Further Xbox Layoff Rounds Reportedly Planned for November and January as Game Pass Overhaul Proceeds

The next console is also projected to be prohibitively expensive, according to the report

Further rounds of layoffs as part of Xbox’s ongoing effort to eventually let go of 3,200 people are reportedly planned for this month, November, and January. The company had previously made clear that more cuts would come at some point, following two rounds of mass layoffs already this year.

Meanwhile, an overhaul of Xbox Game Pass is reportedly underway and appears aimed at giving subscribers more control over which individual aspects of the service they want to pay for as part of their subscription.

Both claims come from a profile of Xbox CEO Asha Sharma by Fortune. Citing people familiar with the executive’s layoff plans and noting that such plans can change, the magazine said the next rounds of layoffs in Xbox’s ongoing cull are pencilled in for this month, November, and January. It is already well into October, so it would appear that if culling is planned this month, the company is potentially leaving it quite late.

Fortune reported that Xbox management’s decision to deliver this year’s layoffs in multiple waves has left some staff demoralised, as anyone unsure of whether they or their colleagues might be sitting beneath a sword of Damocles that could fall at any time would understandably be. Not that ripping the plaster off all at once would have made letting go of 3,200 workers from Xbox’s books any less terrible a prospect.

After reshaping Xbox’s studio structure by filing studios such as Obsidian under larger parts of the business like Bethesda during the last round of layoffs, Sharma and colleagues are reportedly planning an overhaul of Xbox Game Pass. The subscription service Xbox fully backed during previous boss Phil Spencer’s tenure hasn’t been seen as the be-all and end-all since Sharma took over, but is still being allowed to stumble along without day-one Call of Duty titles for now.

According to the report, the next overhaul being planned for Game Pass will see it evolve to, in Fortune’s words, “have players choose features à la carte, including add-ons for console-only games, cloud gaming, and 多人游戏, with the system operating on a tiered structure”. It sounds like an offer of increased flexibility in the hopes of making the service more palatable to people who might not be sold on using every last thing it traditionally offers as part of a subscription.

Xbox is also reportedly hard at work on a next-generation handheld it aims to debut around the 2027 holiday season, the report claims, also alleging there has been some behind-the-scenes fighting between Xbox and Windows factions over the operating system it will run. Xbox’s next console reportedly isn’t slated to arrive until 2028, not that anyone will necessarily be able to afford one given Xbox internal projects cited in the report have it costing between $1,200 and $1,800 to buy, unless Xbox opt to subsidise it.

In addition to being amid mass layoffs, Xbox parent company Microsoft is still currently subject to a BDS movement boycott over its reported ties to the Israeli military.