According to official documents obtained by Variety, the massive layoffs affected Blizzard studios in California, New York, Texas, and Minnesota. Activision Blizzard also noted that several factors came into play when the company decided who to lay off, such as “business needs, job skills, performance, redundancy, job elimination, and restructuring needs.”
Activision Blizzard clarified that none of the employees who were let go were represented by a union and everyone that lost a job was given 60 days compensation and benefits, plus a severance package. Moreover, Blizzard’s IT department was the most to be affected after it lost 41 employees, followed by the Marketing and Live Experiences departments that laid off 29 employees each.
When Activision Blizzard announced that it would be reducing staff numbers last month, some people were surprised since the company had a successful 2018. In a recent earnings call, CEO Bobby Kotick announced that Activision Blizzard has once again “achieved record results in 2018.” Ironically enough, Kotick also used the same earnings call to confirm that Activision Blizzard would be laying off eight percent of its workforce.
Although the purpose of the restructuring process is to balance out staff levels, the publisher said that it is also aware of the negative implications a massive layoff might bring in the future. In a recent SEC filing, Activision Blizzard warned investors that a reduced workforce is more than likely to lead to longer production time for titles that are currently in development. Nevertheless, CEO Eric Hirshberg is still optimistic on certain areas of the company, especially since Black Ops 4’s Blackout mode is proving to be popular among its players.
Source: Variety
