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Companies always announce when they fire people, they never announce when they gradually grow. Shareholders love to hear this stuff.
Also, any company who doesn't periodically review head count is probably a poorly run company. If ouve ever worked in a medium-lare company soul know that person who nobody knows what they do. That person either leaves because they are bored or get sacked because they do nothing. A bad company keeps them on because they don't know how to run their company.
Anyway, it looks like they are sacking support staff etc, not development staff.
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On March 01 2012 16:02 Rimstalker wrote:Show nested quote +On March 01 2012 10:11 Asol wrote:
You're completely right^
To be fair though, you're being brainwashed here bro. You talk about money as if it was money that defines a humans worth. That's ridiculous and prepostrous to say. The CEO is more or less the single most important person in a company. I don't think that you actually personally know any CEOs or leaders on bigger companies, they've got a fuckton of shit they need to take care of that the "average" customer supporter guy doesn't have to deal with.
So ofcourse he's going to be paid a lot more. However have you even SEEN blizzard raize the CEOs bonus with ANYTHING? NOPE you haven't. So why the hell do you jump on someone who so far hasn't actually done anything of what you've mentioned? You're just badmouthing one of the _best_ companies who have made some of the _best_ games in history. For fucks sake, the GM who got quoted said that it was a pleasure working there etc. Doesn't seem like he was treated badly or anything. That actually means that the CEO is doing a pretty damn good job.
do YOU know any CEOs? I know one pretty well, he used to be CEO of a company with 1500 people, now he is my CEO in a smaller company. This guy is utterly clueless, if he'd drop dead, the impact on our company would be negligible, possibly even beneficial. Before that, I was working at Deloitte, the higher up people were completely removed from reality, some of them even malevolent, crushing employees who dared not cower before their might. Company before that, the owner was friendly, but borderline alcoholic and no idea what was going in on the company, the board consisted - among others - of his personal secretary who was a full alcoholic and constantly interfering in peoples' private lives and a sleazy guy who used to be a fridge salesman. /end of rant. If needed, I can start with the CEOs of other people I know
I love stories like these. I don't know why, but I think they're funny. Please tell more.
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I heard Blizzard is making record profits kind-of odd to see them fire 600 employees and quite sad. Although if they were redundant and were no longer needed thats how good ole capitalism works.
At-least they got a nice severance package probably.
I don't know why but i wonder if Activision is calling the shots.
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You might want to include this in the OP
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Source: http://www.gamespot.com/news/blizzard-laying-off-600-6360584
Diablo III studio cuts 60 developers as well as substantial support staff as part of global reduction of staff due to "changing needs" of company.
There's sour news out of Irvine this morning, as Activision Blizzard subsidiary Blizzard Entertainment announced that it will reduce its global workforce by 600 employees. The company noted that 10 percent of its staff cuts--or about 60 people--were actively involved in game development.
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On March 01 2012 16:22 papaz wrote:Show nested quote +On March 01 2012 15:54 Belial88 wrote: So...
What does this mean?
Why should I care? Every company has internal stuff going on.
How does this affect me?
Why is this public, and why is Blizz making such a huge annoucement of it? Would this have been a huge scandal if they never publicly addressed it or something?
I'm a bit confused here. The world isn't centered around you. 600 peple out of roughly 4500 lost their jobs at one of the most successful game companies in the world. The game company which more or less is the reason teamliquid even exists and you are here posting. So don't be confused. It's news and some of us are interested in knowing how the company creating the games we love to play do.
600 people now have the largest gaming company as a part of their resume, and likely had a lot going on for them when they got accepted. Don't be a jerk, I could bring up a ton of sob stories much sadder than this. Some well-off people losing part time jobs is hardly the worst thing in the world.
On the other hand, sure, it's sad. Is that blizzard's fault, or a politician's fault, or some law's fault? It could go on forever, but I get it.
And yes, I'm aware Blizzard created SC2. I'm well aware of that.
But there is a lot of shit going on behind the scenes at blizzard. So I'm asking, why was this announcement ever made public. What is the impact of this annoucement. Does it mean production will be slower? Because it sounds like it won't be. Who did they even fire? Wow game masters? Does that even count as a job int he first place?
So yea. I'm kind of confused. I get it, it's news. But why is there a memo by Mike on every forum and on the front page of TL. Why is there a ton of blue posts on the matter? Isn't this an internal matter? Why do I get the impression, from the posts made by corporate, that some huge scandal occurred?
Am I crazy here? Does it not feel like you could replace some of the words, like every time they said "let go" or "fired" with "killed a baby"?
It's odd. Get it? It's odd. Or are you so dense that you just completely do not understand what I'm getting at? Are you just going to be so, so oblivious to what I'm saying? Because I don't think I'm saying something that complicated.
It's a business. Sure, it sucks when people lose their jobs. But it happens every day, every where, we don't even know the circumstances of what's going on. Please don't force me to be on a 'side' here, I'm not here to make a point. I'm just asking, why the fuck, is this such a big deal, and what impact will this have.
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On March 01 2012 15:54 BluePanther wrote:Show nested quote +On March 01 2012 13:39 cLutZ wrote:On March 01 2012 13:05 Ownos wrote:On March 01 2012 13:02 Scarecrow wrote: The company's wallowing in cash and they fire 600 employees. Typical -.- Boss needs a new yacht. They don't pay for themselves! You guys do realize that if officers and members of the board don't look after the financial interests of the company they are violating their fiduciary duties, right? Look up the "Business Judgment Rule" and you'll realize why that's a terrible argument. And yes, I actually do know corporate law. Short of murder, dereliction of duty, or egregious self-dealing, the courts will uphold nearly any action by a board.
If you read my 2nd post you would know that there are higher obligations than what the law merely prescribes. Just because someone is not legally required to do something does not mean that they should not. A CEO has a moral and ethical obligation to look out for the long term health and profits for his shareholders.
On March 01 2012 16:00 Sub40APM wrote:Show nested quote +On March 01 2012 15:53 cLutZ wrote:On March 01 2012 15:19 Sub40APM wrote:On March 01 2012 13:39 cLutZ wrote:On March 01 2012 13:05 Ownos wrote:On March 01 2012 13:02 Scarecrow wrote: The company's wallowing in cash and they fire 600 employees. Typical -.- Boss needs a new yacht. They don't pay for themselves! You guys do realize that if officers and members of the board don't look after the financial interests of the company they are violating their fiduciary duties, right? Yes, but that standard is so broad that unless the company does something egregious they do not in fact violate those duties. And in fact if they hired some consultant who said "fire 600 people, keep more money 'to reward high flyers'" and the company points to that it is a o k. high flies =C level employees who 'add value' Yea, you are clearly conflating moral and legal obligations. While the legal bar is quite low, they still should strive to do what is best for their shareholders. ...i guess...of course unless they announce a dividend that returns the money that went to those 600 people they arent doing anything for their shareholders...
Dividends, sure, or perhaps they anticipate lean times, are going to make a few significant capital investments, are simply restructuring and want to hire people with different skillsets, or a whole host of other reasons.
Like I've been saying, the corporate leadership clearly felt this was a necessary change, and all indications)and rumors) are that this change has been coming for years, and many of the people laid off should be happy they had a job the last 3 years during one of the leanest hiring periods in American history.
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as someone who's been playing WoW for a while, laying off gamemasters seems like a bad idea considering the 3 day wait time when you put in a ticket X.X
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The gaming industry, and therefore the games, has really turned to shit lately.
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On March 01 2012 17:18 Hyuzak wrote:Show nested quote +On March 01 2012 16:02 Rimstalker wrote:On March 01 2012 10:11 Asol wrote:
You're completely right^
To be fair though, you're being brainwashed here bro. You talk about money as if it was money that defines a humans worth. That's ridiculous and prepostrous to say. The CEO is more or less the single most important person in a company. I don't think that you actually personally know any CEOs or leaders on bigger companies, they've got a fuckton of shit they need to take care of that the "average" customer supporter guy doesn't have to deal with.
So ofcourse he's going to be paid a lot more. However have you even SEEN blizzard raize the CEOs bonus with ANYTHING? NOPE you haven't. So why the hell do you jump on someone who so far hasn't actually done anything of what you've mentioned? You're just badmouthing one of the _best_ companies who have made some of the _best_ games in history. For fucks sake, the GM who got quoted said that it was a pleasure working there etc. Doesn't seem like he was treated badly or anything. That actually means that the CEO is doing a pretty damn good job.
do YOU know any CEOs? I know one pretty well, he used to be CEO of a company with 1500 people, now he is my CEO in a smaller company. This guy is utterly clueless, if he'd drop dead, the impact on our company would be negligible, possibly even beneficial. Before that, I was working at Deloitte, the higher up people were completely removed from reality, some of them even malevolent, crushing employees who dared not cower before their might. Company before that, the owner was friendly, but borderline alcoholic and no idea what was going in on the company, the board consisted - among others - of his personal secretary who was a full alcoholic and constantly interfering in peoples' private lives and a sleazy guy who used to be a fridge salesman. /end of rant. If needed, I can start with the CEOs of other people I know I love stories like these. I don't know why, but I think they're funny. Please tell more.
Your experiences sound horrible, but I assure you I've had the benefit of working under a couple of great CEOs. They DO exist.
Good luck, hope you discover a CEO or executive you actually like.
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On March 01 2012 17:50 Zerothegreat wrote:You might want to include this in the OP ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Source: http://www.gamespot.com/news/blizzard-laying-off-600-6360584 Diablo III studio cuts 60 developers as well as substantial support staff as part of global reduction of staff due to "changing needs" of company. There's sour news out of Irvine this morning, as Activision Blizzard subsidiary Blizzard Entertainment announced that it will reduce its global workforce by 600 employees. The company noted that 10 percent of its staff cuts--or about 60 people--were actively involved in game development.
I hate to be callous, but I have friends in the gaming industry at working on triple-A games. And they'll all admit there is a lot of dead weight.
Cutting 60 developers out of a company as large as Blizzard is not that big a deal.
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On March 01 2012 18:23 Defacer wrote:Show nested quote +On March 01 2012 17:18 Hyuzak wrote:On March 01 2012 16:02 Rimstalker wrote:On March 01 2012 10:11 Asol wrote:
You're completely right^
To be fair though, you're being brainwashed here bro. You talk about money as if it was money that defines a humans worth. That's ridiculous and prepostrous to say. The CEO is more or less the single most important person in a company. I don't think that you actually personally know any CEOs or leaders on bigger companies, they've got a fuckton of shit they need to take care of that the "average" customer supporter guy doesn't have to deal with.
So ofcourse he's going to be paid a lot more. However have you even SEEN blizzard raize the CEOs bonus with ANYTHING? NOPE you haven't. So why the hell do you jump on someone who so far hasn't actually done anything of what you've mentioned? You're just badmouthing one of the _best_ companies who have made some of the _best_ games in history. For fucks sake, the GM who got quoted said that it was a pleasure working there etc. Doesn't seem like he was treated badly or anything. That actually means that the CEO is doing a pretty damn good job.
do YOU know any CEOs? I know one pretty well, he used to be CEO of a company with 1500 people, now he is my CEO in a smaller company. This guy is utterly clueless, if he'd drop dead, the impact on our company would be negligible, possibly even beneficial. Before that, I was working at Deloitte, the higher up people were completely removed from reality, some of them even malevolent, crushing employees who dared not cower before their might. Company before that, the owner was friendly, but borderline alcoholic and no idea what was going in on the company, the board consisted - among others - of his personal secretary who was a full alcoholic and constantly interfering in peoples' private lives and a sleazy guy who used to be a fridge salesman. /end of rant. If needed, I can start with the CEOs of other people I know I love stories like these. I don't know why, but I think they're funny. Please tell more. Your experiences sound horrible, but I assure you I've had the benefit of working under a couple of great CEOs. They DO exist. Good luck, hope you discover a CEO or executive you actually like.
Working for at least 3 different companies might also mean that he and not the CEO's were the problem ;p
Its a shame that people have to lose their jobs but thats business, sometimes you have to make hard decisions to keep your company healthy, I've never met anyone who actually enjoyed letting people go but they all know its sometimes required.
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is dustin browder position open?
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On March 01 2012 17:18 Hyuzak wrote:Show nested quote +On March 01 2012 16:02 Rimstalker wrote:On March 01 2012 10:11 Asol wrote:
You're completely right^
To be fair though, you're being brainwashed here bro. You talk about money as if it was money that defines a humans worth. That's ridiculous and prepostrous to say. The CEO is more or less the single most important person in a company. I don't think that you actually personally know any CEOs or leaders on bigger companies, they've got a fuckton of shit they need to take care of that the "average" customer supporter guy doesn't have to deal with.
So ofcourse he's going to be paid a lot more. However have you even SEEN blizzard raize the CEOs bonus with ANYTHING? NOPE you haven't. So why the hell do you jump on someone who so far hasn't actually done anything of what you've mentioned? You're just badmouthing one of the _best_ companies who have made some of the _best_ games in history. For fucks sake, the GM who got quoted said that it was a pleasure working there etc. Doesn't seem like he was treated badly or anything. That actually means that the CEO is doing a pretty damn good job.
do YOU know any CEOs? I know one pretty well, he used to be CEO of a company with 1500 people, now he is my CEO in a smaller company. This guy is utterly clueless, if he'd drop dead, the impact on our company would be negligible, possibly even beneficial. Before that, I was working at Deloitte, the higher up people were completely removed from reality, some of them even malevolent, crushing employees who dared not cower before their might. Company before that, the owner was friendly, but borderline alcoholic and no idea what was going in on the company, the board consisted - among others - of his personal secretary who was a full alcoholic and constantly interfering in peoples' private lives and a sleazy guy who used to be a fridge salesman. /end of rant. If needed, I can start with the CEOs of other people I know I love stories like these. I don't know why, but I think they're funny. Please tell more.
Here you go: When I first met him, it took about 30 seconds of conversation to notice that he clearly did not even have the faintest idea about either the tech or the logic behind what we are doing - that was with < 20 employees, mind you, and our technology is what is setting us apart from the rest of the field. He was the driving force behind setting up shop in Europe and Asia, which is not anywhere near paying off, and generating loads of problems because of the shitty interconnectivity between data centers. And of course, thanks to him, I will soon have a 'performance review' for last year, where I am measured against non-existing goals, or alternatively a non-existing job description. With that bullshit initiative alone, he has managed the alienate the whole dev team.
edit: I am actually very happy at my current job, it's just that our CEO is utterly worthless. Thankfully, he is sitting several thousand miles away
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Wow going through these pages there's a lot of people worried of doom and gloom. It was clearly written that the franchises are perfectly safe, and they're over employment even considering their current projects and "Titan" and can't continue to pay people for doing jobs they aren't completely actively taking part of.
By the end of the year, they will be over capacity when Diablo 3 is finally out the doors (especially when most of the development is complete) and HotS coming closer to more major announcements. For the first time, blizzard has a high probability of releasing 3 major titles in one year, which is overkill for such a company when you really think about it.
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On March 01 2012 18:29 Rimstalker wrote:Show nested quote +On March 01 2012 17:18 Hyuzak wrote:On March 01 2012 16:02 Rimstalker wrote:On March 01 2012 10:11 Asol wrote:
You're completely right^
To be fair though, you're being brainwashed here bro. You talk about money as if it was money that defines a humans worth. That's ridiculous and prepostrous to say. The CEO is more or less the single most important person in a company. I don't think that you actually personally know any CEOs or leaders on bigger companies, they've got a fuckton of shit they need to take care of that the "average" customer supporter guy doesn't have to deal with.
So ofcourse he's going to be paid a lot more. However have you even SEEN blizzard raize the CEOs bonus with ANYTHING? NOPE you haven't. So why the hell do you jump on someone who so far hasn't actually done anything of what you've mentioned? You're just badmouthing one of the _best_ companies who have made some of the _best_ games in history. For fucks sake, the GM who got quoted said that it was a pleasure working there etc. Doesn't seem like he was treated badly or anything. That actually means that the CEO is doing a pretty damn good job.
do YOU know any CEOs? I know one pretty well, he used to be CEO of a company with 1500 people, now he is my CEO in a smaller company. This guy is utterly clueless, if he'd drop dead, the impact on our company would be negligible, possibly even beneficial. Before that, I was working at Deloitte, the higher up people were completely removed from reality, some of them even malevolent, crushing employees who dared not cower before their might. Company before that, the owner was friendly, but borderline alcoholic and no idea what was going in on the company, the board consisted - among others - of his personal secretary who was a full alcoholic and constantly interfering in peoples' private lives and a sleazy guy who used to be a fridge salesman. /end of rant. If needed, I can start with the CEOs of other people I know I love stories like these. I don't know why, but I think they're funny. Please tell more. Here you go: When I first met him, it took about 30 seconds of conversation to notice that he clearly did not even have the faintest idea about either the tech or the logic behind what we are doing - that was with < 20 employees, mind you, and our technology is what is setting us apart from the rest of the field. He was the driving force behind setting up shop in Europe and Asia, which is not anywhere near paying off, and generating loads of problems because of the shitty interconnectivity between data centers. And of course, thanks to him, I will soon have a 'performance review' for last year, where I am measured against non-existing goals, or alternatively a non-existing job description. With that bullshit initiative alone, he has managed the alienate the whole dev team. edit: I am actually very happy at my current job, it's just that our CEO is utterly worthless. Thankfully, he is sitting several thousand miles away
How did he get the job in the first place when he doesn't even know about the technology he's working with? Did he start the company himself? If he did, why would he start a business in a field he doesn't know anything about? I mean, if anything, hire someone competent in the field to be a business partner with you, while you do something you're actually capable of, like being the one to provide the money to start up the company or whatever.
Anyways, thanks for the stories!
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On March 01 2012 18:26 Defacer wrote:Show nested quote +On March 01 2012 17:50 Zerothegreat wrote:You might want to include this in the OP ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Source: http://www.gamespot.com/news/blizzard-laying-off-600-6360584 Diablo III studio cuts 60 developers as well as substantial support staff as part of global reduction of staff due to "changing needs" of company. There's sour news out of Irvine this morning, as Activision Blizzard subsidiary Blizzard Entertainment announced that it will reduce its global workforce by 600 employees. The company noted that 10 percent of its staff cuts--or about 60 people--were actively involved in game development. I hate to be callous, but I have friends in the gaming industry at working on triple-A games. And they'll all admit there is a lot of dead weight. Cutting 60 developers out of a company as large as Blizzard is not that big a deal.
That's because Canada distorts the market by their government throwing hundreds of millions at gamecompanies for hiring dead weight....
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Blizzard became a corporation and tried to milk its customers for more money while it produced an inferior product. This led to lower income and the need to reduce employees. Blizzard realized that Diablo 3 is not fixable and therefore fired the developers on it while hoping the fans shell out $60 based on branding.
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On March 01 2012 21:52 PrideNeverDie wrote: Blizzard became a corporation and tried to milk its customers for more money while it produced an inferior product. This led to lower income and the need to reduce employees. Blizzard realized that Diablo 3 is not fixable and therefore fired the developers on it while hoping the fans shell out $60 based on branding. Why do people still waste their time with trolling of such magnitude?
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On March 01 2012 22:02 [F_]aths wrote:Show nested quote +On March 01 2012 21:52 PrideNeverDie wrote: Blizzard became a corporation and tried to milk its customers for more money while it produced an inferior product. This led to lower income and the need to reduce employees. Blizzard realized that Diablo 3 is not fixable and therefore fired the developers on it while hoping the fans shell out $60 based on branding. Why do people still waste their time with trolling of such magnitude?
sc2 bnet ... have u played d3? its unfixable
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On March 01 2012 17:50 Zerothegreat wrote:You might want to include this in the OP ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Source: http://www.gamespot.com/news/blizzard-laying-off-600-6360584 Diablo III studio cuts 60 developers as well as substantial support staff as part of global reduction of staff due to "changing needs" of company. There's sour news out of Irvine this morning, as Activision Blizzard subsidiary Blizzard Entertainment announced that it will reduce its global workforce by 600 employees. The company noted that 10 percent of its staff cuts--or about 60 people--were actively involved in game development. If that's not a sign that Diablo III's release is imminent, I don't know what is.
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