Xbox Raises Office Requirement to Four Days a Week for Nearby Staff
Xbox is raising its return-to-office requirement from three days a week to four for most of its employees, according to an internal memo seen by The Verge. Jacinda Chislum Pearson, Xbox chief people officer, wrote the memo.
The change starts February 1, 2027. Xbox employees in Puget Sound who live within 50 commuting miles of Studio D must work from the office a minimum of four days a week. The requirement applies only to Xbox staff near Microsoft's corporate campus in Redmond, Washington. Established in-office practices for Xbox studios appear to remain unchanged.
Xbox cited the need to create more opportunities for people to work together, following feedback from its employees. Staff with existing return-to-office exemptions, meaning approved arrangements to work remotely, will need to resubmit them under the new policy.
The change sits on top of a company-wide baseline. In September 2025, Microsoft's official blog set flexible work expectations at three days a week in the office, rolled out in three phases. Microsoft had said employees within 50 miles of a Microsoft office would be expected to work onsite three days a week by the end of February 2026. The Xbox memo moves one division above that level.
The timing also matters. The Verge reported that the memo was announced a day after a report suggested Microsoft planned further Xbox layoffs in the month of the announcement and in November and January. In July 2026, Microsoft announced it planned to eliminate around 20 percent of Xbox jobs by the end of its financial year in June 2027. Earlier, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma and chief content officer Matt Booty had warned of an Xbox "reset" expected to include layoffs and studio closures.
Xbox's own news site states that XBOX reaches over 500 million players around the world. Earlier this month, the company also announced XP, a new division led by newly appointed President Kayleen Walters, spanning film and television, consumer products, and strategic partnerships. The memo is one of several organizational changes landing in the same stretch.
The broader context here is that two aims sit side by side. The memo's stated rationale concerns collaboration inside the building. The reported layoff plans concern headcount, with roughly a fifth of Xbox jobs slated for elimination by mid-2027. The memo does not link the two, and readers will weigh them on their own terms. For employees who live near Redmond, the practical questions are narrower: how the February deadline interacts with existing commutes, and how exemption resubmissions will be handled.
In my view, the collaboration argument deserves a fair test rather than a presumption either way. Hardware-adjacent and game development work often depends on quick, informal exchanges that are hard to replicate on video, and co-location can shorten the feedback loop on design reviews and build problems. Whether four days in the office delivers that depends on what the days are used for, and on whether teams spread across studios can actually meet in person. That is the measure the policy will be judged against once it takes effect.
