Today, Blizzard announced that it was laying off a bunch of people. Click here for article. When I first saw the wowhead tweet, I was shocked, but not really surprised. With the gradual loss of nearly 2 million subscribers and less than awesome patches and expansions (c'mon, since the Lich King, when have you been truly excited??) it was bound to start hurting. The loss of paying subscribers means less revenue but the expenses remain high. This is not to say that Blizzard is about to declare bankruptcy - we all know that isn't true. It just simply means that they no longer have the numbers to keep the employees. And as we all know that in this day in age, as soon as the bottom line starts becoming the top line, companies get vicious and just start the massive cost cutting.
They didn't really release the true numbers of how many were cut, but rumours have it that nearly 600 jobs were cut. Unfortunately, they are probably from the support departments. With less community managers and perhaps even GMs, it means longer wait times - period. So when that hacker decides to steal your shit and move your character, instead of waiting a week to get everything back, it'll be a month.
But really, Blizz? Didn't you see this coming? Especially with the disappointing crap you've been putting out? Did you think that the paying audience was going to lap it all up and be content? Honestly, I can't see myself playing beyond Mists of Pandaria (MOP). Unfortunately, like a sucker, I locked myself in for another year just so I could get Diablo for free and a beta key for Mists. Beyond that....I'm just waiting for Guild Wars 2, bitches. Okay, gotta go play Skyrim until it's time to raid.
