Blizzard Announces Around 600 Layoffs

In what has to be a Blizzard Entertainment-only thing, we received a press release from the Diablo, Warcraft, and StarCraft developer that they’re laying off around 600 employees, though most of them are apparently unrelated to game development and the World of Warcraft development team was left untouched.  A first for the company, I’m sure:

Blizzard Entertainment Announces Staff Reductions

IRVINE, Calif.- Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced that it has conducted a review of its business based on current organizational needs. Following a completion of the review, the company is conducting a global reduction in workforce of approximately 600 employees. The company anticipates approximately 90% of the affected employees will come from departments not related to game development. The World of Warcraft®development team will not be impacted.

“Constant evaluation of teams and processes is necessary for the long-term health of any business. 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,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “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.”

Blizzard’s current development and publishing schedules will not be impacted. The company will announce specific release plans for  Diablo® III  in the near future, and it’s continuing to drive aggressively toward beta testing for  World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandariaâ„¢, Blizzard DOTA,  and  StarCraft® II: Heart of the Swarmâ„¢. Blizzard also remains committed to maintaining its high standards of quality for customer service delivery. In addition, Blizzard is still recruiting and looking to hire qualified developers for a number of open positions. Further details are available at  http://jobs.blizzard.com.

The accounting charges associated with Blizzard’s reduction in workforce are not anticipated to be material to Activision Blizzard, Inc. and were included in the 2012 financial outlook that was provided on February 9, 2012.

About Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.
Best known for blockbuster hits including  World of Warcraft® and the  Warcraft®,  StarCraft®, and  Diablo® series, Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. (www.blizzard.com), a division of Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI), is a premier developer and publisher of entertainment software renowned for creating some of the industry’s most critically acclaimed games. Blizzard Entertainment’s track record includes thirteen #1-selling games and multiple Game of the Year awards. The company’s online-gaming service,  Battle.net®, is one of the largest in the world, with millions of active users.

Best of luck to everyone that lost their job then, our sincere hope is that you’ll manage to find another one as soon as possible.