Xbox is set to layoff 1,600 staffers Monday and up to another 1,600 over the next year in what new CEO Asha Sharma calls the “most significant restructure” in the Microsoft-owned company’s history.
In addition, four Xbox studios — Ninja Theory, Undead Labs, Compulsion Games and Double Fine Productions, which collectively employee approximately 350 people — will be spun out or sold, per Sharma’s memo to staff announcing the changes, which the Xbox CEO posted on X on Monday.
Ninja Theory and Undead Labs are set to be sold to currently undisclosed buyers, with those contracts pending, while Compulsion and Double Fine will be returned to management and take full control of their IP and revenue streams, a person familiar with the situation tells Variety.
A fifth studio targeted for divestment, the France-based Arkane, is “beginning required consultation with its Works Council to review potential strategic options,” Sharma wrote.
In her memo, Sharma confirmed no previously announced first-party games or projects are being canceled as a result of the staffing reductions.
