It has been reported that over 100 staff members have left Blizzard's European customer support headquarters in Cork, Ireland, after the company's fifth improved offer in just a few months turned out to be the sort worth leaving over.
According to the deal, the staff members who go for the package will remain in their current capacity until the end of 2018, after which they're free to leave the company with a bunch of fat stacks.
Several anonymous tipsters have since claimed that Blizzard have been gradually improving their severance offer with each unsuccessful iteration, with the fifth striking the chord. In fact, one source claims the package amounts to an entire year's pay.
The same source stated that all the staff members reached their decision voluntarily, without Blizzard ever forcing the issue. That being said, the same source said that "when you see a pile of cash in front of you, over and over again, you start to lose hope and cannot see a great situation ahead."
Blizzard insist that their European customer service operations will be unaffected by the changes, dismissing their temporary closure of live chat and callback services on 19 December 2018 as an occasional measure they resort to in case of "unexpectedly high volume of contacts."
The company confirmed the news themselves but deny making any improvements to their offer and/or encouraging employees to leave. Instead, their "voluntary and longstanding program [...] gives eligible staff the option to make the most of incentives while proactively pursuing other career opportunities."
By now, everyone sees that Blizzard are cutting costs like crazy, even giving up on 's esports aspirations - two moves which, when combined, really don't sound like Blizzard. While we're certain no modern company is immune to occasional downsizing, gaming companies perhaps doubly so, 100+ workers is still a pretty deep cut.
Blizzard
While they were at it, Blizzard also squashed any rumours of potential closure of their Irish offices, claiming they along with the remaining workers have a future in the company.
Diablo Immortal, a mobile game by NetEase and Blizzard
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