Austria: Blizzard laid off nearly 200 of its employees

In a round of cuts, Activision Blizzard reportedly laid off nearly two percent of its employees across multiple departments. This is a little less than 190 employees. The publisher initially confirmed that 50 employees had been laid off from the esports and other live events department, but an anonymous Bloomberg source reported that the cuts also affected other departments, such as candy crush maker King.

Increasingly, gamers are choosing to digitally engage with our games and the esports team, much like the traditional sports, entertainment and broadcasting industries, have had to adapt their business due to the impact of the pandemic on live events a company spokesman told Bloomberg Paywall .

Kotick said on Twitter, Activision Blizzard plans to hire over 2,000 people over the next year so that our incredibly talented teams can continue to create epic entertainment. We know our global community needs jobs now more than ever and we're proud to help.