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Activision Blizzard has laid off a large number of employees across several teams reportedly. Less than 2% of the staff of the developer have been let go, and following the story breaking on Bloomberg, reporter Jason Schreier has shed a little light on what's considered a pretty, um, insensitive part of the severance package Activision Blizzard has supplied.
According to Bloomberg, the dismissals affected less than 190 people from the Activision Blizzard family but the exact number is not known at this time. 50 of these people were part of the esports and live events programming at the company, which doesn't exactly bode well for the future of esports events ran by Acti-Blizz in the future. But more importantly, the severance of those employees is now public knowledge thanks to Schreier including a strange addition.
More on today's Activision Blizzard layoffs:
- Dozens of people at the whole company were impacted, not just in live events
- In addition to 90 days severance and a year of health benefits, laid-off staff received... $200 https://t.co/2AtmAWTUNz gift cardshttps://t.co/lkzUO33kXi
- Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) March 16, 2021
These staff that were laid off in recent weeks will get a Battle.net voucher which will give them money to spend on Activision Blizzard games and in-game DLC - and people think it's a really strange and rather out-of-touch addition to the package. Considering we're in a global pandemic right now - $200 in software isn't exactly seen has helpful.
Hard Drive - an online satirical publication that often 'reports' on fake news - jumped into the conversation with an article that they previously came up with which isn't far off of what Blizzard actually did. Hard Drive's "Blizzard Gives Employees Box With 8.3% Chance of Containing Pink Slip" has pointed out how strange it seems to offer money to spend on loot boxes as part of a severance package is.
how did they do something dumber than our old article pic.twitter.com/tE4fvbkUzr
- Hard Drive (@HardDriveMag) March 16, 2021
Of course, the gift card isn't the only thing offered with the severance - the full tweet from Schreier reveals that each employee affected with be given 90 days severance and a year of health benefits too. Activision Blizzard has been harshly criticised for the number of employees the business laid off in previous years despite climbing profits, so this second wave of dismissals isn't being looked at favourably by fans.
Featured Image Credit: Activision Blizzard
Topics: News, Blizzard, Overwatch, Call of Duty, Activision
