Imminent Xbox Layoffs Could Include Entire Studios, Warns Industry Veteran

Back on Tuesday, it was reported that Microsoft could be making major layoffs throughout the Xbox division at some point next week, and industry veteran George Broussard has now chimed in with what he knows about the situation.

Broussard, who worked on the likes of Duke Nukem, Max Payne and Prey back in the day, took to BlueSky a few hours ago to suggest that “entire studios” could be affected by the layoffs, and potentially 1000+ people could lose their jobs.

Now, before we get too doom and gloom, it’s worth taking everything here with a pinch of salt – even Broussard admits in a follow-up post that the “10k” figure for the Xbox unit was just based on “going off what I’d remembered”.

Here’s a look at the exchange where he mentioned this (the real figure appears to be more like 20k):

Nevertheless, this industry veteran clearly has some connections considering all the great games he’s been involved with over the years, and we’re just hoping the damage isn’t as bad as he’s suggesting.

It wouldn’t be the first time Xbox has closed its studios though, with four being shut down back in May of 2024, and perhaps Microsoft feels a few more need to be removed from the portfolio as well. As soon as we hear anything more, we’ll let you know.