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Online gaming in India is among the world’s most vibrant, says MoS I&B Dr L Murugan at Storyboard18 DES 2025
Microsoft lays off 830 employees in home state of Washington
Microsoft had 228,000 workers at the end of June 2024, of whom 45,000 were from the sales and marketing departments
Microsoft often restructures teams and announces other changes near the end of its fiscal year, which closes in June
In the fresh round of layoffs at Microsoft, 830 employees were from the company's home state of Washington. According to a report by CNBC.com, Microsoft laid off nearly a dozen game design workers, along with three audio designers, two mechanical engineers, one optical engineer, and one lab technician.
Additionally, the company sacked five individual contributors and one manager at the Microsoft Research division, six hardware engineers, and 10 lawyers. The company parted ways with 16 customer success account management staff members from the sales team in Washington, 28 from the sales strategy, and five from the sales compensation. The tech firm also eliminated 17 jobs in cloud solution architecture in the state.
This week, Microsoft announced mass layoffs, eliminating 9,000 workers, that is 4% of its global workforce, to eliminate redundancy and encourage employees to focus on meaningful work. According to a report by Bloomberg News, the company's Barcelona-based King division, which makes Candy Crush, laid off 200 employees--10% of its staff in July 2025. The staff from Microsoft's gaming division, which is Xbox, has been impacted the most by layoffs.
The gaming division has been under pressure from the management to boost profit margins since it purchased Activision Blizzard for $69 billion in October 2023.
In May, the company laid off 3% of its workforce, that is nearly 6,000 employees across all teams and geographies.
Microsoft had 228,000 workers at the end of June 2024, of whom 45,000 were from the sales and marketing departments.
Microsoft often restructures teams and announces other changes near the end of its fiscal year, which closes in June.
In 2023, the company laid off 10,000 employees across geographies. According to Layoffs.fyi, a total of 72,908 tech employees have been laid off in 2025 to date.
SPOTLIGHT
As India eyes global leadership in media, entertainment and gaming, Storyboard18's Digital Entertainment Summit, set to take place on June 27 in the capital, will spotlight the bold strategies, policy pathways and creative innovations shaping the future of the industry.
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