Originally Posted by
Gadzooks
I got a chance to listen to the actual call last night, instead of going off the highlights posted everywhere. It changes the impression I got somewhat, as far as their tone and the actual comments they made.
I still don't really know what to think, except that they decided to do this now because the stock price is so low, might as well take the hit now. I'm not going to relisten to the whole thing right now, but I might look for a transcript to pull out the comment that pretty much says as much.
ON PAPER, what they're doing sounds focused, they see the problem, they're doing something about it. Re-invest in their existing IPs, get more content out faster (and hopefully with less bugs/issues), and get the Next Big Thing out the door. The words "players" was used a LOT in the call. They didn't flat out say "Yeah, we fucked up, we need players to get MAUs and money, but people just don't like our games", but it was close enough that I feel they admitted that, a bit.
But like any company, they have to show they mean it. I've heard all kinds of things like this from companies I've worked for, who had big layoffs, and the problems didn't get fixed. If you take a neutral position on this, they have to balance the needs/demands of the player/customer with the needs/demands of the investors/parent company. Their goals are to make everyone happy, like in the past, and they seem to recognize their current offerings - across the board at Activision, Blizzard and King - aren't cutting it. So they're reinvesting in their IPs. (They shouldn't have lowered their investment in, but that's a different issue)
I'm taking a big "prove it" position here. And the layoffs just feel dirty, when the company is making huge stock buybacks, paying off debt, and paying the top executives millions a year.