In February 2019, Activision Blizzard laid off 800 employees. Now, CEO Bobby Kotick has announced that 2,000 new employees will be hired. What does this mean for the core brands Call of Duty, WoW, and Diablo 4?
This was announced by Bobby Kotick: The CEO of Activision Blizzard stated on Twitter that more than 2,000 new employees would be hired next year to create epic entertainment.
It takes heroes to create heroes. Activision Blizzard aims to hire over 2,000 employees next year so that our incredibly talented teams can continue to provide epic entertainment. We know more than ever that our global community needs jobs – and we are proud to be able to help.
Bobby Kotick on Twitter
The focus is on game development
What are these employees needed for? Kotick does not elaborate on this:
- however, 2019 saw 800 people laid off, mainly in customer support and in other “non-development areas”
- at the same time, Activision Blizzard announced in 2019 that they would increase the number of developers for Call of Duty, Candy Crush, Overwatch, Warcraft, Hearthstone, and Diablo by 20%
- there are also clear statements from Activision Blizzard about investing more money in development and strengthening the core brands
What does this mean? Activision Blizzard is focusing on developing games. After all, Bobby Kotick stated at an event in Los Angeles at the end of last year that a billion users in five years is not unrealistic. This works through good products that sustainably engage players.
Therefore, it is important to hire new, experienced employees in the area of developers who can help implement this vision.
What could the positive effects be? More employees in the development area means that Activision Blizzard could strengthen core brands like Call of Duty and Diablo.
Especially CoD, World of Warcraft, and Diablo 4 should benefit from this. A new release of CoD is produced every year, and Diablo 4 is still a while away.
Just to show Diablo 4 at BlizzCon 2019, there were significant changes within Blizzard.
Additional developers could support these teams and ensure higher quality for the new games. New content for WoW is always welcome. More employees at the MMORPG could lead to faster releases or more updates per year.
The studio Sledgehammer Games, which belongs to Activision Blizzard, is currently looking for new employees, as VentureBeat reports. Sledgehammer is known as one of the CoD studios. This suggests that much more is planned for this brand.
Furthermore, the mobile market is very important for the company and it is assumed that with more developers in the company, we will see more mobile games like CoD Mobile from Activision Blizzard in the future.
What do the players think? Focusing on games and hiring many employees is a good thing. However, some also question what will happen to the 800 employees who were laid off by Activision Blizzard at the beginning of 2019?
- HKINGS | Adam states on Twitter: “You laid off over 800 people after a record year. Why would anyone want to work for you if you only care about yourselves and your shareholders?”
- Sean Ali Lama sees the situation positively: “This is fantastic and very healthy for the industry. I am glad things are going well.”
- Patrick K hopes for something new: “Hopefully new brands come and not just more CoD…”
Activision Blizzard is doing quite well during the current Corona crisis. According to the new financial report, the company has so far been spared from the negative effects of the pandemic. Therefore, new hires make sense.
