Message from J. Allen Brack

Originally Posted by Merie

It takes a serious asshole to say you did not meet financial expectations and need to put hundreds of people out of work at the same time toting how you've had your best year in history.

Seems like you have threads confused. Brack did not say anything to that nature. However Activision-Blizzard is sill hiring despite all the layoffs just announced. Just in different areas. It sucks but sometimes people need to go.

As i wrote in the other thread it seems the whole severance claim is at least part fake, a lot of sources are saying they will not be getting any severance - which is a big difference to the quoted "each impacted employee".

We will know more tomorrow but it could be that the Brack post was a load of PR hot stinking air...

The ignorance is strong with this thread. If you really think this decision was taken by Brack by himself or even Blizzard there's no helping any of you.

Remember the outrage towards Mike Morhaime when they layed off 600 employees 7 years ago?
This biased bullshit is beyond compare.

https://www.engadget.com/2012/02/29/...hW0hHSM3lvFsjw

Originally Posted by rhorle

It certainly is an option. But like I said restructuring needs to happen even if you make a profit. I would use the great plumber example again but you clearly don't understand it. They also need to attract a good CFO and executives if they hope to keep running the company. Cutting pay and other things can often lead to a disaster for a company even if it seems greedy not to.

Not everyone understands a business. It isn't as cut and dry.

Finally a voice of sanity in here.

Originally Posted by Voidwielder

Finally a voice of sanity in here.

Sry, but we're all armchair CEOs in here.

To the community I do not even want to type things like "dear" to or whatsoever, but emphasise on the heavy burden with multiple dots to show how heavy this is for me to type during my lunch break filled with caviar...

Over the past few months that Activision has finally managed to put a shill like me in the lead for all Blizzard endeavours, I've met with many people throughout Blizzard that I happily fired to improve marketshare and revenue gains. One thing remains constant: We still didn't fire enough people to turn profits.

Our lootbox economy is strong, and we have the largest pile of bullshit to draw from whenever we need to convince our customers and shareholders alike that "new projects are still in the work.
With that in mind, we have plans to add more to the bullshit pile. We are dedicated to bringing you more bullshit across our franchises that are still making money and bringing our announced "unannounced projects" to the depths of MTX hell. Esports and Overwatch are also still on our calendar to cancel, and we will continue to ship great bullshit.
To better support this bullshit, we need to fire the degenerates in our company working for a measly income to support their children because we feel they're not building enough MTX. As a result, many people will lose their jobs and I'll mull it over with some caviar with my higher up friends. Do know we care.

As difficult as some of this organizational bullshit is, I am confident I will earn enough money to set me for life before Blizzard drowns. Oh and don't forget about the unannounced projects, they're still in the works. Buy your Blizzcon tickets for 399,- while you're at it to see our next best thing: Starcraft Mobile Rivals!

Not even sincerely, J. Allen Brack

Non-development roles at companies tend to get way more resources than is required to do the job. Couldn't care less about a bunch of what I call 'email-forwarders' taking a hike, especially when certain projects don't even exist anymore so don't need the support.

The fact is they are HIRING even MORE development roles. That's all that really matters.

Companies are not here to be adult foster care, which is how many people here talk about what a good company-employee relationship ought to be.

If you're dispensable or replaceable worker, that's what will happen to you.

"Esports and the Overwatch League are also important priorities, and we will continue to produce great competitive content." THAT is the fucking problem.

Gameplay and features are on the backburner for all of their games while they promote esports.

I'm blown away by how low this fucking company has sank in such a short period of time, and how shameless they are about it. I've been unsubbed from WoW since around the beginning of Oct, but I just uninstalled all my games and Bnet launcher. I don't want that filth on my PC any longer.

Originally Posted by Voidwielder

Companies are not here to be adult foster care, which is how many people here talk about what a good company-employee relationship ought to be.

If you're dispensable or replaceable worker, that's what will happen to you.

Companies don't typically layoff even dispensable workers amidst record financial success.

Originally Posted by Grimbolt

Remember when Satoru Iwata, the Nintendo CEO cut his own salary by 50% and the rest of the board members cut their salary by 30% so they didnt have to lay off people?

A guy like Allen Brack would never do that, because I honestly dont think he has a drop of compasion in his body. Now I dont know the guy personally, so it might be harsh saying it, but his public image is in shreds.

Activision would never let that happen.

blah blah blah the CEO needs a new yacht.

Originally Posted by korijenkins

Companies don't typically layoff even dispensable workers amidst record financial success.

Oh they do. Tesla just did that. Companies do it all the time. Exactly because certain roles have exhausted their relevance. Especially if the company is planning to sink in resources in to development of new products - which Blizzard is.

Originally Posted by korijenkins

"Esports and the Overwatch League are also important priorities, and we will continue to produce great competitive content." THAT is the fucking problem.

Gameplay and features are on the backburner for all of their games while they promote esports.

And they promote just esports by hiring 20% more developers company wide?

Originally Posted by Voidwielder

Companies are not here to be adult foster care, which is how many people here talk about what a good company-employee relationship ought to be.

If you're dispensable or replaceable worker, that's what will happen to you.

That is the most stupid logic I've heard so far. NO ONE should have to worry about having their career instantly destroyed, because some greedy CEOs decided they wanted bigger bonuses. The fact you compare having job secure to an "adult foster care", shows just what kind of ass you are. I don't believe in karma, but I hope every job you have for the rest of your life ends in you getting laid off just as things start looking up.

Originally Posted by korijenkins

Companies don't typically layoff even dispensable workers amidst record financial success.

True. I think this is just very shitty timing for this. I'd bet this has been in the works a while - and they may have delayed this through the holidays, so people's Xmas wasn't ruined (and finances, as that time of year is expensive for many.)

If you look at it from a business point of view, what is probably going on is Brack and Kotick/ATVI have been taking a look at the state of the company (and the same happening over at Activision and King), and they determined that a restructuring was needed - that's also very common for new presidents to do, as well. They have internal issues getting games out, the ones they have are starting to stagnate, and there seems to have been some serious issues in the Diablo camp, what with talk of the game being rebooted twice. They have to do SOMETHING, and they're also looking at their stock price being in the toilet, which doesn't help matters at all - and is a direct result of the issues they're looking at. They made a lot of money for 2018, but going forward, not so much - and 2019 looks bleak as fuck with nothing new to release.

So, they're restructering, they've decided. That's never easy, been through a couple myself. And layoffs are common during them. Do they do it now, while the stock is low...or later on, when they might have gained some ground in the price, and lose that to bad PR from publically announced layoffs...or take the hit now, at what they hope is the lowest point? And, they negotiate the amount of layoffs, Blizzard may have less of a percentage than Activision, depending on what's being decided in the new structure that's being hammered out.

That's what executives get paid big bucks to decide. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. Will this? No way to know. They're talking growth and more games, faster, but...I'm skeptical. Brack has to show his plan works, it's way too early to tell. Blizzard obviously has to do something, and what they were doing wasn't working. I prefer companies choose not to lay people off, but it's not my call to make - and I don't know the actual decision making involved here.

Or, you can just bellow "KOTICK WANTS ALL THE MONIES I HOPE HE DIES", and move on to the next drama.

Originally Posted by Valehna

That is the most stupid logic I've heard so far. NO ONE should have to worry about having their career instantly destroyed, because some greedy CEOs decided they wanted bigger bonuses. The fact you compare having job secure to an "adult foster care", shows just what kind of ass you are. I don't believe in karma, but I hope every job you have for the rest of your life ends in you getting laid off just as things start looking up.

How are the CEO's getting larger bonuses here if they are also hiring 20% more developers? They fired 8% to hire 20% means they are greedy? If those employees had non-essential jobs or jobs that could be done by one there is no reason to keep them around. Bloat is common in companies as they grow. While "adult foster care" is harsh it doesn't mean Activision is greedy, bad, or anything else for doing this.

You are not greedy by increase the amount of payroll.

Originally Posted by Valehna

That is the most stupid logic I've heard so far. NO ONE should have to worry about having their career instantly destroyed, because some greedy CEOs decided they wanted bigger bonuses. The fact you compare having job secure to an "adult foster care", shows just what kind of ass you are. I don't believe in karma, but I hope every job you have for the rest of your life ends in you getting laid off just as things start looking up.

Being laid off does not destroy a career, it impacts it, but most of the people involved will find new jobs. Layoffs suck hard, but they're not always the end of someone's career, especially the younger workers like the ones impacted today, they're all 20's and 30's, they have their whole careers ahead of them, once they work through this and land in new jobs.

Lay offs are a reality. Want to change it? Become a CEO and change the industry from within. Don't do business with corporations that use layoffs to solve financial issues. And understand that no job is guaranteed. Shit happens, sometimes even good companies make mistakes or get impacted by things outside of their control.