Activision Blizzard Esports today it will announce a restructuring that will result in the dismissal of around 50 people, actions that top executive Tony Petitti says is the result of how the group had to reinvent itself amid the coronavirus pandemic.
In an interview this morning with SBJ / TEO, Petitti did not disclose details about what functions would be affected. But he noted that the division – which runs the Overwatch turns on and Call to action turns on – is planning a future in which your business will be different and less dependent on live events.
The company said it retained the vast majority of its staff during 2020, but is now having to implement changes. Activision says it is informing those who are losing their jobs today and that they will receive adequate compensation packages.
Petitti made it clear that ABE is not moving away 100% from live events and, on the contrary, will try to return to them to a certain extent, when possible. However, OWL and CDL changed their league concepts during the pandemic of live events at home / away from home compared to stick-and-ball leagues to now run entirely online. It is possible that online-only play may form a significant, if not all, part of the OWL and CDL programming in the future.
He acknowledged that the cuts are due to a mixture of the need to cut costs and also reallocate some resources to other areas.
“We learned a lot in the past year in terms of how leagues can be structured for online gaming and we’ll look forward to taking best practices from there,” said Petitti, who joined Activision Blizzard as president of sports and entertainment last August after a longstanding role in the MLB. “In terms of time, it is a reaction to the reality of how the leagues are playing and what resources we need to allocate to better serve the league, owners, teams and fans.”
Petitti indicated that the CDL, which has already started its 2021 season, saw some growth compared to last season in the main performance indicators, and the company wants to spend more in areas where it feels it can generate greater engagement, audience and returns for itself and your partners.
Petitti, who reports to Activision’s CEO Bobby Kotick, noted that there were discussions about how best to structure the league before it even started. The decision took partly because “you never take anything like this lightly; these are our colleagues and something you spend a lot of time thinking about making the best decisions you can make. “
He indicated that he remains optimistic about seeing the growth of CDL and OWL, the last of which begins its 2021 season next month, but has had a harder time gaining a foothold in North America than CDL. He pointed to 100 thieves entering the CDL during this off-season, Optic Gaming recently renaming the Chicago CDL and OWL franchise creating an “East” circuit for this season with teams based in Asia as one of the positive developments during the off season.
“The company and the team are really optimistic that we have something here and we can continue to grow both,” he said. “There is nothing but optimism and a sense that growth will be achieved.”