Ahead of its fourth-quarter earnings report, Activision Blizzard has started the process of laying off members of its staff. During the call, it said the draw down will affect approximately 8% of its work force, or nearly 800 employees.

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According to a report by Kotaku, a note has been sent to Activision Blizzard staff by Blizzard president J. Allen Brack stating "staffing levels on some teams are out of proportion with our current release slate. This means we need to scale down some areas of our organization."The press release accompanying the Q4 earnings report states Activision Blizzard will actually increase the size of development teams on "its biggest franchises, enabling teams to accelerate the pace and quality of content."Teams working on "Call of Duty, CandyCrush, Overwatch, Warcraft, Hearthstone and Diablo" are planned to grow "approximately 20%" over the year, but part of that growth comes from cutting back on "initiatives that are not meeting expectations," as well as "reducing certain non-development and administrative-related costs."In the Activision Blizzard fourth quarter earnings report, it cited "record net revenues" of $7.5 billion for 2018. However, operating cash flow was down significantly from 2017, from $2.21 billion last year to $1.79 billion for the year ending December 31, 2018. During the opening remarks of the call with investors, CEO Bobby Kotick said the company "didn't execute as well" as it hoped during last year, referring to metrics like reach and engagement.Activision Blizzard said net bookings, referring to in-game spending on things like loot boxes and card packs, are in decline for both Hearthstone and Overwatch.The letter refers only to staff in the US, but Brack added in the company's regional offices, it "anticipates similar evaluations, subject to local requirements."

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