More community managers at Blizzard are leaving. Christian “Rynundu” Döbel was the last community manager in the German-speaking area, where he mainly took care of Hearthstone and Diablo 3. Additionally, World of Warcraft has lost its German CM – apparently, no replacement is planned.
What happened? In a recent forum post, the last German community manager Rynundu announced his farewell.
He says:
“There have been many changes at Blizzard this year, and they have not passed me by. This week was my last as community manager for Hearthstone and Diablo.”
After WoW-CM Toschayju also left Blizzard in October, there is now no community manager for the German-speaking area.
As of today, November 22, Rynundu will no longer work as a community manager. However, he will remain employed by Blizzard and will now focus on localization for their games.
So far, no replacement for the missing community managers is in sight. This raises concerns.
Few Community Managers Remaining in Europe
Who else is leaving? Besides Rynundu, the community manager Aerythlea also announced her departure shortly before. Her last day was also today. In Europe, Thyvene is now the last remaining CM for the entire region.
Rynundu, Toschayju and Aerythlea are not the only employees who have left the company:
- Just on November 12, Araxom, the most popular support staff member, left
- Months ago, 3 top developers departed from Blizzard studio
- In June 2019, the eSports director Kim Phan left the company
Two of the founders of Blizzard have also left: Frank Pearce left Blizzard in July 2019, Mike Morhaime in January.
Delayed Resignations from February
Why is everyone leaving? The fact that so many Blizzard employees are currently resigning might, at least in the case of the community managers, be due to Activision Blizzard announcing in February 2019 that it would lay off 800 employees.
These are likely the “changes at Blizzard” that Rynundu refers to in his post.
Activision Blizzard’s plan was to cut positions in all areas not directly related to the development of new games. Since Blizzard has not released any new games since 2016, it seems that a harsh atmosphere has prevailed there for some time. According to insider reports, Activision is tightening the reins and has issued a savings program.
In the USA, layoffs happen quite rapidly. In France, where the EU headquarters of Blizzard is located, there is, however, stronger employment protection. Here, there is a two-month notice period if the employee has worked at the company for at least two years.
Additionally, in France, the union must approve severance pay, which can take some time with multiple layoffs. According to LeMonde, the negotiation lasted until June 20. Severance amounts had already been mentioned regarding Blizzard:
