Activision Blizzard just can’t seem to catch a break. In light of the news that yet another law firm is trying to get a lead plaintiff together in the class action suits being contemplated by investors, it’s now been revealed that the Activision Blizzard layoffs are going to affect over 200 employees from the Blizzard portion of the corporation.
Activision had announced last month that it would be laying off staff to narrow its focus onto well-performing, popular franchises like Overwatch. In light of the news that Activision’s CEO, Bobby Kotick, is one of the most well-remunerated executives around, this news about layoffs at the company was received particularly poorly by the community.
Now, Variety has reported that out of the 800 employees who are going to be affected by the Activision Blizzard layoffs, more than a quarter are going to be from the Blizzard part of the organization. These employees were given 60 days of compensation and benefits as part of being laid off, and it looks like the department within Blizzard that lost the most employees as part of this restructuring was their IT department.
It appears to be that the cuts made were to administrative staff or to employees working in more of a support than a development capacity. In fact, Blizzard had mentioned that it would have an increased focus this year on the development of its most popular series and that minimizing on other fronts was necessary for the company’s new priorities.
Hot on the heels of the lawsuits being contemplated against Activision Blizzard for the way that it handled its split from Bungie, this information coming to light could throw another wrench into the works for the company as it prepares itself for the upcoming financial year.
Activision Blizzard hasn’t exactly engendered a lot of goodwill within the industry for its action of late, and the news that some of Blizzard’s most popular properties are likely going to be affected by a layoff of this magnitude surely won’t be received well either. Considering the way that things have trended at the company since ex-Blizzard president Mike Morhaime left and how their new CEO received a sweetener of 15 million dollars to sign up, these Activision Blizzard layoffs disrupting the lives of over 800 people seems particularly cruel.
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Source: Variety
