Blizzard announces staff cuts, development and release schedules not affected

It seems that the economy isn’t too good these days, with companies laying off their staff, and Blizzard is no different. The company has recently announced that they will be cutting about 600 employees from their operations all over the world, and while we know that Diablo 3 has been delayed, fret not as apparently these cuts will not be affecting Blizzard’s release of games. 

“Constant evaluation of teams and processes is necessary for the long-term health of any business. Over the last several years, we’ve grown our organization tremendously and made large investments in our infrastructure in order to better serve our global community. However, as Blizzard and the industry have evolved we’ve also had to make some difficult decisions in order to address the changing needs of our company,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “Knowing that, it still does not make letting go of some of our team members any easier. We’re grateful to have had the opportunity to work with the people impacted by today’s announcement, we’re proud of the contributions they made here at Blizzard, and we wish them well as they move forward.”

The company has anticipated that about 90% of these cuts are from departments not related to game development, indicating that the World of Warcraft development team will not be affected, and that development and publishing schedules will not be impacted. Blizzard has also announced that specific release plans for Diablo 3 will be announced in the near future.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Gaming
Tags: Blizzard