Even a voice actress from Overwatch disagrees with the layoffs at Blizzard. She has harsh words for such practices.
The nearly 800 layoffs at Activision Blizzard have caused a huge uproar in the gaming community. This step seems particularly absurd, as Blizzard recorded a record year with huge revenue last year.
Many people were laid off from “non-game development”, such as community management. Even the very popular Ythisens (WoW) among players was fired.
The whole situation has caused such waves that even voice actors, such as Jennifer Hale, the English voice of Ashe in Overwatch, have publicly spoken out against these practices.
What did Hale say? On Twitter, she made her stance quite clear regarding what she thinks about the current layoffs and payments to CEOs. She stated:
“The average salary of CEOs was 30 times higher than that of an employee in 1980.
Today, the average salary is 500 times higher than that of an employee.
Grab the pitchforks.
It’s time.”
It should be clear that Hale is not really calling for violence. It is more about showing the development studios and especially the bosses in another way that one disagrees with the development – such as with the wallet by not buying the next games.
In other tweets, she also expressed herself critically about the incident and used a few harsher words:
Why Hale can afford this: Jennifer Hale is one of the most well-known voice actresses in the gaming industry. Not only can she be heard in Overwatch, but she also provided the voice for Female Shepard in Mass Effect and Samus Aran from the Metroid series.
Some fans believe that Hale may not be the voice of Ashe for much longer after she has taken a stand against the management at Blizzard – her current employer. Other fans think that Hale probably doesn’t care much, as she has a pretty secure position in the industry.
What do you think about this statement from Jennifer Hale? Is it good for people who work for Blizzard to position themselves so clearly? What is your stance on this whole development?
