Overview

• Microsoft announced 9,000 job cuts company-wide on July 1, with Xbox Game Studios shedding thousands more roles in its latest restructuring
• ID@Xbox’s Gamescom 2025 AI roundtable invitation arrived July 2 just as layoffs spread, prompting developers to condemn the timing
• Long-running projects including Zenimax Online Studios’s Blackbird, Everwild and Perfect Dark were canceled as part of the cost-cutting measures
• Insider leaks from SneakerXO indicate management is being trained on AI-driven asset creation and workflows, raising concerns over human talent displacement
• Industry figures such as Brandon Sheffield and Benjamin Rivers publicly decried the juxtaposition of mass job losses with AI-focused initiatives as tone-deaf