Microsoft is reportedly laying off another sizeable chunk of their global workforce in their Xbox branch, bringing their total layoffs into the thousands in recent years.

The Xbox company is laying off another 650 staff from their gaming business, according to a memo sent out by Xbox boss Phil Spencer (via IGN, Verge, etc) last week. 

In the memo, Spencer echoes remakes he made earlier this year when the Xbox parent company laid off a staggering 1900 staff from their entire global workforce, not long after completing their acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

Spencer was clear to note the layoffs are mostly in their corporate and “supporting functions” groups, and the layoffs are directly related to their acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

“As part of aligning our post-acquisition team structure and managing our business, we have made the decision to eliminate approximately 650 roles across Microsoft Gaming — mostly corporate and supporting functions — to organize our business for long term success,” Spencer said.

The new layoffs bring the total number of affected staff from Microsoft’s notably huge global workforce up to 2,550 total staff, as noted from their gaming division.

Here’s the full word from Spencer:

For the past year, our goal has been to minimize disruption while welcoming new teams and enabling them to do their best work. As part of aligning our post-acquisition team structure and managing our business, we have made the decision to eliminate approximately 650 roles across Microsoft Gaming — mostly corporate and supporting functions — to organize our business for long term success.

I know that this is difficult news to hear. We are deeply grateful for the contributions of our colleagues who are learning they are impacted. In the U.S., we’re supporting them with exit packages that include severance, extended healthcare, and outplacement services to help with their transition; outside the U.S. packages will differ according to location.

With these changes, our corporate and supporting teams and resources are aligned for sustainable future growth, and can better support our studio teams and business units with programs and resources that can scale to meet their needs. Separately, as part of running the business, there are some impacts to other teams as they adapt to shifting priorities and manage the lifecycle and performance of games. No games, devices or experiences are being cancelled and no studios are being closed as part of these adjustments today.

Throughout our team’s history, we have had great moments, and we have had challenging ones. Today is one of the challenging days. I know that going through more changes like this is hard, but even in the most trying times, this team has been able to come together and show one another care and kindness as we work to continue delivering for our players. We appreciate your support as we navigate these changes and we thank you for your compassion and respect for each other.

Phil