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Image credit: Activision Blizzard
Activision Blizzard has laid off several employees from the Hearthstone team in a bout of restructurization. The former specialists didn't expect this decision to strike them and are now looking for job opportunities.
One of the affected workers is software engineer Hunter C., who has been with the company for over 18 years.
"After 18 and a half years at Blizzard Entertainment, I've been laid off without notice as of today; the Hearthstone Team is apparently being restructured and my Tools Engineer role is no longer needed," shared Hunter on LinkedIn.
Senior producer Joe Belousek has worked on Hearthstone for a much shorter time, but the layoffs have found him as well. "It wasn't a long time, but I made the most of it and was making it mine," he posted. "Goodbye to the big campus orc, hopefully, we'll both see better days soon."
Image credit: Activision Blizzard
Kotaku's senior reporter Ethan Gach has managed to get an official statement from Activision Blizzard. The company didn't offer much and just confirmed the changes and thanked those it had to let go:
"Organizational changes were made to the Hearthstone team; as a result a small number of roles have become redundant. We want to thank these employees for their many contributions."
According to Hunter C., Blizzard's decision wasn't made because Hearthstone was not doing well: "To the best of my knowledge, Hearthstone was doing well; they had just recently shown off how well we were doing in a team meeting."
This is not the first wave of layoffs inside Activision Blizzard. In the summer, it significantly cut its esports division by firing around 50 people. In addition, not so long ago, the company let go of Director of Quality Assurance Arec Nevers, who had worked at it for more than 17 years.
Apart from the reorganization, Blizzard must be busy with its possible $68.7 billion deal with Microsoft, which is now reviewed by the UK's regulator CMA, and should find its conclusion in October.
It's not clear how the layoffs will affect Hearthstone, so stay tuned and join our 80 Level Talent platform and our Telegram channel, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.