Microsoft is eliminating 4,800 jobs, approximately 2.1% of its global workforce, with a substantial number affecting its Xbox video game division.
The company confirmed 1,600 Xbox workers have already been laid off, with more expected this year as part of a broader reorganization to "reset" the unit amid heightened competition.
Xbox CEO Asha Sharma, who took over the gaming division earlier this year, stated in a memo, "Our business today is not healthy."
She added, "We are operating at margins that are 3-10x lower than comparable platform and publishing businesses."
Sharma also pointed to a severe "hardware crisis" in the industry, citing soaring costs for console components as Xbox competes with Sony's PlayStation and Nintendo's Switch.
Microsoft was hit with a class-action lawsuit last week from residents living near the Fairwater data center in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, who are suing the company over the facility's alleged noise pollution.
The class-action lawsuit was filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, according to The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Three residents of Sturtevant — a village approximately 30 miles south of Milwaukee close to the data center—are named as plaintiffs.
“Through its operation and maintenance of the Data Center, Defendant has emitted, and continues to emit, unreasonable and excessive noise onto Plaintiffs’ properties, thereby causing property damages through private nuisance and negligence,” the lawsuit states.
The Fairwater data center is the first of several buildings that Microsoft plans to build on the campus. Both Microsoft, and electronics manufacturer Foxconn, which has a facility at the site, plan to expand their data center operations there in the coming years, according to Wisconsin Public Radio.
The filing accuses Microsoft of failing to "implement adequate acoustic barriers, shields, or walls, that absorb, mitigate, and/or prevent the escape of noise, thereby resulting in the offsite emission of excessive noise beyond its property."
The plaintiffs are seeking an unspecified amount in damages.
A spokesperson for Microsoft told The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the company is "aware of the lawsuit related to our facility in the Village of Mount Pleasant."
