As video game sales decline, nearly 800 workers lose their job at Activision after best year in the company's history

Video game maker Activision Blizzard is laying off nearly 800 workers as company braces for a steep downturn in revenue following best year in its history.

cutbacks anunced Tuesday illustrate boom-and-bust cycles in an industry whose fortunes are tied to video games that can have a relatively short lives before players move on to next craze.

Right w, Epic Games’ “Fortnite” is a hot f that has been siphoning attention — and potential sales — from titles me by or companies.

Although Activision also still owns popular games such as “Call of Duty” and “Candy Crush,” it expects its revenue this year to fall by about 20 percent to $6.03 billion.

ALSO RE | 'se games are full of misogyny, hate, deceit & vengeance', Delhi's Child Rights body lists PUBG, Fortnite & or online games as 'negative'

Activision will cope trimming 8 percent from its workforce of nearly 10,000 people and assigning more of its remaining employees to work on “Call of Duty,” ″Candy Crush,” and several or of its most popular titles.

Santa Monica, California, company h alrey reshuffled its leership, even though it profits rose last year by more than five-fold to $1.8 billion. Revenue climbed 7 percent to $7.5 billion, highest since Activision’s inception 40 years ago.

But CEO Bobby Kotick said performance fell shy of company’s expectations, prompting a re-evaluation of its priorities and a pruning of its workforce.

RE | As controversies engulf PUBG, check out man who invented PUBG and how game came to be what it is today

This year “will require significant change to enable us to achieve our long-term goals and objectives,” Kotick told analysts during a Tuesday conference call. “We’re making changes to enable our development teams to create better content for our biggest franchises more quickly.”

Severance pay and or costs incurred in layoffs will result in accounting charges of about $150 million.

Even as jettisons workers as some of its revenue evaporates, Activision said it will also boost its stockholder dividend by 9 percent from last year to 37 cents per share.

Activision’s stock rose $1.33, or 3 percent, to $43 in extended tring after layoffs were anunced.