Kalakshar US

We’re not even one month into 2024 and it’s already been another brutal year for workers in the video game industry. Microsoft is the latest company to announce a major round of layoffs in its gaming division as it’s cutting around 1,900 workers from its Xbox, Activision Blizzard and ZeniMax (aka Bethesda) teams. That brings the total number of video game layoffs this year to around 6,000 already. There were around 9,000 layoffs in the industry in all of 2023, according to some estimates. 

“As we move forward in 2024, the leadership of Microsoft Gaming and Activision Blizzard is committed to aligning on a strategy and an execution plan with a sustainable cost structure that will support the whole of our growing business. Together, we’ve set priorities, identified areas of overlap, and ensured that we’re all aligned on the best opportunities for growth,” Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer told employees in a memo obtained by The Verge. “As part of this process, we have made the painful decision to reduce the size of our gaming workforce by approximately 1900 roles out of the 22,000 people on our team.”

The majority of the cuts are said to be within Activision Blizzard, three months after Microsoft finally closed its $68.9 billion takeover over the publisher. Some positions on the Xbox and ZeniMax teams will be affected too. 

“The people who are directly impacted by these reductions have all played an important part in the success of Activision Blizzard, ZeniMax and the Xbox teams, and they should be proud of everything they’ve accomplished here,” Spencer reportedly wrote. “We are grateful for all of the creativity, passion and dedication they have brought to our games, our players and our colleagues. We will provide our full support to those who are impacted during the transition, including severance benefits informed by local employment laws.”

Spencer added that Microsoft will “continue to invest in areas that will grow our business and support our strategy of bringing more games to more players around the world. Although this is a difficult moment for our team, I’m as confident as ever in your ability to create and nurture the games, stories and worlds that bring players together.”

The cuts equate to around eight percent of Microsoft’s gaming division. Engadget has contacted the company for comment.

Among those leaving the company is Blizzard president Mike Ybarra, who is reportedly exiting of his own accord. “I want to thank everyone who is impacted today for their meaningful contributions to their teams, to Blizzard, and to players’ lives. It’s an incredibly hard day and my energy and support will be focused on all those amazing individuals impacted — this is in no way a reflection on your amazing work,” Ybarra wrote on X.

“To the Blizzard community: I also want to let you all know today is my last day at Blizzard. Leading Blizzard through an incredible time and being part of the team, shaping it for the future ahead, was an absolute honor,” Ybarra continued. “Having already spent 20+ years at Microsoft and with the acquisition of Activision Blizzard behind us, it’s time for me to (once again) become Blizzard’s biggest fan from the outside.”

Microsoft’s game content and studios president Matt Booty is said to have told staff that the company plans to appoint a new Blizzard president next week. 

One other major consequence of this reorganization, according to The Verge, is that Blizzard’s untitled survival game has been cancelled. That would have marked Blizzard’s entry into a new genre, but it did not reveal any other details about the project since announcing it two years ago. Some of the developers who were working on the survival game are being moved over to “one of several promising new projects Blizzard has in the early stages of development,” Booty reportedly wrote.

Layoffs are commonplace following major mergers, especially once higher-ups pinpoint areas of overlap. Oftentimes, that’s seen in positions on the corporate side, such as marketing and human resources. 

This is the largest single slate of layoffs in the gaming industry so far this year, outstripping the 1,800 workers that Unity is letting go. Twitch and Discord are also laying off hundreds of people each. This week, Riot Games said it was reducing its headcount by around 530 people. Dead by Daylight studio Behaviour Interactive, Tiny Tina’s Wonderland developer Lost Boys Interactive and Outriders maker People Can Fly are also among the many gaming companies to have conducted layoffs so far in 2024.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/microsoft-slashes-1900-jobs-across-xbox-and-activision-blizzard-145304693.html?src=rss 

In 2021, Meta restricted adults on Instagram from being able to message under-18 users who don’t follow them. Now, it’s expanding that rule to help protect younger teens from potentially unwanted contact. Users under 16 — or 18, depending on their country — can no longer receive DMs from anybody they don’t follow by default, even if they’re sent by fellow teens. 

This new safety measure applies to both Instagram and Messenger. For Messenger, in particular, young users will only be able to receive messages from their Facebook friends or people in their phone contacts. Since this setting is enabled by default, teens who have accounts under parental supervision will need to get any changes to it approved by their guardian. Of course, the setting will have to depend on a user’s declared age and Meta’s technology designed to predict people’s ages, so it’s not 100 percent foolproof. 

“We want teens to have safe, age-appropriate experiences on our apps,” Meta said in its announcement. Earlier this month, Meta announced that it will start hiding content related to self-harm, graphic violence, eating disorders and other harmful topics from teens on Instagram and Facebook. If a user is under 16, they won’t see posts with those topics in their Feeds and Stories even if they’re shared by accounts they follow. It also recently rolled out a mindfulness feature that will send “nighttime nudges” to teens under 18 to close the app and go to bed if they’ve been scrolling for more than 10 minutes. 

Meta made these changes after being hit by lawsuits and complaints related to how it protects its younger userbase. An unsealed lawsuit filed against the company by 33 states accuses it of actively targeting children under 13 to use its apps and websites and of continuing to harvest their data even after it’s already aware of their ages. A Wall Street Journal report also accused Instagram of serving “risqué footage of children as well as overtly sexual adult videos” to accounts that follow teenage influencers. In December 2023, the state of New Mexico sued Meta, claiming that Facebook and Instagram algorithms recommended sexual content to minors. And just this month, The Wall Street Journal reported on unredacted internal Meta presentations related to that case. Apparently, 100,000 child users were harassed daily on Facebook and Instagram based on employees’ estimates, underlining the need for stricter measures on its platforms. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/facebook-and-instagram-will-block-dms-to-teens-unless-theyre-from-a-friend-130552718.html?src=rss 

While many organizations are pushing for their employees to return to offices, Microsoft suggests trying a new type of “hybrid” working. The company has announced the launch of Microsoft Mesh, a feature that lets employees’ avatars meet in the same place, even if the actual people are spread out. The virtual connection platform is powered through Microsoft Teams. 

Microsoft has tested out Mesh on companies like consulting firm Accenture and pharmaceutical-focused Takeda. “The world of work continues to evolve at a rapid pace, but the importance of human connection has never gone away. Lunchtime conversations, hallway catch-ups, coffee chats — they often hold the key to both workplace success and employee happiness,” Takeda’s chief technology officer Leo Barella explained in a statement. He claims their meetings have been “more collaborative and immersive.”

Mesh provides a series of pre-made spaces that companies can customize with everything from informational videos to logos — without needing to enter any code. The Mesh toolkit works through Unity, Microsoft’s 2D and 3D development platform, to tailor the virtual world further. Basically, if there’s a retreat an employer has always wanted to take everyone, they can create a version of it and invite everyone’s avatars. 

Currently, Microsoft’s Mesh is only available on desktop PCs and Meta Quest VR devices (if employees want a more immersive experience). Microsoft is offering a six-month free trial to anyone with a business or enterprise plan. Otherwise, prices range from $4 per user monthly for Microsoft Teams Essentials all the way up to $57 per user monthly for Microsoft 365 E5. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/microsoft-launches-mesh-a-virtual-meeting-platform-on-teams-095018763.html?src=rss