Microsoft shuts down questions about layoffs and Israel ties at Gamescom 2025

Microsoft prevented a veteran developer at Obsidian from sharing their thoughts on the company’s latest round of mass layoffs and its links with Israel during an impromptu interview at Gamescom 2025.

During an on-record conversation with Grounded 2 game director Chris Parker and Eidos Montreal creative director Justin Vazquez, Game Developer asked the former for their thoughts on making games at Microsoft during a turbulent period of heavy layoffs and widespread condemnation over the company’s widely-reported ties to the Israeli regime and its military surveillance agency (via The Guardian).

Two Xbox spokesperson immediately quashed the question by explaining their devs are only here to talk about their games and directed us to reach out via email for comment on other topics.

The rub, of course, is that we have already reached out for comment multiple times to no avail.

After Microsoft laid off 9.000 workers last month, including many within its video game division, the company neglected to provide specifics about the exact nature of the cuts despite repeated, direct requests for more context.

Last week, Microsoft again failed to respond after being contacted for comment on the situation unfolding at Arkane in France, where union workers published an open letter in support of the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movementwhich is specifically calling for consumers to shun Xbox products including Xbox Game Pass, hardware, accessories, and popular titles.

Related:Latin American studios can attract talent by ensuring people ‘don’t feel like a number on the payroll’

Those unionized Arkane employees branded the company an “accomplice” to genocide and called on Microsoft to sever ties with the Israeli military. BDS claims Microsoft is “perhaps the most complicit tech company in Israel’s illegal apartheid regime.”

Meanwhile, as reported by The Verge, a group of current and former Microsoft employees recently amassed in the plaza at the company’s Redmond headquarters as part of a No Azure for Apartheid protest. Roughly 50 people were present at the event. A press release distributed by the group said they refuse to become “cogs in the Israeli genocidal machine.”

In May, Microsoft said an external review into the nature of its contracts with Israel and “found no evidence to that that” its productsincluding AI and cloud techhave been used to “target or harm people” in Gaza.

Despite those assertions, the company is refusing to discuss the concerns of current and former employeesincluding those within its roster of Xbox game studioswhile actively preventing workers from sharing their personal thoughts.

Related:‘Make it political:’ How can the Brazilian game industry establish itself on the global stage?

Game Developer has once again reached out to Microsoft for comment.

Game Developer attended Gamescom 2025 via the Gamescom Media Ambassador Program, which covered flights and accommodation.