Activision Blizzard is reportedly shutting its France office

Activision Blizzard has reportedly informed staff that it is to shut its Versailles, France office.

According to Bloomberg, which was notified of the move by several affected employees, the Versailles office is responsible for marketing, customer support, and game localisation for titles published in Europe.

It employed some 400 staff as of early 2019 but that number was significantly reduced when 134 employees took a compensation package to leave at the start of this year.

Activision Blizzard had said last February that that it planned to reduce its headcount by 8% in 2019, representing approximately 800 job losses, mainly consisting of “support staff”.

The company reportedly intended to move half of the Versailles office to London, but those plans failed to materialise following Brexit and the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

The fate of the remaining staff at the Versailles office is currently unclear, but according to Bloomberg, companies must negotiate significant compensation packages for employees involved in mass layoffs as part of French labour laws.

Blizzard co-founder and former CEO Mike Morhaime recently launched a new game publishing company, Dreamhaven, and two development studios, Moonshot and Secret Door.

Further reading

Blizzard’s co-founder has launched a new company separate from Activision

Dreamhaven is a new publisher from Mike Morhaime and other Blizzard veterans