'I cannot do my job when Microsoft refuses to do theirs', say Xbox union workers as destructive reset looms from a company that spent over $80 billion on AI last year
Overview & Key Takeaways
"Why would a game developer bother to put forward their best work under these conditions?"
Microsoft's likely got another wave of layoffs and studio closures coming, it's my displeasure to say—with multiple studios on the chopping block. It's another pip in a pattern of scattershot project cancellations and studio closures, in the same vein as the company shutting down Project Blackbird despite Phil Spencer loving it, or closing Tango Gameworks despite Hi-Fi Rush being touted as a success.
Basically, for Microsoft (and the wider industry at large) there's no real guarantee that good work will keep you in a job. And union members at the Communications Workers of America (CWA) spoke out in a press call (shared here by GamesBeat).
Morgan Goin, a senior encounter designer at ZeniMax Online—who has been through the wringer already, being caught in the shock closure of Arkane Austin and losing out on a month's employment before finding her feet—says that "there's a clear gap between what we need, how Microsoft talks about us publicly, and how we're being treated across all of their studios."
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As a union rep, Goin feels like Microsoft's only talking the talk: "I have been entrusted with the responsibility to advocate for my coworkers. I cannot do my job when Microsoft refuses to do theirs. This isn't just affecting one studio or one department, it's affecting all of us. We refuse to be left in the dark as the company decides to restructure in a way that seriously affects us all.
"We're being treated as expendable, valued one week and cut the next. Why would a game developer bother to put forward their best work under these conditions? Hard work and great games do not save you from layoffs under Microsoft."
Allison Veneto, a senior editor for franchise development at Blizzard, a studio which also endured a game cancellation and a rash of layoffs after being acquired by Microsoft, comments: "Every time these layoffs happen, we lose incredible talent in years of institutional knowledge … We want layoffs to be treated not as a quick fix to a quarterly balance sheet, but only as an absolute last resort."
Senior environment artist at Blizzard Mahreen Fatima points out how little having a full-time job means under Microsoft's layoff-happy business culture: "In this climate of layoffs, it feels like there's really no difference between being contract and being full-time, we're all just as equally dispensable in the eyes of the company.
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"Leadership points to revenue margins to justify fighting us. And then this week they raised console prices on players for the third time since 2025. They are not short on money. Look at the billions that they're using to invest in AI. They're just choosing not to protect us."
It's a feeling I generally agree with even as an outsider, and one I won't stop being exhausted by. The videogame industry has been experiencing massive growth, and CEOs like Microsoft's own Satya Nadella take home hundreds of millions of dollars. In fact, Nadella's pay jumped 22% between 2024 and 2025.
Last year, Microsoft made $27.2 billion in three months. It also planned to invest $80 billion in AI infrastructure. For the record, $80 billion is enough to keep a studio of 200 median-salary game designers ($113,000 annually) paid for 3,539 years, for a piece of technology that Nadella has openly said we need to do something useful with. You cannot convince me there isn't the money to keep these studios afloat.
