Activision Blizzard to lay off hundreds

Community General Discussion
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Source:

https://www.gameinformer.com/2019/02/08/report-mass-layoffs-at-activision-blizzard-will-result-in-hundreds-of-lost-jobs

Activision Blizzard are planning to lay off hundreds of workers “as the company attempts to restructure and centralize its operations”.

The upcoming quarterly report is going to be fun.

As are the stock valuations which started falling even before the news above because people don’t believe Activision Blizzard will be able to live up to previous performance expectations.

If things are really bad, what this would mean for WoW? Well, three things:

First. Continued resource optimization everywhere. Stretching out of existing content, not producing much new content. Timegating. Even heavier reuse of previous assets. No big new features in new expansions, just same old.

Second. Extension of the shop. Quite likely adding more items like the XP potion or “starter” gear packs. Or, more interestingly, items that you can use to fight the RNG. Don’t you guys have phones? Chances are, even if you don’t, you’ll see what it’s like.

Third. Eventual writing off of the game entirely which just got closer. The HoTS treatment. Everything is fine, everything is fine, “we have plans for at least three, no, scratch that, five more expansions” and then one day bam, “it was a fun experience but the road has come to an end” and the game officially stopping getting updates but perhaps still staying open for a year, then closing up for good.

But let’s see what the report is like first. Who knows, maybe it’s good. Hard to imagine, but let’s wait.

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,Overwatch and Hearthstone, were seeing flat or declining numbers of users. “

Seems like wow is fine number wise. It’s the other games which are having problems

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If BFA looks “fine” compared to other games, god help Activision Blizzard.

We’ll see what the numbers are for WoW. In terms of player activity, the now-usual high peak right after the expansion is already way past us, and overall activity levels are lower than in Legion, same as Legion was lower than WoD. The numbers aren’t crashing, just declining. But HOTS wasn’t crashing either. It just wasn’t doing all that well and when the company got a hit, HOTS went to the chopping block.

Let’s wait for the report in any case. With them stopping publishing numbers for WoW what matters is whether the company at large is taking a hit or not. If it doesn’t, fine. If it does, WoW is unsafe.

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Can you link me source for the declining numbers ? I didnt find them myself and i love reading statistics :smiley:

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They had 9800 people employed? It’s interesting what % of them are real developers.

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Here is a simple chart comparing player activity for Legion and BFA:

https://i.imgur.com/LH0q2TM.png

This is a composite chart. I took the chart for Legion, then the chart for BFA and scaled them to the same vertical scale. The left part of the chart is for Legion, months up to Dec are 2016, then 2017. The right part of the chart is for BFA, months up to Dec are 2018, then 2019.

We can see that the numbers for BFA are definitely lower overall than for Legion.

We can see that no, BFA was not bad enough to just dive and hit the ground. But that it is absolutely doing worse than Legion did is unequivocal.

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Sry I meant. Wod compared to Legion. Since you said legion did worse

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It’s in the activity charts on warcraftrealms, they are available in the archives.

But just to give a different source (there are multiple sources for all this measuring different aspects, all showing decline in slightly different amounts), here’re numbers from wowprogress.

We are going to take each raid tier and measure the number of guilds who killed the easiest tracked boss in each tier (first boss of first raid), and compare the numbers between WoD and Legion:

WoD, tier 1 (17), H: Kargath Bladefist: 42070
WoD, tier 2 (18), H: Hellfire Assault: 29017 — lots of people didn’t stay for tier 2, that’s now a norm (wasn’t a norm before)

Legion, tier 1 (19), H: Nythendra: 39705 — lower than 42070
Legion, tier 2 (20), H: Goroth: 27116 — lower than 29017

So, WoD was a failure, totally. Many people would say that Legion was better. But in terms of players Legion didn’t stop the decline of the subs. The decline continued. It just slowed down a bit compared to WoD. And BFA absolutely continues to lose people.

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You are basing stuff on how many guilds killed a boss? Lol.

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As well as player activity, achievement counts, realm pop trackers, arena glad numbers, etc.

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People really don’t seem to get the majority of players are these “filthy casuals” the forums spout about.

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Hey I shower every day

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yes but what jobs were they … construction workers, toilet cleaners, jobsworths, pickled herring deliverers.
I don’t see those sort of workers being much of a loss or having much impact on the company or the game, do you?

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I would think they hire another company to do construction and cleaning for them

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It’s kind of funny to be honest.

Blizzard, known as a company that cares for quality design and good support above all else, once fused with activision, decides to take the direction into making more profit by creating mobile games, less content and more micro transaction, etc.

And they’re wondering why they’re losing money. And are just firing people instead of fixing the problem.

And trust me when i say, BFA is a master piece in comparison to what overwatch is going through.

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I’m sure this is what most people think about this.

[Album] soldier 69
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I bet not much blizzard is kind of reminding me about game developers from the 90’s now especially John Romero days when they wasted millions of dollars in crap like bronze statues design couches ferraris and other nonessential stuff while their games went to a toilet.

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The ones that make games better by working on them.

Gotta fire the lower ranks so they can give those millions to the new Cfo they hired ;^)

Restructuring sounds more like “activision financial department controlling everything”

Good thing anthem is coming soon :smiley:

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What happened to Blizzard is that greed took the helm and the developer’s love for the game went out the door. The people working on the floor loves game development, but doesn’t help when the people on top has only a love for money and earning as much as possible of it. And they don’t care how they earn that money, if it means destroying a game that people love, so be it. If it means taking a dump down people’s back, they’ll do it. All for money.

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That’s rather dystopian. :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

All of Blizzard’s job postings have it as a requirement or a plus that the person has a passion for video games with knowledge of Blizzard games.
That’s how it is anywhere. All the job interviews I’ve been at have had a question akin to: “So why have you decided to apply to [insert company name]?” Being able to say that you’re interested and passionate about whatever the company does is sort of important. And especially at Blizzard where the company culture likely revolves so much around the games they make, it’s hard to imagine that they don’t hire people with that in mind.

Anyway, I wouldn’t worry. If you look at Blizzard’s own job postings, then it’s pretty much developer-oriented positions…and lots of them:

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

To me it seems like Blizzard are really cranking up their games development capacity, not that they’re looking to reduce it.

If you actually look at those job openings it seems almost crazy how much they’ve got going on right now. At some point in the not-too-distant-future they’re going to announce a truck load of upcoming releases. :neutral_face:

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