Microsoft is offering buyouts to roughly 60,000 employees, about a quarter of its global workforce, in its latest effort to cut costs. And according to The Seattle Times, the company's gaming division is one of the groups taking part in full.
The company announced what it calls a Voluntary Exit Offer in a memo to staff. It covers eligible employees in the United States, Canada, India and the United Kingdom, and those who receive it have until early December to decide whether to take it.
Gaming Is Among the Fully Participating Groups
The detail that matters most for players comes from The Seattle Times, which viewed a screenshot of an internal memo. According to the paper, the gaming, Windows, Copilot, human resources and finance divisions are fully participating in the program. The AI, legal and cloud teams are partially participating, while groups such as marketing, commercial business and security are sitting it out.
Microsoft has left the decision on whether to participate up to individual business leaders. Chief People Officer Amy Coleman explained the approach in the memo, writing that "there is no one-size-fits-all approach for every team or every employee" and that participation "varies based on each business's priorities, customer commitments, and workforce needs."
The Seattle Times notes that this year's layoffs at Microsoft have been smaller than last year's and have mostly hit the gaming division, which is under new leadership and in the middle of a hard reset. That context makes Xbox's full participation in the buyout program hard to ignore, especially with reports that Xbox is planning more rounds of layoffs.
What the Offer Includes
The package is equivalent to Microsoft's standard severance, based on location. According to GeekWire, which spoke to the company, that includes base pay tied to tenure and level, continued stock vesting, healthcare coverage for a fixed period and career transition services.
There is no age or tenure requirement, and performance is not a factor. GeekWire reports the offer reaches up to level 70 on Microsoft's internal scale, which covers general managers and some employees with vice president titles, though not corporate vice presidents.
"This offer gives eligible employees who may be considering a future outside the company a new choice to make that transition now with support," Coleman wrote. "It also gives participating organizations another way to adapt their workforce to changing needs."
Microsoft Expects Few to Take It
Despite the size of the offer, Microsoft is not expecting a rush for the exits. A company spokesperson told The Seattle Times it anticipates an acceptance rate as low as 3% to 5%, which would be fewer than 3,000 people, based on comparable offers at other firms.
That is a much smaller share than the company's voluntary retirement program earlier this year. That program was open to more than 8,700 U.S. employees, and roughly a third of them accepted. The new deal is not sweetened the way the retirement package was, which included extended healthcare.
Microsoft also told GeekWire that the offer is not a replacement for layoffs, which will remain part of its approach depending on business conditions. "The Voluntary Exit Offer is new for us. We'll learn from it," Coleman wrote.
A Busy Stretch for Xbox
The news lands in the middle of a turbulent period at Xbox. The division recently saw its first-ever COO, Helen Chiang, leave the company just three months into the role.
Microsoft reports its first-quarter results for fiscal year 2027 on Wednesday, and The Seattle Times notes the company may include an estimate of the buyout program's cost, as it did with a $900 million charge for the retirement program. Whether the earnings call sheds any more light on Xbox's plans remains to be seen.
Do you think the buyouts will lead to fewer layoffs at Xbox, or is this a sign of more cuts to come?
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