We've heard today that, as part of Microsoft's already-announced round of 5000 job cuts, up to 75% of the workforce at Microsoft's in-game advertising service, Massive, have been laid off.

With advertising down across the board thanks to the economic slowdown - and with the opportunities presented by in-game advertising perhaps not as great as was once believed - the cuts are hardly a surprise.

While this won't be as gut-wrenching to you as the loss of, say, a development studio, it still sucks when people wake up to find themselves out of a job.

We've contacted Massive to confirm this, and will update when/if we hear back from them.

UPDATE - We've heard back from Microsoft, who tell us that while there indeed layoffs at Massive, "only" 28% of the company's workforce has been let go, not 75%.

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