Can we get Lugians and Tonks added to Warcraft? thx…
1 Like
They’ve axed exactly zero developers going back to the layoffs a few years ago. All cuts were in CS/QA.
2 Likes
I just hope they’re treated fairly and are paid well for their hard work.
3 Likes
BLizzard Entertainment can not fire the CEO of their parent company . Only a majority vote of the Board of Directors of the parent company Activision -Blizzard can do that and he makes them money so they aren’t going to fire him .
6 Likes
More employees and more content? Hopefully it works out and you guys can deliver. You guys need a mark in the win column for sure.
2 Likes
That’s what I was wondering are these people on a contract or are they actually being added as part of the warcraft development team for the long term.
I’m hoping that it’s for the long-term.
Maybe someone can enlighten me.
Sounds like it was a sort of work-to-hire type situation.
Silly Sentenza…
1 Like
No, they did not. In 2019 they laid off a bit over 200 people. Mostly marketing, publishing, esports, promotions, and some Community Management folks (like Ythisens our yak). There were 14 GM positions eliminated at that time.
This article has the full PDF list at the end. Blizzard had to, by law, submit every laid off position to the state of California.
Except you are just plain wrong. Last big layoffs at Blizzard were March 2019. That is not really a holiday time frame.
The 600 person CS layoff was 2012.
There was also a layoff of events staff who did the in-person events for Activision and Blizzard that happened last year I think. With no events for over a year they did not have any work for them to do anymore. https://variety.com/2021/digital/news/activision-blizzard-layoffs-50-esports-1234932211/
The whole point of those layoffs was to focus on hiring more Devs and tech folks who make the games. To that end Vicarious Visions was moved from being a studio under Activision, to being part of Blizzard. They work on the Diablo games.
Hiring post March 2020 has been difficult for all companies. Glad they found a team of experienced game devs to bring in.
11 Likes
Long term.
Under the deal, Boston-based Proletariat will become part of Blizzard
6 Likes
eh. still scummy. thats fine tho.
Excited to see the new staff worked on D&D on Line, LOTR online, and ASheron’s call!
1 Like
Right but I mean, what kind of content on retail? Dungeons, raiding, pvp, outdoor content, collector content?
I am just sort of wondering, if this started in May. This obviously required scouting beforehand and proof of concept/skill from outsourcing firms. Which logically meant spending time doing that. And there’s nothing wrong getting help. But it’s just odd how in hypothetically two months time they managed to eliminate the ambiguity of product delivery and narrow it down this year. Which makes me wonder are these people that phenomenal, or is there just that much blockage or w/e endemic within blizz that led to the initial silence.
Some of the eliminated positions were probably worth removing. If you are not releasing games any time soon, there is not much place for some of the PR, Marketing, etc.
Others I am still angry about and feel they really hurt Blizzard’s relationship with the community and their ability to get feedback. They ended up having to hire new CMs to replace the ones they laid off - and some of their senior folks who ended up doing the jobs of 3/4 people, left Blizzard.
Hopefully they treat the new staff well. I am glad to see they get to stay at their East Coast location. That alone is a huge thing. Blizz used to force people in the Dev team to move to Irvine, CA. One of the most expensive places in the US to live. Vicarious Visions got to stay in upstate NY too.
4 Likes
No idea. You’d have to look at the new companies Linked to see the employee titles.
Development pipleline?
So . . . Github → TeamCity → Octodeploy?
They also closed an office in France in 2020:
I wonder what happened to that statue.
It is still right there in front of the Irvine HQ office. The orc is safe. The picture you are looking at is CA, not France.
France had a starcraft statue.
3 Likes
Ah! Thank you for satisfying my curiosity there. Of course, then one has to wonder what happened to the starcraft statue. 
Likely moved since it would be considered a company asset…
1 Like