Activision Blizzard Q4 2018 Earnings Call and Layoffs

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.
  • Lots of great people are looking for work:

Bobby Kotick, Chief Executive Officer of Activision Blizzard said “While our financial results for 2018 were the best in our history, we didn’t realize our full potential. To help us reach our full potential, we have made a number of important leadership changes. These changes should enable us to achieve the many opportunities our industry affords us, especially with our powerful owned franchises, our strong commercial capabilities, our direct digital connections to hundreds of millions of players, and our extraordinarily talented employees.”
This article was originally published in forum thread: Activision Blizzard Q4 2018 Earnings Call and Layoffs started by chaud View original post
Published on 2019-02-12 09:48 PM
215 Comments
Comments 213 Comments
  1. Jibjub's Avatar
    Diablo MMO confirmed.
  1. Highelf's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by TheOne01 View Post
    I for one welcome this new age. Every last AAA studio cant go bankrupt fast enough so a new era can rise that is forced to return to players first. They wont have a choice if "players last" bankrupts the industry.
    There are plenty of games to cater to the Players First out there. One just has to look for them.
  1. Vineri's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by chaud View Post
    • Investing more for biggest, internally-owned franchises.
    • More upfront releases, in-game content, mobile, and geographic expansion.
    i.e. Big investments in Diablo China ... Big investments in micro-transactions, games as a service content, etc. Milking existing customers even more, in the absence of new customers..

    More mobile games...
  1. Amgrod's Avatar
    20% increase in development resources in aggregate for Call of Duty, Candy Crush, Overwatch, Warcraft, Hearthstone and Diablo.
    Does "Warcraft" mean WoW, the franchise in general, or new Warcraft RTS resources?
  1. Littleraven's Avatar
    RIP Starcraft
  1. Keioshin's Avatar
    They made more money in 2018 then any other year in their history but because they didn't make even more money then they wanted they're going to layoff employees.... This is why publicly owned corporations are just evil.
  1. Vineri's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Amgrod View Post
    Does "Warcraft" mean WoW, the franchise in general, or new Warcraft RTS resources?
    Guessing WoW, to include WoW Classic, which is undergoing a major overhaul to the newer architectures & BattleNet, and driving expenses.
  1. Nathiest's Avatar
    So can we get an new Legionish expansion now? BFA needs to go away!
  1. funkhouser's Avatar
    It's so sad to see Warcraft and Diablo mentioned in the same sentence as Candy Crush.
  1. schwarzkopf's Avatar
    "Layoffs at Blizzard are limited to non-development teams,"

    Well that means no resourcing impact on WoW, and the fact they are putting their focus back into internally owned (rather than franchised) IP is all good news for WoW.
  1. shrike126's Avatar
    How are people complaining? Didn't you see Candy Crush listed? Do you not have mouths?
  1. Rhordric's Avatar
    So another expansion that is generally disliked by many for the first half year or so?
  1. Hitei's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Maklor View Post
    RIP WoW, it was nice to know you.
    They are talking about HoTS, Hearthstone, and potentially Starcraft.

    Quote Originally Posted by Nathiest View Post
    So can we get an new Legionish expansion now? BFA needs to go away!
    BFA is Legionish.
  1. Amgrod's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by funkhouser View Post
    It's so sad to see Warcraft and Diablo mentioned in the same sentence as Candy Crush.
    This. So much this.
  1. Rhordric's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Nathiest View Post
    So can we get an new Legionish expansion now? BFA needs to go away!
    So another expansion that is generally disliked by many for the first half year or so?
  1. AgilityTank's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Nathiest View Post
    So can we get an new Legionish expansion now? BFA needs to go away!
    orange expansion bad
  1. Zorgulon's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Keioshin View Post
    They made more money in 2018 then any other year in their history but because they didn't make even more money then they wanted they're going to layoff employees.... This is why publicly owned corporations are just evil.
    YES! I was looking for someone to comment on that line, hoping I wasn't the only one that saw it! Thank you!
    "Because we only made inconceivable amounts of money, but we could make even more inconceivable amounts of money, we're gonna fire a whole 8% for staff!"
  1. Razzako's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by funkhouser View Post
    It's so sad to see Warcraft and Diablo mentioned in the same sentence as Candy Crush.
    If someone would've done that years ago they'd been called a fucking idiot, what a shitty timeline.
  1. MrKnubbles's Avatar
    Activision Blizzard wants to de-prioritize games and initiatives that aren't meeting expectations
    You would think that they would work harder to make those games successful instead of just abandoning them.
  1. Kithelle's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Maklor View Post
    RIP WoW, it was nice to know you.
    LOL

    Some people....I guess they're going to put more money into Warcraft to cancel it?
Page 1 of 11
1
2
3
... LastLast

Site Navigation

Social Media

Services

My Account

Support

Advertise

Resources

Terms of Service

Privacy Policy

Our Communities

© 2023 Magic Find, Inc. All rights reserved.