Activision to Lay Off 150 Employees

[Everlost_MI]

The Street (http://www.thestreet.com/) has posted word of Activision laying off 150 workers (http://www.thestreet.com/_tscrss/tech/gamesandgadgets/10268232.html) or less than 7% of its workforce.

The company began notifying workers last week, company spokesman Ashley Dyer said. Instead of being targeted at a particular office or group of workers, the layoffs were "across the board," Dyer said.

Dyer did not specify the number of workers that Activision is laying off, but said it is less than 7% of the company's total workforce of 2,200. The cutbacks, which Activision is coupling with a hiring freeze, are being made as part of an effort to "realign" the company's operations for the next two years, Dyer said.
Thanks to Gamecloud (http://www.gamecloud.com/) for the tip. (http://www.gamecloud.com/article.php?article_id=3486)

Best of luck to those affected, and here's hoping you land on your feet soon.

[Eric_T_Cheng]

:(

Been there... Good luck to those who have been laid off at EA and Activision.

[mister_slim]

That sucks. I hope Zanzibar isn't among them.

[KNOTE]

God dammit. I've been there too. Twice. Good luck to those laid off.

[jeffool]

Damn. Anyone know which developers were affected?

[CaptSqueeze]

Luxoflux for sure...not sure about the other studios. Corporate lost some internal recruiters and a handful of Assoc Producers, but not sure on the rest.

And thanks for your condolences.

[Pumped'Up]

Layoffs in the software field is common practice and is completely expected to happen to all software houses. Really, it is no surprise here in this case with Activision.

Nevertheless, good luck to those back in the hunt.

[Montolio]

According to the article, each console generation transition brings with it a temporary hit in sales and a rise in production costs across the industry. If this is true why does it seem companies like EA, Activision and others never seem to properly plan for them or expect the known trend from the past? It just seems strange to me.

Also, is it possible to have poor quarterly performance without playing the 360 card anymore?

Sure...those who put money into a company might buy that at first but true or not it's starting to sound like an excuse for a lack of successful products. I find it hard to believe that everyone of Microsoft's partners had no idea how few consoles would be available during the first 3-4 months - not to mention, once again referring to the article linked in this thread, that everyone knows they're going to take a hit during this time period. Are we honestly supposed to buy the "Microsoft screwed us and now we have to screw our investors and employees"? Will the PS3, Revolution and so-called "death march" of the PC offer even more reasons to explain away what just has to be considered really poor forecasting / planning by executives or will they finally figure out what needs to be done to avoid this nightmare.

I don't want to see Activision (or other companies) hurt and people lose their jobs but at some point you'd think they'd learn from the past. Who knows, maybe there is just no getting around this type of thing.

Lame.

May everyone out of a job land on their feet quickly; hopefully for the better.

[alienchild]

We are about 70 people or so where I work. Yesterday, 10% got handed the pink slip and 40% are being moved to positions at the company that bought us. I got the latter... I can only imagine what these guys feel right now, although its not so distant anymore like it used to. First time in 14 years of work that Ive ever been close to losing my job.

Good luck guys, my thoughts are with you.

[The Great Gatsby]

I know some friends who work there in QA. Any word on if they'll be affected?

[Eon]

Someone mentioned the next gen take up - which is certainly a factor. What's crazy is the glitzy hiring campaign that Activision will be running in 8 months to a year when they realise that their next gen teams are woefully understaffed.