30 people have been let go from the publishing giant as the business streamlines their licensed games output. They want to trim their investment in that part of their portfolio, formerly a massive chunk of their yearly output.
Though this seems terrible, they’re quick to let us know that:
"Approximately, 30 full-time employees have been impacted globally, which represents approximately one half of one percent of Activision Blizzard's employee population. We are offering those employees who are impacted outplacement counseling services."
Activision are known for developing titles in a huge list of pre-existing trans-media properties. They’re responsible for the conversions of Transformers, Spider-Man, the upcoming Walking Dead: Survival Instinct based on the AMC show and the Seemingly In No Way Unfunny At All Deadpool game.
The biggest assumption to conclude is they’ll just be dropping out of producing James Bond games after last year’s critically and commercially underwhelming 007 Legends. There’s no word on this, nor on their plans for after the upcoming games in their licensed brands are released.
None of these moves will apparently affect any other their other titles like Call of Duty (where the upcoming DLC will be released with the same schedule) nor the upcoming Skylanders Swap Force.
Presumably the company are now focusing their efforts on the upcoming Destiny developed by Halo’s Bungie and reportedly being worked on for 10 years. We’ve no ability to suggest whether this will be a work of quality, only that they are pumping a significant amount of money into it.
