All articles tagged with #gaming division
Hasbro exceeded Wall Street expectations in Q2 driven by its digital gaming division, despite a decline in traditional toy sales due to tariffs and other challenges, resulting in a net loss but raising full-year guidance.
Microsoft is laying off up to 9,100 employees across various divisions, including significant cuts in its gaming sector, as part of a strategic restructuring to focus on core growth areas. The layoffs follow previous rounds of job reductions and include the cancellation of the game Everwild, affecting morale and highlighting ongoing organizational changes.
Microsoft has initiated a significant round of layoffs affecting its gaming division, including Zenimax, King, Raven Software, and Turn 10, as part of broader organizational restructuring aimed at focusing on strategic growth areas. Approximately 9,000 employees, or 4% of its global workforce, are impacted, with efforts to support affected staff through severance and internal job opportunities. Despite these cuts, Microsoft remains highly profitable with strong revenue and net income.
Disney is expanding its video game division with new hires and promotions, including the promotion of Sean Shoptaw to executive VP, and the hiring of Ray Gresko as senior VP of product and development, and Bjorn Tornqvist as VP of games technology. Jay Ong, who led the Marvel Games team, has been promoted to lead Disney’s global games licensing business, while Haluk Mentes will succeed him as the head of the Marvel Games unit. This expansion follows Disney's recent $1.5 billion investment in Epic Games and aims to strengthen its presence in the gaming industry.
Sony's value reportedly dropped by $10 billion following a disappointing PlayStation 5 sales forecast, with shares falling as much as 8.4% and closing down 6.5%. The drop in share price has resulted in around $10 billion of value being wiped from Sony’s stock since the forecast cut. Sony's president aims to improve operating margins in the gaming division by releasing more PS5 games on PC, as the company faces criticism for its low operating margin of 6%, which is near decade lows despite high digital game sales and PS Plus service margins. Sony also expects PlayStation 5 hardware sales to gradually decline in the next fiscal year and plans to release no major existing franchise titles during that period.
The FTC has filed a complaint against Microsoft, alleging that the company's decision to cut 1,900 jobs in its gaming division, including at Activision Blizzard, contradicts its previous statements about operating independently post-merger. The FTC argues that this move undermines its ability to order effective relief if the pending administrative proceeding finds the acquisition violated antitrust laws. Multiple Activision Blizzard studios, including Sledgehammer Games and Toys 4 Bob, have been impacted by the layoffs, with the cancellation of an untitled survival game and over 100 reported job cuts at the World of Warcraft studio.
Microsoft has become the second company ever to achieve a $3 trillion market valuation, following Apple, after closing at the milestone for the first time and laying off 1900 workers from its gaming divisions. The stock's recent success is attributed to AI announcements and new product releases, but the layoffs are seen as a ripple effect from its acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The company reported $56.5 billion in revenue in its most recent earnings and is expected to release its full-year earnings for 2023 next week.