Xbox 360 makers are considering large-scale job cuts, executives at the technology giant apparently eying a response to the global financial crisis, which is expected to hit the company's revenue in the coming year.

It is unclear whether the thousands of people employed by Microsoft to work on the and its related games are at risk at this stage, but all parts of Microsoft are apparently at threat - especially those based outside of the United States.

Any major job cuts would be the first in the company's 32 year history, with at least 10% of the global workforce facing redundancy, a figure that could rise as high as 17%, according to The Independent.

While nothing has been officially confirmed yet, speculation emerging from within Microsoft apparently suggests that European operations could be impacted more severely than elsewhere. Microsoft does of course own large developers such as and Rare, not to mention running sizable in-house operations related to their next-gen games console.

We'll bring you more on this as we get it.

By Luke Guttridge