Sledgehammer Games, a firm that develops the Call of Duty series, and Toys for Bob, the company behind Crash Bandicoot, are two of the businesses most impacted by Microsoft’s layoffs this week. According to many reports, between thirty and forty percent of the employees at both studios have left. While this would equate to about 35 workers in the instance of Toys for Bob, it would climb to between 150 and 300 people in the case of Sledgehammer Games, a considerably larger firm.
Sledgehammer Games and Toys for Bob Suffer Significant Workforce Reductions Amid Microsoft’s Restructuring Efforts
Sledgehammer Games, the company behind Call of Duty, and Toys for Bob, the company that develops Crash Bandicoot, have apparently lost between thirty percent and forty percent of their employees, respectively. The layoffs are a part of Microsoft’s plan to remove 1900 workers from its video gaming divisions. Xbox CEO Phil Spencer described this as a “painful decision after Microsoft’s $7.5 billion acquisition of Zenimax in 2021 and $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard last year” in an email to staff members. Around 900 Microsoft jobs were eliminated at this time last year as well.
Activision Blizzard Faces Layoffs, Toys for Bob Hit Hard, and Industry-Wide Job Losses Surge in 2024
Jason Schreier of Bloomberg reports that Activision Blizzard employees have been reaching out to him personally to inquire about if they have been impacted. Meanwhile, industry insider Tom Henderson reports that around 35 employees, or 40% of Toys for Bob’s workforce, are employed by the company. On LinkedIn, Sledgehammer, on the other hand, is reported as employing 500–1000 people, suggesting that 150–300 people may be impacted by the job losses.
With almost 10,000 jobs lost in the video game business at the end of 2023, the Redmond company’s action is just one more in a 2024 that has started much worse than it finished last year. In 2024, just than a month has gone by and over 5,000 jobs have been lost. These jobs have affected organizations like Microsoft as well as Riot Games, Unity, CI Games, Behavior Interactive, and Black Forest Games.
Layoffs Surge and Future Concerns – GDC’s 2024 Report Reveals Disturbing Trends
The GDC (Game Developers Conference) released its State of the Video Game Industry 2024 study a few weeks ago. Of those polled, 35% reported having experienced layoffs in one form or another in the previous 12 months, and 50% expressed concern about this trend persisting in the future.
For the industry, the year has gotten off to a terrible start. A number of other firms have announced layoffs this month alone, including CI Games, Black Forest Games, Unity, Behaviour Interactive, and Riot Games, the developer of League of Legends. Victoria just provided us with a summary of these announcements. In its 2024 State of the Game Industry study, released earlier this month by GDC, it was discovered that 35% of game creators had experienced layoffs during the previous year. Concerns about more job losses in the works were acknowledged by half of those questioned.
