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Canada14485 Posts
On February 12 2019 03:44 Plansix wrote:Show nested quote +On February 12 2019 03:40 JimmyJRaynor wrote:On February 12 2019 03:24 Plansix wrote:
I’m old fashion. If a bunch of people are going to get laid off, the management doesn’t get bonuses. If you cannot afford to pay people their salary any longer, then the leaders don’t get bonus pay.
this has been going on for decades man. Megacorporationunder pays on base-pay and use incentives and bonsues to get execs to do more work. ATVI had a 5% staff layoff a couple of years ago in the midst of record profits. If ATVI did two years ago I can't see any employee is expecting anything except what is about to happen tomorrow and the bonuses their top execs are getting. https://seekingalpha.com/article/4045791-despite-yesterdays-layoffs-activision-think-like-long-term-investor So the system has been kinda broken for decades or more? Maybe since the 1980s? Not really making a great case here.
1980s?
check my sig. its been happening since the beginning of the video game industry. that is a quote from 1979.
Ray Kassar To David Crane : "you're no more important to Atari than the factory workers assembling the cartridges"
its up to people who make video games their life's work to know the history of the industry as well as its current state.
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Layoffs expected to be hitting Blizzard today.
This is what happens when you allow Marketers, and Financials be put charge of game design. Ever since Blizzard went public with the Activision merger, this is the result.
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It is so gross that they have been holding these layoffs over the heads of the employees for so long. Just pull the trigger and tell people who doesn't work there any more.
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Canada14485 Posts
I prefer to have months of lead time so i can look for other work. The worst is when the entire company collapses with zero notice. I've been an indy contractor//hired gun for 7 years now though... so its not as big a deal if 1 of my customers goes belly up.
I think knowing months in advance is a big advantage. Upper management doesn't expect as much out of you and you can look for other work.
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But they don't know months in advance. All of this is speculation and I, for one, am not going to be making life choices because of reporting and leaks.
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Canada14485 Posts
Their investor reports are all public information. HGC disappearing is well known to all.
Blizz went from 47 million MAUs to 38 million MAUs ... while profits fell. You know cutbacks are coming. I've posted this stuff in the thread. Everyone, Everywhere knows Blizzard is cutting back. If the sledgehammer of HGC getting vaporized didn't wake up an employee.. they probably just want to remain asleep.
If you've been following Schreier and other articles the consensus is that layoffs are coming in February and they knew this around the time Morhaime stepped down. Schreier's track record is a good one. Looks like he is right again.
I pay attention to the over all fiscal health of my customers in order to gauge how much future business i'm going to get out of them. If a customer is floundering I don't count on them for big projects in the future. Its up to employees to do the same thing.
If I were working at Blizz I'd have been looking for work elsewhere... months ago. If it turns out HGC disappearing was meaningless and the big drop in MAUs didn't matter and Schreier was wrong . hey .. at least i covered my ass.
To ignore all these clear signals that cutbacks are coming is a bad career move.
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Yeah but the employees don't know whos being laid off and whos not being laid off. The lack of knowing is much worse then actualy loseing their jobs 3 months or so out.
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Canada14485 Posts
It looks like Diablo Immortals isn't coming out in 2019 based on the investor call today. No major front line title releases are coming out for Blizzard in 2019. This is congruent with what we saw , or rather didn't see, from BlizzCon 2018. So, nothing big from Blizzard in 2019.
8% head count reduction.. so we're talking 700 to 750 people laid off.
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Over 800. That is quite a few people even with Blizzard's record fiscal year.
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Canada14485 Posts
at the bottom of ATVI's Investor Relations page are its most-valued, high-profile franchises. Destiny was removed from it a couple of weeks ago. So ATVI has changed that recently... good news for SC2 fans is... Starcraft remains in there. So Starcraft is surviving Mike Morhaime's exit... which is a definite relief.
On February 13 2019 07:04 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:
Over 800. That is quite a few people even with Blizzard's record fiscal year.
8% of 9600 is lower than 800.
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Of all the tips being provided on twitter for the folks affected, this one is the best. Steal it all.
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The Press isn't giving Activision any leeway.
Also it seems Activision-Blizzard is increasing share buybacks as well. That should be a red flag for large shareholders, they have no room to grow and our out of ideas.
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Canada14485 Posts
On February 13 2019 09:46 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:
The Press isn't giving Activision any leeway.
Just like with the coverage of the EA stock "plummeting" about 10 days ago... "the press" is doing a shoddy job of "coverage".
Blizzard's 2018 profits are DOWN $27 million from 2017. It really doesn't matter if their revenue is $500 billion a year... if profit is $0 the company is not in a good spot. The purpose of the company is to produce PROFIT. By itself, Generating REVENUE does nothing.
Correcting "the press" on their coverage of this is really low hanging fruiit. Many are just providing a very small slice of facts which will whip up their audiences into a rage. Many are also looking to "suck up" to the front line EA and ATVI employees so they can get more leaked info from them in the future.
EA... which was on the verge of total collapse according to many of these self proclaimed "experts" only a week ago... closed over $102. Like I've said before... the implied volatility of the stock is high.. so it over reacts both "high" and "low" to small events.
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https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/02/activision-blizzard-lays-off-775-people-after-record-results-in-2018/
In the future, Kotick said Activision-Blizzard will invest primarily in live services, Battle.net, and esports, with a focus on the following franchises: Candy Crush, Call of Duty, Overwatch, Warcraft, Diablo, and Hearthstone. For those franchises, Activision actually expects to increase, not reduce, development resources in 2019.
No mention of Starcraft is worrying...
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Canada14485 Posts
On February 13 2019 11:16 srj wrote:https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/02/activision-blizzard-lays-off-775-people-after-record-results-in-2018/Show nested quote +In the future, Kotick said Activision-Blizzard will invest primarily in live services, Battle.net, and esports, with a focus on the following franchises: Candy Crush, Call of Duty, Overwatch, Warcraft, Diablo, and Hearthstone. For those franchises, Activision actually expects to increase, not reduce, development resources in 2019. No mention of Starcraft is worrying...
Actually, the SC logo is still in the ATVI Investor Relations site. It only includes their highest profile most prestigious franchises like CoD, and Diablo, and Candy Crush....etc. So that is good news for the Starcraft franchise.
https://www.activisionblizzard.com/
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On February 13 2019 11:17 JimmyJRaynor wrote:Show nested quote +On February 13 2019 11:16 srj wrote:https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/02/activision-blizzard-lays-off-775-people-after-record-results-in-2018/In the future, Kotick said Activision-Blizzard will invest primarily in live services, Battle.net, and esports, with a focus on the following franchises: Candy Crush, Call of Duty, Overwatch, Warcraft, Diablo, and Hearthstone. For those franchises, Activision actually expects to increase, not reduce, development resources in 2019. No mention of Starcraft is worrying... Actually, the SC logo is still in the ATVI Investor Relations site. It only includes their highest profile most prestigious franchises like CoD, and Diablo, and Candy Crush....etc. So that is good news for the Starcraft franchise. https://www.activisionblizzard.com/
Glad to hear it!
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Canada14485 Posts
Layoff Lootboxes. This is pretty funny stuff.
https://thehardtimes.net/harddrive/blizzard-gives-employees-box-with-8-3-chance-of-containing-pink-slip/
“A lot of companies might just hand out pink slips to a select few, but our ‘layoff boxes’ allow every employee to be part of the overall firing experience,” said Blizzard human resources manager Clint Bullock. “Our employees have all worked hard to make our company so successful over the past few years, so it’s only fair that everybody have an equal chance of having their lives totally upended while we keep making huge profits off their creations.”
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How anyone can keep supporting/buying Activision-Blizzard products after these news is completely beyond me. I feel so sorry for all those who lost their jobs today, all those hardworking and passionate people... As sad as it sounds, but at this point the whole industry is in dire need of a cleansing crash to weed out these corporate shills and start over! This really is the epitome of latestage capitalism.
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On February 13 2019 12:04 Creager wrote:
How anyone can keep supporting/buying Activision-Blizzard products after these news is completely beyond me. I feel so sorry for all those who lost their jobs today, all those hardworking and passionate people... As sad as it sounds, but at this point the whole industry is in dire need of a cleansing crash to weed out these corporate shills and start over! This really is the epitome of latestage capitalism.
These issues go far beyond the games industry. In the US, the Democrats have at least proposed changes.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/03/opinion/chuck-schumer-bernie-sanders.html
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The thing is, consumers can’t do anything. Labor needs to fight for labor. The best we can do is support the fight when they decide to do it.
But the industry can’t keep this up. People are getting wise to the fact that at any moment they could be the one on the chopping blocks to pay dividends to share holders. The easiest way to avoid that is to unionize.
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EPT
