The announcement came from the Q4 earnings call.
Activision announced in its quarterly earnings call Tuesday that Blizzard will not have a major frontline release for 2019.
“Turning to Blizzard, we expect materially lower financial performance this year,” Activision said. “2018 benefited from the release of World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth, whereas we are not planning a major frontline release for 2019.”
Blizzard said it finished its fourth quarter with, “softness for its in-game revenues that will take time to stabilize and return to growth.”
The call also noted that, “While these factors will weigh on Blizzard’s financials this year, looking further ahead, Blizzard’s pipeline of PC, console, and mobile content is richer than ever, and we expect the significant addition of development resources to accelerate the pace of delivery over time.”
Activision also announced on the call, which was reported beforehand by emails circulating, that it had laid off 8% of its staff, which ends up being close to 800 employees.
So far what has been announced to come from Blizzard in the future is Diablo Immortal for mobile, which was met with negative reactions from fans and Warcraft 3 Reforged – a remastered version of the game from 2002.
Jessie Wade is a news writer at IGN. Chat with her on Twitter @jessieannwade about any thoughts you have with the Activision layoffs or Q4 report.
