Activision Blizzard is set to lay off hundreds of workers from its mobile gaming divisions in California to eliminate redundancies among its workforce.
The development follows the company's $75.4 billion merger with software giant Microsoft Corp. The latest round of layoffs comes after the more than 1,000 employees who were laid off over the past year by the studio.
Activision Blizzard's Layoffs
These ranged from operations in Novato and Foster City in the Bay Area to Southern California offices.
Activision Blizzard informed the Employment Development Department (EDD) that 140 jobs will be eliminated starting Oct. 11, 2024, at Blizzard Entertainment in Irvine.
The jobs that are being cut include a broad range of positions within the company's Irvine operations.
They allegedly include accountants, software engineers, the director of human resources for World of Warcraft video games, and many others, according to Silicon Valley.
The information was based on a letter filed by the director of Activision Blizzard's human resources, Leslie Campbell. She was not immediately available to comment regarding the hundreds of layoffs that had just been announced.
Activision Blizzard spokeswoman Delay Simmons released an email statement about the issue. They said that anything in the WARN system would be part of reductions that were previously announced by the company.
In January earlier this year, the Microsoft Gaming divisions Activision Blizzard, XBox, and ZeniMax saw 1,900 layoffs. In September, Microsoft Gaming announced that it was laying off another 650 workers, WCCFTech said.
Simmons added that the recent layoffs are part of the recent news and are not really new developments. She said that the roles that were impacted include primarily corporate and supporting roles with only some impacts on gaming teams.
The Latest Round of Job Cuts
The job cuts are said to be arriving in waves with the first hitting Irvine and Santa Monica. On the other hand, layoffs will hit Playa Vista in November later this year. It was also noted that all layoffs at the three locations are expected to be completed by the end of the year.
Microsoft Gaming chief executive Phil Spencer said in an email earlier this month that layoffs were part of efforts to align their post-acquisition team structure. They were also made as part of their managing their business.
The Southern California layoffs seemed to reflect the positions that were being affected by them. In this area, the job roles that were being cut involved recruiting, information technology (IT), and human resources, according to the Los Angeles Times.
