Microsoft says that Phil Spencer, Microsoft Gaming CEO and the head of Xbox, isn’t retiring “anytime soon.” The company has responded to rumors of Spencer’s retirement, which have spread online today following Microsoft’s major layoffs.

“Phil is not retiring anytime soon,” says Kari Perez, head of Xbox communications, in a statement to The Verge. The denial comes after Call of Duty leaker GhostOfHope claimed “Phil Spencer will be retiring from his role as CEO of Microsoft Gaming after the launch of the next generation Xbox” and that Xbox president Sarah Bond would be taking over as CEO of Microsoft Gaming.

While Microsoft’s comment doesn’t address the rumor fully, it makes it clear Spencer isn’t retiring imminently. Separately, Microsoft communications chief, Frank Shaw, took to X to claim that at least part of the rumor was made up.

Spencer originally assumed leadership of the Xbox division in 2014, a promotion from his role as the boss of Microsoft Studios. As the boss of Xbox, he’s overseen many big initiatives, including the launch of the Xbox Series X / S, a huge push into Xbox Game Pass, acquisitions of major companies like Activision Blizzard and ZeniMax Media, bringing more Xbox games to platforms like PlayStation and Nintendo Switch.

While Spencer isn’t retiring anytime soon, Microsoft is continuing its big cuts today that have affected Xbox studios and employees. Perfect Dark and Everwild have been cancelled, while Forza Motorsport developer Turn 10 Studios will be letting go of more than 70 staffers. Zenimax Online Studios also reportedly canceled a new MMORPG codenamed Blackbird that had been in the works since 2018.

It looks like Microsoft’s latest job cuts won’t hit its home state quite as hard.

The Redmond, Wash.-based tech giant is laying off 830 workers in Washington state as part of the approximately 9,000 global job reductions that the company made Wednesday, according to a filing with the state Employment Security Department.

That amounts to about 9% of the global job cuts in its latest round. 

By comparison, Microsoft laid off 1,985 workers in the state in mid-May — representing about a third of the 6,000-person reduction in its global workforce at the time. In the meantime, in early June, the company laid off an additional 305 people in Redmond. 

All told, that means the company has now cut more than 3,100 jobs in Washington state in less than two months.

Microsoft employed around 54,000 people in the Seattle region before the latest reductions, part of a worldwide workforce that numbered about 228,000 people as of June 2024. 

Globally, the approximately 9,000 layoffs in the latest round represent about 4% of Microsoft’s workforce.

Microsoft has not directly linked the layoffs to its AI strategy. However, earlier reports indicated that software engineers were hit hardest in the May layoffs — coinciding with the company’s growing investment in AI tools designed to automate coding and streamline development.

A company spokesperson said Microsoft is continuing to implement “organizational changes necessary to best position the company and teams for success in a dynamic marketplace.”

Impacted employees were notified about the latest layoffs Wednesday morning. Divisions impacted included sales and gaming, as rumored in advance, but the layoffs hit teams and groups across the company.

Microsoft is canceling its Perfect Dark and Everwild games as part of sweeping cuts to its Xbox division. Matt Booty, Xbox president of game content and studios, revealed that Microsoft will be closing The Initiative, the studio behind Perfect Dark, in an internal memo to Xbox employees today.

The cuts are part of layoffs affecting around 9,000 employees across Microsoft, with Turn 10 Studios, the developer behind Forza Motorsport, also hit hard by today’s layoffs.

Here is Booty’s memo to staff:

Following Phil’s note, I want to share more about the changes to the Studios business units.

We have made the decision to stop development of Perfect Dark and Everwild as well as wind down several unannounced projects across our portfolio. As part of this, we are closing one of our studios, The Initiative. These decisions, along with other changes across our teams, reflect a broader effort to adjust priorities and focus resources to set up our teams for greater success within a changing industry landscape. We did not make these choices lightly, as each project and team represent years of effort, imagination, and commitment.

Our overall portfolio strategy is unchanged: build games that excite our players, continue to grow our biggest franchises, and create new stories, worlds, and characters. We have more than 40 projects in active development, continued momentum on titles shipping this fall, and a strong slate headed into 2026.

For those directly affected, we are working closely with HR and studio leadership to provide support, including severance, career transition assistance, and where possible, opportunities to explore roles on other teams.

To everyone across our studios: thank you. Your creativity and resilience continue to define who we are. I believe in the strength of our teams and the direction we’re taking on the path ahead.

Matt

Microsoft announced layoffs today affecting as many as 9,000 employees, and as part of the changes, more than 70 people will be let go at Forza Motorsport developer Turn 10 Studios, according to a source familiar with the situation.

The cuts were made on a call with Microsoft HR representatives this morning, and are hitting the “vast majority” of the studio. One source described the layoffs as leaving enough people behind to keep Forza Motorsport up and running.

Managers at Turn 10 didn’t discuss project plans on the call this morning, and Microsoft didn’t immediately respond to a request, from The Verge, for comment on the situation.

Here’s the list of other games that are reportedly affected by Microsoft’s cuts.

• Rare has canceled Everwild, which was first announced in 2019, VGC and Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier report.
• Zenimax Online Studios has canceled a new MMORPG codenamed Blackbird, Schreier says. Windows Central is “investigating reports from our sources” about the cancellation.
• Microsoft is canceling its new Perfect Dark game that it announced in 2020, according to an internal memo from Xbox president of game content and studios Matt Booty. The company showed off gameplay during the 2024 Xbox Games Showcase, but at the time, didn’t provide a release window for the game.

Microsoft-owned King was also affected by the layoffs, with about 10 percent of its employees being let go. Raven Software, which works on the Call of Duty series, was impacted as well.

“To position Gaming for enduring success and allow us to focus on strategic growth areas, we will end or decrease work in certain areas of the business and follow Microsoft’s lead in removing layers of management to increase agility and effectiveness,” Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer says in a memo to employees.

Last year, Microsoft shut down the studios behind Redfall and Hi-Fi Rush as part of a “reprioritization of titles and resources.”

An anonymous reader shares a report: In 2021, Google set a lofty goal of achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2030. Yet in the years since then, the company has moved in the opposite direction as it invests in energy-intensive artificial intelligence. In its latest sustainability report, Google said its carbon emissions had increased 51% between 2019 and 2024. New research aims to debunk even that enormous figure and provide context to Google's sustainability reports, painting a bleaker picture. A report authored by non-profit advocacy group Kairos Fellowship found that, between 2019 and 2024, Google's carbon emissions actually went up by 65%. What's more, between 2010, the first year there is publicly available data on Google's emissions, and 2024, Google's total greenhouse gas emissions increased 1,515%, Kairos found. The largest year-over-year jump in that window was also the most recent, 2023 to 2024, when Google saw a 26% increase in emissions just between 2023 and 2024, according to the report.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Microsoft will reduce its global workforce by another 4% — approximately 9,000 jobs in all — not just in games and sales as previously reported but across the company.

Impacted employees are being notified Wednesday morning, across different levels, teams, geographies and tenure. The cuts are part of a broader efficiency drive that already reduced the tech giant’s employee base by 3% in May, affecting about 6,000 workers in that prior round.

Microsoft again declined to directly link the reductions to artificial intelligence. But earlier reports indicated that software engineers bore the brunt of the previous cuts — a pattern that coincides with the company’s heavy investments in AI tools that automate coding tasks.

As with the earlier layoffs, a company spokesperson said Microsoft is continuing to implement “organizational changes necessary to best position the company and teams for success in a dynamic marketplace.”

The latest cuts follow the June 30 close of the company’s fiscal year. Microsoft traditionally makes cuts and restructures operations this time of year as it prepares for its new fiscal year, but it’s unusual to see such sizable cutbacks in multiple rounds so close together.

Microsoft is “building high-performing teams and increasing our agility by reducing layers with fewer managers,” said Amy Hood, Microsoft’s CFO, on an April 30 earnings call.

The company is simultaneously spending record sums — as much as $80 billion in the recently completed fiscal year — to expand its data centers and cloud infrastructure to meet AI demand.

As part of the prior cuts, Microsoft laid off nearly 2,300 workers in Washington state in multiple rounds, the largest layoffs in its home state since 2023, when it cut more than 3,000 jobs. 

Its latest layoff numbers for Washington state — and details on the types of positions impacted — will likely emerge later today through a company filing with state employment officials.

Microsoft employed around 54,000 people in the Seattle region before the latest reductions, part of a workforce that numbered about 228,000 people as of June 2024. The company is scheduled to report its new employment numbers with its annual SEC filing in a few weeks.

The latest layoffs are part of a broader wave of tech industry cuts in 2025. Technology companies have announced 76,214 job cuts this year, up 27% from the same period last year, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. The firm cited disruptions from AI advancement and visa uncertainties as key factors driving tech layoffs.

Overall, the firm said, U.S. employers have announced 744,308 job cuts in 2025, the highest total since 2020.

Microsoft sales chief Judson Althoff, the company’s chief commercial officer, is taking a two-month sabbatical, according to a Bloomberg News report this week.

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