In the fourth round of layoffs in the past six months, Activision Blizzard has warned its employees to expect more downsizing as it closes its publishing offices in Europe.
According to a report from GamesIndustry.biz, Activision Blizzard, the company behind World of Warcraft and Candy Crush among others is centralizing its European operations to one office in the UK, leaving many employees without a path forward with the company.
All of this restructuring and firing occurs at the same time that Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard, is poised to receive a multi-million dollar bonus.
“Players are increasingly choosing to connect with our games digitally,” reads the statement issued to GamesIndustry.biz, seemingly a justification for the impending layoffs.
“We have shared plans with our teams in Europe for how we would evolve as an organisation, adapting to this change to serve our players and best positioning the region for future growth. We will be taking extensive steps to support all employees and ease the transition for those of our colleagues who might be impacted by these proposed changes.”
The layoffs are apparently meant to affect the publishing department, not the development, customer support, or live operations. These layoffs come after a separate round of layoffs to the company’s Esports programming and live events department, according to a report from Bloomberg.
Laid off employees in the US will receive a minimum of 90 days severance and health benefits for a year, “job transition support,” and a $200 gift card for Battle.net, according to Bloomberg.
In 2019, Activision Blizzard laid off hundreds of employees in publishing, marketing and sales. In October of 2020, the company closed its Versailles office, affecting hundreds more of former employees.
In spite of all this, Kotick reportedly received a nearly $200 million stock bonus.
In 2020, Activision Blizzard’s reported profits were $8.09 billion, up from 2019’s $6.49 billion. Despite these rising profits, the continued waves of layoffs will leave hundreds of gaming employees out in the cold in an industry that’s still in the midst of covid-related uncertainty.
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