After its acquisition, Microsoft discovered that Blizzard was developing a survival game: it in turn laid off 1,900 employees.
Last weekend, we learned that Microsoft, far from being the great savior of evil Bobby Kotick that many imagined, had laid off 1,900 employees at Activision-Blizzard and the Xbox branch (which includes ZeniMax/Bethesda). According to our colleagues at The Verge, this represents about 8% of the branch dedicated to video games. Some details on the distribution were shared by another colleague, KAMI, through his X account. It specifically tells us that 30% of the staff at Sledgehammer Games, who worked Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, will be landed, as will 10% of High Moon Studios, which participated in the development of previous opus in the series. We can also see that Treyarch, Raven and Infinity Ward were not spared even if no figures were given to the studio.
A few days later, we learned via GameInformer that Blizzard’s survival game, announced two years ago, had been outright and simply cancelled. The reasons given are “engine problems”, and we understand why. Originally, the prototype was developed under Unreal Engine, but the brain decided to switch to Synapse, an in-house engine, initially intended for mobile platforms… What a great idea! Added to that, with countless boring-as-death survival games popping up left and right, it was probably the best thing to do to avoid another flop. Diablo Immortal. However, our colleagues at PC Gamer have reported conflicting comments from former people close to the case. According to him, the project was “very cool”, was going to be “absolutely brilliant” and “very beautiful”, and would also have a “significant impact on the industry”. However, we must put these little sentences in context: they come from an interview two years ago, when the announcement had just happened, and we had to start the hype.
Regardless, these cancellations and layoffs remind us that the video game industry is above all stories of financial matters, before any artistic vision…
