Curiosa noticia, aunque aseguran que no afectará a la plantilla de World of Warcraft. ¿Qué motivos pueden llevar a Blizzard a recortar su plantilla en 600 personas a nivel mundial?
La verdad es que, si en el último informe de a los accionistas dijeron que aumentaron sus beneficios, no entendemos muy bien qué puede haber provocado esto. ¿Ajuste en previsión de tiempos peores? ¿Duplicidades en puestos de trabajo? En el comunicado indican que los despidos no afectarán a los puestos de desarrollo, así que no hay que preocuparse por la disponibilidad de Diablo 3, el nuevo DOTA o el proyecto de MMO desconocido que está en desarrollo.
Este recorte de personal podría suponer un ahorro de en torno a 30 millones de euros (y haciendo algunas cuentas rápidas y aproximadas, supondría los beneficios de unas 600.000 suscripciones anuales de WoW). Igual preveen más pérdidas de suscriptores en los próximos meses. Debido a su alianza con Activision, creo que necesitan mantener el valor de las acciones de Activision Blizzard contentando a los accionistas con medidas que vayan orientadas a reducir gastos y aumentar beneficios, y que los recortes de personal vendrían impuestos por Activision.
Os dejo el comunicado oficial aparecido en Bussiness Wire.
IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced that it has conducted a review of its business based on current organizational needs. Following a completion of the review, the company is conducting a global reduction in workforce of approximately 600 employees. The company anticipates approximately 90% of the affected employees will come from departments not related to game development. The World of Warcraft® development team will not be impacted.
“Constant evaluation of teams and processes is necessary for the long-term health of any business. Over the last several years, we've grown our organization tremendously and made large investments in our infrastructure in order to better serve our global community. However, as Blizzard and the industry have evolved we've also had to make some difficult decisions in order to address the changing needs of our company,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “Knowing that, it still does not make letting go of some of our team members any easier. We’re grateful to have had the opportunity to work with the people impacted by today’s announcement, we’re proud of the contributions they made here at Blizzard, and we wish them well as they move forward.”
Blizzard's current development and publishing schedules will not be impacted. The company will announce specific release plans for Diablo® III in the near future, and it’s continuing to drive aggressively toward beta testing for World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria™, Blizzard DOTA, and StarCraft® II: Heart of the Swarm™. Blizzard also remains committed to maintaining its high standards of quality for customer service delivery. In addition, Blizzard is still recruiting and looking to hire qualified developers for a number of open positions. Further details are available at http://jobs.blizzard.com.
For press inquiries, please contact Lisa Jensen in Blizzard Entertainment public relations at ljensen@blizzard.com.
The accounting charges associated with Blizzard's reduction in workforce are not anticipated to be material to Activision Blizzard, Inc. and were included in the 2012 financial outlook that was provided on February 9, 2012.
Vía: MMO Champion
