Home Gaming Activision Blizzard to cut hundreds of jobs this week

Activision Blizzard to cut hundreds of jobs this week

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Activision

It’s going to be a tough week for some people in the video game industry. While it’s not official yet, it looks like Activision Blizzard will be shedding some weight on Tuesday as financial site Bloomberg has reported that the publisher will be handin0g out pink slips to hundreds of employees. According to sources who spoke to Kotaku, a mass axing of staff would occur before Activision Blizzard’s next big quarterly earnings call on February 12, with the jobs being cut belonging to mostly non-game development workers.

Think marketing and sales, roles which will be absorbed by Activision’s remaining staff. There’s a number of reasons why Activision is looking to lose some weight, even with their heavyweight franchise Call of Duty still proving to be a juggernaut at the sales charts. While Activision and Blizzard still operate largely autonomously from one another, decisions taken by its higher-ups that happen to be comprised of suits and executives, still have an effect on the entities.

Back in 2018, Blizzard embarked on cost-cutting measurements after chief operating officer Armin Zerza whose name kind of makes him sound like a Captain America villain decided that the veteran studio needed to start producing more games and to do so with leaner budgets. That influence from the Activision side of the partnership could be felt, as Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime departed the company and was replaced internally by J. Allen Brack who took up a position of president.

Heroes of the Storm saw its esports program murdered in its sleep as more resources were siphoned away from it, while Activision suffered a big knock to its portfolio as Bungie managed to negotiate their way out of a tumultuous partnership. Despite Destiny 2: Forsaken proving to be a banger with fans and on the charts, it still wasn’t good enough for Activision’s suits who expressed “disappointment” in the performance of the brilliant expansion.

Possibly the final straw on the back of a camel who’d had enough, Bungie left Activision and took Destiny with it, leaving the publisher short one tentpole franchise in the process. Currently, Activision’s output looks dismal. Beyond Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled later this year, the company only has Call of Duty to rely on.

While the next annual entry in the series will probably be able to earn a stupendous amount of cash come Q4, having to ditch Destiny and the staff who supported it, has no doubt left Activision in a dismal state for 2019. It’s the human cost that’s most worrying, as America’s video game industry job market can be utterly ruthless and unforgiving at the best of times. Good luck to those employees, who’ll be facing the axe this week.

Last Updated: February 11, 2019

15 Comments

  1. Activision-Blizzard hires a new CFO with $15million signing bonus and then month later sheds a couple of hundred jobs.

    After all the debacles last year it really seems that Activision-Blizzard really really wants to take away EA golden turd award.

    Reply

  2. Guz

    February 11, 2019 at 09:09

    We always root for the “bad” gaming companies to fail or boycott them but forget the flip side of the coin.

    If these company’s don’t perform, its the workers that will lose their jobs, and not necessarily the execs(the people that push for all the predatory practices in games).
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6485add8b425639a422d4136892e1e07ff1b7fcd13e891d20cdb084685fb7a43.png

    Reply

    • Allykhat

      February 11, 2019 at 09:41

      This is the harshest truth. Its the working peeps that get the axe, not the suits at the top that enforce the changes we hate.

      Reply

    • Pariah

      February 11, 2019 at 09:19

      The silver lining is that there is potential for these talented people to perhaps start up their own, smaller studios. Or join other, smaller, indie studios. Either way, there’s potential for them to take that experience and create something truly magical. The gaming industry really needs the AAA companies to get fucked, and smaller / AA studios to take the spotlight and create magic.

      Reply

      • Guz

        February 11, 2019 at 09:24

        Ya can always hope so, I see your glass is half full today xD

        Reply

        • Pariah

          February 11, 2019 at 09:29

          It is most days. I’m typically cautiously optimistic about things. Always wary where there’s prior history of cunt-assery, but still optimistic. Like Anthem, for example.

          Reply

  3. HvR

    February 11, 2019 at 12:14

    Activision-Blizzard hires a new CFO with $15million signing bonus and then month later sheds a couple of hundred jobs.

    After all the debacles last year it really seems that Activision-Blizzard really really wants to take away EA golden turd award.

    Reply

    • Pariah

      February 11, 2019 at 12:39

      ActiBlizzard have for a while been really shyte. Quite a while. But they’ve done plenty enough this last year to earn the de-facto prize for the biggest cunts in the industry.

      Reply

    • BradeLunner

      February 11, 2019 at 18:38

      dirty dirty behavior.

      Reply

  4. Mark Treloar

    February 12, 2019 at 08:04

    Odd that they are cutting jobs and hiring at the same time

    Reply

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