Three months after it purchased Activision Blizzard, Microsoft has laid off 1,900 staff across multiple areas of its video game business.
In a continuation of the multiple job losses we’ve seen across the games industry in both 2023 and the first few weeks of this year, Microsoft has announced that it’s to lay off some 1,900 staff across multiple areas of its video game business. The move comes little more than three months after Microsoft purchased Activision Blizzard for a record-breaking $68.7bn.
Earlier today, IGN picked up a memo written by Xbox head Phil Spencer, who acknowledged the brief period of time between Microsoft’s acquisition and this round of job losses.
“As we move forward in 2024,” he wrote, “the leadership of Microsoft Gaming and Activision Blizzard is committed to aligning on a strategy and execution plan with a sustainable cost structure that will support the whole of our growing business.
In a continuation of the multiple job losses we’ve seen across the games industry in both 2023 and the first few weeks of this year, Microsoft has announced that it’s to lay off some 1,900 staff across multiple areas of its video game business. The move comes little more than three months after Microsoft purchased Activision Blizzard for a record-breaking $68.7bn.
Earlier today, IGN picked up a memo written by Xbox head Phil Spencer, who acknowledged the brief period of time between Microsoft’s acquisition and this round of job losses.
“As we move forward in 2024,” he wrote, “the leadership of Microsoft Gaming and Activision Blizzard is committed to aligning on a strategy and execution plan with a sustainable cost structure that will support the whole of our growing business.
- 1/25/2024
- by Ryan Lambie
- Film Stories
John Saavedra Feb 14, 2019
Blizzard will have a pretty dry year in terms of game releases in 2019, with no major titles planned.
Blizzard won't release any major titles in 2019, Activision confirmed during an earnings call (via IGN) in February, the same one that also cost nearly 800 employees their jobs. Despite the fact that the move was apparently made in order to beef up the development teams at the company, Blizzard won't have much to show for it this year.
"Turning to Blizzard, we expect materially lower financial performance this year," Activision said. "2018 benefited from the release of World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth, whereas we are not planning a major frontline release for 2019."
As Kotaku explained in the aftermath of the massive layoffs, Activision and Blizzard have apparently clashed over the latter company's output over the last few years. Updates and expansions to its current lineup of titles notwithstanding, Blizzard hasn't...
Blizzard will have a pretty dry year in terms of game releases in 2019, with no major titles planned.
Blizzard won't release any major titles in 2019, Activision confirmed during an earnings call (via IGN) in February, the same one that also cost nearly 800 employees their jobs. Despite the fact that the move was apparently made in order to beef up the development teams at the company, Blizzard won't have much to show for it this year.
"Turning to Blizzard, we expect materially lower financial performance this year," Activision said. "2018 benefited from the release of World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth, whereas we are not planning a major frontline release for 2019."
As Kotaku explained in the aftermath of the massive layoffs, Activision and Blizzard have apparently clashed over the latter company's output over the last few years. Updates and expansions to its current lineup of titles notwithstanding, Blizzard hasn't...
- 2/14/2019
- Den of Geek
Matthew Byrd Jan 14, 2019
When developing Justice League Task Force, Blizzard and DC battled over whether Superman kicks bad guys.
There's no such thing as asking too many questions when you're adapting popular superhero characters. One wrong read of a character's mythology and you'll suddenly find yourself dealing with an army of surprisingly irate fans. Still, when developing the Snes fighting game Justice League Task Force, Blizzard found themselves trying to answer the rather bizarre question: "Can Superman kick?"
In an interview with IGN, Blizzard co-founder Allen Adham remembers having to submit their design decisions to DC in order to make sure they were true to the comic characters and universes. In the process, they found themselves in a rather awkward position when DC informed the developers that Superman isn't really someone who would kick anybody.
“How do you make a fighting game where all of the characters can kick except for one?...
When developing Justice League Task Force, Blizzard and DC battled over whether Superman kicks bad guys.
There's no such thing as asking too many questions when you're adapting popular superhero characters. One wrong read of a character's mythology and you'll suddenly find yourself dealing with an army of surprisingly irate fans. Still, when developing the Snes fighting game Justice League Task Force, Blizzard found themselves trying to answer the rather bizarre question: "Can Superman kick?"
In an interview with IGN, Blizzard co-founder Allen Adham remembers having to submit their design decisions to DC in order to make sure they were true to the comic characters and universes. In the process, they found themselves in a rather awkward position when DC informed the developers that Superman isn't really someone who would kick anybody.
“How do you make a fighting game where all of the characters can kick except for one?...
- 1/14/2019
- Den of Geek
Matthew Byrd Nov 8, 2018
Blizzard is actively working on mobile versions of their major IPs despite the reception to Diablo: Immortal.
Even though mobile game Diablo: Immortal didn't exactly receive a warm reception from fans, Blizzard doesn't seem too deterred from pursuing the development of other mobile games. In fact, they're planning on planning on developing mobile games based on most of their IPs.
"Many of us over the last few years have shifted from playing primarily desktop to playing many hours on mobile, and we have many of our best developers now working on new mobile titles across all of our IPs," said Blizzard co-founder Allen Adham during a recent press conference. "Some of them are with external partners like Diablo Immortal. Many of them are being developed internally only, and we'll have information to share on those in the future."
A quick look at Blizzard's IPs reveals that Diablo...
Blizzard is actively working on mobile versions of their major IPs despite the reception to Diablo: Immortal.
Even though mobile game Diablo: Immortal didn't exactly receive a warm reception from fans, Blizzard doesn't seem too deterred from pursuing the development of other mobile games. In fact, they're planning on planning on developing mobile games based on most of their IPs.
"Many of us over the last few years have shifted from playing primarily desktop to playing many hours on mobile, and we have many of our best developers now working on new mobile titles across all of our IPs," said Blizzard co-founder Allen Adham during a recent press conference. "Some of them are with external partners like Diablo Immortal. Many of them are being developed internally only, and we'll have information to share on those in the future."
A quick look at Blizzard's IPs reveals that Diablo...
- 11/8/2018
- Den of Geek
Matthew Byrd Nov 6, 2018
A rumor suggests that Blizzard is preparing to announce Diablo 4.
A report suggests that Blizzard has already made an announcement video for Diablo IV.
This information comes from Kotaku who say that Blizzard created a Diablo IV reveal video ahead of Blizzcon 2018. The initial report stated that Blizzard intended to show this video at Blizzcon. However, Blizzard has since stated that is not the case.
"First off we want to mention that we definitely hear our community. We generally don’t comment on rumors or speculation, but we can say that we didn’t pull any announcements from BlizzCon this year or have plans for other announcements," said Blizzard in a recently released statement. "We do continue to have different teams working on multiple unannounced Diablo projects, and we look forward to announcing when the time is right.”
Based on the information currently available, it sounds like...
A rumor suggests that Blizzard is preparing to announce Diablo 4.
A report suggests that Blizzard has already made an announcement video for Diablo IV.
This information comes from Kotaku who say that Blizzard created a Diablo IV reveal video ahead of Blizzcon 2018. The initial report stated that Blizzard intended to show this video at Blizzcon. However, Blizzard has since stated that is not the case.
"First off we want to mention that we definitely hear our community. We generally don’t comment on rumors or speculation, but we can say that we didn’t pull any announcements from BlizzCon this year or have plans for other announcements," said Blizzard in a recently released statement. "We do continue to have different teams working on multiple unannounced Diablo projects, and we look forward to announcing when the time is right.”
Based on the information currently available, it sounds like...
- 11/6/2018
- Den of Geek
Matthew Byrd Nov 5, 2018
Mobile game Diablo: Immortal has left Blizzard fans feeling confused and angry.
Blizzard says that they expected there to be some backlash following the reveal of new mobile game Diablo: Immortal, but they weren't quite expecting this level of backlash.
“We know our audience here is passionately PC- and console-focused. We’ve also seen this before," said Blizzard co-founder Allen Adham to Kotaku. "We saw a similar response when we announced that we were bringing Diablo to console, and we saw a similar response to the announcement of Hearthstone... I understand their feeling and wish we could share more about all the amazing things we’re doing, not just with the Diablo franchise but across the company as a whole.”
The response that Adham is referring to includes some absolutely vicious replies across various Diablo fan forums, people flat-out booing the reveal of Diablo: Immortal (which occurred...
Mobile game Diablo: Immortal has left Blizzard fans feeling confused and angry.
Blizzard says that they expected there to be some backlash following the reveal of new mobile game Diablo: Immortal, but they weren't quite expecting this level of backlash.
“We know our audience here is passionately PC- and console-focused. We’ve also seen this before," said Blizzard co-founder Allen Adham to Kotaku. "We saw a similar response when we announced that we were bringing Diablo to console, and we saw a similar response to the announcement of Hearthstone... I understand their feeling and wish we could share more about all the amazing things we’re doing, not just with the Diablo franchise but across the company as a whole.”
The response that Adham is referring to includes some absolutely vicious replies across various Diablo fan forums, people flat-out booing the reveal of Diablo: Immortal (which occurred...
- 11/5/2018
- Den of Geek
Blizzard Entertainment co-founders Mike Morhaime and Frank Pearce tell the story of how the most successful game in the world came to be.
By Russ Frushtick
A scene from "World of Warcraft"
Photo: Blizzard Entertainment
In 2007, "South Park" won an Emmy for an episode called "Make Love, Not WarCraft." If ever there was a sign of the broad-reaching impact of "World of WarCraft" on pop culture, that was it. Of course, having 12 million active subscribers worldwide doesn't hurt. But the company behind the game, Blizzard Entertainment, wasn't always a multinational juggernaut. Twenty years ago, Blizzard (then called Silicon & Synapse) was just made up of three recent UCLA grads with a love of video games. We sat down to talk to two of those three co-founders, Mike Morhaime and Frank Pearce, about the long, strange, awesomely nerdy journey of Blizzard Entertainment from then to now.
The idea to start a video...
By Russ Frushtick
A scene from "World of Warcraft"
Photo: Blizzard Entertainment
In 2007, "South Park" won an Emmy for an episode called "Make Love, Not WarCraft." If ever there was a sign of the broad-reaching impact of "World of WarCraft" on pop culture, that was it. Of course, having 12 million active subscribers worldwide doesn't hurt. But the company behind the game, Blizzard Entertainment, wasn't always a multinational juggernaut. Twenty years ago, Blizzard (then called Silicon & Synapse) was just made up of three recent UCLA grads with a love of video games. We sat down to talk to two of those three co-founders, Mike Morhaime and Frank Pearce, about the long, strange, awesomely nerdy journey of Blizzard Entertainment from then to now.
The idea to start a video...
- 3/10/2011
- MTV Music News
The company responsible for "World of Warcraft" wasn't always a multinational powerhouse. Blizzard started off small and humble, as just a collection of computer and D&D nerds in southern California.
Blizzard execs Mike Morhaime and Allen Adham talk about meeting in college in computer science classes at UCLA, going from there to a small start-up called Silicon and Synapse. The film documents the origins of old-school Blizzard games like The Lost Viking on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and the beginnings of powerful tools like the map editor used for the "StarCraft" games.
Of course, Blizzard survived its inauspicious early years to become a juggernaut that commands the attention of millions of gamers worldwide. "WoW" boasts about 12 million players and "StarCraft" competition has become a televised sport with fanatical followers inKorea and other parts of Asia. So, it's refreshing to see how down-to-earth its principals remain and how the...
Blizzard execs Mike Morhaime and Allen Adham talk about meeting in college in computer science classes at UCLA, going from there to a small start-up called Silicon and Synapse. The film documents the origins of old-school Blizzard games like The Lost Viking on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and the beginnings of powerful tools like the map editor used for the "StarCraft" games.
Of course, Blizzard survived its inauspicious early years to become a juggernaut that commands the attention of millions of gamers worldwide. "WoW" boasts about 12 million players and "StarCraft" competition has become a televised sport with fanatical followers inKorea and other parts of Asia. So, it's refreshing to see how down-to-earth its principals remain and how the...
- 3/9/2011
- by Evan Narcisse
- ifc.com
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