Activision is about to lay off hundreds of employees
Potentially hundreds of Activision Blizzard employees will see their jobs terminated this week as the videogames publishing giant announces cost-cutting and restructuring initiatives. The move comes on the heels of disappointing earnings over the past year and a split with Destiny 2 developer Bungie last month.
Sources told Bloomberg that Activision Blizzard wants to centralize functions and boost profits, and that part of the plan will include layoffs that could cost hundreds of employees their jobs. Activision Blizzard includes both Activision and Blizzard Entertainment, as well as mobile games developer King Digital.
In January, Activision fired Chief Financial Officer Spencer Neumann, who was then quickly picked up by Netflix. Activision brought back former CFO Dennis Durkin, who had served in the role from 2012-2017, giving him a $3.75 million signing bonus and some $11.3 million in stock, plus a $900,000 annual salary.
It’s been a tough few months at the company. Destiny 2’s Forsaken expansion failed to meet Activision’s sales expectations, and company stock took a significant hit after the ill-received announcement of the mobile-only Diablo: Immortal at Blizzcon in November. Player counts for tentpole titles like Overwatch and Hearthstone have remained flat or are in decline, Bloomberg reported.
Kotaku’s Jason Schreier reports that employees have been anticipating some kind of announcement like this for some time, with rumors of layoffs intensifying over the past week.
Exactly how many Activision employees will be hit by the layoffs, or how they’ll be distributed throughout its constituent companies, is not yet clear; however, an official announcement is expected some time Tuesday.
EA writer Mitch Dyer responded to the news of layoffs by helpfully tweeting a database of game development job listings to help anyone affected by the layoffs find new employment. The list includes links to job boards for hundreds of developers and publishers around the world.
