US publishing giant Activision Blizzard is preparing to cut jobs in its European business.

That's according to GamesIndustry.biz, which reports that the firm has started a consultation period with staff in its German, French, Spanish, UK and Dutch offices. Job cuts are apparently meant to be centered around publishing and won't hit development, live-ops or customer support.

The plan is seemingly to consolidate Activision Blizzard's publishing business to its UK locations. There's no word on how many roles will be impacted.

"Players are increasingly choosing to connect with our games digitally," an Activision Blizzard spokesperson said.

"We have shared plans with our teams in Europe for how we would evolve as an organization, adapting to this change to serve our players and best positioning the region for future growth. We will be taking extensive steps to support all employees and ease the transition for those of our colleagues who might be impacted by these proposed changes."

This follows the company laying off around 800 roles globally at the start of 2019 – including 209 people in its US business – on top of another 50 jobs it revealed it would be cutting from its live events and esports businesses earlier in March.