True to the rumours, Activision Blizzard has begun laying off employees. Kotaku reports that the company said during its earnings call that it will lay off 8% of its roughly 9600-strong staff. That’s very slightly under 800 people who have just lost their jobs.
The joint-publisher began notifying those affected across not only Activision and Blizzard, but also mobile game publisher King. The latter having been acquired in 2015.
Ironically, CEO Bobby Kotick told investors that the company had achieved record results in 2018. The restructuring is still happening, because despite record results, they were still short of initial expectations. To that end, the company is also lowered its sales expectations in 2019.
It’s pretty disheartening to see a company lay off employees in a year in which its revenue achieved new heights. Worse still, it looks like it will be affecting employees outside of the US too, “subject to local requirements,” as said by Blizzard president J. Allen Brack.
(Source: Kotaku)
