The development team behind Blizzard's now-cancelled survival game, It is said to be called Odysseyappears to be among the teams most impacted by Microsoft's layoffs today.
According to several former team members who posted on Twitter, the team is among 1,900 employees affected by mass layoffs at Microsoft's gaming division, which comes after the company's $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard and the departure of CEO Bobby Kotick last year. Mike Ybarra, who announced his decision to leave his position as president of Blizzard Entertainment, previously said that the Odyssey development team doubled in 2022, with plans to grow further. Now, not only has the game been cancelled, but it appears that a large portion of the team that has been working on it for six years has been let go. IGN has reached out to Xbox to clarify how the team has been affected.
several Developers from project took to Twitter/X to Express their sadness about losing their jobs and ask anyone for any leads on the jobs they worked before the layoffs.
Activision Blizzard and Xbox are the latest companies to be hit by mass layoffs in the gaming industry, adding up to more than 4,000 layoffs in the first month of 2024 alone, and as many as 10,000 layoffs in the past year. Three days ago, Riot Games laid off 530 people, or 11% of its global workforce. Two weeks ago, Twitch laid off 500 employees, with CEO Dan Clancy later admitting that the company is not profitable, despite paying out more than $1 billion for the past year.
Christina Alexander is a freelance writer for IGN. To paraphrase Calvin Harris, she wears her love for Sonic the Hedgehog on her sleeve like it's a big deal. Follow her on Twitter @SonicPrincess15.
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