Microsoft сократит 3200 сотрудников в Xbox и избавится от пяти игровых студий

Microsoft announced on July 7, 2026 a major restructuring of its Xbox division, the largest in its history: 3,200 employees will lose their jobs, and five game studios will be sold or shut down — including two European ones.

What Asha Sharma Announced

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma sent an official memo to employees on July 7, 2026. In it, she gave a direct diagnosis of the business's condition: "unhealthy." According to her, the upcoming changes will represent the most significant restructuring in the division's history. The memo was written without the usual corporate softening — Sharma acknowledged the problems openly.

Key parameters of the announced restructuring:

• 3,200 Xbox employees will be laid off — globally
• Five game studios will exit Microsoft's structure through sale or closure
• Two of the five studios are located in Europe
• The restructuring is named "the most significant in Xbox history"
• The memo is dated July 7, 2026

The specific names of the studios have not been officially disclosed at the time of publication.

Why Xbox Found Itself in This Position

Over the past several years, Microsoft significantly expanded its gaming division through large-scale acquisitions. In 2023, the company completed its purchase of Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion — the largest deal in video game industry history. Prior to that, the Xbox portfolio included Bethesda, ZeniMax, and a number of other studios. As a result, over 30 development teams ended up under the division's wing.

However, scale did not translate into financial results. Xbox console sales continue to lag behind PlayStation, and maintaining the expanded studio structure is expensive. The video game market has cooled after the pandemic-era boom: consumers have become more cautious with spending, and the cost of producing major projects has increased.

The situation is exacerbated by competitive dynamics: despite including hits like Call of Duty and Diablo in Xbox Game Pass, the service's subscriber growth has slowed. Maintaining over 30 studios with declining profitability was becoming increasingly unsustainable.

"The business is unhealthy,"

Asha Sharma wrote directly in the memo addressed to the entire Xbox team.

The sale of five studios, including European developers, is an attempt to shift from a strategy of portfolio expansion to resource concentration. Xbox's priorities remain the Xbox Game Pass subscription service and cloud gaming through Xbox Cloud Gaming.

What This Means for the Labor Market

The current layoffs fit into a broader trend: since 2023, the video game industry has experienced massive layoffs. According to industry sources, over 30,000 specialists have lost their jobs over the past three years — at Electronic Arts, Sony, Embracer Group, Unity, and other companies.

The closure of two European Xbox studios is particularly painful for the regional labor market, where game development has historically been strong. This is not the first wave of layoffs in Microsoft's gaming division: the company had previously shut down internal teams as part of integrating new acquisitions. The current restructuring is the largest single restructuring in Xbox history.

What This Means

The Xbox restructuring is a public admission that the strategy of "maximum studios = maximum success" did not produce the expected results. Microsoft is changing direction: instead of building the largest game portfolio — focus on services with stable revenue. The video game industry is entering a period of strict rationalization after several years of expansion, and Microsoft's current move is one of the most clear signals of this shift.