Blizzard to shed 600 staffers

World of Warcraft creators Blizzard Entertainment slashed jobs due to fewer players. "World of Warcraft" creator Blizzard Entertainment, which had been immune from broad staff cuts throughout its 20-plus-year existence, announced plans Wednesday to slash 600 positions from its payroll. Roughly 60 of those jobs will be game developers, with the rest coming from other divisions. While the company did not specify precisely where it will trim the extra workers, industry observers expect the majority to come from the customer-service unit. "Over the last several years, we've grown our organization tremendously and made large investments in our infrastructure in order to better serve our global community," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment, in a statement. "However, as Blizzard and the industry have evolved we've also had to make some difficult decisions in order to address the changing needs of our company." Activision-Blizzard, the parent company of the Blizzard studios, said accounting changes from the cuts are not expected to be material and were included in its 2012 financial outlook. Blizzard's "World of Warcraft" is a multibillion-dollar franchise but is no longer growing as it enters its eighth year. Between the fourth quarter of 2010 and fourth quarter of 2011, the game's subs count fell by roughly 2 million. And while "WoW" is still far and away the leading massively multiplayer title on the market, that atrophying player base is suspected to be the prime cause for the layoffs. Blizzard took pains to note, however, that the "World of Warcraft" team would not be impacted by the cuts. "?'Warcraft' was a money machine for many, many years," says John Taylor of Arcadia Research. "The subscription numbers peaked out and have been eroding over the last several quarters. My sense is they took a pretty good look at their expense structure that they didn't need to worry about previously and decided to tighten things up a bit." Blizzard has a full slate of games under development, with several due out this year -- including the highly anticipated "Diablo III." A sequel to the popular "Starcraft" series is also likely. Further down the path is a project codenamed "Titan," the company's next big massively multiplayer game. And despite the drop in customers, "World of Warcraft" is still far and away the leader in the online gaming universe. According to the most recent numbers provided by Blizzard, it has 10.2 million active players -- and has yet to fully expand into China (an area where it's expected to make tens of millions of dollars). There really hasn't been a viable competitor to the game to date, but many are keeping an eye on EA's recently launched "Star Wars: The Old Republic". That game sold more than 1 million copies in its first week and has seemingly captured the public's interest, due to a combination of gameplay and love of the "Star Wars" franchise. Players immersed themselves in the game for an average of five hours per day -- logging some 28 million hours in the first 10 days. Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com

Trio Of Stars Cast In Broadcast Aircraft pilots

Jeananne Goossen has arrived the feminine lead opposite Kevin Sausage and James Purefoy in Fox’s untitled Kevin Williamson drama pilot. The project, from Warner Bros TV, is referred to being an edge-of-the-chair thriller about Joe Carroll (Purefoy), a diabolical murderer who uses technology to produce a cult of serial murders, and upon the market FBI profiler Ryan Sturdy (Sausage), who finds themself in the center of it. Goossen will have Jennifer Mason, a powerful-willed FBI agent joined with Sturdy in the quest for Carroll. Goossen, repped by Greene & Affiliates and Magnolia Entertainment, is recurring on Alcatraz and may also be observed in The Vow. Jamie Chung (Samurai Girl) has became a member of Fox’s drama pilot The Resource. The project, written and executive created by Josh Friedman and directed by Neil Hamburger, focuses on Anna King (Ali Larter), an incredibly gifted globe-trotting digital photographer having a secret existence: she a CIA area operative. Chung, repped by Gersh and three Arts, will have a polygraph expert using the CIA who supervises a confrontational polygraph to King that immediately puts her around the wrong side of King’s temper and attention. Chung will next be observed in the characteristics Premium Hurry, 7500 and Guy Using The Iron Fists. Groundlings alumna Charlotte now Newhouse continues to be cast in Basic steps comedy pilot Prairie Dogs. The only-camera project, from authors/executive producers Jackie and Shaun Filgo and ABC Galleries, focuses on Neil (Kal Penn), an uncool cubicle worker also known as prairie dog at among the best companies on the planet who becomes the victim of id theft. As he finds out the crook has produced an infinitely more fulfilling existence together with his identity than he ever has, he engages the charming conman to assist him change his existence. Newhouse, repped by Gersh and Flutie, will have certainly one of Neil’s co-employees, who's spunky, spirited, and adventurous.

Nick Jonas and Delta Goodrem Split

Community The pitch-dark timeline is finished: Community will return on Thursday, March 15, NBC introduced Tuesday.Furthermore, the network introduced premiere dates for midseason shows Bent, Close Buddies Forever and Betty White's Business Rockers.In the schedule since December, Community will re-inherit its 8/7c slot from 30 Rock, which will switch to eight:30/7:30c, then Work or even more With The Evening. Parks and Entertainment will return on Thursday, April 19 at 9:30/8:30c after Up With The Evening systems its newcomer season.Exclusive: Giancarlo Esposito talks about his Community guest spotBent, starring Amanda Peet just like a high-set up single mother who utilizes a laid-back womanizing construction worker (David Walton), will premiere Wednesday, March 21 at 9/8c with back-to-back episodes. It'll air back-to-back episodes for the next 2 days too.Gloria White's Business Rockers and Close Buddies Forever will premiere Wednesday, April 4 at 8/7c and 8:30/7:30c, correspondingly, after Whitney and so are You There, Chelsea? complete their first seasons. Starring Lennon Parham and Jessica St. Clair, Close Buddies Forever is about a girl and her live-in boyfriend taking in their nearest friend carrying out a divorce.To produce room for Bent, Rock Center with John Williams will move back one hour to 10/9c beginning Wednesday, March 7 for 5 days after which it return to 9/8c on April 11.Law & Order: Special Sufferers Unit will return with new episodes on Wednesday, April 11 at 10/9c, leading to its season finale on May 23.

Zynga, Hasbro in certification deal

Social-gaming giant Zynga has signed a comprehensive certification deal with Hasbro to produce popular franchises like "Farmville" to toys and merchandise. The sale includes co-high quality selling that will intermingle Hasbro and Zynga brands. First products needs to be availabe inside the fall. "It's exciting to partner with Hasbro after we share an average vision for play together with a pastime for connecting the earth through games," mentioned Mark Pincus, founder, Boss and chief product officer of Zynga. Contact Variety Staff at news@variety.com

VIDEO: Is The Force Strong With VW's New Super Bowl Ad?

Volkswagen The day has arrived. VW's much hyped Super Bowl commercial has been released, and as "The Bark Side" teaser ad promised, it involves dogs and Star Wars. Super Bowl XLVI: The Giants and Patriots face off in epic rematch Check out the preview of "The Dog Strikes Back," which the NY Times' Media Coder blog reports runs 1 minute and 16 seconds, while the actual game day commercial will only run for 1 minute. Although it's great to see the Cantina aliens, hear that iconic music and see the nod to last year's "The Force" commercial, that entire Star Wars section just feels tacked on, not really part of the dog and Beetle story. Is VW stretching the homage here? The ad will play during Sunday's Super Bowl, airing live at 6/5c on NBC. What do you think about "The Dog Strikes Back"? Share your comments below.

Electricity announces Watchmen prequels

The popularity for sequels, prequels and reboots appears to become distributing past the medium of cinema, with Electricity comics revealing the very first official cover Before Watchmen, a brand new strand of spin-off comics made to complete the gaps from the original Watchmen story."Basically, we are searching at old figures through new eyes," creator Len Wein told Wired. "What we are doing is filling out many of the blank spaces inside a story which has already, to some extent, learned.Inch "There have been still lots of gaps within the histories of Watchmen's figures," he continues, "and occasions only pointed out in passing or discussed briefly within the original story. We are filling out individuals gaps within the most creative and artistic ways we are able to.InchWein will write the Ozymandias series (one of many character-specific small-series to become launched), the coverage of which may be seen below. However, original creator and comic-book legend Alan Moore won't be involved whatsoever, getting switched lower DC's overtures to create the prequel series. Moore confirmed the series have been offered to him if he "would accept some dopey prequels and sequels."What this new development means is the fact that we will likely be treated to some Watchmen prequel movie, with Electricity likely getting considered a movie adaptation to their intends to reboot the franchise.The brand new comics are going to arrive this summer time... we would not be surprised to listen to talk of the new movie by Christmas!