Activision Blizzard Q4 2018 Earnings Call and Layoffs

Originally Posted by Zorgulon

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!"

I think it's more the case that some people simply did not deliver what they were meant to do. Making money does not means you need workforce that does nothing of use.

20% increase in investment, no layoffs at development and concentrating on big own franchises... sounds at least better for wow than other statements i expected. even when very very small, there is hope for a better understanding of how wow should evolve.

Bobby Kotick is the scum of the Earth.

Originally Posted by MrKnubbles

You would think that they would work harder to make those games successful instead of just abandoning them.

IMO, some stuff just needs to be abandoned or put on life support. HoTS, Starcraft II and Diablo 3 are a good example of games that have outlived their usefulness. D3 and Starcraft II are simply games that reached their conclusion and HoTS is a niche dead end.

They need good new blood in their games portfolio, not try and drag dying horse for another year or two before it inevitably fllps.

They need new Diablo game, new Starcraft game and hell maybe new IP too. I am personally happy they want to push Diablo forward, hopefully new game announcement soon that is not played on phone.

People saying "RIP wow" can't read. If anything, wow comes out on top with the 20% extra resources added. Also, layoffs were non-development stuff.

Originally Posted by MrKnubbles

You would think that they would work harder to make those games successful instead of just abandoning them.

That's the part that makes me scratch my head...

They say they're reducing those that don't meet expectations.... but then go on to say Warcraft and Diablo are a priority - when clearly either of those has NOT met expectations at all. >_<

Originally Posted by Gaidax

I think it's more the case that some people simply did not deliver what they were meant to do. Making money does not means you need workforce that does nothing of use.

Except for shareholders there is no amount that will ever suffice. They want infinite growth which sooner or later becomes unsustainable and i think the earnings call in 2019 will be very interesting.

Originally Posted by schwarzkopf

"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.

agree. hopefully new ceo allen brack, as wow veteran, plays out positive for wow. to me, the earnings call looks better than expected for wow.

Originally Posted by Littleraven

RIP Starcraft

This. Their only IP not to get any additional investment... that's so sad.

Originally Posted by Blade Wolf

Except for shareholders there is no amount that will ever suffice. They want infinite growth which sooner or later becomes unsustainable and i think the earnings call in 2019 will be very interesting.

They didn't meet your expectations, they did meet Blizzard's.

D3 was free money for them. They put the bare minimum effort into that game and people still play it every single season.

Originally Posted by chaud

Activision Blizzard will be reducing certain non-development and administrative-related costs.

I thought you guys would be happy to read this.

Originally Posted by Keioshin

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.

That's not necessarily true. They closed the HotS e-sports division, the publishing rights to Destiny were sold back to Bungie - there are probably a lot of staff leftover from those teams that are no longer required.

I don't like the direction that Blizzard is going, but these layoffs (if they end up happening to the departments mentioned) make perfect sense from a business point of view.

Originally Posted by Niwes

20% increase in investment, no layoffs at development and concentrating on big own franchises... sounds at least better for wow than other statements i expected. even when very very small, there is hope for a better understanding of how wow should evolve.

they also said Activision Blizzard wants to de-prioritize games and initiatives that aren't meeting expectations. Will you say bfa met the expectation ? It bled subs like hell

Originally Posted by Amgrod

Does "Warcraft" mean WoW, the franchise in general, or new Warcraft RTS resources?

I honestly believe it means Warcraft mobile game.. Yea, we know they are working on one..so..

Originally Posted by mvaliz

That's the part that makes me scratch my head...

They say they're reducing those that don't meet expectations.... but then go on to say Warcraft and Diablo are a priority - when clearly either of those has NOT met expectations at all. >_<

Clearly they had different expectations than you.

Originally Posted by micwini

People saying "RIP wow" can't read. If anything, wow comes out on top with the 20% extra resources added. Also, layoffs were non-development stuff.

What, you want people on the internet to read and think before speaking? Preposterous!

Sorry, but every time I see something explained like "we have record results this year, so let's fire people §§§§§" I understand why more and more people around the world loose confidence about capitalism.

This sucks badly for the individuals being laid off - but it's the right call. This is non-development staff - as a custuomer I'm happy that they're scaling down on the crazy amount of money being spent on e-sports initiatives, reducing the corporate bureaucracy and making sure the resources are spent on development.

Blizzard has been having trouble getting games and content out of the door - they're not producing enough and the quality is often questionable. Many roles, especially in technical and engineering positions are becoming more difficult and expensive to fill. They need to find the money for this somewhere. That 8% layoff isn't being used to increase dividends. It's refocusing the organization for better production of games. Will this succeed? Maybe. It requires more than shifting around budget figures - it's important that the organization has a whole is trimmed. Getting rid of corporate cruft and office politics is extremely difficult. There's a huge risk they'll fail. But this restructuring can be part of succeeding.

Originally Posted by Blade Wolf

Except for shareholders there is no amount that will ever suffice. They want infinite growth which sooner or later becomes unsustainable and i think the earnings call in 2019 will be very interesting.

It's just not the case - ActiBlizz effectively flatlined and 2019 outlook does not look good. There is no infinite growth here.

I notice in that call they're laying off staff but Bobby Kotik and the other executives aren't giving up any of their millions in salary each year. What a shocker.