Microsoft Gaming has once again parted ways with hundreds, if not thousands of employees, reaping the consequences of irresponsible expansion. We delve into the scale of layoffs in the gaming division, as well as the underlying reasons behind these processes. At a crossroads, the company is struggling to figure out how to turn its impressive catalog of IPs into growth
Update 4, July 3, 2025: The Microsoft Gaming division, particularly its Blizzard segment, is facing layoffs. Concurrently, it has been announced that the mobile game Warcraft Rumble will no longer receive updates. According to an internal email from President Johanna Faries, as reported by Aftermath, the game is transitioning to a "live-ops only" phase, akin to the status of Heroes of the Storm and StarCraft 2.
Before summarizing the first half of the year, let's focus on the results of June's new game releases. In today's piece, there are plenty of figures and data about the extremely successful launch of Mario Kart World, the initial sales of Death Stranding 2, an unexpected FMV hit from China, as well as other key releases from the past month
Rematch didn't hold the lead in the paid Steam chart for long. By the end of the week from June 24 to July 1, it was pushed from the top spot among premium games by the climbing simulator Peak (though in the top among all paid products, Peak secured second place—after the portable PC Steam Deck)