PayPal is about to become the latest tech company to lay off a substantial part of its workforce. The payments firm announced Tuesday plans to cut approximately 2,000 employees, a number that equates to about seven percent of its total staff. According to PayPal president and CEO Dan Schulman, the layoffs will occur over the next few weeks, with some parts of the company affected more than others.

“We will treat our departing colleagues with the utmost respect and empathy, provide them with generous packages, engage in consultation where required and support them with their transitions,” Schulman said. “I want to express my personal appreciation for the meaningful contributions they have made to PayPal.”

The company joins a growing list of tech companies that have announced layoffs in recent months. Earlier this month, Google disclosed plans to lay off 12,000 employees, or about around six percent of its global workforce. Before that, Microsoft said it would cut 10,000 jobs. Schulman, like his counterparts at Microsoft, Google and other tech firms, blamed PayPal’s layoffs on the “challenging macro-economic environment” the company finds itself in recently. “While we have made substantial progress in right-sizing our cost structure, and focused our resources on our core strategic priorities, we have more work to do,” he said.

It’s worth noting the US economy has not entered into a recession yet. At 3.5 percent, the national unemployment rate is at a 50-year low, and the gross domestic product grew over the last quarters. Turning specifically to PayPal, the company beat Wall Street expectations during its most recent earnings call, with revenue and income increasing by 11 percent and 7 percent year on year, respectively.

Source: Engadget – PayPal is laying off 2,000 employees

Twitter has quietly killed off a feature that allowed users to publish co-authored tweets. The company enabled CoTweets on “select” accounts last July in the US, Canada and Korea, but the feature never made it beyond the experimental stage. As of today, you’ll no longer be able to post CoTweets.

“We’re sad to say that the current experiment is coming to an end,” Twitter wrote on an updated support page. “Already existing CoTweets will be viewable for one more month at which point they will revert to retweets.” 

If you invited someone to CoTweet with you, that tweet will remain on your account, according to Mashable. For those who were invited to co-author a tweet, CoTweets will soon appear as retweets from the other person’s account. All clear on that? Swell.

This may not completely be the end of CoTweets. “We’re still looking for ways to implement this feature moving forward,” Twitter said. So, it could return at some point.

It’s unlikely to be high on Twitter’s list of priorities, however, particularly given that some 80 percent of employees have left the company since Elon Musk took over in late October. A recent report suggested Twitter now has fewer than 550 full-time engineers, who may have their hands full with other things.

Source: Engadget – Twitter is killing off co-authored tweets after less than a year

343 Industries and Halo may be here to stay despite Microsoft’s mass layoffs, but that doesn’t mean it’s business as usual for the franchise. Bloombergsources claim 343 is effectively restarting Halo development between multiple changes that include the loss of “at least” 95 jobs, including directors and key contractors. Notably, the studio is reportedly switching to Epic’s Unreal Engine after both a leadership shuffle and struggling with its aging in-house platform (Slipspace) — it’s even breaking from its familiar story-driven gameplay, according to the tipsters.

The 343 team is understood to be using Unreal for an unannounced game, nicknamed “Tatanka,” developed with the help of long-time ally Certain Affinity. It was originally built as a battle royale title but might “evolve” into other forms, the sources say. While some at 343 are supposedly worried Unreal might affect how Halo feels to play, Slipspace’s glitches and hard-to-use tech have apparently held back multiplayer features in Halo Infinite that include past favorites like Assault and Extraction.

Many of the laid off workers were crafting game prototypes in Unreal rather than producing new missions for Halo Infinite, Bloomberg says. 343 had considered switching engines for the past decade, the insiders claim, but it wasn’t until studio lead Bonnie Ross and engine overseer David Berger left in late 2022 that the company committed to the change. Pierre Hintze, who replaced Ross, is said to have focused the company on “greenlighting” new tech while expanding Infinite.

Microsoft has declined to comment. A revamped strategy wouldn’t be surprising even without layoffs. While Infinite was well-received on launch, delayed modes, seasons and even a cancelled split-screen mode haven’t helped its reputation. 343 has also played a role in some of the Halo series’ less-than-stellar projects, including the problematic Halo: Master Chief Collection and offshoots like Halo Wars 2. A fresh start isn’t guaranteed to reinvigorate the sci-fi shooter, but it may address lingering concerns.

Source: Engadget – 343 is reportedly ‘starting from scratch’ on Halo development after layoffs

Peacock has stopped offerings its free tier to new customers. As first reported by The Streamable, potential subscribers who visit Peacock’s website will now only see two ways to access the platform: Peacock Premium and Premium Plus. Either way, if you’re new to Peacock, you’ll need to pay to access the service’s library of content. According to The Streamable, the free tier still exists but is only available to current users who cancel their Premium subscription or those who had access to a paid tier for free (for example, Cox internet customers). NBCUniversal did not immediately respond to Engadget’s comment request.

The Streamable reports the removal is the result of a strategy shift within the company. NBCUniversal plans to release approximately 100,000 hours of new content to Peacock Premium through the end of 2023, including live sports content from the Premier League and Women’s World Cup. The platform’s subscriber total grew to 20 million in 2022, up from 9 million the year before. However, Peacock has yet to generate a profit for NBCUniversal owner Comcast. The company expects the service to start inching toward profitability in 2024. Presumably, it hopes to accelerate that timeline by doubling down on Peacock’s Premium tiers. 

To make up for the removal, Peacock is offering a promotion to new subscribers. You can get an annual subscription to the ad-supported Premium tier for $30, down from $50 normally. We’ll update this article with more information when we hear back from NBCUniversal.

Source: Engadget – Peacock stops offering its free tier to new subscribers