Microsoft has confirmed that it is closing all of its Microsoft Store locations worldwide.
An anonymous source said The edge that the plan to close its stores was underway before the COVID-19 pandemic, but the global impact of the virus “accelerated” the closings.
Four of its premium locations will be retained: New York City (Fifth Avenue), London (Oxford Circus), Sydney (Westfield Sydney) and the location of the Redmond campus, to be reconfigured as “experience centers”.
The company reports that there will be no layoffs as a result of the decision, while Microsoft Store Vice President David Porter insisted through a LinkedIn post that its “commitment to grow and develop careers for this diverse pool of talent is stronger never”.
The company will reportedly focus on digital retailing, claiming that Microsoft.com and the Xbox and Windows storefronts reach “up to 1.2 billion customers monthly in 190 markets.”
That’s not the only big change Microsoft has made recently, of course. Last week the the company announced it was closing its Mixer streaming platform in a merger with Facebook Gaming.
At the time of the announcement, Microsoft confirmed that Mixer will not be fully closed until July 22, 2020, but confirmed that the transition was already underway.
“It became clear that the time it took to grow our own live streaming community at scale was out of the question with the vision and experiences we want to offer players now,” said Xbox boss Phil Spencer at the time, “So we have decided to close the Mixer operations side and help the community transition to a new platform.”
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