Activision Blizzard has laid off around 50 staff members from its eSports division.
Activision Blizzard Lays Off Employees
Despite its big record sales of Diablo IV, Activision Blizzard has laid off more or less 50 staff from its eSports division, according to The Verge. One of its employees states that the layoffs were a complete shock for them.
Complete Shock
“None of us who were laid off were offered any opportunity to switch roles or teams,” the employee said. They were a former member of Blizzard’s eSports operations team and believed things were really going well for the department. It seems there were problems behind the façade.
Speculations
The employee speculated that the eSports division inside Activision Blizzard will be shut down soon. They were working on a new tool to run tournaments before they were laid off. “They are completely unequipped to internally support anything esports,” they said, since the replacement had not been finished.
Big Transition
Just recently, many of Blizzard’s games are coming to Steam despite the big success of Diablo IV. It will not become exclusive to the Battle.net PC platform anymore. It seems Blizzard is undergoing big changes as it transitions to merging with Microsoft later this year as the acquisition deal is almost complete.