After completion of what Blizzard Entertainment is calling a “review of its business based on current organizational needs,” the large arm of Activision and creator of World of Warcraft has decided to let go of approximately 600 employees from its studios around the world.
“Constant evaluation of teams and processes is necessary for the long-term health of any business,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and co-founder of Blizzard. “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.”
The publisher has stated that 90 percent of jobs cut by this move will not come from departments related to game development. It also reassured fans that the World of Warcraft team would not be touched.
“Knowing that, it still does not make letting go of some of our team members any easier,” Morhaime stated. “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.”
Blizzard also revealed that it will unveil specific release plans for Diablo III “in the near future.” It addition, the company is striving towards beta stages for World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, Blizzard DOTA, and Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm.
