Xbox claim they're "not reducing [their] investment in games" despite looming cuts, as report claims under 2.5% of Microsoft's total workforce are in the firing line

Chatter about where the axe may fall continues to leak out

Despite yesterday bringing more news of Xbox backing out of funding deals and considering putting studios on the chopping block, the company insist such moves aren't a sign that the mass cuts they've reportedly got in the works are a sign of them scaling back how much cash they're pumping into making games. At the same time, a new report claims that the layoffs wider Microsoft have planned are projected to affect less than 2.5% of the corp's overall workforce, not that that'll soften the blow by any stretch of the imagination.

First off, the reported scale of the planned cuts. According to Business Insider, this round of Microsoft layoffs are expected to be be smaller in scale than the cuts the company made last year. The layoffs are reportedly projected to affect under 2.5% of Microsoft's total workforce, which consists of around 220,000 people.

For context, 2.5% of 220,000 is 5,500, so even if the number's less than that, it's still a disturbingly large number of people having their lives upended, especially given the frequency with which Microsoft continue to shovel such numbers of devs into the layoff furnace year after year.

Despite all of the games and studios Xbox brass are reported to be seeking to ditch in some fashion very soon, in a response to them pulling backing from 007 First Light devs IO Interactive's Project Fantasy, Xbox have claimed that they're still set to pour just as much cash into games. "We're not reducing our overall investment in games," an Xbox spokesperson told Bloomberg. "We expect to invest about the same in content as we did last year. What's changing is where we're investing and the kinds of projects we're backing."

Both that statement and the attempt to frame the impending layoffs in relatively small percentage terms smack to me of a company deep in 'It's just a little airborne. It's still good. It's still good.' PR damage limitation mode.

While today's the day the calendar flips over to July, the layoffs and cuts will reportedly be set in stone and enacted early next week. So, that'll likely be the point a confirmed picture of who and what at Xbox has been affected and in what form will emerge.