The games company Blizzard Entertainment is to seek around 200 redundancies from the 880 people it employs in Cork.
The company announced the establishment of a customer support centre at Blackpool in the city in September 2007, and since then staff numbers have risen sharply, based on the success of Blizzard's games like World of Warcraft and Diablo.
It is understood the staff affected are language and technical specialists working in the area of customer support.
Blizzard is one of a number of successful online gaming and entertainment companies and has its headquarters in California.
The company announced this evening that it will cut staff numbers globally by 600 people.
Staff in Cork were briefed on that decision this afternoon, which was taken following a review of the business and was based on what the company said was its current organisational needs.
Blizzard says it will now enter consultations with staff in Cork through an elected employee forum, and it pledged to help employees affected find work, either in Ireland or abroad.
The company said it will continue to offer the same level of customer support in eight EU languages from its centre in Cork.
Most of the company's 880 employees based at the Blackpool Business Park are involved in customer service, with 30 nationalities represented among staff.
