I say somehow with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek. Unsurprisingly, there were more layoffs in the American video game industry, this time from Microsoft. 9,000 people lost their jobs across all of Microsoft’s gaming subdivisions, because there just isn’t enough money in the world to sate the thirst of bloodthirsty gaming and software executives.

According to Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, employees at King, ZeniMax, Raven Software, Sledgehammer Games, and Turn 10 Studios, among others, have been terminated. In addition, multiple games have been canceled, including a new online game from ZeniMax, Rare’s Everwild, and a planned Perfect Dark reboot.

“To position Gaming for enduring success and allow us to focus on strategic growth areas, we will end or decrease work in certain areas of the business and follow Microsoft’s lead in removing layers of management to increase agility and effectiveness,” Microsoft Gaming Chief Executive Officer Phil Spencer said in an email to staff seen by Bloomberg News.

Of course, Spencer and Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella will keep their jobs, their salaries, and their bonuses, because why wouldn’t they? It’s clearly not their fault the $69 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard hasn’t been profitable — it’s of course the faults of random people working on unrelated projects.

It’s also their fault that Microsoft’s CoPilot AI has been a colossal failure despite sinking billions of dollars into the project. Don’t worry Satya, another $5 billion should do the trick. Maybe you can lay off another gaming division or six. If it doesn’t work out, who cares? You’ll get your golden parachute while the company toils and you can jump on the board with one of your other buddies.

Meanwhile, for 9,000 regular people, they’re now thrust into one of the coldest job markets in American history with nary a glimmer of hope for the future. May the games industry one day recover from the nightmare of “line go down” tech-bro leadership.

If you’re a now-former Microsoft employee who wants to talk about anything, please feel free to reach out to me via email at jeffkotuby@outlook.com. I’d love to hear from you and help you get whatever feelings you may have off your chest.