SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Activision Blizzard Inc. said Wednesday that it is laying off about 600 employees from the game publisher’s Blizzard Entertainment unit, which runs the popular “World of Warcraft” franchise.
In a statement, Blizzard said about 90 percent of the job cuts will come from departments “not related to game development.”
The development team for “Warcraft” will not be affected by the cuts.
“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,” Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime said in the statement.
The job cuts, which represent about eight percent of Activision Blizzard’s roughly 7,300 employees, come after the company reported record fourth-quarter earnings thanks in part to a strong showing from its “Call of Duty: Elite” and “Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure” games.
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