Blizzard Reportedly Giving Some Workers A Year's Salary To Quit

It looks as if Blizzard is trying very hard to shed some employees without having to institute "official" layoffs in some departments. Reports indicate that some very enticing offers have been made in at least one of Blizzard Entertainment's European offices.

In Cork, Ireland Blizzard has been offering impressive incentives to get workers in its customer service department to voluntarily leave their positions. The incentive has reportedly been offered on numerous occasions over the last few months. Some anonymous sources claim that workers have taken up to a year's worth of pay to leave Blizzard.

Reports also indicate that a large number of workers have taken various incentives, with some stating that the number is at least 100 people. People who have been offered the incentive and vacated positions include managers and back office staff members. With so many workers quitting positions in customer service, many will wonder how significantly wait times for Blizzard fans needing help will increase. It sounds as if the workers who have chosen to stay will have a substantially higher workload. Fewer people in the department could also mean more frustrated customers waiting for needed assistance.

As for why the reductions in workforce in the Ireland office, reports indicate it has to do with Blizzard acknowledging the decline of monthly active users for its titles resulting in less overall revenue for the company. The silver lining here is that Blizzard certainly could have simply laid these workers off with little or no severance, and instead, it has offered big payouts to get folks to leave voluntarily.

At BlizzCon in November, the negative reception to Diablo Immortal was so strong that it affected the company's stock price. Investors feared that Blizzard was not in touch with its fanbase.