To anyone listening closely to what Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has been saying complete the former brace of years, this week felt akin the clearest sign yet that AI is concerning to basically alter the size of Microsoft’s workforce. Microsoft is now offering voluntary buyouts to about 60,000 employees throughout the US, UK, Canada, and India.
It’s the archetypal period the business has presented specified an recommendation to so many employees, expanding greatly upon the retirement offer that was constricted to about 9,000 workforce before this year. It’s all part of an ongoing attempt to evade reducing funding in AI infrastructure by lowering Microsoft’s functioning expenses and headcount.
“Our total group expenses volition go down, our disbursal per caput volition go up, and my GPU per investigator volition go up,” Nadella stated on a podcast nearly two years ago, responding to a inquiry concerning AI’s effect on headcount. That’s a financial way of saying Microsoft volition have small people, but it volition recommendation higher salaries and additional tools and AI power to those who remain.
It additionally helps explain the continued layoffs we’ve seen at Microsoft complete the former brace of years. Microsoft has been performing layoffs regularly complete the former decade, but complete the former brace of years, the layoffs and executive departures have been significant.
These aren’t the annual layoffs of old; they’re now happening all few months. This week’s voluntary exit recommendation arrived fair months following Microsoft laid off 4,800 employees, cuts that affected its Xbox and business revenue teams the most.
For the archetypal period in a decade, Microsoft’s general headcount has additionally gone down twelvemonth complete year. Microsoft now employs about 223,000 group as of June 30th, 5,000 small than the 228,000 group it employed in 2025. Microsoft laid off 4 percent of its workforce in July final year, and it’s now offering voluntary buyout offers to about a fourth of its employees.
More than 30 percent of the 9,000 eligible workforce accepted a withdrawal recommendation before this year, but that figure volition apt be far small for the company’s latest Voluntary Exit Offer. That’s mostly because, according to sources familiar, the recommendation is practically the identical as regular severance conditions at Microsoft — prosperity according to period at the company, accelerated inventory vesting, several additional subsidized health coverage, and multiple months of occupation services.
But what makes this different is the measure of the amount of workforce who have been offered this exit. Even if lone 5 percent obtain the offer, that’s motionless 3,000 employees. I comprehend eligible workforce have until December to decide, so we won’t cognize the effect of this recommendation for a during yet. With gossip of additional layoffs in November and January, the amount of workforce who do obtain volition certainly communicate Microsoft’s numbers for its next circular of cuts.
There are some, the two inner and exterior the company, who think Microsoft needs these cuts. “Microsoft needs small people,” says Merill Fernando, a erstwhile Microsoft Entra merchandise manager. “I’ve been on the inside. I’ve seen how things get built. Lots of small orgs. Layers on layers. Silos everywhere.”
Fernando paints a image of a Microsoft anywhere all institution “had its own priorities and its own decision makers,” so it’s difficult to get the business to do item collectively. It appears a small akin the meme anywhere all institution in Microsoft is pointing guns at all other, competing alternatively of collaborating.
Nadella equal addressed that meme final twelvemonth in a podcast alongside Stripe co-founder John Collison, acknowledging that the humorous has defined Microsoft’s traditional narrative “more so than reality,” but that it had signaled several extremely genuine tensions inner the company. “In several sense, several of these divisional tensions are genuine issues that need to have tension. Social cohesion is not a goal, winning in the market is a goal,” stated Nadella.
The inquiry now is whether Nadella can reshape Microsoft for the AI era without undoing the traditional transformation that helped define his leadership. A business that has shifted to be built about empathy is now asking its workforce to reckon alongside an AI forthcoming that could create many of their jobs unnecessary. How Nadella handles that passage volition define his bequest as much as the growth and achievement he’s achieved complete the former decade.
Xbox’s decorator of Forza Motorsport is leaving following nearly 27 years
A few weeks ago I started hearing from Xbox workforce that Dan Greenawalt, the longtime imaginative power rearward Forza Motorsport, is leaving following nearly 27 years. Greenawalt is departing as the caput of Turn 10 Studios, the Forza Motorsport creator that merged alongside Forza Horizon developer Playground Games.
Playground Games studio caput Trevor Williams revealed the news in a latest inner memo, seen by Notepad. “Dan Greenawalt has decided that this is the correct period for him to quit from Microsoft,” says Williams. Greenawalt volition remain on as an adviser to Williams and the newly appointed Playground Games chief functioning officer, Michel Bastien, “while he transitions to his next phase.” Here’s part of Williams’ memo concerning Greenawalt:
It’s difficult to overstate Dan’s effect complete the former 27 years. From shipping Project Gotham Racing on the first XBOX in 2001 to foremost the innovation of Forza, founding Turn 10 Studios and appearing so many times on our E3 stage, normally making a theatrical entrance alongside a supercar in tow – and so much additional – we owe enormous gratitude and gratitude to Dan. On behalf of the two teams, I would akin to appreciate Dan for his leadership, his support, and his partnership. I desire him fine for any comes next.
Microsoft revealed final duration that it was merging its two Forza developers into a sole studio as part of a massive restructuring of Xbox. Both Playground Games and Turn 10 Studios have merged into fair Playground Games. The studio now has two locations: Playground Games Leamington Spa and Playground Games Redmond.
With Greenawalt retiring and Turn 10 merged into Playground Games, it’s not apparent if we’ll always see Microsoft come back to Forza Motorsport. More than 70 group at Turn 10 Studios were laid off final year, in a move that hit the huge bulk of the studio. Over the former year, Turn 10 Studios has basically been maintaining Forza Motorsport, and now the remaining workforce have moved to Playground Games to activity on Forza Horizon and Fable.
It’s period to name The Elders Scrolls VI: Sentinel
It’s been additional than eight years since Bethesda officially announced the beingness of the sixth equivalent in its Elder Scrolls series. While there have been several debates about platform exclusivity for The Elder Scrolls VI, we’ve heard extremely small item concerning the equivalent that Bethesda has been operating on all this time.
Sources acquainted alongside Bethesda’s plans inform me that the Xbox-owned publishing company is concerning to province that the next Elder Scrolls equivalent volition officially be called The Elder Scrolls VI: Sentinel. The notice could arrive as shortly as next month, during a duration that volition grade 15 years since The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was released.
Bethesda has been showing off Sentinel gameplay in latest months, I’m told. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma got a live playthrough of Sentinel in August, and she praised the measure of the equivalent and stated “the narrative is equal greater.”
While I’m lone expecting a name disclose next duration and nothing more, I’ve been hearing several additional particulars concerning the game. If you desire to totally evade spoilers concerning the game, afterward don’t peruse the next paragraph.
I comprehend that Sentinel volition be set in Hammerfell, a province in the Elder Scrolls cosmos that’s appeared in The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard and The Elder Scrolls Online. Sentinel volition be the archetypal equivalent concerning the former of the Elder Scrolls, and assistance reveal the secrets of these mysterious ancient artifacts.
- Xbox’s archetypal chief functioning authoritative is out following fair a few months. This is a weird one. Helen Chiang is leaving Microsoft following 21 years. She earlier served as the caput of Minecraft before being promoted to Xbox COO in July. The abrupt departure was announced in a amazingly abbreviated memo from Xbox chief Asha Sharma final week. “Helen Chiang is leaving Microsoft today. I’m grateful for her years of assistance and desire her well,” says Sharma. It doesn’t appear akin the Xbox COO stance is going away, as Sharma notes that “we’ll portion additional on COO guidance as plans are finalized.” Eurogamer reported complete the weekend that Chiang had been “terminated for guideline violations.” I’ve heard akin chatter internally, but Chiang has been described to me by multiple Xbox workforce as extremely respected, alongside elevated integrity, so this rotate of events is fairly odd. I’m trying to get additional details, but if you’ve heard anything, delight attain out confidentially at [email protected] or through the safe Signal messaging app. (I’m tomwarren.01.)
- Microsoft’s new Surface Laptop Ultra update fixes reboot and display bugs. I ran into several weird issues alongside the Surface Laptop Ultra during my review, and Microsoft is now fixing several of them with a firmware update. The update addresses display flickering, unexpected restarts, and lengthy reboot times alongside unspecified “additional bug fixes and broad achievement improvements.” I’m motionless waiting to see if Nvidia or Microsoft addresses the different laggy emotion on the Surface Laptop Ultra, and it’s too first to say whether this firmware update addresses that or not yet.
- GitHub’s erstwhile CEO launched a competing phase for AI agents. We knew that Thomas Dohmke, erstwhile GitHub CEO, was construction several benevolent of competitor to GitHub, but the outcome has amazed group internally during the week of GitHub’s Universe conference. Developers can use the new Entire platform to presenter and assessment code, but it’s additionally designed to activity alongside AI agents and replaces drag requests alongside a “Trails” characteristic that offers “customizable evals that are scored by agents on all code push.” One GitHub employee tells me, “people are shocked, they have ambushed us up and downward the stack on our own gathering week.”
- Windows volition shortly let you execute an net speed test without beginning your browser. Microsoft added a speed test choice to the Windows 11 taskbar before this year, but it was fair a nexus to a speed test in Bing that opened in your browser. Now, Microsoft is really integrating a complete speed test into the taskbar, so you can right-click the network icon and execute an net speed test correct there.
- Windows 11 is getting several neat trackpad features. Microsoft is adding new Windows trackpad features that let you scroll through lengthy documents and webpages faster. You’ll additionally be capable to continuously scroll through a leaf by swiping the border of your touchpad, alongside alongside assistance for single-finger scrolling. It’s the small things that count, and I affection to see these kinds of features being added to Windows.
- Microsoft says its AI tool is improved than doctors at diagnosing conditions. Microsoft claims to have developed an AI-powered tool that it says can diagnose conditions up to four times additional accurately than individual doctors. The findings were published final week in Science, among the world’s most distinguished journals. Microsoft has pitted its AI scheme against individual physicians on a sequence of scenarios drawn from medicinal case reports and emergency division data. While there’s motionless a lengthy highway onward before this AI scheme can be extensively deployed, Microsoft thinks its activity is significant. “It needs medicinal validation,” says Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman in an discussion alongside The Verge. “That is a leap, but this is a important milestone alongside that journey.”
- Microsoft Authenticator flaw lets malicious Android apps pilfer tokens. Security researchers at Enclave have discovered a vulnerability alongside Microsoft Authenticator that lets an unprivileged Android app alongside zero permissions “impersonate any installed Microsoft first-party app and have the Microsoft Authenticator agent hand it that app’s tokens.” The tokens could provision complete admission to mailboxes, files, and calendars. Microsoft has now fixed the flaw, and if you use Microsoft Authenticator on Android, afterward it’s period to update it immediately.
- Denmark has abandoned plans to ditch Microsoft Office following specialized problems. Last twelvemonth the authorities of Denmark announced it was ditching Windows and Office in favor of open-source alternatives to decrease its reliance on US vendors. It seems akin the test of moving distant from Microsoft’s application hasn’t gone too fine for the Danish government, though. The Danish Ministry of Digitalisation has reportedly ended its trial for an open-source substitute to Microsoft Office. Employees reportedly encountered issues alongside document formatting, blank pages, and tracking changes.
- Gears of War: E-Day cost $500 myriad to make. Gears of War E-Day has the highest Metacritic mark of any admission in the franchise since the Xbox 360 days, but it faces several durable questions about how much it expenses to create a AAA equivalent these days and what achievement looks like. Kotaku reports that E-Day disbursal “over $500 million” to make, excluding promotion budgets. This has generated a lot of conversation online complete E-Day’s success, particularly as it’s a arguable test for any possible come back to Xbox exclusivity. One origin tells me that additional than 400,000 copies of the equivalent have been sold throughout Xbox and Steam, but the big inquiry is whether Microsoft was blessed alongside its Game Pass numbers for E-Day, and whether that income offsets any additional revenue on Xbox and possible PS5 revenue if a harbor had been released.
- Arkane Lyon and Blade could be concerning to be saved. Earlier this year, I reported that Microsoft was weighing up canceling its Blade equivalent and shuttering Arkane. In the months since June, Microsoft has been in ongoing discussions alongside multiple publishers concerning a possible transaction of Arkane Lyon amid consultations alongside the union representing the studio’s employees. French newspaper Le Monde now reports that Microsoft has a November 13th cutoff date for a decision on the forthcoming of Arkane Lyon, and Microsoft confirmed to PC Gamer that it’s extending this deadline by an additional month. An expansion makes it appear akin Microsoft is near to a deal, and I’m carefully optimistic that Blade volition be saved. We’ll discover out in the coming weeks.
- Microsoft is ending Copilot assistance on astute TVs. After nearly two years of Copilot assistance on astute TVs, Microsoft is pulling the plug. I’d affection to cognize how many group really used Copilot this way, since it can’t be additional than a dozen. LG says the Copilot TV characteristic is “scheduled for discontinuation during 2026” and a particular date is “subject to Microsoft’s timeline.”
- Microsoft reveals powerful haze growth amid financial reporting overhaul. Microsoft overhauled its financial reporting this quarter, placing Windows, Surface, and Xbox in a distinct bucket to its additional income generating AI and haze efforts. Windows OEM income was downward 22 percent amid a RAMageddon emergency that has seen the general PC market autumn by 20 percent in the latest quarter. Xbox hardware and satisfied and services were additionally down, but a entire third of Microsoft’s income came from Azure ($33.17 milliard of the $92.3 billion). I idea Nadella’s most engaging remarks on the earnings call were concerning Microsoft’s own AI models. “Our goal is to advancement the disbursal to outcome frontier, which method delivering capabilities comparable to foremost models inside three to six months of their publish at a fraction of the training cost, thereby allowing us to transfer those disbursal benefits to customers,” stated Nadella.
I’m continually eager to comprehend from readers, so delight autumn a comment here, or you can attain me at [email protected] if you desire to conversation item else. If you’ve heard concerning any of Microsoft’s concealed projects, you can attain me via email at [email protected] or conversation to me confidentially on the Signal messaging app, anywhere I’m tomwarren.01. I’m additionally tomwarren on Telegram, if you’d favor to conversation there.
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