Activision/Blizzard Laying Off 600 Staff

Blizzard Entertainment (World of Warcraft and Starcraft), which is part of Activision/Blizzard has, following a review, laid off 600 people.

It states, "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."

There are, of course, many Warcraft related staff who are not involved in development.

Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment states, "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."

There's no quote from anybody at parent company Vivendi yet.
Source: Activision