Mike Ybarra

The former head of Blizzard Entertainment, Mike Ybarra, has said that players should be able send tips to developers after finishing their game.

Blizzard Entertainment has announced that it won’t host BlizzCon this year. The annual event washosted for the first time in person last year since 2020 and was seemingly on the verge of a comeback. Though not meant to be, the company told IGN it’s not a decision “made lightly.”

Blizzard is currently seeking job applicants for multiple high-level positions related to the creation of an unspecified, unannounced game. The job postings don't reveal much at all about what Blizzard's next big project might be, but the fact that the company is hiring shows that it has something new in the works for its fans.

Blizzard is currently recruiting a dozen members of staff to work on an unannounced game.

Moon Studios may be known for its hit Metroidvania games, but its new action RPG, No Rest for the Wicked, is now available in early access, and former Blizzard president Mike Ybarra believes its "bold direction" is what the genre needs to "stay relevant."

The former boss of Blizzard Entertainment has suggested a post-purchase tip feature that would let players give $10 or $20 extra to the developers of special games.

Former Blizzard president Mike Ybarra recently shared his thoughts that players should be able to «tip» developers after completing a game, showing a little extra love to the creators. The price point of video games has been a hot-button issue for many gamers, especially since the start of the newest generation of consoles. Throughout recent years, many of the most popular releases have seen a raise in their standard pricing, with new games often now costing $70 USD instead of the previously standard $60 USD price tag. Now, a former Blizzard executive has his own opinions on game pricing.

Former Blizzard president Mike Ybarra has suggested that players should be able to tip developers after completing a game.

Oh lord, keep with me on this one, people. Tipping is controversial at the best of times. A suggestion that we bring a tip option to video games is going to be met with all kinds of resistance. But you know, it makes sense.

Former Blizzard president Mike Ybarra, who exited the publisher in January, would like to leave tips after completing some $70 games.

Mike Ybarra, the former president of Blizzard, has suggested that games have a tipping feature. He says he developed this idea after playing games like Horizon Zero Dawn, Baldur's Gate 3, and Elden Ring, and feels that devs deserve more than the standard $60 or $70 price tag.

Former Blizzard boss Mike Ybarra would like the option to «tip» developers once he's completed a game.

Former Blizzard head Mike Ybarra has an interesting idea regarding video game prices.

Diablo IV is now on Game Pass.

Patch 10.2.6 introduces a new «unique event». While this patch has been kept off the PTR, and is shrouded in mystery, there are clues that suggest Pirates may be somehow involved — clues like the obvious pirate flag associated with the patch. While we wait to finally experience this patch ourselves, we thought it'd be fun to revisit some of the pirates of Azeroth, and their stories.

Recent reports have revealed troubling news for employees at Blizzard, indicating that the renowned gaming company is considering another round of layoffs. Specifically, the reports outline plans to cut over 130 positions at the Cork, Ireland office, raising concerns about job stability within Blizzard.

Microsoft Corp.'s plans to cut 1,900 jobs from its video game division contradict statements the company made to a US  court that it would operate the newly acquired Activision Blizzard Inc. independently, the US Federal Trade Commission said Wednesday.

Microsoft recently cut 1,900 jobs from its gaming division and among the layoffs were many at the recently acquired video game developer Activision Blizzard. Blizzard Entertainment's President Mike Ybarra and co-founder Allen Adham are both departing. The tech giant also announced the cancellation of a Blizzard game, called “Odyssey,” that was already six years in development. On Tuesday, Microsoft reported quarterly earnings, posting its strongest revenue growth since 2022.

Following the most recent round of layoffs from Microsoft's Xbox division, details about Blizzard's in-development survival game, Odyssey, have now leaked online. Microsoft first announced the major layoffs earlier this week, reporting that 1,900 employees from the company had lost their jobs as a result. The layoffs reportedly saw particularly heavy impact on Microsoft's gaming division, with Activision Blizzard, Xbox, and ZeniMax reportedly seeing the brunt of the layoffs. Now, one of the casualties of the layoffs comes as an in-development survival game from Blizzard.

Blizzard Entertainment's survival game, which it informally announced in 2022, was reportedly canceled over engine issues during its six years of development, according to a new Bloomberg report. This report follows yesterday's news that Microsoft is laying off 1,900 employees across its Xbox, Activision Blizzard, and ZeniMax divisions. Alongside this news, Blizzard president Mike Ybarra also announced he was departing from the company, and we learned the aforementioned survival game had been canceled. 

The first month of 2024 isn’t over yet, but it’s already been a brutal year for the games industry, with thousands of people having lost their jobs in a barrage of industry-wide layoffs. Microsoft recently added a significant chunk to that number when it announced that it would be cutting 1,900 jobs across its entire gaming division, and it seems those layoffs are also going to come at the cost of the company’s physical distribution.

Microsoft recently announced widespread layoffs, confirming that it was cutting 1,900 jobs across its entire gaming division– which, following the company’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, also includes Blizzard Entertainment. The layoffs have also gone hand-in-hand with the cancellation of Blizzard’s long-in-development survival game, codenamed Odyssey, which was officially confirmed to be in development in 2022, and a new report published by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier has shed more light on what brought about the highly anticipated project’s cancellation.

Fresh details about Blizzard’s cancelled survival game have been revealed.

The president of Blizzard Entertainment, Mike Ybarra, is departing the firm.

One area hit during the recent round of layoffs at Microsoft were the departments focused on bringing physical Xbox games to retail. On January 25, word began circulating that Microsoft Gaming was laying off a massive 1,900 employees from its 22,000-person team. A large portion of this number apparently is coming from the customer service group at newly acquired Activision Blizzard, which up till now was known for having relatively solid customer service.

Microsoft will let go of 1,900 employees at Activision Blizzard and Xbox this week, it said on Thursday, the latest cuts in the technology sector that has extended massive layoffs over the past years into 2024.

The recent layoffs across the various Microsoft studios include the vast majority of the customer service team at Blizzard. This means the multiple live service games run by Blizzard are currently operating with next to no moderators, game masters, and customer service representatives.

Earlier this morning, Microsoft dropped a bomb, announcing the cutting of 1900 jobs from their Xbox and Activision Blizzard teams – nearly a 10th of their gaming division. It seems Blizzard was hit particularly hard by these layoffs, with president Mike Ybarra resigning and their upcoming survival game “Odyssey” being canceled. Well, we may now know a bit more about who was on the chopping block, and it’s not good news for those still holding onto the dream of physically owning their games.

The development team behind Blizzard's now-cancelled survival game, reportedly called Odyssey, is seemingly among the teams dramatically impacted by the layoffs at Microsoft today.

Following its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Microsoft is reportedly reducing of 1,900 employees from its workforce. While he didn’t confirm being part of the same, Blizzard Entertainment president Mike Ybarra has revealed that he is also departing the company.

Microsoft has announced that it’s cutting 1,900 jobs from its gaming division’s workforce of around 22,000, with the massive round of layoffs set to impact employees across Xbox, Activision Blizzad, and ZeniMax. Given the scale of the layoffs, the full extent of their impact likely won’t become perfectly clear immediately, but it looks like game cancellations will also be involved.

Back in 2022, Blizzard announced that they were working on a survival game set in an "all-new universe". Not much more was known about the game except that the studio were actively ramping up recruitment, seemingly after having been working on the project since 2017.

Blizzard’s president Mike Ybarra and its chief design officer Allen Adham are leaving the studio, which has also seen a previously announced survival game cancelled.

Microsoft’s head of gaming has confirmed that 1,900 staff will be laid off across Activision Blizzard, Bethesda and Xbox.

The president of Blizzard Entertainment, Mike Ybarra, has announced that he’s departing the company today (January 25). 

Update: This story has now been updated with a response from a Microsoft spokesperson.

Microsoft is laying off 1,900 workers — or around 8% of Microsoft Gaming’s 22,000 employees — from its gaming division. The majority of layoffs are at Activision Blizzard, according to the Verge, though cuts will impact Xbox and ZeniMax employees, too.

Blizzard Entertainment’s untitled survival game set in an original universe is no more. In the wake of Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, and amid sweeping layoffs across various Xbox gaming teams, the company has canceled the project, according to a report from the Verge.

This morning, there were some big headlines when Microsoft reportedly cut down 1,900 jobs within their gaming division. That was surprising but also disheartening news as we continue this layoff trend. 2023 saw several jobs being cut and studios closing down. It’s not looking much better as we head into 2024, as again, a whopping 1,900 jobs will soon be vacant. This comes right after Microsoft acquired the Activision Blizzard deal. For $69 billion dollars, Microsoft added a massive catalog of games into their collection along with new resources for future game productions. But already, these layoffs are seeing the effects on game cancellations. One of which is reportedly Odyssey.

Microsoft is laying off 1900 people across its video game teams, including Activision Blizzard, ZeniMax and Xbox, equating to approximately eight percent of its gaming workforce.

According to IGN, Microsoft has fired 1,900 employees from its video game divisions including Xbox and Activision Blizzard. The layoffs affect almost 9% of the 22,000 employees at the company. In a memo to staff, Microsoft Gaming CEO claims the layoffs come after leadership at Microsoft Gaming and Activision Blizzard identified areas of overlap following the recent acquisition of Activision, Blizzard, and King.

Alongside the announcement of 1,900 layoffs and the departure of Blizzard President Mike Ybarra and Co-founder Allen Adham, Blizzard's unannounced survival game has been cancelled. Revealed shortly after news of the Microsoft acquisition in January of 2022, little information about the game was ever released to the public aside from vague recruitment posts, though the abandonment of unfinished projects is not unheard of, as the cancellation of the ambitious MMO Titan famously led to the development and release of Overwatch in 2016. As reported by the Verge, Microsoft Game Content and Studios President Booty says Microsoft will be “shifting some of the people working on it to one of several promising new projects Blizzard has in the early stages of development.”

Microsoft has laid off 1,900 employees from its gaming division—mainly roles at Activision Blizzard King, but also some at Xbox and ZeniMax Media.

Given that Microsoft have spent considerable time and effort becoming the biggest cock-of-the-walk possible, it does, I suppose, make sense that their layoffs are correspondingly massive. In an internal memo obtained by The Verge, Phil Spencer is very sad to reveal to the staff that, in order to grow, the combined powers of Microsoft's 22k-strong Gaming Division have to be denuded to the tune of 1,900 human beings. That amounts to about 8% of the division.

Just four months after the merger with Activision-Blizzard, Microsoft has announced that it will lay off 1.900 Activision-Blizzard and Xbox employees.

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Earlier this morning, it was announced that Microsoft is laying off 1,900 staff from its gaming division, a reduction of around 8% of Microsoft Gaming's total workforce. Following the announcements, Mike Ybarra (also known as Qwik) has announced on X that today is his last day at Blizzard Entertainment.

Microsoft is laying off around 8% of its Gaming Workforce, affecting game developers across Xbox, ZeniMax Media, and the newly acquired Activision Blizzard.

We're not even one month into 2024 and it's already been another brutal year for workers in the video game industry. Microsoft is the latest company to announce a major round of layoffs in its gaming division as it's cutting around 1,900 workers from its Xbox, Activision Blizzard and ZeniMax (aka Bethesda) teams. That brings the total number of video game layoffs this year to around 6,000 already. There were around 9,000 layoffs in the industry in all of 2023, according to some estimates.

Microsoft has announced that it will be laying off 1,900 members of its 22,000-person gaming division. 

Update, 9:51 a.m. ET, 1/25/24:

World of Warcraft's been on a bit of a roll with its patch cadence this past year. As Heather Newman pointed out earlier this week, Blizzard's seemingly turned a corner with the game—though whether it keeps that momentum going into 2024 and The War Within is another thing entirely. 

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Long-time Activision Blizzard boss Bobby Kotick is leaving the company following its acquisition by Microsoft in October. Kotick will depart on 29th December, with Microsoft largely keeping the company’s core leadership intact outside of this.

Long-time Activision Blizzard boss Bobby Kotick is leaving the company following its acquisition by Microsoft in October. Kotick will depart on 29th December, with Microsoft largely keeping the company’s leadership intact outside of this.

Activision Blizzard boss Robert Kotick is stepping down as CEO.

Microsoft announced that Activision Blizzard CEO is finally stepping down, effective December 29. He is not the only high-profile departure, though Microsoft intends to leave most of the company’s management in place.  

After a 32-year career, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick is officially stepping down next week, with his last day at the company being Friday, December 29. Meanwhile, Microsoft has announced a series of key leadership changes as it works to bring Activision Blizzard into Xbox's fold.

Microsoft has announced that Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard, will be stepping down on December 29th. Instead of a replacement, Blizzard president Mike Ybarra and Activision publishing president Rob Kostich will report to Microsoft Gaming game content and studios president Matt Booty, per The Verge. Activision Blizzard vice chair Thomas Tippl is also leaving in March 2024 but reports to Booty till then.

Blizzard President Mike Ybarra is sharing a look back at 2023,a very big year for the company in many ways. In the annual year-end blog post, Ybarra shares details on new and bigger milestones, community stats, and an update on company culture before looking ahead to 2024.

Controversial Activision Blizzard boss Bobby Kotick will depart the company on 29th December, it's been announced.

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick will leave the company on December 29 after 32 years, and remaining Activision Blizzard executives such as Blizzard Entertainment president Mike Ybarra, Activision Publishing president Rob Kostich, and Activision Blizzard vice chairman Thomas Tippl will be overseen by Microsoft Gaming game content and studios president Matt Booty.

In a new Inside Blizzard blog post, President of Blizzard Entertainment Mike Ybarra reflects on the past year of Blizzard games, celebrating the company's cultural growth and community achievements throughout 2023, while looking ahead to 2024.

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick has announced he’s stepping down from his position on December 29. The news comes two months after Microsoft officially completed its acquisition of the developer/publisher. 

Bobby Kotick has confirmed that he'll be stepping down as CEO of Activision-Blizzard-King on December 29, with no direct replacement planned to take his place.

Perhaps the most controversial executive in the history of the video game industry is stepping down by the end of the year. Activision CEO Bobby Kotick has long been a divisive figure for his aggressive and abrasive style, but his image took an even worse beating when he was personally implicated in the workplace misconduct allegations that roiled Acti-Blizz back in 2021. Despite that, he hung on, negotiating the $69 billion sale of Activision Blizzard to Microsoft. Throughout the process Microsoft and Xbox boss Phil Spencer have remained mum on what Kotick’s fate may be once the sale was completed.

By Tom Warrenand Ash Parrish

Long-time Blizzard employee Samwise Didier has left the company.

Though will go down as arguably the best real-time strategy game of all time, it's been seven years since the last expansion for the title,, was released, leaving those who enjoy RTS games lacking content over the past decade. While other RTS games have certainly launched, like 2023's, none have lived up to the lofty heights that set in the 2000s. Indeed, it was mainly the and RTS titles that spawned an entire professional Esports industry, with players from around the world competing for what was, at the time, incredibly high cash prizes.

Blizzard’s Samwise Didier is retiring after more than three decades of shaping the look and feel of several of the biggest franchises on the planet.

After a career spanning more than 32 years and just about every game Blizzard ever made, senior art director Samwise Didier is calling it quits. Didier announced on Twitter that he is retiring, and that today is his last day at his «beloved Blizzard Entertainment.»

Sam 'Samwise' Didier, the longtime Blizzard art director who defined the iconic look of the studio's games, has announced that he's retiring after 32 years with the company.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III is out today on all platforms, and you can check the launch patch notes here. However, the game's early reception, specifically for the campaign portion that has been out since last week, has been especially bad.

On the stage of BlizzCon 2023's opening ceremony, Blizzard President Mike Ybarra had the chance to welcome his former boss Phil Spencer, who made a surprise appearance.

«They want new stuff every day, every hour.»

Blizzcon 2023 showed us a whole new world of possibilities for Blizzard games; with a ton of new titles coming up, and the possibilities afforded by Microsoft's acquisition of the company, it seems as if we're entering into a new era — a breath of fresh air for many long-term players. 

Blizzard’s president has discussed the challenges involved in satisfying players “who want new content literally almost every single day”.

The Microsoft era of Blizzard has just begun, and it's not clear yet how the studio will change under the reign of Xbox head Phil Spencer. Maybe it'll mean more StarCraft, maybe not, but from the sounds of it we shouldn't expect a radically different approach from Blizzard: It's gonna keep running on the ol' live service treadmill.

Blizzard's president Mike Ybarra is of the opinion that those who play games are always yearning for fresh content and don't like to be kept waiting.

During BlizzCon's opening ceremony, Blizzard celebrated its games with a cinematic that focussed on the here and now, with nods to World of Warcraft, Diablo, Overwatch, Hearthstone and the developer's latest game: Warcraft Rumble. With this focus on the present, one of its most important series went ignored, much as it has been for years. StarCraft didn't get a look in.