Blizzard reportedly lays off at least 50 staff following shift away from live events

Update, March 16 (6:xi pm ET): Schreier added that several other staff beyond Blizzard were also laid off, receiving severance benefits and a $200 Battle.net gift bill of fare.

Thanks to a report from Jason Schreier at Bloomberg, nosotros've learned that Activision-Blizzard has laid off at least 50 staff across parts of the company that worked on alive events and in-person activities. Activision-Blizzard's earnings for the prior quarter saw the company crush expectations with $2.4 billion in revenue.

In statement to Bloomberg, the company said that "Players are increasingly choosing to connect with our games digitally and the e-sports team, much like traditional sports, entertainment, and dissemination industries, has had to conform its business due to the impact the pandemic has had on alive events."

In a follow-up mail on Twitter, Schreier added that Activision-Blizzard has also laid off an unknown number of staff from beyond other parts of the visitor, including Candy Crush developer Rex. This news comes just a few months later on Activision-Blizzard closed its Versailles office, with hundreds reportedly affected.

Looking alee, Activision-Blizzard has several major titles in its pipeline, with a new Telephone call of Duty coming in Vacation 2022 and a Diablo 2 remaster set to release afterwards in the year. Meanwhile, work continues on Overwatch ii and Diablo 4, though neither title volition be released in 2022. Blizzard shared updates on these games at BlizzCon 2022 earlier in the year, with a deep dive into how Diablo 4 PvP works, also equally confirming that the evolution team is working on having cross-play and cross-progression in the game.

Update, March 16 (six:11 pm ET) — Additional details

According to Schreier, other staff were also laid off across Blizzard, receiving ninety days severance pay, a year of wellness benefits and a $200 Battle.net souvenir card.

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