Blizzard Entertainment today announced that following the results of an internal review, approximately 600 employees will be made redundant.

The Irvine, California-based developer has revealed that 90 percent of those affected will come from departments unrelated to game development, and will include staff from around the globe.

The World of Warcraft development team will not be impacted by today's announcement.

"Constant evaluation of teams and processes is necessary for the long-term health of any business." said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment.

"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. 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,"

Blizzard's current development and publishing schedules will not be impacted, and the company continues to advertise for new development positions.