Activision Blizzard cuts 800 jobs despite record year of revenues
Around 8% of staff overall across the business now looking for work
Gaming giant Activision Blizzard has started the process of laying off around 8% of its staff, despite 2018 being its best year for revenues in the company's history.
Per Kotaku, Activision Blizzard had around 9,600 staff in 2018. An 8% reduction therefore equates to around 800 people losing their jobs. A small consolation to this is that those affected will at least receive a severance package, unlike staff affected by layoffs at Telltale Games last year.
VentureBeat reports that King's studio Z2Live is being shuttered as part of the layoffs, affecting 78 jobs. The Seattle-based studio is known for games like Paradise Bay, and is estimated to have generated over $200 million in revenue over the last few years.
According to its financial release, Activision Blizzard generated $7.5 billion in revenues in 2018, the highest it has ever made in its entire history. On the mobile side of things, the launch of Candy Crush Friends Saga was deemed a success, helping to grow both revenue and profits for King.
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Reach out to us if this affects you or you want to improve conditions in the industry.https://t.co/Ew4tbnwX0h — Game Workers Unite (@GameWorkers) February 12, 2019
Activision CEO Bobby Kotick had this to say about 2018's record performance of $7.5 billion in revenue: "While our financial results for 2018 were the best in our history, we didn't realize our full potential."
Hopefully those affected by the layoffs will find work soon. Twitter is already ablaze with support from the games industry, with studios across the globe highlighting their current job opportunities for now out-of-work developers to apply for.
Mobile developers may want to check the PocketGamer.biz Jobs Board for companies hiring in different parts of the world, though be aware that it hasn't been updated in quite some time and may contain studios that are either not hiring or are no longer active.
This year's Call of Duty will have a single-player mode, too. That's not as important as 800 jobs being lost, but it is another fact which came out of the financial releases.
