Activision Blizzard lays off 800 employees, Blizzard to not release any major titles this year
Things are looking a little bleak for some of the employees over at publisher Activision Blizzard, according to a new report from Bloomberg. This news follows on the heels of Activision's major sale of the Destiny IP to Bungie, as well as harsh drop in stock over the past few months, nearly dropping by half since Fall 2018. The company is also dealing with a new CFO, Dennis Durkin, who replaced Mike Morhaime, who had held the position for nearly three decades. According to the information, Activision Blizzard will be restructuring, and as a result, "hundreds" of its 9,800 workers will be facing job cuts this Tuesday. Another industry titan, Electronic Arts saw stocks also plummet recently due to underperforming titles, though they quickly recovered after the launch of Apex Legends. This article will be updated when the official press report goes out later this week with more details.
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UPDATE
Tuesday has arrived, and the report was confirmed. Despite claiming that revenue for the company was at a record high in 2018, pulling in $7.26 billion, Activision Blizzard will be laying off about 800 of its workers. During the Q4 earnings report briefing, it was revealed that retail and microtransaction sales were on a higher than expected decline. Blizzard's CFO also announced that Blizzard has no major game releases set for 2019 outside of the mobile Diablo game, Diablo Immortal. "Several" console/PC projects are said to be in the pipeline, though we'll have to wait to see what those games could possibly be.
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