Blizzard will lay off 600 people: will not affect game development progress

Sina Science and technology news Beijing time of March 1, according to the morning, dynamic Blizzard said Wednesday, the company will be the world's blizzard Department of the number of employees to reduce 600 people. Blizzard is the department responsible for making the online game, the World of Warcraft, which is seen as Blizzard's most profitable asset.　　Blizzard acquired Blizzard from Vivendi in 2008. Blizzard said in a statement today that 90% of the layoffs will have nothing to do with game development.　　According to Arvind Bhatia, a senior researcher at Sterne Agee, a US asset management firm, it is likely that Blizzard will cut the customer service for online gaming. World of Warcraft has been launched for 7 years, and its number of users has fallen steadily in recent quarters. By the end of 2011, the number of people in World of Warcraft was 10.2 million, slightly below the 10.3 million in the previous quarter. In the third quarter of last year, World of Warcraft lost 700,000 users.　　Previously, analysts have pointed out that EA's latest online game, Star Wars: The Old Republic (Star Wars:the OID Republic), may nibble on the user base of World of Warcraft. Blizzard said the company's game development progress will not be affected by the downsizing measures.　　The "Diablo 3" specific release plan will be announced in the near future. Affected by the layoffs, the blizzard's share price fell 1 cents to $12.05 in the latest Nasdaq deal. (Tangfeng)