Activision Blizzard lays off most of its esports division

Less than a week after Activision Blizzard was affected by layoffs at Microsoft Gaming, the majority of its esports division has been laid off, leaving only a small group of full-time employees.

The details:

• As reported by Charlie Intel, Activision's esports team has been reduced to 12 full-time employees, down from 72. Employees were informed of the possibility of layoffs last week, but the decision was not confirmed until after the Call of Duty League's first major tournament. This meant staff worked throughout the weekend without knowing if they had a job the following Monday.

• Senior esports manager Scott Parkin was among those affected, and he took to X to express his dissatisfaction with how the situation was handled. “They did it, they actually did it,” he said. “They let us work with that over our heads and laid us off on our first day off. The lack of common decency is a joke.”

• Others include Matt "Mr. X" Morello, a COD and Overwatch caster, host Salome "Soe" Gschwind-Repp, and Cathy Ge, the former CDL competition operations lead. All full-time employees on the CDL's observing team have also been let go.

• The CDL is expected to continue to operate as usual for the rest of the season, using contractors. Fans believe that major changes are coming to the structure of the league next year, similar to Overwatch's new esports circuit.

• Activision Blizzard was hit the hardest by Microsoft’s gaming layoffs last week. This resulted in many veterans losing their jobs after decades of working at the company and the cancellation of Blizzard’s survival project.

More gaming news:

• Eidos Montreal has laid off around 100 employees as it cancels an unannounced Deus Ex title.

• Former Volition employees have formed Shapeshifter Games, a new co-development studio that will collaborate with AAA publishers.