Blizzard has announced that that about 600 employees will be cut from its global workforce, 90% of which will "come from departments not related to game development", and they ensure us that no one from the World of Warcraft development team will be impacted. Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment, explains their decision:
Constant evaluation of teams and processes is necessary for the long-term health of any business. Over the last several years, we've grown our organization tremendously and made large investments in our infrastructure in order to better serve our global community. However, as Blizzard and the industry have evolved we've also had to make some difficult decisions in order to address the changing needs of our company.Knowing that, it still does not make letting go of some of our team members any easier. We’re grateful to have had the opportunity to work with the people impacted by today’s announcement, we’re proud of the contributions they made here at Blizzard, and we wish them well as they move forward.
As for its publishing schedule (I find it hilarious that Blizzard thinks it has one), it will reveal its release plan for Diablo III soon (always soon) and will "drive aggressively toward beta testing for World of Warcraft: Mists of Panderia, Blizzard DOTA, and StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm".
