Developer Sledgehammer Games of Call of Duty will lay off 76 employees.
The Federal Trade Commission has already taken notice of the layoffs done by Microsoft after the acquisition of Activision Blizzard. We now have a better understanding of which subsidiary studios will be affected by the loss. According to a report that was initially published by the San Francisco Chronicle (via Eurogamer), California WARN warnings indicate 86 imminent scheduled layoffs at Toys for Bob, the company that makes Skylanders, and 76 cuts at Sledgehammer Games, the company that develops Call of Duty: Vanguard.
A law that was passed in 1988 mandated that businesses must provide sixty days’ notice regarding staffing cuts (if they exceed certain limits). As a result, California mandates businesses to notify the state of any future layoffs. According to the most recent WARN notifications for Activision Blizzard, there will be 86 workforce reductions at an address in Novato, California, which corresponds to Toys for Bob’s offices, beginning on March 30. In addition, the San Francisco Chronicle has reported on a file with the state of California that indicates the branches of Toys for Bob will be closing their doors.
The “toys-to-life” concept was pioneered by Toys for Bob, which Nintendo eventually adopted with their Amiibos. Toys for Bob is known for being the pioneer of this concept. Among the most successful projects developed by the subsidiary of Activision Blizzard include the Spyro the Dragon series, Skylanders, and Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time. Late in the month of January, The Gamer published an article stating that Toys for Bob will be laying off forty percent of its workforce, which would have resulted in the elimination of approximately thirty-five positions.
Additionally, on March 30, another 76 employees of Activision Blizzard would be laid off from their jobs at an address in San Mateo, California, which is the same address as the headquarters of Sledgehammer Games. The company has been responsible for the creation of or contributed to a number of Call of Duty games, such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2011), Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (2014), Call of Duty: WWII (2017), and Call of Duty: Vanguard (2021). The studio was established in the year 2009. According to a rumor that was published by Insider Gaming in January, Sledgehammer Games would be closing its headquarters and becoming completely remote.
The announcement that Microsoft would be laying off 1,900 employees across its Xbox, Activision Blizzard, and ZeniMax (Bethesda) divisions was made before the end of January. On Wednesday, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) submitted a complaint to a federal appeals court, alleging that the significant wave of layoffs “contradicts Microsoft’s representations in this proceeding.” The lawsuit was filed in response to Microsoft’s decision to lay off a significant number of employees. Following the approval of the $69 billion transaction by the Competition and Markets Authority in the United Kingdom in October, the government agency requested that the acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft be put on hold for a short period of time.
Between the years 2023 and 2024, it is anticipated that 10,500 workers in the gaming business were laid off. Only a little more than a month into the new year, we have already witnessed 6,000 additional cases in the year 2024. It has been a part of a disastrous more than a year’s worth of layoffs across the IT industry.