Report: Activision Plans to Layoff Hundreds of Employees as Early as Next Week

According to a new report, Acvtivision Blizzard are planning to announce a series of layoffs as early as next Tuesday. The job cuts come after a period of slowing sales and missed financial expectations.

Bloomberg is reporting Activision Blizzard will announce job cuts numbering in the hundreds by next Tuesday. This is due to disappointing financial results and lowered sales for games across both Activision and Blizzard. In November, Activision Blizzard reported that titles like Overwatch, Hearthstone, and Destiny 2 weren't meeting certain expectations, and Activision Blizzard's shares dropped as much as 2.5 percent last Friday.

Activision Blizzard has had some high-profile changes this past year. Longtime Blizzard president and co-founder Mike Morhaime stepped down, and Blizzard shut down active development of Heroes of the Storm. On the Activision side of things, the company parted ways with Bungie on Destiny 2, and Activision Blizzard CFO Spencer Neumanna and Blizzard CFO Amirta Ahuja both left the company as well.

This instability in the games industry is widespread, with Electronic Arts and Take-Two also reporting lowered stock prices after reporting sales figures that were below expectations. Though EA stock rebounded on the news of Apex Legends' success.

There are currently no details for which departments or jobs could be affected by the layoffs. But Kotaku reports the layoffs could be in Blizzard's non-development departments such as marketing, publishing and sales. Those roles can then be folded into Activision, joining the two companies closer together.