Over the past week, rumours have circulated that publisher Activision-Blizzard was planning to lay off a large chunk of their workforce. Today, the company held a conference where they confirmed that they would be terminating a hefty 8% of their employees. That 8% translates to about 800 staff members.
CEO Bobby Kotick explained that while Activision-Blizzard achieved record numbers in 2018, they still overestimated their expected earnings. To prepare for 2019, the company had to restructure its workforce, mainly by cutting non-game-developers to bolster the development teams for games like Call of Duty and Diablo.
The layoffs have affected Activision and Blizzard, as well as other organizations associated with Activision, such as King and a few smaller studios. All workers affected were notified and supplied with a “comprehensive service package,” which included help finding new work.
News of the terminations was reported by Kotaku, where Blizzard President J. Allen Brack said that “many of (Blizzard’s) non-development teams expanded to support various needs,” continuing by explaining that these non-development divisions had grown too cumbersome for the company. Brack also apologized to all employee’s affected, saying that he was “sorry to share that (Blizzard would) be parting ways with some of our colleagues in the U.S. today.”
