Message from Mike Morhaime

Update - According to the press release, it looks like Blizzard cut 600 positions in the company.

Message from Mike Morhaime
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker)
Everyone,

We announced today that we’re in the process of cutting a number of active positions, mostly non-development, throughout the company. I'm sure this announcement has sparked some questions from all of you, so I want take this opportunity to address those as best I can. Over the past several years, the company has grown rapidly and evolved to better serve you and the rest of our global community. Thanks to all of your support, we continue to serve by far the biggest subscription-based MMO community, as well as the most passionate eSports and online gaming communities, in the world.

In order to keep making epic game content while serving players effectively, we have to be smart about how we manage our resources. This means we sometimes have to make difficult decisions about how to best maintain the health of the company. We’re in the process of making some of those hard decisions now.

After evaluating our current organizational needs, we determined that while some areas of our business had been operating at the right levels and could benefit from further growth, other areas had become overstaffed. As a result, we need to scale down some of our departments and part with some of our colleagues and friends here at Blizzard. I know that you all understand how difficult this type of situation can be for anyone who might be affected, so I want to assure you that we'll be offering each impacted employee a severance package and other benefits.

I also want to emphasize that we remain committed to shipping multiple games this year, and that our development teams in particular remain largely unaffected by today's announcement. We're continuing to develop, iterate, and polish Blizzard DOTA, Diablo III, StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm, World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, as well as other, unannounced projects. We'll have exciting news to share in the coming weeks regarding Diablo III's release date, and will soon be holding a private media event to showcase the latest work on Mists of Pandaria. It goes without saying that we're working hard to get all of these games in your hands as soon as possible.

You've all come to expect Blizzard to live up to our mission statement with every game, and deliver the most epic entertainment experiences ever. You can continue to expect that and nothing less from us as we move forward.

-Mike Morhaime

Press release on BusinessWire
IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced that it has conducted a review of its business based on current organizational needs. Following a completion of the review, the company is conducting a global reduction in workforce of approximately 600 employees. The company anticipates approximately 90% of the affected employees will come from departments not related to game development. The World of Warcraft® development team will not be impacted.

“Constant evaluation of teams and processes is necessary for the long-term health of any business. Over the last several years, we've grown our organization tremendously and made large investments in our infrastructure in order to better serve our global community. However, as Blizzard and the industry have evolved we've also had to make some difficult decisions in order to address the changing needs of our company,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “Knowing that, it still does not make letting go of some of our team members any easier. We’re grateful to have had the opportunity to work with the people impacted by today’s announcement, we’re proud of the contributions they made here at Blizzard, and we wish them well as they move forward.”

Blizzard's current development and publishing schedules will not be impacted. The company will announce specific release plans for Diablo® III in the near future, and it’s continuing to drive aggressively toward beta testing for World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria™, Blizzard DOTA, and StarCraft® II: Heart of the Swarm™. Blizzard also remains committed to maintaining its high standards of quality for customer service delivery. In addition, Blizzard is still recruiting and looking to hire qualified developers for a number of open positions. Further details are available at http://jobs.blizzard.com.

For press inquiries, please contact Lisa Jensen in Blizzard Entertainment public relations at ljensen@blizzard.com.

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.
This article was originally published in forum thread: Message from Mike Morhaime started by Boubouille View original post
Published on 2012-02-29 05:35 PM
685 Comments
Comments 682 Comments
  1. Ragingblade's Avatar
    Sad news... :S
  1. Wozarib's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Flaks View Post
    Overstaffed hmmm? They're clearly not making enough money to pay for all that staff.
    Like any company, they're looking to improve the profits they make. It isn't always a case of "They make 123012031023 per year, of course they can afford it!" it's a case of making as much profit as they can, and without knowing for certain, this is probably them doing just that.
  1. mmocfb4ae2f171's Avatar
    You've all come to expect Blizzard to live up to our mission statement with every game, and deliver the most epic entertainment experiences ever.
    This man does not play wow or read forums. But hey, kissing the press´ butt is his job I guess.
    Hopefully they fire Ghostcrawler.
    SIGNED !! Indeed that would be awesome news !!
  1. Nerraw's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Coar View Post
    Did anyone else read that in his voice?
    Lol, oh yes.
  1. Rioo's Avatar
    Lol I'd say WoW is under-staffed.
  1. mmocd3b3345756's Avatar
    Did anyone else read that in his voice?
    I did. We are weird people
  1. istrain's Avatar
  1. mmoc1baaa4dbec's Avatar
    So many words to say "You are fired", no? >
  1. mmoc5d0a423b31's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Coar View Post
    Did anyone else read that in his voice?
    Not with his voice, but in my head, I totally had the image of Mike Morhaime speaking at the BlizzCon in front of the audience, wearing the black shirt with the blue vertical strip.
  1. Eversi's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Coar View Post
    Did anyone else read that in his voice?
    Absolutely. And I enjoyed it, too.
  1. wadark's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Racerover View Post
    Find it very hard to believe that they can't support a large staff with $15/month from 9million + players and $25-$30 worth of services/in game item crap. oh well
    Its not remotely about whether they CAN support such a staff. Its about whether they need it.

    Certainly this is further evidence of the company dying in some non-specific, and catastrophic fashion, and not something that successful businesses do all the time! [/sarcasm]
  1. mmoc1ea225bcc9's Avatar
    Totally read that in his deep growly voice xD
  1. BishopXQ's Avatar
    Translated: We are losing subscribers left and right,and Mist of Pandmon is not going to be the lifeline we thought it was. Hence we are cutting people from WoW left and right,consolidating people for the Titan project,and holding Diablo 3 back as long as we can.
  1. PaladinJ's Avatar
    Incoming more generic copy/paste responses from GM's and more "I'm sorry, that's not something we have the tools to do currently."

    Oh well, at least they have a LONG way to drop before they hit the steaming pile of cyber crap that is SWTOR's customer service.
  1. Nerraw's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Zasz View Post
    This man does not play wow or read forums. But hey, kissing the press´ butt is his job I guess.
    I'm sure the official Blizzard forums are teeming with the most experienced players that also have the most open minds about changes and content iterations.

    And I guess I'm wrong for enjoying the game then. And for being excited about Mists.
  1. Crummy's Avatar
    I hope they atleast get a Spectral Tiger to make up for their lost jobs.
  1. mmoc2f0222e775's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Coar View Post
    Did anyone else read that in his voice?
    God dammit, I did....
  1. Coar's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Grievuuz View Post
    Totally read that in his deep growly voice xD
    I believe you are thinking of Chris Metzen.
  1. rated's Avatar
    Damage control.
  1. Slappyjoe's Avatar
    Man, this community is so petty and predictable.
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