Activision Blizzard Mass Layoffs Will Leave Hundreds Jobless After Slow Sales, According to Report

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

I can only imagine that they're thinking "Blizzard is our only reliable golden goose right now! We need to exert maximum control so that they churn out as much money as possible!". And when they're told "Guys, you're strangling that golden goose right now with your terrible forced monetization policies!" they won't get the memo until it's far too late.

And on a personal level Kotick is just a poisonous, greedy, slimy goblin. The dude was sued for sexual harassment in 2010 and lost the case. Then he refused to pay the lawyers who defended him, leading to him getting sued and losing that case. Heck, he even said under oath that he wished to ruin the plaintiff in the sexual harassment case and make it so she would never work again.

And to pile on the cartoonish bullshittery, he is trying to force his father's widow out of her apartment so he can resell it at a profit. Just...WOW, this man is the bottom of the barrel.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

I'm sorry for the employees, but I'm glad Activision-Blizzard is having trouble. I'm glad their stock price fell 50% in 2 months. Remember the Chinese mobster from the Dark Knight? The one Lucius said had 5% growth like clockwork, and that the only explanation was they had illegal, off-the-books revenue streams?
That's the level of growth Activision-Blizzard wants, but without even the courage to call themselves Batman villains. Instead of laundering money for mobsters, they're using in-game gambling mechanics targeted at underage children, marketed by overblown and overly self-important 'professional' gaming leagues. Fuck 'em. I hope the good employees find valuable work elsewhere, but I wouldn't shed a tear if Batman traveled to Activison-Blizzard HQ and brought them all back to Harvey Dent.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

I read a crazy new number that around 800 people were fired apparently. I didn't even know they had this many people they could fire without closing down shop.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

I read a crazy new number that around 800 people were fired apparently. I didn't even know they had this many people they could fire without closing down shop.

That's because the company employed over 9000 people, so 800 is about 8% of the work force. It's still disgusting though and shows that Activision's management hasn't learned a goddamned thing. Also, as said here, what the HELL are they supposed to do to keep growth or profits up?

https://twitter.com/Campster/status/1095445423869681666

They have shit for an IP catalog and how could they possibly double down on their usual strategies when they've already doubled down on them?

 

[Hawki]

I can only imagine that they're thinking "Blizzard is our only reliable golden goose right now! We need to exert maximum control so that they churn out as much money as possible!". And when they're told "Guys, you're strangling that golden goose right now with your terrible forced monetization policies!" they won't get the memo until it's far too late.

Monetization isn't really the issue for Blizzard in this. The issue is that there's evidence that Activision is pushing them to change their service model, with basically a "release more games faster" edict. Up to this point, at least since WoW, Blizzard's model has more been focusing on a select no. of games and adding to them over time.

Like, I'll put it this way - there's more titles in the CoD series alone, than games in the StarCraft, Warcraft, Diablo, and Lost Vikings series COMBINED.

Whether a change in Blizzard's MO would be good or bad is up to you, but it's a change that's coming nonetheless.

 

[Lufia Erim]

When you sleep with the devil... The devil will assrape you.

 

[Dalisclock]

I can only imagine that they're thinking "Blizzard is our only reliable golden goose right now! We need to exert maximum control so that they churn out as much money as possible!". And when they're told "Guys, you're strangling that golden goose right now with your terrible forced monetization policies!" they won't get the memo until it's far too late.

And on a personal level Kotick is just a poisonous, greedy, slimy goblin. The dude was sued for sexual harassment in 2010 and lost the case. Then he refused to pay the lawyers who defended him, leading to him getting sued and losing that case. Heck, he even said under oath that he wished to ruin the plaintiff in the sexual harassment case and make it so she would never work again.

And to pile on the cartoonish bullshittery, he is trying to force his father's widow out of her apartment so he can resell it at a profit. Just...WOW, this man is the bottom of the barrel.

So basically this is only slightly exangeratted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqbBkZFdzp0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuHqUpleIfA

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

I can only imagine that they're thinking "Blizzard is our only reliable golden goose right now! We need to exert maximum control so that they churn out as much money as possible!". And when they're told "Guys, you're strangling that golden goose right now with your terrible forced monetization policies!" they won't get the memo until it's far too late.

And on a personal level Kotick is just a poisonous, greedy, slimy goblin. The dude was sued for sexual harassment in 2010 and lost the case. Then he refused to pay the lawyers who defended him, leading to him getting sued and losing that case. Heck, he even said under oath that he wished to ruin the plaintiff in the sexual harassment case and make it so she would never work again.

And to pile on the cartoonish bullshittery, he is trying to force his father's widow out of her apartment so he can resell it at a profit. Just...WOW, this man is the bottom of the barrel.

So basically this is only slightly exangeratted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqbBkZFdzp0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuHqUpleIfA

pretty much. Satan is going to have some fun with him

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

And on a personal level Kotick is just a poisonous, greedy, slimy goblin. The dude was sued for sexual harassment in 2010 and lost the case. Then he refused to pay the lawyers who defended him, leading to him getting sued and losing that case. Heck, he even said under oath that he wished to ruin the plaintiff in the sexual harassment case and make it so she would never work again.

And to pile on the cartoonish bullshittery, he is trying to force his father's widow out of her apartment so he can resell it at a profit. Just...WOW, this man is the bottom of the barrel.

Honestly, every Activision CEO belongs in prison. The prior one before Kotick basically sent threats to their devs. So, you know... no amount of bleach is going to rectify that toxic shithole. At this point the only real solution is petrol and a lighter.

Bobby Kotick... proof university dropouts who are rich remain rich and get given ridiculous positions of esteem for no real reason.

 

[Chewster]

Unionize the fucking industry already.

 

[RaikuFA]

Eat the rich

 

[skywolfblue]

I can only imagine that they're thinking "Blizzard is our only reliable golden goose right now! We need to exert maximum control so that they churn out as much money as possible!". And when they're told "Guys, you're strangling that golden goose right now with your terrible forced monetization policies!" they won't get the memo until it's far too late.

Exactly.

Blizzard has avoided the axe for a long time and been very successful. Yet we know that publishers love to axe their best development teams. Activision and EA have killed of hundreds off very profitable development studios. (Which always seemed stupid to me, if you have a developer who is making money, why would you axe them and earn less money?)

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

Exactly.

Blizzard has avoided the axe for a long time and been very successful. Yet we know that publishers love to axe their best development teams. Activision and EA have killed of hundreds off very profitable development studios. (Which always seemed stupid to me, if you have a developer who is making money, why would you axe them and earn less money?)

There's a couple of reasons. Developers that make a phenomenal game can't necessarily do so working as part of a larger project, and in a way procuring studios is an easy way to possibly access IP. Secondly CEOs/CFOs/COOs don't usually last a decade. So their primary interests is neither a shareholder revolt nor necessarily looking after company wellbeing, but rather inflating share value.

 

[Kerg3927]

Just don't scrap the WC3 remaster. One of my favorite games of all time, and I'm looking forward to doing a new playthrough with a fresh reskin at 1440p.

 

[Here Comes Tomorrow]

Fun fact, Blizzard has 140 job openings currently.

https://careers.blizzard.com/en-us/openings