The Activision Blizzard French offices will reportedly be closing, ending the company's decades-long history in France as it explores how to "better leverage talent" of its employees around the world.
Activision Blizzard is a company with many massive media franchises under its belt. Blizzard Entertainment had largely operated autonomously for most of this partnership, working on the World of Warcraft, Diablo, and Starcraft franchises while also cooking up new experiences with Overwatch and Hearthstone. In more recent year,sNow, the conglomerate will be scaling back its operations in Europe in the near future.
Why the Activision Blizzard French Offices Are Closing
Bloomberg reports that the closure of the Activision Blizzard French offices was announced to employees earlier today, signaling a likely end to the company's operations in France (and perhaps Europe as a whole).
Activision Blizzard had originally planned to relocate half of the employees to London according to anonymous sources within the company. However, the double-whammy of Brexit and the 2020 coronavirus pandemic ground those plans to a halt. Last year, the Activision Blizzard French offices eliminated 134 out of its 400 positions, a move that took several months to come to fruition as the company negotiated severance packages with the French government.
"Over the past year we have been exploring how we might best integrate our capabilities across the business, enabling us to better leverage talent, expertise and scale as we adapt to the needs of a fast-paced, highly-competitive, digitally focused industry," a spokesman told Bloomberg.
It isn't entirely clear what will happen to the employees. Activision Blizzard may offer to move some of them to a new location. Employees suffering mass layoffs are entitled to severance packages due to French laws, so these employees may experience a similar wait for results as had been seen with the last round of layoffs.
What is also unclear is whether or not Activision Blizzard will continue to operate in Europe. The need for large local offices may not be as important in the digital age, and Activision Blizzard may opt to set up shop somewhere else.
What do you think of the Activision Blizzard French offices closing down? Do you think this will have a negative effect on the company overall? Let us know in the comments below!
