Vivendi axes game jobs

The video game arm of troubled media giant Vivendi Universal will lay off about 350 North American workers as part of a restructuring, the company announced Monday. Vivendi did not give details of where the cuts would be concentrated except to say that Blizzard Entertainment, producer of popular titles such as the "Warcraft" franchise, would not be affected.

"This constitutes another important step in our turnaround plan aimed to better position the company for growth," VU Games CEO Bruce Hack said in a statement. Vivendi has worked up numerous strategies over the past few years to whittle down its $17 billion debt load but has resisted calls to sell its game division.