Blizzard is reportedly laying off 136 workers in Cork, Ireland. That’s according to the Irish Examiner (as spotted by Eurogamer), which also claims the World of Warcraft and Diablo developer is refusing to negotiate with union representatives in the region.
Activision Blizzard was recently acquired by Xbox maker Microsoft for almost $70 billion. A few months after sealing the merger, Microsoft explained it will be cutting 1,900 jobs across its various game divisions.
Blizzard currently has offices in both Cork and Dublin and employs over 400 people across both locations. The Cork office alone reportedly houses over 200 workers, and it looks like over half of those jobs are now at risk.
Irish Tánaiste, Minister for Foreign Affairs, and Minister for Defence, Michael Martin, appeared to confirm the layoffs during a speech in the Dáil (a chamber within the Irish parliament) and described the situation as “very serious.”
Mick Barry, member of the People Before Profit party, said Blizzard staff had raised a number of concerns about how the layoff process was being handled and claimed the studio will not “engage with the trade union chosen by these workers to represent them.”
“Companies should not be allowed to waltz into this country, announce life-changing cutbacks to people’s jobs and simply refuse to talk to the representatives chosen by people who have given long years of service to their employer,” Barry added.
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Back in January, a spokesperson for the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment told the Irish Examiner it had received a “collective redundancy notification” in relation to possible layoffs at Blizzard’s offices in Ireland.
It’s unclear whether these cuts are part of the layoffs previously announced by Microsoft, which are also impacting key Activision Blizzard subsidiaries in California including Call of Duty studios Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games and Skylanders developer Toys for Bob.
Game Developer has reached out to Activision Blizzard for more information.