Rumor: Mass Layoffs at Blizzard - "Titan" in Trouble?

posted 3 months ago0 comments Tweet

In light of a news tip received by Joystiq that John Staats, the senior level designer on Blizzard’s secretive Titan project, has been laid-off, the Digital Castration blog is now finding that other Blizzard employees have had their employment history changed to “Worked at Blizzard Entertainment” over the last 2 days.

A simple search through the friend’s list of John Staats (yes, we know, it’s creepy) confirms the findings. Trent Kaniuga (Sr. Concept Artist for Diablo 3), Matt Milizia (Senior Environment Artist), Paul Richards (Concept Artist), Joshua Horst (Producer) and Andrea Toyias (Casting and Voice-Over Director) are just some of the people who’s employment history has been changed to indicate that they “Worked” at Blizzard Entertainment.

With the way Facebook is set up, if you are currently employed and wish to display your status, it will show up as “Works at…”. However as soon as you un-check that you are presently employed in your current position, the status will automatically change to “Worked at…”.

Many of these people have been involved in the secret “Titan” project and have recently attended Blizzcon, which indicates that if they have been indeed let go, the layoffs have just taken place over the last few days. While there has been no official confirmation of layoffs or restructuring at Blizzard, this is too far to be a coincidence and more information might come later on today after the Quarterly Financial Results Call scheduled for 1:30 PM Pacific Time.