Blizzard is cutting staff on the Warcraft Rumble team, and it will no longer be making any new content for the game.
Microsoft made job cuts across its games business today, including 200 staff at Candy Crush maker King. It appears the team behind Blizzard’s mobile Warcraft spin-off have also been caught up in the layoffs. Aftermath reports that most of the team is gone, and the number of job cuts may be as high as 100.
Blizzard confirmed in a blog post today that it will no longer be creating any new content for the Clash Royale-like spin-off. It also confirmed that it has to “part ways” with some members of the team, but it did not state how many.
“We’ll continue supporting Rumble with updates focused on regular, systemic in-game events and bug fixes, but no new content,” says the blog. Some of the Warcraft Rumble team will continue to support the game and other titles at Blizzard, but others will be leaving, the blog continues.
“Since launch, Rumble has struggled to find its footing relative to our ambition for its long-term success, and for some time now the team has been listening to player feedback, refocusing in certain areas, and exploring different options,” added Blizzard. “Some of that work showed signs of progress, but ultimately wasn’t enough to put the game on a path to sustainability.”
As we reported earlier today, King was also hit hard by job cuts across Microsoft’s games division. We were told that 96 jobs are gone in Stockholm and 30 have been eliminated in Barcelona. The other 70 are believed to be split across London, Berlin and remote workers. King’s middle management, UX and narrative teams were hit hardest.
“It’s a very bloated and slow org so it’s not a surprise that they would cut from there,” our source said of the cuts to middle management.
They added: “It’s also been handled very poorly from what I hear from those on the ground.”
