Blizzard Cuts ~600 Staff

[Feb 29, 2012, 3:00 pm ET] - Share - Viewing Comments

Blizzard Entertainment announces "staff reductions," as they are cutting approximately 600 positions, saying that: "The company anticipates approximately 90% of the affected employees will come from departments not related to game development," and that: "The World of Warcraft development team will not be impacted." The World of Warcraft Forums (thanks Joao via PC Gamer) have a message from Mike Morhaime with more on this. Here's a portion:

After evaluating our current organizational needs, we determined that while some areas of our business had been operating at the right levels and could benefit from further growth, other areas had become overstaffed. As a result, we need to scale down some of our departments and part with some of our colleagues and friends here at Blizzard. I know that you all understand how difficult this type of situation can be for anyone who might be affected, so I want to assure you that we'll be offering each impacted employee a severance package and other benefits.

I also want to emphasize that we remain committed to shipping multiple games this year, and that our development teams in particular remain largely unaffected by today's announcement. We're continuing to develop, iterate, and polish Blizzard DOTA, Diablo III, StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm, World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, as well as other, unannounced projects. We'll have exciting news to share in the coming weeks regarding Diablo III's release date, and will soon be holding a private media event to showcase the latest work on Mists of Pandaria. It goes without saying that we're working hard to get all of these games in your hands as soon as possible.

View

58 Replies. 3 pages. Viewing page 3.
< Newer [ 1 2 3 ] Older >

18.

Re: Blizzard Cuts ~600 Staff

Feb 29, 2012, 16:24

Mashiki Amiketo

Krovven wrote on Feb 29, 2012, 15:30:

You feel confident in saying that without having any clue what their reasons were?

Assuming this was mostly customer support staff, it's probably because Blizzard is switching over to Activision's support division or they are just outsourcing to a company in India that will do the same job for a fraction of what it costs them to do in the US.

Considering how shitty blizzards tech support was two years ago when I quit playing WoW, I don't think anyone would notice.




-- "For every human problem, there is a neat, simple solution; and it is always wrong." --H.L. Mencken

17.

Re: Blizzard Cuts ~600 Staff

Feb 29, 2012, 16:17

Mr. Tact

Krovven wrote on Feb 29, 2012, 15:30:
You feel confident in saying that without having any clue what their reasons were?

Yes. Even if it's three 200 people shifts, that's a lot of real estate they had for those employees. Facilities cost is second in line after salaries, especially in CA. Someone made some bad assumptions...




Truth is brutal. Prepare for pain.

16.

Re: Blizzard Cuts ~600 Staff

Feb 29, 2012, 16:06

Verno

Mr. Tact wrote on Feb 29, 2012, 15:09:
While I certainly understand the need to keep costs in control for this to happen at a highly profitable company means only one thing, poor management. If there is a legitimate need to release these employees, then those people probably never should have been hired.

Companies aren't static entities that always remain the same. They could have needed the staff two years ago and no longer need it anymore for a variety of legitimate reasons. Layoffs are always a shame and most companies (not run by idiots like say Bobby Kotick) try to avoid them at all costs but sometimes they are unavoidable regardless of how skilled management is or not.




Playing: Animal Crossing, Sleeping Dogs, Tales of Graces F Watching: Survivorman, Justified, Silent Running

15.

Re: Blizzard Cuts ~600 Staff

Feb 29, 2012, 15:30

Krovven

Mr. Tact wrote on Feb 29, 2012, 15:09: While I certainly understand the need to keep costs in control for this to happen at a highly profitable company means only one thing, poor management. If there is a legitimate need to release these employees, then those people probably never should have been hired. You feel confident in saying that without having any clue what their reasons were? Assuming this was mostly customer support staff, it's probably because Blizzard is switching over to Activision's support division or they are just outsourcing to a company in India that will do the same job for a fraction of what it costs them to do in the US.

14.

Re: Blizzard Cuts ~600 Staff

Feb 29, 2012, 15:16

LittleMe

Don't forget that this might also include some of their server/backend infrastructure staff.




Political freedom can only be preceded by economic freedom which is preceded by monetary freedom.

13.

Re: Blizzard Cuts ~600 Staff

Feb 29, 2012, 15:14

Hammer

More comments from Mike Morhaime (Blizz President) on the layoffs: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/4081816711 Among other things: ...our development teams in particular remain largely unaffected by today's announcement. Edit: nvm...just realized it had already been linked...

12.

Re: Blizzard Cuts ~600 Staff

Feb 29, 2012, 15:14

Quboid

Mr. Tact wrote on Feb 29, 2012, 15:09:
While I certainly understand the need to keep costs in control for this to happen at a highly profitable company means only one thing, poor management. If there is a legitimate need to release these employees, then those people probably never should have been hired.

I'd say the fact that they are a highly profitable company means good management. Someone like a games developer, workforce requirements change greatly depending on the status of your projects and adapting to this is what makes them highly profitable.




- Quboid

11.

Re: Blizzard Cuts ~600 Staff

Feb 29, 2012, 15:09

Mr. Tact

While I certainly understand the need to keep costs in control for this to happen at a highly profitable company means only one thing, poor management. If there is a legitimate need to release these employees, then those people probably never should have been hired.




Truth is brutal. Prepare for pain.

10.

Re: Blizzard Cuts ~600 Staff

Feb 29, 2012, 15:06

Prez

I know that you all understand how difficult this type of situation can be for anyone who might be affected, so I want to assure you that we'll be offering each impacted employee a severance package and other benefits.

This is what people who read these stories are looking for. Understanding that this is often necessary when running a business, it is nice to know they at least understand they aren't just throwing out the trash - these are people.

As an aside, I wonder what the 60 people (the 10% who were in game development departments) were working on when they were let go.




Prez on Soundclick http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=604888

Re: Blizzard Cuts ~600 Staff

Feb 29, 2012, 14:56

Wallshadows

Reminds me of this video which was fueled by the layoff rumors in November of 2011. Although with the looming release of Diablo 3, I'm also inclined to believe it's just following the natural cycle of game development to dump either redundant staffing or staff which no longer apply to the project. Optional nickname wrote on Feb 29, 2012, 14:30: I am still not confident, that "the exciting news in the coming weeks re: D3's release date" will be about 'released' this year. I won't be surprised if its next Spring 2013. I would be willing to wait another month or two for them to integrate the online chat/social design from Diablo 2 in to Diablo 3 because the one they have now is atrocious. This comment was edited on Feb 29, 2012, 15:05.

Re: Blizzard Cuts ~600 Staff

Feb 29, 2012, 14:54

Quboid

Beelzebud wrote on Feb 29, 2012, 14:41:
Hard to keep handing out those CEO bonuses at the end of the year with all those pesky lower level employees sucking up all that sweet sweet money.

Hard to remain a successful business if you hang on to people out of charity. It sucks for these guys, but businesses need to work at survival and especially in a bad economy, it is survival of the fittest.

I don't know the details and maybe they are the sort of evil capitalist swine that it's so easy to villainise. But maybe they are being responsible to their shareholders and to their useful staff and some times, sucky decisions need to be made.




- Quboid

Re: Blizzard Cuts ~600 Staff

Feb 29, 2012, 14:41

Beelzebud

Hard to keep handing out those CEO bonuses at the end of the year with all those pesky lower level employees sucking up all that sweet sweet money.

Re: Blizzard Cuts ~600 Staff

Feb 29, 2012, 14:35

Antdude

I agree these cuts would mostly come from customer support, but don't take this as a sign that WoW is dying. WoW is not dying. Keep in mind, back in 2004-2006, Blizzard was trying to keep up with the explosive growth and demands of WoW. Hiring was at a fever pitch. I remember the worldwide launch of Burning Crusade and being impressed with the number of people and resources being put into the effort. Good times. Now, with more experience with the process and with subscriber numbers plateauing, Blizzard has a better plan for managing their growth, so the need for so many CS people is simply not so great anymore. Although I do wonder at the timing, as I agree that Diablo 3's launch will bring its own frenzy of issues, especially with the RMAH. In any case, I feel for any of the employees let go, since it seems like working at Blizzard would be a dream job(if I could just get that job in the cinematics dept!).

Re: Blizzard Cuts ~600 Staff

Feb 29, 2012, 14:30

Optional nickname

I am still not confident, that "the exciting news in the coming weeks re: D3's release date" will be about 'released' this year. I won't be surprised if its next Spring 2013.

Re: Blizzard Cuts ~600 Staff

Feb 29, 2012, 14:30

Darks

Burrito of Peace wrote on Feb 29, 2012, 14:03: I'm going to guess that those are all support staff jobs. Most likly this means D3 is about done and they cut staff that are no longer needed until the next project.

Re: Blizzard Cuts ~600 Staff

Feb 29, 2012, 14:13

m00t

All but 60, yeah. Between the large subscriber drop, newer tech and Diablo3 about to go out the door they simply don't need as many folks in some areas. I'm guessing the break down will be something like this: 50% Customer Support (WOW subscriber drop, lowered service levels, more efficient tools and automation, consolidation of support departments across the company) 20 - 30% IT lackeys (consolidated hardware, better tools) 10 - 20% QA (D3 getting ready to ship, lots of these people likely were considered somewhat temporary) 10% Devs (under performance, cancelled internal projects, and D3 about to ship, etc) That's my guess, at any rate.

Re: Blizzard Cuts ~600 Staff

Feb 29, 2012, 14:08

Cram

Definitely CS. It makes sense to me, and sort of doesn't. Much of their CS processes have improved significantly over the years, faster and more efficient. Much of it is probably far more automated now. With declining WoW numbers as well as the previously mentioned improvements in CS processes, you may have more people than tasks for them to do. However, with Diablo 3 due sometime soon, won't you need some of that manpower back? The RMAH alone adds a whole new monster to the CS department I would imagine. Also, Chaos! Pandemonium 2012! etc.

Re: Blizzard Cuts ~600 Staff

Feb 29, 2012, 14:03

Burrito of Peace

I'm going to guess that those are all support staff jobs.

58 Replies. 3 pages. Viewing page 3.
< Newer [ 1 2 3 ] Older >