Activision has laid off approximately 30 employees and will release fewer licensed games, as the publisher moves to “realign” company structure.
The cuts will affect not only Treyarch, the studio responsible for Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, but according to Activision will also affect parts of the company involved with licensed games. So it would seem even big money-makers like Activision aren’t impervious to lay-offs. Though looking at the big picture, 30 people is nowhere near as bad as it could be, and Activision makes sure to defend themselves by laying out the numbers, as this only represents “one half of one per cent of Activision’s Blizzard’s employee population.”
Having said that, it’s still people now out of work, that Activision is almost sweeping under the rug because it wasn’t “a lot” of layoffs.
In addition, Activision will also “expect to release fewer games” for 2013, as a result of realigning to better reflect the market. Right now, the company releases most titles annual or semi-annually, most notably in the James Bond, Transformers and Spider-man. All signs point to the Bond series calling it quits, as Activision hasn’t exactly had that much success with the games. Now, it looks like Activision may be taking a break from putting out licensed games and focusing on other titles.
Of course in the midst of Activision layoffs and company restructure, the company did note that the Black Ops 2 DLC would not be affected.