Tom Warren | The Verge

Microsoft is bringing original Xbox games to PC

2026-07-22T11:03:20-04:00

Microsoft is expanding its Xbox backward compatibility efforts today by bringing original Xbox games to PC. An early preview release will see four classic Xbox games available on PC today, as part of a bigger effort to bring more Xbox console games to PC in the future.

The first four games are Blinx: The Time Sweeper, Conker: Live and Reloaded, Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge, and Fuzion Frenzy. You’ll be able to purchase and download each of these games on PC, and they’ll also be included with all Xbox Game Pass plans. If you already own a digital copy of these games, you can now play them on PC or handhelds like the Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X.

Microsoft has also added a bunch of PC features to these games to make it easier to customize graphics settings while maintaining the original gameplay. VSync support has been added, alongside up to 4x resolution upscaling, anisotropic filtering, enhanced anti-aliasing, fullscreen and windowed modes, and more.

Achievements are also coming to these four classic Xbox games in the coming months, a highly requested addition for both console and PC. All four titles will also include customizable language and audio settings.

Most modern PCs will be able to run these Xbox games comfortably, and Microsoft’s minimum system requirements include:

GPU: Nvidia GTX 950 or AMD Radeon RX 550 or Intel UHD 770 or Intel Arc A310
CPU: Intel Core i3-8100 or AMD Ryzen 3 1200 or AMD Ryzen Z2 A Processor
RAM: 8GB

You will also need Windows 11 to run these original Xbox games, and Microsoft recommends a GTX 1070 Ti or equivalent on the GPU side and a six-core CPU like the Intel Core i5-10400 or AMD Ryzen 5 3600 to get the best out of these games.

“This marks the beginning of a broader effort to preserve Xbox games from the past and bring them to PC over time,” says Jason Ronald, VP of next generation at Xbox. “Xbox Backward Compatibility on PC is another step toward preserving the games from the past and making it easier for you to enjoy and play more of the games you already own across the devices you use every day.”

Ronald first teased that classic Xbox games were coming to PC earlier this year, in a discussion about the next-generation Project Helix Xbox console. Microsoft’s next Xbox will also play PC games, and the company has been working on a disc-to-digital feature that will allow Xbox owners to digitize their existing physical game collections in preparation for future Xbox consoles.

Microsoft is selling off four Xbox studios as part of significant gaming cuts

2026-07-06T17:00:47-04:00

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma at the Bloomberg Tech conference in June 2026. | Photo: Bloomberg via Getty Images

Microsoft is laying off 4,800 employees today, and more than 30 percent of the job losses are in the company’s Xbox division. The significant gaming cuts will affect nearly every part of Xbox and also involve four game studios being spun off to be run independently from Microsoft.

Today’s layoffs, which are being described as an Xbox “reset” moment, will impact around 1,600 Xbox employees, according to an internal memo from Xbox CEO Asha Sharma. The cuts won’t end today, though, as Microsoft is planning to eliminate a total of around 20 percent of Xbox jobs by the end of the financial year in July 2027.

Double Fine and Compulsion Games are returning to their founders, so Tim Schafer will take Double Fine back to independence along with Guillaume Provost making Compulsion Games an indie game studio again. Ninja Theory, the maker of Hellblade, and Undead Labs, the developer behind State of Decay, are also being sold, with agreements in place to ensure Senua and State of Decay 3 continue to ship.

“I recognize that a year-long restructuring creates additional challenges. Unfortunately, it is not possible to make all the necessary changes in a single day, and I wanted to be direct about the scale,” says Sharma. “I know this is painful. These changes will directly affect people who have poured their creativity into building Xbox. Many joined us through acquisitions, while others were recruited here, or sought us out because they loved this industry and loved Xbox. Today’s decisions do not reflect their talent or dedication.”

Microsoft is also weighing up selling or closing another Xbox studio, as I reported last week. Arkane Studios is currently working on Blade under Xbox management, but the project has been delayed and is running over budget. “In France, Arkane’s management is beginning required consultation with its Works Council to review potential strategic options,” says Sharma. These discussions could take months, so it’s not clear what will happen to Blade or Arkane Studios just yet.

Other Xbox studios will also be impacted by layoffs across the board, and I understand there are larger cuts to Bethesda studios in particular. As part of the studio changes, Minecraft maker Mojang and Candy Crush developer King will both now report directly to Sharma. “These changes vary in size across Activision, Bethesda/ZeniMax, Blizzard, King, Mojang, and Xbox Game Studios,” says Sharma. “None of our first party publicly announced games or projects are being cancelled as part of these reductions.”

Today’s cuts at Xbox look like they’re targeted at reversing some of the smaller studio acquisitions that former Xbox chief Phil Spencer made in an attempt to compete more with Xbox Game Pass. Microsoft now appears to be aligning around bigger franchises, instead of trying to compete with indies with titles like South of Midnight, Kiln, and Keeper.

“We now find ourselves competing not only with the largest publishers, but also with smaller independent studios,” says Sharma. “It is neither possible nor desirable to own every great independent studio. We have also learned that we are not the best home for every type of studio; in a typical year, we lost 64 cents for every dollar we invested. As we reset Xbox, we will help independent creators succeed by providing open development tools and audiences to realize their vision.”

Here’s Sharma’s full memo:

Team,

We are beginning the most significant restructure in XBOX history. After careful consideration, I’ve made the difficult decision to reduce our team by approximately 3,200 throughout FY27. This will include approximately 1,600 role eliminations today, and in addition, four studios will leave XBOX to new management. I recognize that a year-long restructuring creates additional challenges. Unfortunately, it is not possible to make all the necessary changes in a single day, and I wanted to be direct about the scale.

I know this is painful. These changes will directly affect people who have poured their creativity into building XBOX. Many joined us through acquisitions, while others were recruited here, or sought us out because they loved this industry and loved XBOX. Today’s decisions do not reflect their talent or dedication.

Our business today is not healthy. We are operating at margins that are 3-10x lower than comparable platform and publishing businesses. We entered Gen 9 with a smaller install base and a higher cost structure. To grow, we bet on Game Pass, multi-platform, and a broader portfolio of content. While those businesses have created meaningful value, they did not grow at the pace we expected. As that happened, our core business weakened, and we added more teams, more investment, and more time, hoping for a better outcome. And now the industry is facing the most severe hardware crisis in its history. We must reset XBOX.
First, we will reset our content portfolio.

Since 2018, we have aggressively expanded our studio portfolio while the number of games created each month across the industry now outpaces the last ten years combined. We now find ourselves competing not only with the largest publishers, but also with smaller independent studios. It is neither possible nor desirable to own every great independent studio. We have also learned that we are not the best home for every type of studio; in a typical year, we lost 64 cents for every dollar we invested. As we reset XBOX, we will help independent creators succeed by providing open development tools and audiences to realize their vision.

Compulsion Games and Double Fine Productions will return to management and transition to independent studios with their IP, catalog, and runway for their next games. Ninja Theory and Undead Labs have entered terms to join new ownership with funding to complete and grow Senua and State of Decay 3. In France, Arkane’s management is beginning required consultation with its Works Council to review potential strategic options.

We are also making reductions across other units, and in some cases, shifting investment to focus on higher priority projects. These changes vary in size across Activision, Bethesda/ZeniMax, Blizzard, King, Mojang, and XBOX Game Studios. None of our first party publicly announced games or projects are being cancelled as part of these reductions.

In addition, Mojang and King will now report directly to me. These two studios have increasingly become platforms and are our largest by monthly active players. They bring critical geographic, demographic, and differentiation to XBOX.

Second, we will reset our platform.

We know that great technology gets better when it gets simpler, not bigger. Today, in some parts of the company, work passes through as many as 14 layers of management. Our platform teams are 40% larger than they were at the start of this generation, even as our player base and playtime have declined. That complexity has slowed decisions, blurred accountability, and made it harder to deliver for players. As we reset XBOX, we will simplify.

We will reduce management layers to no more than 5, and where possible, 3. We will deliver success through a flatter organization that is built around makers (individual contributors focused on building), player-coaches (leaders who remain deeply involved in the work while developing their teams), and directly responsible individuals (DRIs) who own key decisions and outcomes. And we will streamline how we work across our tools, with a cleaner code base, shared services, and 50% reduced vendor spend.

Third, we are resetting how we operate.

As XBOX grew our headcount, we became more fragmented. Teams, studios, and functions often operate independently, and it became harder to work towards a shared goal, make the right tradeoffs, and get things done.

For the first time, we are establishing a Chief Operating Officer with end-to-end P&L responsibility across content, hardware, platform, and services. Helen Chiang has been promoted to this role and will report directly to me. Over nearly two decades at XBOX, Helen has helped build some of our most important businesses, from XBOX Live to leading Mojang and the Minecraft franchise. She will bring our businesses together under one operating model, making sure we make clear investment decisions, learn from our successes and failures, and hold ourselves accountable for results.

Thank you, Dave McCarthy, who is retiring after 17 years with XBOX. Dave has played a defining role in building the platform that millions of players rely on every day and has been a trusted partner through many of the biggest moments in XBOX’s history. We wish him all the best.

These changes are about a bigger future for XBOX, not a smaller one. The next decade of gaming will be larger, more global, and more creative than anything we’ve seen before. This year, we’ll invest as much in XBOX as we ever have, but we’ll invest with greater focus, greater discipline, and greater clarity, all in service of making XBOX where the world plays and creates.

I want XBOX to be one of the few companies that entertains more than a billion people each day and gives everyone the opportunity to create and connect. I know we can achieve this goal. XBOX has many of the most beloved franchises in entertainment history, talented studios around the world, and we will return to growth in 2027.

History is full of companies that mistake longevity for inevitability. We will not be one of them.

Asha

Update, July 6th: Article updated to clarify Xbox’s layoff percentages for the fiscal year.

Microsoft is laying off 4,800 employees

2026-07-06T17:03:15-04:00

Satya Nadella in February 2026. | Photo by Sven Hoppe / picture alliance via Getty Images

A year after cutting around 9,100 employees, Microsoft is making further layoffs today as it begins its new financial year. The software maker is laying off around 4,800 employees today, approximately 2.1 percent of its workforce. Most of the employees affected by today’s cuts are in Microsoft’s commercial sales business or the company’s Xbox division.

In an internal memo to employees, Amy Coleman, executive vice president and Microsoft’s chief people officer, blamed the job losses on a changing technology industry and the “need to adjust resources and roles and shift how we operate” to respond to how AI is impacting companies like Microsoft. “I also want to be direct that the roles eliminated today are not being replaced by AI,” says Coleman. “At the same time, what is true is that AI is changing how work gets done.”

The layoffs will impact around 1,600 Xbox employees today, with plans to eliminate a total of around 20 percent of Xbox jobs by the end of the financial year. Microsoft is also selling off four Xbox studios and weighing up selling another studio as it looks to “reset” its Xbox business after years of struggles. You can read more about the Xbox layoffs and impacted studios here.

“Decisions like these are never easy, and you have my commitment that we are constantly looking for ways to reduce the need for job eliminations,” says Coleman. “Whenever possible, our priority is to place people into new roles aligned to the company’s highest priorities and greatest areas of opportunity. Over the past year, we have redeployed more than 4,000 employees into new roles, including another 500 this month.”

Microsoft had also been trying to avoid layoffs with its voluntary retirement program. US employees whose combined years of service added to their age totals 70 or more were eligible for voluntary retirement, and the package will include five years of access to Microsoft’s healthcare coverage, a lump sum cash severance payment, and six months of vesting for unvested stock options.

“More than 30 percent of eligible employees chose to participate in our recent voluntary retirement program, and we will continue exploring similar approaches in the future,” says Coleman. “While this doesn’t change the difficulty of today’s news, we will continue to do everything we can to create opportunities for our people, reduce the need for job eliminations where possible, and responsibly support those affected with care and respect.”

Xbox testing disc-to-digital feature that digitizes a physical game collection

2026-07-01T13:46:46-04:00

Microsoft will likely soon follow Sony and stop the production of physical discs for Xbox games. But instead of leaving physical discs behind entirely, sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans tell me the company has quietly been working on a disc-to-digital feature that will allow Xbox owners to digitize their existing physical game collections.

Xbox employees recently started testing this new feature, after references to “enable Disc2Digital” appeared in the Xbox PC app code in May. I’m told that Microsoft’s disc-to-digital feature will work on Xbox One and Xbox Series X discs only, and not those for the Xbox 360 or original Xbox console.

Getting a digital copy of a game works simply by inserting a compatible disc and installing and playing the game. This will require a Microsoft account on an Xbox console and will grant a digital entitlement for physical games. This digital entitlement is tied to the specific disc, and it will move from account to account if you swap the physical game with a friend or log in to a different Xbox profile and try to play a disc-based game.

The digital entitlement for a physical Xbox game is similar to buying the title from Microsoft’s digital store. If the game is available on Xbox Cloud Gaming and you have a Game Pass subscription, you’ll be able to stream it. If it’s an Xbox Play Anywhere title, you’ll also be able to access it on PCs and handhelds.

The Xbox disc-to-digital feature will also work with discs that come bundled with a console and multi-disc titles, providing access to everything the disc usually offers, including downloadable content. Some Xbox One discs might not work with this new feature, though. “It all depends on how and when the disc was manufactured and it may not have the features we need for this program,” warns Microsoft to its internal Xbox testers.

Discs will still work after they’re digitized, and you’ll only lose a digital entitlement if you loan the disc to a friend or sell the disc to someone else. Microsoft is currently testing this new feature internally, and I expect we’ll hear more about it in the coming months.

I understand Microsoft hasn’t fully finalized whether the next-generation Xbox, codenamed Project Helix, will ship with a built-in disc drive, but if Helix is disc-free, the feature could be essential for existing Xbox owners wanting to digitize their game collections in time for future Xbox consoles.

Xbox weighs canceling Blade game and shuttering Arkane

2026-06-30T12:38:18-04:00

Microsoft is set to announce a wave of layoffs for its Xbox studios and employees next week. Sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans tell The Verge that the layoffs will lead to studio closures or spinoffs, potential mergers of studios, and canceled games.

I understand Microsoft is currently weighing closing at least five studios, including the developers behind Marvel’s Blade. Sources tell me Microsoft wants to cancel Blade as part of a wave of cost cuts and job losses that are planned for the company’s Xbox gaming division.

Developed by France-based Arkane Studios, best-known for the Dishonored series, Blade was originally supposed to debut later this year according to sources familiar with the game’s development. I’m told the internal ship date for the game slipped to late 2027, and it’s also running over budget.

While Microsoft is weighing canceling Blade, it’s also exploring options to sell Arkane Studios. Bloomberg reported earlier this month that Microsoft is trying to spin off Compulsion Games, Double Fine, and Ninja Theory, too. GamesBeat reported this week that Microsoft is actively looking for a buyer for Undead Labs, the developers behind State of Decay. If buyers are found for these studios, then they’ll avoid being closed, but sources stress these talks could take months in some cases.

Compulsion Games, the developers behind South of Midnight, is already convinced that closure is imminent and has started telling employees to look for jobs elsewhere. Ninja Theory employees were informed earlier this month that Microsoft wants to close the UK-based studio or spin it off.

Beyond the potential studio closures, Microsoft is preparing for a wave of layoffs at Xbox that will drastically reshape its gaming division. These layoffs are due to start on July 6th, according to sources, and will hit most parts of Xbox. Rumors have suggested there could be at least 1,000 job losses, and if Microsoft goes ahead with five studio closures, then that’s at least 500 employees impacted before the wider cuts.

The upcoming layoffs are part of a “reset” for the Xbox division under new CEO Asha Sharma, who hinted about “making hard choices” last month. Sharma has repeatedly warned that the Xbox business isn’t healthy, but also claimed that her “mandate is not 30 percent accountability margins… it’s to be the number one gaming and entertainment company, and that’s what we’re going to do.”

Xbox is closing down Hellblade creator Ninja Theory

2026-06-15T17:13:35-04:00

Xbox is closing down Ninja Theory, the studio behind the Hellblade series, a source tells The Verge. Staffers were told on a call on Monday about the closure, but they are hoping the studio will find a buyer. The closure comes as “several” Xbox studios at Microsoft, including Compulsion Games and Double Fine, are in “active negotiations” about spinning off, Bloomberg reports.

The closure and negotiations follow Xbox CEO Asha Sharma and chief content officer Matt Booty warning last week of a “reset” at Xbox, laying out several challenges facing Xbox’s business — including that it had “over extended” with its studio system and the hardware component crisis is significantly driving up prices. Kotaku reported earlier on Monday that Microsoft was planning to shut down Compulsion, though it noted in an update that studio leadership was in “negotiations” with Microsoft.

Sharma has made many major decisions since taking over at Xbox in February, including locking down Gears of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution as Xbox console exclusives in an announcement at its Xbox Games Showcase just over a week ago. During that event, Microsoft also revealed a new Hellblade game, Senua, and its future with this change is unclear.

Xbox didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.

Xbox warns of a ‘reset’ as it prepares for layoffs

2026-06-10T17:44:30-04:00

Microsoft’s Xbox division will be hit with significant layoffs next month, according to people familiar with Microsoft’s plans.

The company has been preparing for the layoffs internally for weeks, with Xbox CEO Asha Sharma hinting about “making hard choices” last month. Sources suggest the cuts could even involve a studio closure, or changes to the Xbox studio lineup. In a recent Giant Bomb episode, rumors of 1,000 layoffs for Microsoft’s Xbox division were mentioned. Bloomberg also reported today that the cuts would be “major,” and involve budget cuts for marketing and other areas of Microsoft’s Xbox business.

Moments before Bloomberg’s report, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma and chief content officer Matt Booty sent a memo to Xbox staff, warning of an “Xbox reset” over the next 100 days. Sharma and Booty pointed to difficult challenges the business is facing. “Excluding Activision Blizzard King, over the past five years, we have spent over $20 billion on ongoing investments in our content, platform, and hardware subsidy, but our annual revenue has declined nearly half a billion during that time,” they wrote. “Going forward, this cannot continue.”

They also noted that “we are in a hardware component crisis,” saying that component costs for the 2027 holiday season are expected to be “over 5x the prices we paid only two years earlier. Memory costs have followed a broadly similar trajectory.” They said that “we need a new business model and partnerships for hardware as we remain committed to Helix.”

Sharma and Xbox strategy chief Matthew Ball have been hinting at “radically different” console business models this week, and the mention of “partnerships for hardware” certainly plays into the idea that other PC OEMs might be able to create Xbox-branded devices based on AMD’s new chips in the future.

But right now, Xbox’s “current platform infrastructure is not built for the battle ahead,” Sharma and Booty wrote, saying that “we’ll evolve and rebuild our stack and look at capabilities across all of XBOX and potential M&A to help us win in hardware, PC, mobile, and streaming.”

Sharma has already made some big decisions since taking over, including making Gears of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution Xbox console exclusives.

Microsoft restricts Claude Fable for employees over data retention concerns

2026-06-10T14:58:05-04:00

Anthropic released Claude Fable, its first Mythos-class AI model, yesterday and it’s already causing concerns inside Microsoft. Sources tell me that Microsoft is limiting the use of Claude Fable 5 for employees because of Anthropic’s new data retention requirements.

While Microsoft quickly rolled out Claude Fable 5 to its GitHub Copilot and Foundry customers, I’m told the model isn’t available in the model picker that Microsoft employees use for internal versions of GitHub Copilot. All other Claude models are still available internally at Microsoft, because they operate under Zero Data Retention (ZDR) rules.

I understand that Microsoft has been telling employees that its legal teams are evaluating changes to Anthropic’s data retention requirements. I’m told that the main concerns are around customer data and confidential information, and that it’s not yet clear whether Microsoft’s legal teams will clear Claude Fable for internal use.

Claude Fable 5 requires data retention to operate Anthropic’s new safety classifiers, meaning Anthropic retains prompts and outputs and deletes this data after 30 days. Some prompts and outputs can even be stored for up to two years if they’re flagged as violating Anthropic’s usage policy, so there are legal concerns around how Microsoft should be using Claude Fable 5.

Microsoft declined to comment.

Claude Fable 5 is the first broad release from Anthropic’s Mythos class of AI models, and it arrives just weeks after the company said the family was so capable at cybersecurity tasks that it was too dangerous to release publicly. Anthropic has put prompt safeguards in place to make Fable 5 less dangerous, leading to these challenging data retention changes.

Update, June 10th: Added that Microsoft declined to comment.

Xbox exploring ‘radically different’ console business models

2026-06-10T08:06:59-04:00

The RAMageddon crisis has got Microsoft rethinking its Xbox console hardware business. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma and Xbox strategy chief Matthew Ball have both revealed this week that Microsoft is reevaluating plans for its next-generation Project Helix console and exploring “radically different” console business models in the meantime.

“We are working very hard to rethink everything that we can about Helix, which is a console we are committed to shipping, and we are very cognizant of the ways in which we need to change as a company to make sure it is affordable, to make sure that it’s flexible,” said Ball in an interview with The Game Business earlier this week.

Microsoft’s former Xbox president Sarah Bond described its next-gen Xbox console as “a very premium, very high-end curated experience” back in October, before the industry-wide constraints on memory and storage really started to hit. Sharma is now looking at ways to navigate the RAMageddon crisis, with a focus on affordability for current and next-gen Xbox consoles.

“On hardware, we are in a crisis right now, the entire industry is,” said Sharma in an interview with Fortune. While the costs of memory and storage keep rising, Xbox is looking at different ways to combat the underlying price pressures. “We must think about other ways to think about the cost construction of a console. We must think about how we create different plans, so more people can participate in the console,” says Sharma. “We must think about partnerships that will allow us to have better distribution and reach.”

Microsoft is now looking at new business models for consoles, and “what is needed for console rather than just the most premium, high-performance console in the world,” according to Sharma. “I think we’ve reached a point where it will be hard to imagine that mass audiences can afford thousands of dollars to spend on a console generation, and so I think we will start to see radically different business models that we never expected start to come into orbit later this year.”

Microsoft has many options, particularly if it’s weighing up more partnerships. In the past, the company has bundled Xbox hardware with Game Pass subscriptions, creating an easier way for gamers to finance the cost of a new console over a 24-month period. Xbox All Access was quietly discontinued last year, after many retailers pulled out of the program. It’s possible Microsoft could launch something similar, if it’s prepared to subsidize Xbox hardware further to tempt consumers into subscriptions.

Sharma also teased that Microsoft is preparing to “do more this summer” with Xbox Game Pass “to create more flexible offerings” for the subscription service. One of Sharma’s first big Xbox changes was cutting the price of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate in April. Microsoft also partnered with Discord last month to bundle a free Xbox Game Pass “starter edition” with Nitro subscriptions.

Microsoft could also focus on more ad-supported options for Xbox. The company has been working on a free Xbox Cloud Gaming option for well over a year now and previously confirmed it was in testing in October. While this will help Microsoft attract consumers who don’t want to purchase increasingly expensive game consoles, it’s not “radically different” from what exists today.

Radically different would be something like Telly, a startup that offers you a free TV in exchange for watching ads. Radically different could also hint at Microsoft allowing others to make Xbox consoles. Microsoft has already been exploring this with its Xbox-branded handhelds with Asus, and the next Xbox, codenamed Project Helix, could go a step further. Microsoft has previously hinted it will be some kind of hybrid of a console and a PC, and if other PC OEMs are able to create Xbox-branded devices based on AMD’s new chips, it may well help with affordability.

Both Sharma and Ball have also hinted that the next Xbox also needs to be more flexible. “I think that we have to think very differently about storage and memory going forward,” says Sharma. “We will have to apply new techniques, so that we can compress that. We will have to empower customers to have very flexible storage offerings. We will have to empower new types of games, so they can fit on device, and so there’s going to be a lot of innovation. This will take years, not days, not weeks, but we’ll go through it together with the community.”

Reading between the lines, it sure sounds like Microsoft is looking at making sure Project Helix owners will be able to extend storage without expensive proprietary solutions like the Xbox expansion cards found on the Xbox Series S / X. Sony opted for standard M.2 SSD expandable storage support on the PS5, and while it wasn’t as friendly to use as simply slotting in an Xbox expansion card, it was a lot less expensive for PS5 owners.

There’s no quick fix for Microsoft’s Xbox console pricing, but it’s not an easy issue for the rest of the industry to navigate either. We’ve already seen PS5 sales plummet after price rises, and Valve also raised Steam Deck prices by more than $200 last month. All eyes are now on Valve’s pricing for its Steam Machine this summer, which could hint at the direction of Xbox and PlayStation pricing decisions.

Microsoft is disabling Office 2019 for Mac next month

2026-06-10T05:14:35-04:00

Microsoft’s Office 2019 apps for Mac will stop working next month, because the company isn’t renewing a certificate that validates Office licenses. Owners of Office 2019 for Mac are being warned they’ll have to purchase Office 2024 or a Microsoft 365 subscription if they want to continue editing documents.

Microsoft previously promised that “all your Office 2019 apps will continue to function,” when it announced end of support in 2023. The company then quietly updated that support note last month to remove the mention of apps continuing to function, replacing it with “Rest assured that all your Office 2019 apps won’t lose any data.”

Starting on July 13th, Office 2019 for Mac and Office 2021 for Mac will both run in “reduced functionality mode,” allowing people to open files but not edit, save, or create new documents. The reduced functionality will impact Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote.

While Microsoft is providing a certificate update for Office 2021 as it’s still supported until October 13th, 2026, the company is leaving Office 2019 for Mac users out in the cold as support for these apps ended a few years ago. “Office 2019 for Mac reached end of support on October 10, 2023, and no longer receives updates,” says Microsoft. “Because Office 2019 cannot be updated to the required version, this issue cannot be resolved by updating or reinstalling Office 2019 for Mac.”

JimmyTech points out that old versions of Microsoft 365 apps on Mac and iOS will also be affected by this certificate issue, but a simple update will fix it for those users.

Microsoft regularly ends support of software and there’s always the risk you could run into issues running older apps or versions of Windows. It’s still surprising to not see Microsoft make an exception here though, particularly because this certificate issue breaks the main functionality of an app you’ve paid a one-time license fee for.