Activision Blizzard Q4 2018 Earnings Call and Layoffs

[Dug]

This is an interesting tweet - https://twitter.com/TheQuartering/st...72406309806080

Big oof if true

[scrangos]

20% in aggregate... 19% for candy crush, .9 for wow .1 for diablo

[ro9ue]

[Orby]

So very sad for all those people. I remember being let go of my job when the recession hit, lost my house and had to move back in with my dad. Was a great job too made some friends some of whom were also let go.

This truly sucks and I hope they get back on their feet again, I know for a kid growing up in the 90's it would have been a dream job to join a compnay like Blizzard who made awesome fun games made by a bunch of nerds, who wouldn't wanna join that.. Seems so night and day now. Whats happening to our video games?

[Deln]

"I got people skills!"

too soon?

Seriously a bummer to those that lost their jobs. Sounds like blizz is trying to make right with severance, benefits and career services.

[Lycann]

Activision Blizzard wants to de-prioritize games and initiatives that aren't meeting expectations

If I had to guess...
RIP WoW

[Orby]

If any good has come out of this props to Arena.Net and Square Enix for having their back and opening vacancies for those laid off. ~They wont get all but it will help some, hope other companies open their arms to these people too,

[Ainyan]

If I had to guess...
RIP WoW

Except they literally listed Warcraft in their list of games gaining additional support.

[Wondercrab]

Utterly disgusting business practice. At this point I genuinely hope the AAA bubble will burst as soon as possible, because that's the only way these companies will be forced to rethink their business models when they realise the ceiling for growth isn't infinite. It's so gross that things have gotten this bad.

[ArmourPlated]

To help us reach our full potential, we have made a number of important leadership changes.

This is why they first got rid of Mike Morhime and installed J Allen Brack... Need to get rid of the legend who cares more about the games themselves and the people who make them then they care about the current quarter/year.

Watching Mike M. at BlizzCon this year, you could just tell he didn't want to go...

[Taeldorian]

To me it seems as if they’re actually investing more into WoW. Maybe they see how profitable it can be when done correctly? Maybe it’s one of blizzards only IPs still going insanely strong (not necessarily saying subs are good)? Who knows but it’s pretty evident they’re actually focusing more on WoW, so this could potentially be very good news for the game. It’s a bunch of word salad though so we’ll see what actually happens eventually.

However I’m pretty upset that Ythisens is gone. I really liked his communication and clear passion for the game. He was in class discord’s very frequently. I’ve seen him in the Paladin discord a ton. Can’t really say that for any other CM I’ve seen. He’s always up for a good discussion about classes and what makes them fun. He’s been in multiple threads discussing exactly that along with current game design, systems, etc. Will definitely miss seeing someone whose extremely passionate about WoW posting on the forums almost every day. I feel like he could’ve been offered something that Lore has.

[scelero]

I'm thinking we will get Emerald Dream expansion when shit is about over.

[korijenkins]

Even the sycophant Ythisens, who constantly defended Blizzard and viciously fought for their name on the forums, is gone.

Part of me thinks it's some sort of karmic justice, and other parts of me think it's a brutal injustice. How are you gonna go and fire one of your greatest footsoldiers against the consumers?

[Gadzooks]

This is why they first got rid of Mike Morhime and installed J Allen Brack... Need to get rid of the legend who cares more about the games themselves and the people who make them then they care about the current quarter/year.

Watching Mike M. at BlizzCon this year, you could just tell he didn't want to go...

Might be true. And, don't forget that there's a new CEO at Activision, and a new one at King.

It's easy to see this as evil, but I'll give them a small amount of slack to consider it righting the sinking ships. We'll see.

[MrKnubbles]

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.

I don't think they need a new Diablo game. I would much rather have a second Diablo expansion than a whole new game. A new expansion is an opportunity to start fresh. They can adjust systems that players aren't enjoying and create new ones that players have been asking for. Also, a new class goes a long way.

[korijenkins]

Way to fire one of the only decent CM's blizz lmfao

He was a terrible CM that posted meme responses to everything and tried to marginalize any legitimate criticism on the forums.

Even so I don't think he deserved to get fired. If his job was to defend the company's name on the forums, he did a good job of it.

[ThatsOurEric]

I legitimately hope this fucker (Bobby Kotick) drops dead. Like right now.

[Shoridayo]

"Activision Blizzard wants to de-prioritize games and initiatives that aren't meeting expectations"

Or you could just stop sucking and make those things good. Alas, it won't happen. Goodbye HotS, you were fun while you lasted.

"Diablo's headcount will grow substantially, as the teams work on multiple projects."
lol no it won't.

[alturic]

It's amusing watching people who have zero idea how business works. Just because a business is making profit doesn't mean you're not always looking for ways to increase margins still. With that said, yes layoffs happen when things are going bad too.

At the end of the day, whatever happened with Blizzard being a seperate entity? There's literally nothing to hold against Activision. Sure, they may have been on the balls of Blizzard brass, but if they were truly a seperate entity they would be able to run their organization as they seen fit.

[SinR]

THEY FUCKING FIRED YTHISENS? or Laid Off... I guess would be the right term

seriously, he was the most ACTIVE Community Manager, even if all he did was Meme. At least he talked to the community and not in some runaround bullshit method like past CMs have.

Goodbye Ox, you were the best. You deserve Better.

https://twitter.com/CadenHouse/statu...50053001371649 They should add this to the main post