Blizzard Lays Off 600

Blizzard Entertainment has announced that it will cut roughly 600 employees from its global workforce.

Following a "review of its business based on current organizational needs," Blizzard Entertainment has begun implementing cuts of approximately 600 employees from its rolls. The good news is that 90 percent of the layoffs will come from non-development departments, and the World of Warcraft team will not be touched. The bad news, obviously, is that 600 people are, or soon will be, out of work.

"Constant evaluation of teams and processes is necessary for the long-term health of any business. Over the last several years, we've grown our organization tremendously and made large investments in our infrastructure in order to better serve our global community," CEO Mike Morhaime said in a statement. "However, as Blizzard and the industry have evolved we've also had to make some difficult decisions in order to address the changing needs of our company."

Blizzard said that its current development schedule, which of course includes the still-undated Diablo 3, will not be affected by the cuts, and that it is in fact "still recruiting and looking to hire qualified developers for a number of open positions." But no matter how it's spun, 600 job losses in a company that employees less than 5000 has to hurt. We wish all the best to Blizzard employees affected by the cuts.