In July of this year Microsoft announced that it would cut approximately 18,000 jobs from its global workforce by July 2015. At the time it made the announcement, it also laid off around 13,000 employees worldwide.

This week Microsoft cut an additional 2,100 from its global workforce, making the total number of cuts made this year reach 15,100. Between now and July of next year Microsoft will have to cut an additional 2,900 jobs. In July, prior to the layoffs, Microsoft had a global workforce of around 125,000 employees.

ZeniMax Online has laid off an undisclosed number of employees who were working on The Elder Scrolls Online, the company's MMO based loosely on the popular role-playing game series that includes such games as Oblivion and Skyrim.

While the layoffs were confirmed by Peter Hines, vice president of PR and marketing at Bethesda Softworks, the company did not disclose how many employees were let go, and whether those employees were full-time, part-time, or contractors.

Sources speaking to GamesIndustry International are telling the publication that Malta-based development studio TRC Family Media is in serious financial trouble. According to multiple sources inside the company, TRC's financial situation is so dire that it has told employees that 90 percent of the company's work force may be laid off.

InFamous developer Sucker Punch has laid off an undetermined number of employees, according to what Sony Computer Entertainment America (the parent company of the studio), has told IGN UK.

SCEA would not give an exact number, but did confirm that there has been a "reduction in workforce." The company also did not disclose the reasoning behind the layoffs.

After some pressure from rights group Green America and an investigating of its own, Apple has agreed that it will take steps to stop allowing suppliers from using dangerous chemicals that can have long-term effects on the health and well-being of its workers.

Apple announced on August 13 that it has taken the first steps to protect the workers who make their products (iPhones, iPads) overseas by banning the use of benzene and n-hexane in the final assembly of its products.

According to this Bloomberg report, Microsoft is planning to cut a number of jobs in its Xbox division as part of an overall restructuring plan. Two anonymous sources familiar with the situation have told Bloomberg that overall cuts could end up being the biggest number of layoffs since 2009 when the company laid off 5,800 employees.

A recent survey of its members by the International Game Developers Association finds that 56 percent of its members are in favor of unions for game developers. The association that represents game developers today announced the result of its Developers Satisfaction Survey from earlier this year, which found that more than half of respondents were in favor of unionization.

Sony has confirmed that it has laid off a number of employees at its Sony Santa Monica studio, though the company would not say just how many employees are now out of a job, and reports indicate that the studio was forced to cancel at least one game project.

"SCEA can confirm that we have completed a reduction in workforce at Santa Monica Studio," confirmed the company in a statement. "This is a result of a cycle of resource re-alignment against priority growth areas within SCE WWS," Sony added.

According to a Facebook post by Irrational Games founder Ken Levine, at least 24 companies have confirmed that they will attend a recruitment day event on Feb. 26 in Boston. The event is designed to find jobs for employees that have been or will be laid off when Irrational Games closes its doors.

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment has confirmed with Polygon that it has laid off an undisclosed number of employees at Turbine Entertainment. Turbine, which was purchased by Warner Bros. in 2010, operates a number of MMOGs including Lord of the Rings Online, D&D Online and the DC Universe-themed MOBA Infinite Crisis.

Zynga has invested $527 million in a buyout of Clumsy Ninja and CSR Racing maker - UK-based mobile game maker NaturalMotion - even as it lays off one in seven of its employees. The company made the announcement during the release its most recent earning report. The NaturalMotion buyout is the biggest acquisition by Zynga to date, beating out its $200 million purchase of Draw Something maker OMGPOP in 2012. And the company still has roughly $1.2 billion in cash built up from its Farmville and Cityville days.

Taiwanese electronics manufacturing company Foxconn is back in the news over claims that it is using forced labor in one of its China-based plants to build the PlayStation 4 for Sony.

A game tester who worked for a Sony Computer Entertainment Europe studio in the United Kingdom has been paid £4,600 for helping to test Killzone: Mercenary for three months in 2012. The payout is the result of a settlement between SCEE and tester Chris Jarvis, who claimed that he had to work nine-hour-days at Guerrilla Cambridge as an intern.

According to this Reuters report, the Taiwanese company Pegatron Corp. is being accused of forced overtime, low wages and the use of underage workers. Pegatron is one of several companies that works in Apple's supply chain for various iOS devices. So who is accusing the company of such horrendous practices?

The Vancouver-based development studio that created Resident Evil: Operation Racoon City and SOCOM: US Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 3 has instituted temporary layoffs, according to GamesIndustry International. Speaking to GII a representative for Slant Six Games said that it had to reduce operating cost in the short term and that it hopes to hire back as many employees as it can sometime later on down the road:

Electronic Arts has laid off a number of employees at its Montreal-based mobile game development studio, according to a Polygon report. The company says that these layoffs are part of an overall strategy to streamline operations, though the mobile studio seems to have been impacted the hardest in this latest round of job cuts. No word on whether EA is cutting jobs elsewhere.

Sega has confirmed with Kotaku that it plans to close its Brisbane-based development studio later this year. Sega said that it would close Sega Studios Australia later this year, but gave no particular reason for shutting down the operation.

The publisher says it will shut down Sega Studios Australia later this year; no rationale provided.

Activision has confirmed with GameSpot that it has laid off around 40 full-time High Moon Studios employees following the completion of Deadpool. High Moon Studios is best known for Deadpool and Transformers.

Deloitte, the administrator handling HMV's UK-based business, has identified 66 HMV stores that will be closed in the next two months, according to a Eurogamer report. These retail store closures will affect 930 employees, the firm announced.

UK Retailer HMV has cut 190 jobs across the board, according to administrator Deloitte. Earlier reports had pegged the layoffs at 60, but the group overseeing the retailer's administration later confirmed the larger number. Most notably HMV’s head of technology and games Ewan Pinder was given a pink slip today. The 60 workers who lost jobs were apparently from HMV's head office in the UK.

Sony has confirmed with IGN that PlayStation All-Stars developer SuperBot has laid off a number of its staff. An SCEA spokesperson told the publication that work would continue on PlayStation All-Stars DLC to be released in the next few months despite the smaller staff at the studio. Sony did not confirm just how much of the staff had been laid off.

Secret World and Age of Conan developer Funcom continues to tighten its belt as part of a restructuring plan it announced last year. Today the company announced that it has closed its Beijing studio and laid off staff in its Canadian and U.S. offices. The Beijing studio was responsible for creating the art and animation for the company's Secret World MMO. Responsibilities of the Beijing studio will be moved to Funcom's U.S. offices. Despite a heavier workload Funcom also reduced the workforce at the Raleigh, North Carolina-based office.

After multiple reports from various sources revealed that a majority of the staff at Gas Powered Games had been laid off, Chris Taylor took to the Internet to comment. Apparently Taylor and a few employees are the only ones left at the studio behind such titles as the Dungeon Siege series, Demigod, and Supreme Commander. Recently Taylor and company launched a Kickstarter for a new game called Wildman but concerns over its early performance cause Gas Powered Games, who is short on cash, to lay off its staff.

UK retailer HMV will enter into administration on Tuesday, the company announced. The move to administration (the European equivalent of bankruptcy here in the U.S.) comes after major suppliers like Universal Music, EMI, Warner Brothers and Disney refused to provide further financing needed for the retailer to continue trading. The company has turned to Deloitte as its administrators after lackluster Christmas sales made the retailer unable to secure terms on various loans. If things go badly it could mean the loss of an estimated 4,500 jobs and the possible closure of over 200 stores.

According to this Massively report, Final Fantasy publisher Square Enix has laid off an undetermined number of employees at its Los Angeles offices. The report is based on a number of anonymous tips - which presumably are being attributed to either current or former Square Enix employees that are close to the situation.

Square Enix later confirmed that something was going on with the company by issuing an official statement:

The end has finally come for UK retailer Comet, as it prepares to close the doors of all its stores in the region on Tuesday. Administrator Deloitte has confirmed to MCV that all of the remaining Comet retail stores will close their doors tomorrow (December 18th). Many of its stores closed for good over the weekend. This shutdown of its operations will result in the loss of an estimated 6,600 jobs just days before the Christmas Holiday.

Richard Garriott's Austin, Texas-based social game development studio Portalarium has laid off an unknown number of employees, according to published reports. News of the layoffs surfaced on Friday via Twitter when Portalarium senior programmer Paul Evans tweeted the following:

"Today [Portalarium] had to lay off people and I was one of them."

GamesIndustry International is reporting that MMO developer and publisher Trion World has confirmed that an undisclosed number of developers have been laid off at the company. The news of the layoffs surfaced on Twitter with one tweet noting the firing of 30 people at Trion's San Francisco office. Later an affected source told Gamasutra that the layoffs were primarily at Trion's Rift development team. Trion Worlds later confirmed the layoffs, but would not reveal specific numbers.

Mobile games publisher and developer GREE has laid off 25 employees today. The layoffs are directly tied to the shut down of its mobile social gaming platform, OpenFeint.

Eurocom has entered administration and ceased trading, with the remaining staff laid off, according to a statement from administrators given to Eurogamer. Last month the studio was forced to let a large portion of its staff go. Eurocom most recently developed 007 Legends for Activision. Today a statement from administrators revealed just how bad the financial situation is for the company: