Microsoft accomplished its $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard in October, although life beneath new possession has received off to a tough begin for the latter. Final month, Microsoft introduced that it was slicing 1,900 jobs throughout its complete gaming division, with Activision Blizzard, Bethesda, and Xbox all set to be impacted.
Within the wake of the information of mass layoffs, the USA’ Federal Commerce Fee (FTC) – which tried to have the acquisition blocked attributable to competitors issues previous to its approval – filed a criticism with the ninth US Circuit Court docket of Appeals earlier this week, saying that the layoffs are “inconsistent with Microsoft’s suggestion that the 2 corporations will function independently post-merger”.
In response to the FTC’s contemporary criticism, Microsoft has despatched a letter to the court docket (by way of VGC), during which it has claimed that, as has been the unlucky pattern within the video games business for a number of months operating, Activision Blizzard was planning on making “important cuts” anyway, no matter whether or not or not its take care of Microsoft had gone by.
“In step with broader developments within the gaming business, Activision was already planning on eliminating a big variety of jobs whereas nonetheless working as an impartial firm,” the corporate stated. “The current announcement thus can’t be attributed totally to the merger.”
As a part of Microsoft’s mass layoffs, it has emerged that Blizzard Leisure ended up cancelling its unannounced survival sport after six years in improvement, whereas it was lately reported that Name of Responsibility developer Sledgehammer Video games and Crash Bandicoot and Spyro studio Toys for Bob had additionally let go important parts of their respective workforces.
The video games business’s wave ongoing wave of layoffs has been a devastating one. Over the course of 2023, greater than 6,000 individuals within the business misplaced their jobs, and so far, 2024 has been considerably extra damaging, with over 6,300 job cuts already, lower than six weeks into the yr. Layoffs have been introduced at various corporations, together with Riot Video games, Unity, Sega, Behaviour Interactive, Misplaced Boys Interactive, Black Forest Video games, CI Video games, Thunderful Group, Visible Ideas, and Individuals Can Fly, amongst others.
