Over a third of roles at Blizzard's French Versailles branch are being eliminated as part of Activision Blizzard's eight per cent global workforce cull.

That's according to a report by Kotaku, which says that employees at the World of Warcraft giant's France office were informed on Wednesday that 134 of the 400 jobs were being cut. That's not to say that people in these roles will all lose their jobs, with rumours of some staff being relocated to Blizzard's other European branches.

Due to French labour law - which provides sizeable protections to workers - it might be months before staff affected know what's happening to them. Unlike in America, staff can't just be laid off immediately.

“No one knows any details and this is taking a big hit on the morale of the folks over here,” one employee told Kotaku.

“Not knowing if you will be laid off in a few weeks or months sucks and many people here are already updating their LinkedIn because they want to be prepared for when they will be told what will happen exactly.”

Another added: “It’s a two-edged sword. On one hand, it is good to be able to prepare, but the way it was handled and that no specifics were given, no names or dates, makes it really awkward.”

Activision Blizzard's eight per cent job cuts have been met with a widely negative response, with would-be union Game Workers Unite calling for the resignation of CEO Bobby Kotick, who announced this workforce cull after boasting of a record year for the publishing giant. 

Blizzard has reportedly been hit hard by these job cuts with the Overwatch firm's publishing, esports, QA and IT departments particularly affected. This comes as the company comes under pressure to produce more games while also cutting costs.