Activision Firing people faster than they prune

Community General Discussion
41

True. It’s insane that fat bonus are allowed when you lay off people.
Still, despite being sorry for who lost his job, I’m not surprised that the jobs cut were mostly in customer support. AI is coming.

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42

Firing people who were working on their best source of money is like
exploitation of people. They think they will handle that game in a smaller group, but they do not understand that they need to read feedback, or they will play WoW alone.

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43

Just like Stephen Elop who ran Nokia to the ground and cost hundreds of people their job while him self got hefty paycheck of 24+ million €.

Current day world to me just feels like a utopia for the rich people who act like hyenas on a nice carcass.

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44

I doubt any of those laid off will commit suicide or become homeless.
So they have to look for a new job, big freakin deal. Just another hurdle in life, happens to everyone, all the time.
Quit the victim attitude FFS.

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46

When they include that they were working for Blizzard in their CVs i bet there will be no hard time finding job.

47

If I look you up on the armory I get the ‘something’s not quite right’ thing come up. When is the last time you logged on that character?

48

I wouldn’t know about that. If you work as a temporary, full-time customer support representative you earn ~10 USD an hour. No benefits. In a country with piss-poor safety nets. And they don’t unionize.

The US is a stupid country in many ways.

49

i was playing with this one yesterday…probably just going to trim a few things to save server space…:slight_smile:

50

I can see your profile but with you, your character is all blacked out, it’s a ninja hiding!!!

Hopefully it will sort itself out. The armory can take a long time to talk to the forums. I left my guild last week but I’m still showing as being in it.

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51

oh…:smiley:
a shadow of my former self…:frowning:

52

Hey, this happens to me if i accidentally try to log on US side not EU. For me what fixes it is to completely empty cache of the browser and log back in to EU side. Just to clarify, not just cookies but also cache. If not emptying the cache even restarting browser, logging in and out etc wont help.
So try to log out, then clear the cache from your browser and close it, and do clean log in straight to eu forums and see if it helps.

53

Puny you know i agree often with you. BUT
My company is in the same situation. Once an important company, now is in a dangerous situation with losses in market and necessity to change the mood.
So 5 years ago it began. first the gave money to ppl near the retirement. After to ppl willing to go away (for money).
And the last 2 years they went to some offices (not core) telling them: “you are in 5. Tomorrow you need to be in 2. Choose 3. These 3 ppl wouldnt be fired but we’ll give money to go away.”
Sincerely. is the same thing. With more money.

54

To fire someone you have to have a reason. They have to break the rules, their contract, behave badly etc. That is how you get fired.

To be laid off is simply you did nothing wrong but they have to let you go because they are downsizing or whatever reason.

It is an insult to people being laid off to say they are being fired. I think this is an incredibly hard time for those affected and it is a time to be respectful regardless of any personal feelings people may have about those being let go.

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55

Hmm? Where is information on this? I would actually play a pet battle mobile game :x Although it would probably timegate me…

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56

Imo no one should really support these kind of things. No matter what.

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57

In italy we have one of the strongest policy against firing. And this is the only way to reduce ppl. It’s a proposal you cannot refuse, but in the end is the same.

I admit i never know the US law about work (i studied anglo american law in university but i dont remember anything), probably this “laid off” in us is more “ethical”.

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58

blue posts you need to respond:

atm there is a lot of worry about and rumours our favourite games (wow, overwatch etc)
people WILL start unsubing from your games, games we have loved all our lives.

if it was sush an amazing year Y the heck are you laying off 800 employees??

stop placing “micro” transactions in games ($1 for a dot in CoD, £20 for a flying pig in WoW list goes on)

start listening to customers, otherwie you Will loose the company faster than last years computer part

59

But if they want to delve into mobile games it should be things like this, not freaking Diablo.

60

Companies making greater quarterly profit (which is ultimately all that matters) with less people is a natural state of this exploitative self cannibalizing economy. It’s not isolated to WoW and the pattern is basically to milk the product dry whilst developing something new in cycles.

The product being burned can be discerned by corporate legalese and treatment, the latest being heroes of the storm and diablo. I’d wager that WoW as the flagship isn’t going down yet but we’re getting there.

Expect accelerationist policy if the economy tanks soon as actiblizzard scoops out everything of worth before disbanding and rebranding as a phone game company.

61

Activision Blizzard Q4 2018 Earnings Call and Layoffs
Kotaku is reporting that Activision Blizzard is cutting positions across its organizations, including Blizzard. Layoffs at Blizzard are limited to non-development teams, both in the US and regional offices.

  • Activision transferred publishing rights for Destiny back to Bungie earlier this year.
  • Blizzard had 35M MAUs in the quarter, as Overwatch and Hearthstone saw stability and World of Warcraft saw expected declines post the expansion release this summer.
  • Activision Blizzard wants to de-prioritize games and initiatives that aren’t meeting expectations
  • Activision Blizzard will be reducing certain non-development and administrative-related costs.
  • Investing more for biggest, internally-owned franchises.
  • More upfront releases, in-game content, mobile, and geographic expansion.
  • Investments in esports leagues and advertising
  • 20% increase in development resources in aggregate for Call of Duty, Candy Crush, Overwatch, Warcraft, Hearthstone and Diablo.
  • World of Warcraft already has a regular cadence of releases and content.
  • Diablo’s headcount will grow substantially, as the teams work on multiple projects.
  • There are multiple mobile projects underway across Activision Blizzard.
  • Roughly 8% of staff were laid off.

Seems they are reinvesting the savings from laying people off. I’m not saying I agree with what they are doing.

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