blizzcon-cancelled
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Blizzard layoffs could mean many things
Pop law abounds in The Lawbringer, your weekly dose of WoW, the law, video games and the MMO genre. Mathew McCurley takes you through the world running parallel to the games we love and enjoy, full of rules, regulations, and esoteroic topics that slip through the cracks. It was a shock to many on Wednesday when Blizzard announced that it would be cutting 600 positions from the company, including many support and customer service jobs and even some developer spots. Very sad news for a great group of people, absolutely. Maybe we can do a little digging and figure out why Blizzard cut these positions and make some sense of it. You don't just cut workers "because." Activision Blizzard is a publicly traded company in the United States, where corporations are beholden to their shareholders, profits, and the bottom line. We still live in a world where the price of stock is paramount, so raising the price of stock combined with investor satisfaction is key. Every decision by Activision Blizzard must, at the end of the day, be made with the knowledge that the investors matter. Let's start with what employee staff reductions do not mean. Blizzard is not going broke or bankrupt because of these 600 jobs. World of Warcraft, StarCraft, Diablo, and unannounced titles are still being developed and pored over. Mike Morhaime himself said that the active positions cut were mostly non-developmental, which leaves support, customer service, and potential redundancies in the company's structure. All in all, 600 jobs is a large enough number that there is a reason for all of this.
The Queue: Sad Mat is sad
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Mathew McCurley (@gomatgo) will be your host for today. We've all heard the news that there will be no BlizzCon 2012, which has left me sad. No, friends, I am not sad because I will not be in the crowd for the next big announcement this year. No, I am not sad that I won't get to bask in the Californian autumn sun. I am sad because I will not get to see you, my best friends, until 2013. Everyone just asked: Will there be no BlizzCon in 2012? That is correct. Blizzard has just announced that due to the amount of work left to be done in the triple game lineup for 2012-13, it will not be hosting BlizzCon this year and instead holding the Battle.net Championship rounds in Asia near the end of the year. Why is Blizzard canceling BlizzCon this year? I've got a few of my own reasons, and I'm sure the community is ready and willing to speculate on what exactly is going on over at Blizzard in the wake of this decision. BlizzCon could be a very nasty red mark on the spreadsheet for costs this year while three products make their way through crunches. The resources could be tied up in other places. There are a million reasons, but the one that definitely isn't the case is attendance, as BlizzCon 2012 was bigger than ever and filled to the brim. There's definitely more to this story, and I hope we'll hear more about it soon.
