Headlines for September 12th, 2024

Every day after Headlines airs I’ll give a text-based rundown of the show with links to each of our sources used. For those who prefer to read and to give thanks to all the hard work people around the industry are doing. Here are the video game headlines for September 12th, 2024.

• 650 More Jobs Have Been Cut at Microsoft/Xbox
• Former PlayStation EU boss says devs made redundant should ‘get over it’ and ‘go the beach’ for a year
• Sony will soon sell refurbished PS5 consoles at a reduced price
• PlayStation Plus Game Catalog for September: The Plucky Squire, Night in the Woods, Under The Waves and more
• Xbox Game Pass Standard Is Here
• Friend Requests Return to Xbox
• Steam launches ‘Families’, allowing users to share games
• The Elder Scrolls: Castles is available to download now
• Tony Hawk Is Talking To Activision About Tony Hawk Pro Skater Series

Today’s top story was Xbox laying 650 employees off:

CEO of Microsoft Gaming, Phil Spencer, has announced in an internal email that approximately 650 roles across Microsoft Gaming will be cut.

You can read the full email, which was obtained and verified by Insider Gaming below:

Subject: Changes to Microsoft Gaming

For the past year, our goal has been to minimize disruption while welcoming new teams and enabling them to do their best work. As part of aligning our post-acquisition team structure and managing our business, we have made the decision to eliminate approximately 650 roles across Microsoft Gaming—mostly corporate and supporting functions—to organize our business for long term success.

I know that this is difficult news to hear. We are deeply grateful for the contributions of our colleagues who are learning they are impacted. In the US, we’re supporting them with exit packages that include severance, extended healthcare, and outplacement services to help with their transition; outside the US packages will differ according to location.

With these changes, our corporate and supporting teams and resources are aligned for sustainable future growth, and can better support our studio teams and business units with programs and resources that can scale to meet their needs. Separately, as part of running the business, there are some impacts to other teams as they adapt to shifting priorities and manage the lifecycle and performance of games. No games, devices or experiences are being cancelled and no studios are being closed as part of these adjustments today.

Throughout our team’s history, we have had great moments, and we have had challenging ones. Today is one of the challenging days. I know that going through more changes like this is hard, but even in the most trying times, this team has been able to come together and show one another care and kindness as we work to continue delivering for our players. We appreciate your support as we navigate these changes and we thank you for your compassion and respect for each other.

Phil