# Blizzard Entertainment

Blizzard Entertainment is the Irvine, California video game publisher behind Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo whose name became a running gamer-culture punchline after parent Activision Blizzard announced 775 layoffs on the same day it reported record 2018 revenue in February 2019.

## Overview
Blizzard Entertainment is a video game developer and publisher headquartered in Irvine, California, known for the Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo franchises[3]. Online, the studio's name is tied to a specific gamer-culture flashpoint: the February 2019 layoff announcement from parent Activision Blizzard[1].

The cuts were reported alongside record 2018 revenue of $7.5 billion, up from $7.02 billion the year before, which turned "record profits, mass layoffs" into the shorthand framing across gaming Twitter, Reddit, and YouTube reaction channels[1]. CEO Bobby Kotick's face was pasted onto image macros and became the visual center of the backlash[4].

## How It Spread
On the day of the announcement, Kotaku editor Jason Schreier tweeted that "Blizzard employees are crying and hugging in the parking lot," a line that ricocheted across gaming Twitter and set the emotional register for the story[5].

The next day, Redditor StaurtGT posted "Activision-Blizzard's Management = SCUM" to /r/gaming with a captioned image of Bobby Kotick pointing at the record-earnings contradiction; the thread pulled in more than 96,600 points and around 4,700 comments in 24 hours[4]. That post pushed the layoff story from gaming press into general Reddit meme circulation and pinned Kotick as the face of the backlash.

YouTube commentators kept the story running through the week, with TheQuartering and Boogie2988 both publishing reaction videos on the layoffs[3]. Coverage kept looping back to the split between Activision's $2.38 billion quarterly revenue and the severance package that folded job placement, health coverage and profit-sharing bonuses together for the cut staff[2].

## How to Use
The Blizzard Entertainment layoff meme is typically invoked whenever a large game publisher announces mass job cuts after reporting strong earnings. Common conventions include pairing a Bobby Kotick photo with a caption that quotes the record-revenue figure, or replying to any corporate earnings-plus-layoffs headline with "crying and hugging in the parking lot" as a callback to Jason Schreier's 2019 tweet[5].

## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is Blizzard Entertainment?
An Irvine, California video game developer and publisher known for the Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo franchises[3].

### Where did Blizzard Entertainment come from?
It was founded in February 1991 as Silicon & Synapse by Michael Morhaime, Allen Adham, and Frank Pearce, and was renamed Blizzard Entertainment in 1994 after software distributor Davidson & Associates acquired it for $6.75 million[3].

### What does Blizzard Entertainment mean?
In meme use, the name references the February 2019 controversy where Activision Blizzard cut about 775 jobs on the same day it reported record 2018 revenue of $7.5 billion[1].

### How do you use Blizzard Entertainment?
It is typically used as shorthand for corporate "record profits, mass layoffs" criticism, often paired with a Bobby Kotick image on /r/gaming or quoted alongside Jason Schreier's "crying and hugging in the parking lot" tweet[4][5].

### Is Blizzard Entertainment still popular?
The 2019 layoff moment is a classic gaming-culture reference that gets revived whenever a publisher announces job cuts after strong earnings, and the underlying CNET framing of the contradiction is still the reference template[2].

## References
1. [https://variety.com/2019/gaming/news/activision-blizzard-layoffs-1203136982/](<https://variety.com/2019/gaming/news/activision-blizzard-layoffs-1203136982/>)
2. [https://www.cnet.com/news/activision-blizzard-begins-employee-layoffs-after-best-year-in-company-history/](<https://www.cnet.com/news/activision-blizzard-begins-employee-layoffs-after-best-year-in-company-history/>)
3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/blizzard-entertainment](<https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/blizzard-entertainment>)
4. [https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/](<https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/>)
5. [https://twitter.com/jasonschreier](<https://twitter.com/jasonschreier>)

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Source: https://meme.com/memes/blizzard-entertainment
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