WoW dev nabs a decade of free game time before being laid off

A World of Warcraft developer managed to nab a decade of free game time, right before they were laid off from Blizzard.

2024 has had a bleak start in the gaming industry. With the announcement of major layoffs at Riot, things were already looking dire. Following on from Riot, Activision Blizzard also reported mass layoffs, with about 1900 employees (9% of the total company) having their jobs taken.

This was also followed by president Mike Ybarra leaving the company entirely, with Blizzard only recently appointing Johanna Faries as the new president in their post-Microsoft era.

While layoffs are some of the worst news employees can hear, one managed to soften the blow in a creative way, snagging them a bunch of free World of Warcraft game time before they were laid off.

WoW dev uses employee benefit to grab a decade of free game time

Previous core technology product lead at Blizzard Adam Holisky shared their strategy on Twitter.

“Once I realized what was happening and that I was gonna be laid off, I made sure to jump into keyring and use all the 1-year subscription codes I have left,” the dev explained.

Free game time is a “well-known employee benefit” while working at Blizzard, and Holisky never used the codes they received while working over the years. This came in particularly handy right before they were laid off, as they were able to extend their current subscription to 2033.

Holisky was one of the luckier employees, as another customer support worker came forward stating that the keyring site actually crashed due to the number of employees trying to grab their codes.

Despite all the free game time, Holisky will still need to purchase any new expansions that come out for the MMO in the 10 year period, but it seems the developer isn’t too worried for the moment.

“You know, maybe it says something that I’m more relaxed today than I have been in weeks. Or months even? Longer? No Slack or email worries. No thinking about whatever drama or political heat is happening.”