Phil Spencer Responds To Xbox Layoffs

This week has been dominated by the news that 10,000 people are being laid off from Microsoft's workforce, and Xbox boss Phil Spencer has responded to the news in an internal email that was shared by Kotaku earlier today.

In the email, Spencer acknowledged it had been a "difficult week" for Microsoft, calling it a "challenging moment in our business" and explaining that the actions of the past few days had been "painful choices".

"This is a challenging moment in our business, and this week’s actions were painful choices. The Gaming Leadership Team had to make decisions that we felt set us up for the long-term success of our products and business, but the individual results of those decisions are real. I know that hurts."

The Head of Xbox then went on to explain that there would be many opportunities over the coming weeks for Phil and the leadership team to answer questions from employees, stressing the desire to be "as transparent as we can".

"Moving forward with ambiguity is challenging, but I am confident that together, we will get through this difficult moment in time."

He finished off the email by thanking everyone for their "deeply appreciated" work:

"I am confident in our future and proud to be part of this team, but also conscious that this is a challenging time and I want to thank you for everything you do here."

We still don't know the full damage to the various Xbox divisions as of yet, although it's been suggested that Halo studio 343 Industries has been hit particularly hard by the job cuts over the past few days.