Overview
- In July, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma announced the gaming division would cut roughly 3,200 jobs overall and start with about 1,600 immediate layoffs.
- Save Our Devs rallies on August 18–19 drew hundreds of unionized workers and allies to nine cities in the U.S. and Canada to protest the cuts.
- The Communications Workers of America has filed unfair labor practice complaints with the NLRB alleging Microsoft failed to properly bargain over the layoffs.
- Microsoft says it has begun effects bargaining with unions while union members and laid-off developers say the cuts hit frontline engineers, artists and long‑tenured staff and damaged morale.
- The layoffs are one of about five rounds across Xbox studios in three years, they followed a 2022 neutrality agreement that sped union recognition but did not guarantee recall or advance‑notice rights, and observers warn the reductions could slow or complicate long‑term projects such as The Elder Scrolls VI.