Blizzard Cleans House by Letting Go of 600 Employees

News
By Kevin Parrish
published

Approximately 600 employees globally have been given the pink slip by Blizzard.

Blizzard sent over a press release announcing that approximately 600 employees will be let go on a global scale. The company determined this was necessary after conducting a review of its business based on current organizational needs. Approximately 90-percent of the affected employees will come from departments not related to game development.

"Constant evaluation of teams and processes is necessary for the long-term health of any business," states Mike Morhaime, CEO and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment. "Over the last several years, we've grown our organization tremendously and made large investments in our infrastructure in order to better serve our global community."

"However, as Blizzard and the industry have evolved we've also had to make some difficult decisions in order to address the changing needs of our company," he adds. "Knowing that, it still does not make letting go of some of our team members any easier. We're grateful to have had the opportunity to work with the people impacted by today's announcement, we're proud of the contributions they made here at Blizzard, and we wish them well as they move forward."

The company states that the World of Warcraft development team will not be impacted by the layoffs, nor will the current development and publishing schedules be impacted. Specific release plans for Diablo 3 will be made in the near future while the studio continues to "drive aggressively" toward beta testing for World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, Blizzard DOTA, and StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm.

"Blizzard also remains committed to maintaining its high standards of quality for customer service delivery," the company states in its press release. "In addition, Blizzard is still recruiting and looking to hire qualified developers for a number of open positions."

Further details concerning open positions at Blizzard are available at http://jobs.blizzard.com.

Kevin Parrish
94 Comments Comment from the forums
  • tomc100
    Sounds like paper pushers.
    Reply
  • gokanis
    The power point guys should be the first to go.
    Reply
  • Perhaps some of these 600 will find employment as necromancers or paladins.
    Reply
  • isdav59
    idiots,these people worked hard for there pay,not all are paper pushers,most of them are the quality control monitors,but most of all they are average Americans once again losing there jobs because the greed of corporate companies,how can you be doing so good you decide to screw the workers who helped you get there.you might think its funny now but wait till its your turn....laugh that up
    Reply
  • greenspoon
    isdav59idiots,these people worked hard for there pay,not all are paper pushers,most of them are the quality control monitors,but most of all they are average Americans once again losing there jobs because the greed of corporate companies,how can you be doing so good you decide to screw the workers who helped you get there.you might think its funny now but wait till its your turn....laugh that up
    I love this. The greed of corporate companies! It is a BUSINESS, not a charity. If the employees are not needed they do not need to keep them. Even if the employees are needed they do not have to keep them. It has absolutely nothing to do with greed. I will never understand the mentality of some people. I would hazard to guess you have never ran a company.
    Reply
  • isdav59
    you are absolutely correct in your statement,that is the way employers think,it wasn't always that way.what ever happen to loyalty.you expects it in your employees,in fact demand it..yes business are not a charity.but i cant understand is the mentality of companies who thinks more for less.its never good enough.be thankful for the workers who helped you get to your billion dollar company.oh yeah then toss them away like trash.i wouldn't care to work for you
    Reply
  • IQ11110002
    That's right you tell them, They are just another commodity,Useless for anything else but to throw away after use(sarcasm). Exactly the mentality of this day and age and the reason the world is going to the shit morally.
    What was it last year $3.95 billion in profits? Ohh dear no where near enough to keep 600 jobs. sigh....
    If a compnay is losing money,No prob company needs to make some sacrifices,If it is still turning over a big profit make no mistake IT IS F%$&ING GREEEEEEEEEEEEEED!
    Reply
  • arael
    isdav59you are absolutely correct in your statement,that is the way employers think,it wasn't always that way.what ever happen to loyalty.you expects it in your employees,in fact demand it..yes business are not a charity.but i cant understand is the mentality of companies who thinks more for less.its never good enough.be thankful for the workers who helped you get to your billion dollar company.oh yeah then toss them away like trash.i wouldn't care to work for youWith your atrocious grasp of basic English I wouldn't hire you.

    Blizzard has lost quite a lot of subscribers which means less profit. No need for all the extra people providing support, either directly or indirectly.
    For all we know it could have been a few hundred administration staff who were there to carry out basic tasks that have been reassigned to others. They may have drawn the short straw when it came to deciding who got the boot. However in the end the business is there to make money. If they are employing staff that they don't really need to then it's obvious that they will start getting rid of people.
    Reply
  • whysobluepandabear
    greenspoonI love this. The greed of corporate companies! It is a BUSINESS, not a charity. If the employees are not needed they do not need to keep them. Even if the employees are needed they do not have to keep them. It has absolutely nothing to do with greed. I will never understand the mentality of some people. I would hazard to guess you have never ran a company.
    I also love when people have absolutely no understanding of greed. You do understand that the sky is not the limit when discussing economics? Eventually, it crashes - and you can only profit so much, before having to make so many cuts, it starts hurting everyone around you.

    Problem with capitalism....people only look at money and profits - literally ignoring everything else. Year, after year, has to be better and bigger. How long can you keep it up?

    These people love money and possessions over everything else - let's be real, if you were dying of cancer, they'd rather see you rot, than use a spare million in their account full of billions. They'd also rather see the collapse of the entire world, before they let anything from their self-entitled asses go.


    Business. Job creators. Blah, blah.


    It's sad really - we don't live to live - we live to work, and be slaves to a made up system, where nothing really means anything, other than a few get to live to live, while the rest work for them.
    Reply
  • isdav59
    you so funny
    Reply