Gaming Giant Cuts Deeply in Irish Office
Activision Blizzard, the company behind blockbuster franchises like Call of Duty and Diablo, is reportedly laying off more than 130 employees from its Irish branch.
According to reports from the Irish Examiner and GamesIndustry.biz, Irish Deputy Prime Minister Michéal Martin confirmed that 136 people would be affected by these devastating cuts.
The layoffs are concentrated in Activision Blizzard’s office located in Blackpool, Cork, which employs around 200 people and has been operational since 2007.
While the company has remained tight-lipped about the reports, the job cuts come just a month after the Irish Department of Enterprise, Trade, and Employment received a “collective redundancy notification” from Blizzard Entertainment Ireland Limited regarding potential layoffs.
Unions and Politicians Raise Concerns
Irish MP Mick Barry, a member of the People Before Profit party, has voiced concerns over the layoffs, claiming that Activision “refuses to engage with the trade union chosen by these workers to represent them.”
Barry further added, “Companies should not be allowed to waltz into this country, announce life-changing cutbacks to people’s jobs, and simply refuse to talk to the representatives chosen by people who have given long years of service to their employer.”
Part of a Larger Industry Downsizing
Unfortunately, Activision Blizzard’s layoffs in Ireland are just the latest in a series of job cuts sweeping across the gaming industry.
Less than a month into 2024, an estimated 3,770 gaming professionals have already lost their jobs, according to VideoGameLayoffs.com.
This comes on the heels of a challenging 2023, which saw an estimated 10,500 layoffs in the gaming sector.
Latest Major Gaming Companies Workforce Trimming
- Electronic Arts announced the layoff of 700 employees in Feb 2024 following the cancelation of two mobile games EA Sports MLB Tap Sports and F1 Mobile Racing.
- Microsoft, which acquired Activision Blizzard for a whopping $69 billion in October 2023, plans to cut 1,900 workers from its gaming division last month.
- Riot Games, the developer behind the hugely popular League of Legends, has announced plans to lay off 530 employees (11% of its staff).
- Twitch, Amazon’s video game streaming platform, laid off over 500 employees (around 35% of its staff) in January 2024, following another round of 400 job cuts in March 2023.
- Unity, a leading video game software provider, announced plans to lay off 1,800 employees, accounting for 25% of its workforce. This marked the fourth round of layoffs at Unity since July 2022.
- Epic Games, the creators of Fortnite, laid off 830 employees (16% of its workforce) in September 2023, citing the need to cut costs to match revenue better.
- ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, laid off hundreds of employees from its failed “Nuverse” gaming department in November 2023 after struggling to compete with major gaming companies.
- Roblox laid off 30 people from its talent acquisition team in September 2023, indicating a slowdown in future hiring plans.
- Snap laid off around 20% of its over 6,400 employees in August 2022, including many working on app and game-building capabilities within Snapchat.
Adapting to a Post-Pandemic Market
The wave of layoffs is largely attributed to the gaming industry’s struggle to adapt to a post-pandemic market.
During the height of the COVID-19 lockdowns, the industry experienced a surge in demand as people sought entertainment options while confined to their homes.
However, as the world gradually returned to normalcy, the industry’s growth rate slowed from a staggering 8% in 2020 to a mere 0.6% in 2023.
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