Activision Blizzard to Close France Office

[Zubacz]

I guess Blizzard is hurting a lot more than they let on.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...-france-office

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...-france-office

Discussion on Wowhead: https://www.wowhead.com/news=318369/...-france-office

[Neuroticaine]

Can't read article because of paywall, so I can't speak of their actual situation, but anecdotally, closing an office may not mean much. My own company had two office locations and decided to close one and let all employees of that location work remotely (zero layoffs at all), and this is after the company had been brining in record revenue.

[Pebrocks The Warlock]

I believe they were a customer support office for EU so it won't affect the game's development, though I do feel bad for the people losing their jobs.

[Sanguinerd]

closing an office may not mean much. .

Yeah but this is Acti-Blizz, according to "fans" anything can mean anything when it can be used to shine a negative light on them.

Sure it sucks when people lose their jobs but other than that, who cares.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Sucks for those people losing their jobs :/

[XDurionX]

I believe they were a customer support office for EU so it won't affect the game's development, though I do feel bad for the people losing their jobs.

Yeah, it's not like customer support is somehow relevant.

[KOUNTERPARTS]

Activision Blizzard closing France office - Report

Activision Blizzard is shutting down its office in Versailles, France, according to a Bloomberg report.

The outlet confirmed the news with three people familiar with the plans, who said the original plan was relocate half of the office to London. However, Brexit and COVID-19 complicated that plan, so the decision has been made to shut the office down instead.

The Versailles office performed a mix of functions, including marketing, customer support, and localization of games.

It's not known how many people will lose their jobs as a result of the closure, but last year Activision Blizzard cut 134 of the then-400 positions that had been working out of the office.

When asked by GamesIndustry.biz about reports of the closure, an Activision Blizzard spokesperson said, "Over the past year we have been exploring how we might best integrate our capabilities across the business, enabling us to better leverage talent, expertise and scale as we adapt to the needs of a fast-paced, highly-competitive, digitally focused industry.

"In the context of our Versailles office, the management of Blizzard France has informed its employee representatives of a proposed project to reorganize its activities. Supporting our employees through this process is our number one priority. We are working through various processes related to this and a CSE meeting is scheduled for October 13th and 14th. Until then, as there is a prescribed legal process, we cannot provide further comment."

This could imply that they are "hurting" or not "hurting" at all. So not a good idea to flat out say they are hurting.


Sorry OP.

[BB8]

They wanted to relocate to London.
Due to Brexit and Covid situation they cancelled that plan.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

Can't read article because of paywall, so I can't speak of their actual situation, but anecdotally, closing an office may not mean much. My own company had two office locations and decided to close one and let all employees of that location work remotely (zero layoffs at all), and this is after the company had been brining in record revenue.

Pretty much they were going to move the whole thing but Brexit and COVID made them change plans and only move a few people.

[Pebrocks The Warlock]

Yeah, it's not like customer support is somehow relevant.

Is that what my comment implied? How?

[Zubacz]

Can't read article because of paywall, so I can't speak of their actual situation, but anecdotally, closing an office may not mean much. My own company had two office locations and decided to close one and let all employees of that location work remotely (zero layoffs at all), and this is after the company had been brining in record revenue.

For you and others behind the paywall:

Video game publisher Activision Blizzard Inc. informed employees in its Versailles, France, office Tuesday morning that the location will be closed, according to three people familiar with the plans.

The publisher, one of the world’s largest, is based in California but has offices all across the globe. The Versailles office, which employed around 400 people as of early 2019, handled marketing, customer support, localizing games to different languages and other functions for the titles Activision Blizzard publishes in Europe.

The company originally planned to relocate half of the office to London, according to the people, who spoke anonymously because they didn’t want to risk losing their severance for discussing private information. However, the twin factors of Brexit and the coronavirus pandemic have inhibited that process, leading to the decision to shutter the site.

It’s not yet clear how many people will lose their jobs or how many will be given the opportunity to relocate to other offices, but French labor laws force companies to negotiate significant compensation packages for employees caught up in mass layoffs.

Staff were told that they will learn more next week. A spokesperson for Activision Blizzard didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The closing will put an end to two years of turbulence for the Versailles office, which was once solely an operation of Blizzard, the unit responsible for beloved games like Diablo and World of Warcraft. A recent restructuring placed some of the staff under the wider Activision umbrella. Blizzard has traditionally remained autonomous within the broader Activision organization, but in recent years that has changed, with Activision taking a larger role in Blizzard’s operations.

Last year, as part of job cuts across Activision Blizzard, the publisher told Versailles staff that it was eliminating 134 of 400 positions. Staff were left in limbo for months as Activision Blizzard negotiated with the government over severance, and by the beginning of this year, 134 employees had taken a compensation package to leave.

In August, Bloomberg reported that U.S. Blizzard employees were sharing their salary figures and organizing in company Slack chats to seek pay increases and better treatment.

[McNeil]

Sucks for all these people losing their jobs. 2020 has been hurting so many as it is.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I guess Blizzard is hurting a lot more than they let on.

Or, the France office might be redundant if they have their French localization, sales, and PR teams at either their Anaheim or Austin offices.

[Biglog]

I feel for our EU friends since there is something to be said for having regional devs adding their flavor to games. On the good side Blizzard is only eliminating 134 of 400 positions, so it sounds like the other 266 jobs will remain either with those employees transferring or working remotely. And Blizzard gave the 134 employees a year+ notice and a severance package. Many corporations have done worse. (A large US burger chain) outsourced most of their IT staff earlier this year from their datacenter in Ohio eliminating ~500 jobs. The 500 were given about 2 months notice and pay after being told the changes wouldn't affect them, then out the door.

With covid and remote working a lot of companies are even looking at eliminating physical offices. If they feel they can meet and work remotely, it's a huge cost savings to the companies to eliminate brick and mortar offices.

[Kyphael]

Sucks for the people losing their jobs, particularly because it seems they did have a plan to keep them employed and just re-locate them. Fuck this pandemic.

[Icelin]

With covid and remote working a lot of companies are even looking at eliminating physical offices. If they feel they can meet and work remotely, it's a huge cost savings to the companies to eliminate brick and mortar offices.

Then you got some ridiculous companies saying it justifies paying their employees less because they don't have to spend money traveling to work. So not only are they saving huge costs they want to screw over the employee. Which is just insanity. Pure greed. I was so outright offended when I read articles about it.Facebook for example. It just shows how inhumane some of these companies really are.

The price of living, never goes down. It never will either. People got food to eat, bills to pay, clothing etc. Just some of the audacity of these companies.

[Queen of Hamsters]

I stubbed my toe whilst looking for my authenticator. AcTiBliZZ mUsT bE hUrTiNG mY GuIs!

[Alteiry]

I guess Activision is hurting a lot more than they let on.

Fixed that for you.

[Kithelle]

I'm going to blame Covid on Blizzard because it's cool

Fixed it for you

[Lochton]

Sucks for the ones losing their jobs.

Then again. Blizzard has three offices in total in France.