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[Shin]

Update: Shortly after publishing this story, Blizzard Entertainment got in touch to provide comment on this story.
The firm has said that these job cuts were not easy but that they will secure the developer and publisher's future.

“We are unable to provide additional details beyond what we’ve publicly disclosed," the company told PCGamesInsider.biz in a statement.

"While the changes were difficult, they were important for supporting our current game-development priorities, which will serve as the foundation for Blizzard’s future. This will ultimately put us in the best position to create epic, high-quality content and entertainment experiences for our players around the world.”

Original story: We now have a better idea of how Blizzard's business in the United States has been affected by the eight per cent workforce reduction announced by Activision Blizzard CEO Robert Kotick in February.

In total, 209 members of staff have been let go from the Overwatch and World of Warcraft giant.

That's according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) filing obtained by PCGamesInsider.biz that was submitted with California's Employment Development Department by Blizzard Entertainment on February 12th, 2019.
This details not just job losses in that state, but across the entire of the United States of America, and shows how many cuts have been made in individual departments.

NOTE: This is an update of where the jobs will be cut, original story can be found here - https://www.neogaf.com/threads/acti...undreds-of-jobs-caps-tumultuous-week.1472115/

Source: PCGamesInsider
Credit: GamesIndustryBiz

 

[AnotherOne]

Damn.. hopefully they find new employment soon.

 

[Jigsaah]

Records profits last year. If their conscience is eating at them...good. They had more than enough profit to secure those people's jobs or re purpose them. They chose this route simply to appease the investors amid the loss of Destiny 2. Lies...all lies.

 

[KoolAidPitcher]

Get woke...

You know the rest.

PS: Really sad to see anyone lose their jobs. I'm sure everyone being let go was talented and will land on their feet.

 

[Fuz]

The firm has said that these job cuts were not easy but that they will secure the developer and publisher's future.

 

[wipeout364]

I honestly don’t understand how activision can’t see they need to invest in new ip. They have so much cash and I don’t mean things like destiny, actual IP that they own.

Blizzard does need a kick in the ass but I don’t think firing people is necessarily the way to go about it. They have overwatch and hearthstone as new ip and hero’s of the storm but I feel like they could do more.

 

[Simply_Bry]

How do you want to make more content with 800 less employers?

 

[Azula]

Sorry if this has been answered. But were the jobs cut PR / community / e-sports related with those respected titles?

Or were they developers? I only ask because, while the company made record profits, if they made a decision to exit those areas, then cutting those jobs would make sense regardless of their profits.

But I’ve been hearing so much back and forth on this. I guess I need to research this more. I still think regardless, if they made record profits, they should have re-purposed those jobs or tried to get them to fill other positions if possible. But I guess it depends what jobs were cut.

 

[Raph64]

Man, I hope Blizzard will be able to.. chill out one day.

Spoiler

I am so so sorry.

 

[Azula]

Records profits last year. If their conscience is eating at them...good. They had more than enough profit to secure those people's jobs or re purpose them. They chose this route simply to appease the investors amid the loss of Destiny 2. Lies...all lies.

I didn’t know this. That is messed up :/

Can’t imagine what they are going through. To have your livelihood just ended. I hope everyone gets hired with other companies, given their experience and resume.

 

[zeorhymer]

Lets be honest. Blizzard has been spending money like water and haven't been being responsible with their budget. They've even been pushing esports in order to generate revenue and that's not even doing that well compared to established pro sports. Worldwide esports made $865 mil and half of that was from Asia. (source). While just NFL made $13 billion in 2016 (source), Blizzard is trying to get a slice of that pie, but it's not growing as fast as they were expecting. Activision probably put their foot down and is trying to rein in on their spending and forcing them to look at the numbers.

 

[Afro Republican]

Right now Activision has only Overwatch and COD as heavy money hitters. The few legacy stuff still alive isn't really doing much, Crash and Spyro are small potatoes, and while Crash sold 10 million that was for a lower budget title at $40 USD.

With Skylanders dead, Tony Hawk revival failure, the break-up with Destiny/Bungie, and Diablo stabilizing, they really don't have much of anything left.

Activision is basically relying on two FPS at the moment, one that's still top but has been having sales inconsistencies and that may hurt them a lot next generations, and one that's starting to tapper off.

Activision doesn't have sports titles and F2P MTX success like EA does to make up for the disparity,so this could be an issue once next gen comes around.

 

[Solo Act]

Worldwide esports made $865 mil and half of that was from Asia. (source). While just NFL made $13 billion in 2016 (source)

"Just NFL" is the single most profitable professional sports league in the world. I doubt Activision was expecting esports to be on that level. If they did, they have made a poor calculation.

 

[Acerac]

I wish I was surprised but that sounds about right. The last time I was excited for a Blizzard product it was one designed by people no longer working there. -_--

 

[DonF]

they fire 200 people, yet give bobby kotick a 30 million bonus...smh

 

[Ailike]

they fire 200 people, yet give bobby kotick a 30 million bonus...smh

While you're not entirely wrong in your... outrage, I guess? if they can get by with 200 less people, don't they have a fiscal opportunity to do so? Corporations aren't charities. And I know we've all worked at jobs where they certainly did not need every one of your coworkers. Sometimes those extra people actually slowed things down. I can think of more than one job I've had that could've used a little more "lean". While Kotick is an asshole, yes, businesses don't exist to give people free money just to exist because they can, when they don't have to based on corporate goals.

So maybe just...75% outrage?

 

[TLZ]

"While the changes were difficult, they were important for supporting our current CEO's massively greedy $30,000,000 salary, because priorities"

Fixed.

 

[SLoWMoTIoN]

What do CEO's even do besides get blowjobs from secretaries anyway?

 

[Zog]

Why say 'more than 200' instead of just saying '209'?

 

[McHuj]

What do CEO's even do besides get blowjobs from secretaries anyway?

A lot more work than the buys at the bottom. It’s a 24/7 job. Every C level executive I’ve met pretty much works non-stop.

 

[Acerac]

What do CEO's even do besides get blowjobs from secretaries anyway?

Find the best way for their companies to maximize short term profits at the expense of everything else.

 

[sol_bad]

We have many new plans for Overwatch, plans like firing people from their job.

 

[Codes 208]

They said they had more ideas for overwatch.

I was hoping this wasn’t one of them.

 

[ReBurn]

Crash and Spyro are small potatoes, and while Crash sold 10 million that was for a lower budget title at $40 USD.

10 million x $40 is $400,000,000 revenue potential. That's no small potatoes. Even 25% of that is not small potatoes.

 

[The_Mike]

Maybe it would have happened either way, but I fear that this wouldn't have happened if Activision wasn't a part of Blizzard.

So sad to see that we might lose this great developer one day, maybe sooner than I once were thinking.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

That's the way business works. Doesn't matter if Activision makes as much as Apple or MS. Businesses aren't in business to act like charity. Hell, non-profit organizations charitable companies are even worse as they try to hire as many volunteers as possible while the CEO may make millions.

Just got to be versatile and a good catch for another company to hire you.

A company pays an employee to do work. Nothing more.

If employees expect lots of freebie jobs when the going is good, then it should be a two way street..... which ZERO employees would want to do........ if the company starts doing badly and losing money, how about for fucking up you take big salary cuts or pay the company back with all that cash they paid you expecting good successful work.

As much as companies will let people go, employees are no different. They leave for greener pastures too with that whopping two week notice.

A company fires someone and they have to pay some severance (at least for most jobs) to give people a break. An employee decides to quit on the spot or give 2 weeks notice, and the company has to start from scratch to rehire, retrain and hope everything works out. How about if someone quits, they have to pay the company 2 weeks salary?