The rumours weren’t lying: the publisher is firing several employees.

During their financial earnings call, they confirmed that 8% of Activision Blizzard‘s workforce will have to leave the company, and mostly the non-game development departments will feel the sting that affects nearly eight hundred people. Meanwhile, Activision’s bigger franchises, such as Call of Duty and Diablo, will see expansion in their respective development teams. (At Blizzard, it’s likely Diablo 4, but they might also need people for World of Warcraft Classic or Warcraft III Reforged.) Activision, Blizzard, and King are all affected (and with King, an American studio is closing, laying off 78 employees in the process).

„Staffing levels on some teams are out of proportion with our current release slate. This means we need to scale down some areas of our organization. I’m sorry to share that we will be parting ways with some of our colleagues in the U.S. today,” J. Allen Brack, the president of Blizzard, wrote. They don’t plan to release a major game this year, though! Activision mentioned it during the call: „Turning to Blizzard, we expect materially lower financial performance this year. 2018 benefited from the release of World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth, whereas we are not planning a major frontline release for 2019.” The company ended 2018 with „softness for its in-game revenues that will take time to stabilize and return to growth. While these factors will weigh on Blizzard’s financials this year, looking further ahead, Blizzard‘s pipeline of PC, console, and mobile content is richer than ever, and we expect the significant addition of development resources to accelerate the pace of delivery over time.”

So the company is laying off employees, but they are also hopeful about the future. What a weird combination. At least they are giving out severance packages, plus Square Enix already offered the affected people to look around on their site for a possible new job.

Source: Gematsu, PCGamer, PCGamer, VentureBeat