer support team(s)” at Activision Blizzard have been let go, save for a few people. The plan is for Microsoft to begin outsourcing support to different companies.
In addition to customer support layoffs, Corden says that Microsoft has “shut down departments dedicated to bringing Xbox games to physical retail”. The move signals that Microsoft is set to move entirely away from physical media in the near future. It’s expected that the next versions of it’s Xbox Series X console will be digital-only.
As of writing, many employees at the company are continuing to learn if they are part of the layoffs. Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier posted on Twitter that he had employees of Activision Blizzard messaging him, a reporter, to see if they were possibly part of the layoffs.
Microsoft has yet to release an official statement on the layoffs. You can read the internal memos from Xbox’s Phil Spencer and Activision’s Rob Kostich HERE.
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