Microsoft to cut hundreds of Xbox jobs and merge several studios
The Information broke the story, Video Games Chronicle and Gematsu carried it. None of the reports names the studios being merged.
Microsoft is cutting hundreds of jobs at Xbox and consolidating several game studios. The Information reported it first, and Video Games Chronicle and Gematsu carried the story. Neither the studios involved nor an exact number of jobs appears in any of those reports.
What is known
The Information says in an exclusive briefing that Xbox is cutting hundreds of positions and merging several development studios. The two halves belong together. This is not only about dismissals, it is about moving whole teams under new roofs.
Video Games Chronicle frames the move as a new major wave of layoffs at Xbox and repeats the core point about several studios being consolidated. The outlet marks the account as reported rather than confirmed, which puts the weight back on the original briefing. Gematsu summarises the same report, published in September 2026.
All three pieces trace back to one origin. No independent confirmation from Microsoft appears in them, and none of them lists the affected teams or gives a date when the cuts take effect.
Context
Consolidation is the part of this story that outlives any headcount figure. Merging studios rewrites reporting lines, project ownership and, eventually, which team finishes an announced game. Layoffs hit people immediately. A studio merger moves plans for years.
Video Games Chronicle calls this a new major wave. By that reading the cuts are not the first round at Xbox but another entry in a sequence. How much time separates this round from the last one does not appear in the reports.
Players get little that is concrete. Without studio names, no announced project can be tied to the decision, and any guess about delayed or cancelled games rests on nothing that has been published. Anyone waiting on an Xbox release learns nothing here about its date.
The sourcing itself deserves a line. One newsroom carries the report and everything else builds on it. That does not make the story wrong, but every figure in it currently has a single origin.
What remains open
The studio names, the precise number of roles being cut and the timeline all remain unreported. It is also unclear whether shipped or announced projects are affected and who owns which series once the merger is done. A Microsoft statement does not appear in any of the three reports, and none of them says when the company plans to speak.
