Activision/Blizzard Sack 780 Employees
Last weekend reports emerged that Activision/Blizzard was preparing to lay-off a significant number of staff members as concerns were growing over the companies performance. At the time, exact numbers were not known. Early indications, however, suggested that around 200 employees would be imminently let go.
Well, in a report via PCGamesN, the job cuts have been confirmed but the number is significantly higher than previously thought. Around 780 employees are going to be made redundant! Oh, incidentally, just when the company announced it had made record profits for the year. Nice timing!
Playing Devils Advocate
While this does seem like a bit of a slap in the face, I am a little sympathetic to the Activision / Blizzard situation. All indications are suggesting that while the company may have had a decent year, this year is looking pretty grim. It’s well known that neither company has much lined up for 2019. Certainly, nothing too impressive I’m aware of. As such, some early preventative cost-cutting measures simply make sense. I do, however, suspect that many will not see it this way.
Some Good News
While the news of anyone losing their job is often saddening, there is some (slightly) good news. With hashtags such as ‘gamedevjobs’ and ‘gamejobs’ trending on Twitter, many other game developers are making efforts to try and offer roles to some of the staff who have been let go. It’s not much, but it’s a nice move for the industry to make. Then again, it isn’t every day that a developer sacks 8% of its workforce.
Hopefully, and all going well, these employees can find something new quickly. In the meantime, however, the immediate future of Activision / Blizzard remains more than a little questionable.
What do you think? Are you surprised at the number of job cuts? Is Blizzard/Activision in deeper trouble than we realise? – Let us know in the comments!
