
Blizzard Lays Off 600, Including About 60 Developers - joshes
http://www.gamespot.com/news/blizzard-laying-off-600-6360584
======
angrycoder
The key is the last line of the press release.

    
    
          The accounting charges associated with Blizzard's reduction in workforce are not anticipated to be material to Activision Blizzard, Inc. and were included in the 2012 financial outlook that was provided on February 9, 2012.
    

I worked at 2 BigCo's while they went through layoff periods. What people
don't know unless they've worked at a BigCo is that a significant number of
its employees are interchangable or in some cases just dead weight. For every
department of 10-20 people, there are 2 or 3 that have the bulk of the
knowledge and do the majority of the work.

There is a lot of hassle with firing a single employee at a BigCo, even if
that person contributes very little, is a detriment to the team, or is abusing
corporate policy. There is however an upside to getting rid of a bunch of
people at once, especially when it is around the time of the anual report, and
it mitigates a lot of the downsides you have when firing just one person.

Except in the cases where an entire department was eliminated, I would say
about 85% of the people who were let go during a large layoff were not really
a surprise.

~~~
alanfalcon
I personally worked with two of the people who were layed off today, and am
friends of friends with others. This isn't a 85% unsurprising day by any
means, it's a serious cut back of the support department (worldwide) because
management built up too much capacity while the GMs built tools that allowed
serious increases in productivity, the biggest of which was essentially
automating the process of recovering hacked accounts (I can't begin to
describe how many people have their WoW accounts hacked, and recovery used to
take hours in the early days).

~~~
kapowaz
Are you saying these people voluntarily built tools that effectively made
themselves obsolete?

~~~
bh42222
Happens all the time. If you are either very good or a bit naive, or both.

~~~
groby_b
If you're good, you're only on the receiving end of layoffs if times are
really bad.

Best piece of advice I ever got:"If you don't make yourself replaceable, you
can never be promoted, either".

------
primigenus
This is most likely 550 community and customer support people and 50
internationalisation developers. Blizzard is doing really well and has
multiple games coming down the pipe.

WoW's fluctuating subscriber numbers reflect the natural state of a 7 year old
game that is in a down period between expansions, so I'm not worried about
that. Instead what I think is going on is that they've spent so much time
growing their staff to accommodate WoW, the new Battle.net and new projects
like Diablo 3 and the unannounced MMO project that they've come to a point
where they've decided to take a good hard look at who's working for them, how
they can optimise their workforce, and how they can cut down on the bloat.

It's likely a matter of reducing overhead and improving internal
communications as opposed to any "bad news" that they need to get rid of
people in order to keep the ship afloat.

As the CEO says, this is something that happens when you grow a lot: you need
to make some changes every now and then. Instead of viewing this as a cutback,
I'd view this as a fundamental step towards stabilising themselves as a
developer that handles multiple projects simultaneously, whereas before they
really operated in serial.

Taking 600 off the top of 4700 employees still leaves them with over 4000
people working for them, which is about as many as Nintendo employs, to give
you an idea of what kind of sizes we're talking about in the games industry.

~~~
ars
Why do it in one shot like this? Why not lay people off incrementally?

~~~
CptCodeMonkey
I've been in a situation where the company was laying people off incrementally
over the span of 18 months. I hated going to work, didn't give a shit about
the company, and I was not unique or alone in that opinion. If you have to lay
people off, do it as quickly and with as much dignity as possible.

~~~
downwithmycrew
sounds like a big IT company

------
ChuckMcM
I find these sorts of events fascinating. Blizzard does have quite the money
machine with WoW. Even a paltry 10.2M subscribers, assuming the adjusted
monthly income per subscriber is $10 that is $102M/month in revenue from that
franchise.

The interesting bit is that to make that count they really need a good
operational plan with respect to their infrastructure.

I got a peek at their infrastructure early on because the company where I
worked (Netapp) was trying to sell them filers for their Oracle instances
which were running the game. And the game is essentially a ginormous database
being updated constantly based on player actions. What we saw was a very
complex (and expensive) infrastructure which was clearly built expediently. I
would think that over time they would have been working to refine this to
something more manageable (and cost effective).

Ultimately, there is a 'killer' persistent world infrastructure architecture
for this sort of traffic. Would be a good research topic for a thesis I
suspect.

~~~
cheald
It blows my mind that the word "paltry" would be applied to WoW's subscriber
base. It dwarfs even its biggest competitors by an order of magnitude!

~~~
ErikRogneby
That depends on who you consider their competitors. WoW worldwide is about 50%
of the MMORPG market. It will be interesting to see how SWTOR fares in that
space. Almost up to 2M subs already,

However if you consider the larger online gaming market I would consider WoW's
main competitors the likes of Zynga. Farmville alone has 28.4M monthly active
users.

~~~
cheald
I'm not sure I would consider WoW (a game with a monthly subscription and a
20+ GB client) to be a direct competitor with Farmville (a free-to-play game
with a browser-based client). I suspect that they appeal to very different
audiences.

~~~
Empedocles99
You would only be partially correct. See this report we did at Raptr:

<http://blog.raptr.com/2011/09/27/zynga-report/>

Specifically, ~20% of WOW players also played a Zynga game, and ~30% of XBox
players also played a Zynga game.

------
drostie
I know it's naive, but it wasn't until I read this article that I started to
think of the WoW programmers as human beings, as opposed to some universal
geometric constant about the WoW universe.

I would like to see a documentary filmed inside of the WoW studio, if it's at
all possible. Like, it could be really Serious Business, which would be
hilarious, or it could be a more relaxed-artists type of story, which could be
a fun romp. And maybe we get to see a sysadmin saying, "those are the Legacy
Systems, they're from the Early Days, basically the entire World of Warcraft
is held together with duct tape and a prayer." It would be great, man.

~~~
packetslave
FWIW, I've seen one of Blizzard's hosting cages. It's more like "held together
with hundred dollar bills and big fat DC power cables"

------
daniel_levine
I look forward to the companies that will be spawned by ex-Blizzard folks

~~~
shingen
Yep, hopefully now we won't have to wait a decade for a better version of
Diablo.

~~~
justjimmy
That's what I thought, till I played Hellgate. Man that was a disappointment…

~~~
michaelbuckbee
If you haven't already, give Torchlight a try - Mac/PC/XBLA and only $15.

<http://store.steampowered.com/app/41500/>

~~~
danvideo
Looks interesting. On first glance it does appear similar to Trine though:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trine_(video_game)> Which I wasn't a big fan
of... anyone know if that's the case?

~~~
parfe
Torchlight is a highly overrated Diablo 1 clone. The game has barely any
story. The side quest system literally repeats "Kill the monster on level 5"
"Kill the monster on level 10" "Kill the monster on level 15" etc.

The game has some okay graphics and the loot system is decent. If you enjoy
looting corpses for a slightly upgraded item over and over in a noxiously
repetitive manner then I say go for it.

Five people in my office bough the game. I played it on very hard and beat it.
I was the only person to reach the end despite everyone else playing on normal
difficulty.

I beat the game out of spite. I never felt so angry at a game before but my
sheer hatred of it drove me to finish.

I guarantee most positive reviews come from people who did not finish the
game. It's just not fun after the first 10, 20, 30, 40, infinite floors in the
same dungeon.

~~~
angrytapir
I enjoyed it a lot. Sure it's not a AAA title - but it's good, mindless fun.
Especially given its extremely appealing price point. (And, yes, I haven't
finished it.)

------
justjimmy
Not really sure what to make of this…been a Blizzard fan since ToD, saw Blizz
growing, merging, corporated, massive growth…

3 Major Projects in the Pipeline, 1 Untitled Project, and it lays off 600
people? It's a money printing machine with it's stranglehold on subscription
based MMO (as opposed to freemium), I'd hate to think they're laying off
people to appease the shareholders and maximize profit.

~~~
cube13
Technically, it's 2 major projects: Diablo 3 and the new MMO Titan.

Starcraft 2 and WoW are in more of a maintenance cycle with the expansions
coming out this year. Neither probably need as many developers as the new
projects at this point.

The layoffs are probably due to WoW losing subscriptions over the last few
years, and Diablo 3 nearing completion. The majority of the 540 non-developer
positions are probably level 1 support or low level IT related positions
because they don't need as much support personnel. The developer positions are
most likely contract employees for Diablo 3 that aren't getting their
contracts renewed.

~~~
NickPollard
SC2 and WoW expansions are still major, MAJOR projects, believe me. Calling it
just maintenance really does a disservice to the amount of work that goes into
these things. For Blizzard, this applies doubly so. I expect that Heart of the
Swarm is a bigger project that most studios can dream of, in all manners -
technology, art and design, production, distribution, marketing, and all the
other attendant features that go with modern game development.

~~~
cube13
I'm not arguing that the WoW and SC2 expansions not major projects.

I'm saying that compared to the new projects(D3 and Titan), the overall
personnel allocation is smaller for Heart of the Swarm and Mists of Pandaria.

The development effort on those isn't on a new codebase(unlike D3 or Titan).
They're adding new features and reworking game systems in the
expansions(especially with the WoW expansion, where they're completely
rewriting basically every class), but the overall effort required to complete
those isn't nearly as much as what they need for the new MMO.

~~~
NickPollard
Oh sure, the new MMO will definitely be their biggest current project, and D3
is a little bigger than HotS, but probably not by as much as you think.

In fact, when you've got a game as big as WoW, making sure that everything you
add plays well with all the existing pieces is a mammoth undertaking - it
would probably be easier if it was a new game! As you pointed out, these
aren't simple 'Here's 4 new areas with some new enemy models expansions, these
are major reworkings of large game features.

Although I've never worked on an expansion, from all the games I have worked
on those kinds of things are definitely not simple.

------
Goronmon
_The company's massively popular massively multiplayer online role-playing
game has struggled in the past year, slipping to 10.2 million subscribers
through the end of December._

I'm not sure "struggled" is the word they were looking for there.

~~~
TheCapn
Without Googling for statistics wasn't WoW peaking around 13mill subscribers?

A ~20% decline is seemingly quite a massive hit if you ask me and would
definitely warrant a few layoffs.

~~~
Goronmon
Sure, subscriptions may have declined quite a bit, but I think it's a bit
silly to call the game "struggling" considering it's position in the market.

~~~
robryan
If you have a look at how player numbers have declined for any other mmo,
their numbers are amazing. Can't forget that WoW come out in 2004, the life
span of most games is measured in months.

The game doesn't hold people's interest indefinitely, even of it is a lot
longer than most games and probably most people who would want to try the game
already have. Also competition is way higher than it was in 2004.

------
jpadkins
Remember, John Staats (designer for WoW, lead designer for their next gen MMO
code named titan) was let go in November.

[http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/11/07/rumor-senior-
titan-d...](http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/11/07/rumor-senior-titan-
designer-laid-off-by-blizzard/)

There was rumor that it was more than just 1 lead designer was being cut, but
nothing substantial.

I don't think those 60 developer staff were just "QA people" etc.. I bet they
killed or scoped down the whole project.

------
RandallBrown
Those 10% are related to game development, but that doesn't mean they're
developers. I would guess that it's more likely to be slightly more
"disposable" roles like testers.

It still sucks though. It seemed like Blizzard was just printing money.

~~~
chc
They're presumably winding down some parts of Diablo 3 development and maybe
even Heart of the Swarm, so it could just be that they don't expect to be
doing as much in the near future rather than simple cost-cutting.

~~~
chaud
They still have the upcoming Titan game and another unannounced game that they
are hiring for.

------
vyrotek
I was under the impression that this sort of churn happened at all game dev
companies when projects were nearing completion. Typically they are roles like
QA, writers, and designers that may move to other projects or not.

~~~
barrybe
You are correct, but it's still fun to speculate wildly.

------
JS_startup
This seems like an appropriate enough place to put this: The Diablo 3 beta?
Not that good. I put thousands of hours into D1 and D2 but have zero desire to
keep playing the D3 beta.

Also it sucks to hear about the lay-offs.

~~~
kooshball
> I put thousands of hours into D1 and D2 but have zero desire to keep playing
> the D3 beta.

I'm not sure I understand this comparison at all.

Keyword at the end there, "D3 _beta_ ". No one expect you to spend thousands
of hours into a _beta_.

~~~
JS_startup
The reference to my time spent with D1/D2 was to make the point that I _like_
Diablo. I've put about 2 hours with the D3 beta and had to force myself to
finish it.

------
jmsduran
Damn, I hate hearing about layoffs. I work in a close-knit team of developers
and testers, where each of one us is an important contributor to our company's
goal, and it impacts our productivity tremendously when someone leaves.

Maybe I'm naive, but I would happily give up any yearly bonuses and possibly
even a slight pay deduction (as a single guy I don't have many expenses) in
order to keep a fellow teammate from being laid off.

I'm sure not everyone agrees with this line of thinking, and there must be
some legal mumbo jumbo out there that prevents this from happening... Anyways,
I'm sure those laid off developers are talented, and hope they'll rebound
quickly to a greater opportunity.

~~~
marshray
There was a time where a company I worked for was having to downsize for a
second time. They were planning to keep me on, but cancel the software project
I'd been leading.

I talked them into letting me the severance package and I went looking around
elsewhere. I relocated for a better salary in a bigger city and the company I
left was able to retain a couple of other staff (including a single mom!)

I don't want to make it sound like I was more noble than I really was -- it
was the right move for me at the time.

------
thehermit
This doesn't seem that surprising to me. Blizzard took on millions of new
customers fast, so they went on a hiring spree for support staff. 5+ years ago
it was not unusual to take 2-3 days and even over a week to get an issue
resolved. Now even more than 12 hours is a busy day. I'm sure they have
streamlined their support systems behind the scenes and just don't require as
many employees, even if they kept their peek subscriber levels.

------
beloch
"Blizzard went on to note that its development and publishing schedule has not
been impacted by the staff cuts. "

This is easy to say when your publishing schedule is, as it has always been,
"When it's done".

~~~
Jare
Oh, but Blizzard does schedule, of course, it's just that following that
schedule is often not their #1 priority. Look at this from back in 2010

[http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/10/leaked-blizzard-roadmap-
sho...](http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/10/leaked-blizzard-roadmap-shows-
release-dates-for-pretty-much-everything/)

(Diablo 3 has already deviated from that, of course) However, even if the cuts
are not going to cause schedule changes, that doesn't mean they do not reflect
scope changes.

------
zura
It is ironic that the same big companies who are laying off hundreds of
people, actually are hiring constantly - they have hundreds of open job
postings, even with the similar titles.

------
kirinan
This is interesting, I knew one of their main sources of revenue (World of
Warcraft) wasn't doing as hot, but still had over 10million people, which at
15$ a month subscription, is nothing to scoff at. The 60 developers is the
most interesting, they have a lot of in the queue for them (D3, Starcraft 2:
expansion, and Titan (their next MMO), Im guessing they either weren't pulling
their weight or this has something to do with Diablo 3 being almost complete.

~~~
afterburner
I believe less than half the 10 million pay the $15 a month typically charged
in North America. Many accounts in China are linked to internet cafes, which
charge peanuts by the hour to their customers.

Still, the 4 million or so North American and European monthly accounts still
makes it huge.

------
ajross
Presumably the era of "printing money with WoW" is over, then?

~~~
latortuga
I wouldn't be so sure. First off, they list 10.2M as the current subscriber
base, taken times a conservative estimate of $13/mo (the every 3 months plan,
IIRC) and that's over one and a half billion dollars a year. Second, they are
rumored have a new MMO in the pipeline - suppose everyone that ever tried WoW
returns to dip into that bucket. I think that, on the contrary, the era of
Blizzard printing money is still going strong.

~~~
zorked
I don't know if $13 is conservative. $9/mo is the most expensive plan
available to me. Presumably in places like China people pay by the hour and
therefore way less than that.

~~~
jamesgeck0
Where do you live?

------
baby
So who was laid off if not Game Masters in WoW? Can someone from the inside
comment on this?

~~~
donal_cahalane
So it's been confirmed that 200 of the jobs going are here in Ireland where
Blizzard have over 800 staff.

<http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0229/blizzard.html>

------
joering2
seriously non of those emps could be fit into 102 positions here:
[http://us.blizzard.com/en-
us/company/careers/directory.html#...](http://us.blizzard.com/en-
us/company/careers/directory.html#region=Americas)

------
jjp9999
Well, they must be getting ready to Diablo 3 then.

