微软在暴雪和Xbox裁员1900人，暴雪总裁离职，游戏项目取消

2023 年游戏行业的裁员潮还未结束，2024 年也开始了同样的趋势。CI Games、Behaviour Interactive 和 Riot Games 都已在 1 月份解雇了员工，现在轮到微软了。微软游戏 CEO 菲尔·斯宾塞表示，将裁员 1900 人，约占其游戏团队总人数的 8%。

斯宾塞在给员工的邮件中表示，裁员的原因是“重叠领域”。他解释说，微软和动视暴雪在收购后发现，两家公司在一些领域存在重叠，因此需要进行整合。

此次裁员主要影响了动视暴雪的员工。暴雪总裁迈克·伊巴拉也宣布辞职，他在 Twitter 上写道：“今天是我在暴雪的最后一天。带领暴雪度过了一个难忘的时光，并作为团队的一员，为未来的道路塑造，是我的绝对荣幸。在微软已经工作了 20 多年，并完成了对 Activision Blizzard 的收购后，是时候让我再次成为暴雪的最大粉丝了。”

暴雪联合创始人兼首席设计官艾伦·阿德哈姆也将离开公司，微软的 Matt Booty 写道：“作为暴雪的联合创始人之一，艾伦对暴雪的所有游戏产生了广泛的影响。他的影响将在未来几年内，无论是直接还是间接，都会感受到。”

Booty 还向员工宣布了暴雪的《生存游戏》（据传名为 Odyssey）的终结：“暴雪将终止其生存游戏项目的开发，并将将一些在该项目上工作的人员转移到暴雪正在早期开发的几个有前途的新项目中。”

微软表示，该公司将“为那些在过渡期间受到影响的人提供全力支持，包括根据当地就业法规定的遣散费。”

As if 2023's historic volume of gaming layoffs wasn't enough, 2024 is starting in the exact same vein—studios including CI Games, Behaviour Interactive, and Riot Games have all let people go in January, and now it's Microsoft's turn. A message from Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer to employees (via The Verge) says 1,900 employees are being laid off.
The message reads: "It’s been a little over three months since the Activision, Blizzard, and King teams joined Microsoft. As we move forward in 2024, the leadership of Microsoft Gaming and Activision Blizzard is committed to aligning on a strategy and an execution plan with a sustainable cost structure that will support the whole of our growing business."
It emphasises "areas of overlap" as the root cause for the decision. "We have made the painful decision to reduce the size of our gaming workforce by approximately 1,900 roles out of the 22,000 people on our team."
President of Blizzard Mike Ybarra also announced that he would be stepping down from his position, writing on Twitter: "Today is my last day at Blizzard. Leading Blizzard through an incredible time and being part of the team, shaping it for the future ahead, was an absolute honour. Having already spent 20+ years at Microsoft and with the acquisition of Activision Blizzard behind us, it’s time for me to (once again) become Blizzard’s biggest fan from the outside."

However, Ybarra's has previously indicated a desire to stay with the company. According to Bloomberg's Jason Schreier on Twitter, Ybarra said in November 2023 that someone would "drag [him] out of Blizzard … That's how long I will be here." Whether he's simply changed his mind or whether his departure was prompted by the layoffs, it's hard to say. 
The Verge report also states that Blizzard co-founder and chief design officer Allen Adham will be leaving the company. Microsoft's Matt Booty wrote: "As one of Blizzard’s cofounders, Allen has had a broad impact on all of Blizzard’s games. His influence will be felt for years to come, both directly and indirectly."
Booty also announced the end of Blizzard's survival game (rumoured to be named Odyssey) to staff: "Blizzard is ending development on its survival game project and will be shifting some of the people working on it to one of several promising new projects Blizzard has in the early stages of development."
The layoff of nearly 2,000 people represents the dark side of large acquisitions like this one. Often, major restructuring follows as the other shoe drops. While the memo points towards the "Activision Blizzard, ZeniMax and the Xbox teams", it's not clear how the layoffs have been weighted across Microsoft's gaming developers.
Spencer says the company will "provide our full support to those who are impacted during the transition, including severance benefits informed by local employment laws."