2018 was a tough year for the gaming industry, and it doesn’t look like the downward trend is going to let up anytime soon. Such is the case of Activision Blizzard, who is getting ready to announce job cuts that will reportedly layoff hundreds of its staff.
According to Bloomberg, the layoff is, unsurprisingly, part of the videogame developer and publisher’s effort to restructure the company. Aimed at centralising its overall functions, as well as to boost its profits. The layoffs are also expected to target non-development positions, which are basically roles in publishing, marketing, and sales to name a few.
Despite the changes, analysts are forecasting the company’s sales to decline by about 2% from US$7.48 billion (~RM30.46 billion) to US$7.28 billion (~RM29.98 billion). On a related note, Activision Blizzard’s share value also dropped by as much a 2.5%, hovering at the US$42.88 (~RM174.63) mark since Friday.
Coincidentally, the layoffs seem to come just a month after it was announced that the developer of the Destiny franchise, Bungie announced that it was ending its partnership with Activision Blizzard. In order to publish its franchise independently. It’s very likely that the positions being targeted are staff who were originally brought on to work on the Destiny 2 IP.
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It goes without saying that this isn’t the first time Blizzard Activision has let go of people. Back last year, both Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision, and Mike Morhaime, Blizzard Entertainment’s co-founder, resigned from their respective positions in the company.
Despite this, Activision Blizzard still stands as one of the largest developer and publisher in the video game industry. Under its belt, the company still owns the Call of Duty franchise under the Activision name. Under the Blizzard Entertainment umbrella, the company still rakes in millions from its World of Warcraft MMORPG.
