Microsoft Begins Gaming Retreat

We’re guessing the July 4 weekend was not too relaxed for some folks at Microsoft. Today we got news that the company is laying off 4,800 people—around 2% of its total workforce—mostly in sales and at its troubled Xbox business. It's also selling at least four, and probably five, small gaming studios. Asha Sharma, Microsoft’s new gaming chief, had foreshadowed the gaming cuts last month, and on Monday she doubled down on how bad things were at Xbox, declaring in a staff memo also posted on X that “our business today is not healthy.”

That’s a stunningly plainspoken statement in an industry where executives appear to be taught from the age of 5 to speak in meaningless jargon.