Activision Blizzard fired about 50 people today, Bloomberg and Sports Business Journal reported.
The cuts are said to come mainly from live events from the publisher and sports companies.
“Players are increasingly choosing to connect to our games digitally,” said an Activision Blizzard representative GamesIndustry.biz. “Everything we do is through the lens of our players and over the past year we’ve been exploring how we could better meet their needs.
“The sports team, like the traditional sports, entertainment and broadcasting industries, has had to adapt its business due to the impact that the pandemic has had on events in “We have kept the vast majority of the team for a complex year and these changes have been not made lightly, especially in the current environment. We are taking extensive steps to facilitate the transition to all affected employees.”
The representative did not immediately return a request for clarification as to which division the cuts came from.
Speaking to Sports Business Journal, the president of sports and entertainment at Activision Blizzard, Tony Petitti, said the live events of Call of Duty League and Overwatch League will not go away altogether.
“Last year we learned a lot about how leagues can be structured to play online and we will try to push forward best practices,” Petitti said. “In terms of time, it’s a reaction to the reality of how the leagues are playing and what resources we need to allocate to better serve the league, the owners, the teams and the fans.”
An Activision Blizzard representative clarified this further, saying that “live events continue to be part of both the Overwatch League and Call of Duty League strategies. We plan to return as soon as it is safe and logistically feasible. . “
Bloomberg reports that laid-off U.S. employees will receive at least 90 days of compensation and one year of health benefits.
Blizzard closed offices in France and the Netherlands last October and cut staff at its Asia-Pacific studios in November. Among those layoffs, he announced plans to hire 2,000 people to meet production demands.