Activision Blizzard axe 600 people ‘not related to game development’

Very few game makers are bigger than Activision Blizzard, however even they need to monitor their staff count. They currently employ 7,300 people, according to the last reports in January this year. 600 people are going to be culled in a ‘clean up' campaign inside the organisation. This is said to lower overheads and to streamline the departments.

Blizzard announced that 90% of the job cuts are coming from departments ‘not related to game development'. The development team for World Of Warcraft is not going to be touched.

Blizzard have been hard at work with Diablo III, a follow up to the cult classic which a huge audience are waiting to play. Blizzard haven't announced the release date yet, but the game is said to be launched soon. The company are responsible for the StarCraft series of games and the Call Of Duty franchise. Their biggest money maker is World Of Warcraft however, which has around 10 million subscribers. This title alone accounted for a huge percentage of their $1.2 billion in sales last year.

They face a stiff new challenge from Star Wars: The Old Republic, released by Electronic Arts. According to reports, this game has already gathered the interest of 1.7 million active gamers, and if the growth can be maintained then it could cause a problem for Blizzard sales down the line.

Kitguru says: World Of Warcraft has proven to be the most popular online MMORPG throughout the years, but we wonder if this will change by next year.

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