Blizzard has laid off 10 members of the Hearthstone development team
Blizzard says the layoffs were due to “organizational changes”
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BlizzardEntertainment has laid off several members of theHearthstonedevelopment team, citing “organizational changes” at the studio.
The initial announcement comes from a now former team member who shared an update on theirLinkedInpage, saying they were made redundant on September 27 without notice, after working at the company for nearly 19 years (viaVGC).
“After 18 and a half years at Blizzard Entertainment, I’ve been laid off without notice as of today; theHearthstoneTeam is apparently being restructured and my Tools Engineer role is no longer needed,” Hunter C. wrote.
In the comments of the post, Hunter C. said, “To the best of my knowledge,Hearthstonewas doing well; they had just recently shown off how well we were doing in a team meeting,” they added.
The layoffs were later confirmed by Activision Blizzard, saying in astatementto Kotaku senior reporter Ethan Gach that 10 people had been impacted due to structural changes.
“Organizational changes were made to the Hearthstone team; as a result, a small number of roles have become redundant,” an Activision Blizzard spokesperson said. “We want to thank these employees for their many contributions”.
Game studio layoffs have been prevalent lately. Just two weeks agoAscendant Studios laid off nearly half of its staffless than a month after the launch ofImmortals of Aveum.About 45% of the team was made redundant, with the studio citing poor sales as the “painfully difficult, but necessary decision that was not made lightly.”
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Crystal Dynamics - which wasacquired by Embracer Group last year- alsoannounced a number of layoffs to its team last week, saying that it had parted ways with 10 employees “due to an internal restructuring.”
Even BioWare, best known for working on the popularMass EffectandDragon Ageseries,laid off about 50 peoplelast month in order to “meet the needs of upcoming projects” and to make the studio “more agile and more focused”.
This announcement arrived after Bioware revealed that thedevelopment ofStar Wars: The Old Republicwould be moved away from the companyto the third-party studio Broadsword Online, in order to focus on the future ofDragon AgeandMass Effect.
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