Reports suggest thatToys for Bobhas been hit hard bythe Microsoft layoffs, with some sources saying that the developer has lost up to 40 percent of its staff. This comes just after Microsoft acquired Toys for Bob’s parent company,Activision Blizzard, in a deal that cost almost $70 billion.
Toys for Bob was best known in recent years for its work on the revivals of bothCrash BandicootandSpyro the Dragon. However, after the release ofCrash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time, its developers were insteadput to work on the Call of Duty series. The only exception here was the live serviceCrash Team Rumble, which was met with mixed reviews.
Now, the company could be severely downsized, raising questions about its future and the ongoing development of Crash Team Rumble. If reports are accurate, and the developer really has lost 35 members of staff (around 40 percent of its workforce) then it’s not clear what role it will play in Microsoft’s strategy going forward.
Right now, this figure of 35 layoffs is being reported by Tom Henderson ofInsider Gamingas well as Crash and Spyro YouTuber,Canadian Guy Eh. Multiple developers have also taken to social media to share that they have lost their jobs in the layoffs.
Overall, the layoffs at Microsoft are said to affect 1,900 of the 22,000 workers employed in the company’s various gaming studios. It comes almost exactly one year afterthe last round of Microsoft layoffs, which saw job losses atBethesda,343 Industries, and more. Across the entirety of Microsoft, not just its gaming ventures, this saw around 10,000 job losses.
Earlier this week, Riot Games also shared that it would belaying off 530 employees, making this a terrible start to the year for the gaming industry.
Much like last time, head of Xbox Phil Spencer said that it was a “painful decision” to cut so many jobs. But as executives continue to make millions in bonuses, the response has done little to satisfy the developers affected by the layoffs, especially when Microsoft had $70 billion to spend on its Activision Blizzard acquisition. That said, the acquisition largely seems to be the reason behind these layoffs, as taking on so many more developers meant that there were “areas of overlap”, in Spencer’s words.
Yet despite this being something that Xbox would be aware of going into the acquisition, it seems that the layoffs were poorly communicated. Online, developers shared that they were left waiting for reassurance that their job was safe. Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier evensharedthat some developers had reached out to him for news, as they hadn’t been told if they were affected or not.
