Game Workers Unite wants Activision Blizzard to fire its CEO

[RuneDK]

Great post!
Idk I'm just hoping the consumers will see how they are operating and how these changes are effecting their products. We're already seeing mediocre results. I'm hoping people will see whats happening and will stop giving them money but each to their own I guess...

The best thing to do is vote with your wallet. If people would stop buying call of duty year in year out and stop paying for wow per month and just stopped giving overwatch the time of day they would have no choice but to fix things or die. Problem is...too many people think that because they buy their monthly sub to wow with gold that they're playing for free...truth of the matter is someone else spent 20 bucks for their sub. I still don't understand how people buy call of duty....it's such a garbage game...and overwatch has finally started getting to a point of no return for me personally but i understand how/why people still enjoy it. Anyways, lots of pointless information....dont like what's happening then stop buying the product. As long as they keep bringing in revenue Kotick will remain in charge.

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I'm not sure people understand how business works.

These layoffs weren't a matter of "we don't have enough money to keep these people", it was a matter of "we don't need these people anymore, get rid of them".

Why on earth would a company keep people around they no longer need, even if they have all the money in the world to afford to do so? You could cut the executive bonuses to $0 and that still wouldn't make those jobs less redundant.

WoW has been shrinking for years. To think that you somehow need the same amount of community managers, game masters, and whatever other service and support staff as you needed 10 years ago when WoW was at its peak is delusional.

What do you want them to do, keep around people they don't need out of the goodness of their heart? What kind of a way is that to run a business?

And before someone asks: no, I'm not in favor of paying out multi-million bonuses to executives either. But the two aren't simply connected. They didn't cut 800 jobs so Big Bob could buy himself a new yacht. They cut the jobs because they're people that the company thinks it no longer needs in the current marketplace. These are two separate issues. I'm against coddling executives with disproportionate rewards. I am for lean operations that only employ who you actually need.

on point sir, too bad 99% of the people on this forum will never know what its like to run a business. It sucks and i hate that people lost their jobs...but i totally understand why they laid off these people.

[Zandalariprelate]

I love this site.

[Zabatakis]

Brack covered why it was happening in his letter. They are downsizing and focusing in on specific. Games. Destiny 2 is gone. Heroes of the Storm is being cutback, and I didn't even see StarCraft on the list of games they and devoting their resources to. Basically they have more employees than they need to cover the work they have.

Yeah, you are right. If you were doing it for the reasons I said you would totally just tell them straight up its a mindfuck and not lie about it and paint a picture that doesn't actually line up with the "make more games" directive. That would be some sort of deception, and its just unheard of in corperate America.

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I feel like this is standard practice with a lot of companies. This isn't new.

Right but its still gonna make people angry. Which it did.

[Gadzooks]

Everything you said is exactly what I said but with different words. So don't bring up not understand if you are going to be the prime example.

Nothing I said is wrong. All of the Vivendi games studios were shut down or merged into Activision. Blizzard was the only one to be kept separate. They used the name Blizzard in the title of the new company because of the brand power that Blizzard has in the PC market. There is a reason why they kept Blizzard in the name and it isn't because they kept them as a separate entity.

For example when Kmart bought Sears out around 2003 they took the name Sears Holding because they felt that the Sears name had a better brand power at the time. Names have power. If you don't understand that you shouldn't comment about it. But rules don't seem to apply to people when they need to ignorantly attack.

No, you're still wrong. You think you understand, but you don't.

Blizzard was not merged into Activision, in any way, shape, or form. They were kept a separate entity during the merger. They've always existed as a separate entity, regardless of who owned them. The Sears/Kmart issue is irrelevant to this, I don't know why you'd even bring it up, as it has nothing to do with this at all.

Activision Blizzard publishes nothing, sells nothing, they exist for one reason, to own other companies. They could be called Duckfarts Inc. and it would change nothing about how their subsidiaries operate and what they are.

Activision Publishing and Blizzard Entertainment have the same status within ATVI - separate, unique businesses, with separate executive teams, payroll, HR, nothing is mingled and merged. If you work for Blizzard, your paycheck says "Blizzard" and your doorcard gets you into the Blizzard building in Orange County, and doesn't work in the Activision building in Santa Monica. It's an important legal and financial distinction, and a real world who-you-work-for distinction that exists, regardless of how hard you try to insist it doesn't.

[valky94]

That's what I want to know too!!!!!!

years ago Vivendi bought blizzard, some years later (around 2008 or so) vivendi merged with activision and so activision blizzard was born (instead of activision vivendi cuz blizzard was a bigger name at that time), fast forward a few years into the future, activision and blizzard collected enough money to buy out the majority of activision blizzard from vivendi

aka they were "force" merged by vivendi

[Mrbleedinggums]

Executives have left with new ones hired. Executives have been shuffled around. And yet you are still pissed off. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...nal-presidents They are not firing 800 people because of money. They are firing them because they reorganized the company and their jobs are not longer present. No amount of pay cut would justify keeping people on the payroll when their position no longer exists.

How much did Bezos/Lofwyr pay you to sell your soul to the AA megacorps?

[Gadzooks]

Vivendi owned both Activision and Blizzard separately. Vivendi wanted to reduce its debt load and proposed that they take Activision and Blizzard's cash reserves to do that leaving both companies in debt. At that point Vivendi could have sold off the names and IP's of two companies who would together be in substantial debt and not worth much. The chances are good that both corporations would have been driven out of business and IP's sold to groups like EA.

Instead Kotick put together a deal to buy Activision and Blizzard out from under Vivendi before Vivendi could conduct their raid on Activision and Blizzard's cash reserves.



https://www.theguardian.com/technolo...splits-vivendi (source)

As always this shit is more complicated and Kotick's role is something more than evil greedy capitalist than anyone here wants to know about. If anyone wonders why Kotick is CEO he's been CEO there since the days of Atari consoles.

On topic: I think this press release is a waste of everyone's time. ATVI investors are largely institutional in nature (pension funds, etc.). Institutions in total own 88% of Activision's shares. Whatever moves are being made is to keep them happy, not some individual shareholder that doesn't care for Azerite armor or the game's direction. Blizzard Entertainment is only a piece of ATVI in any case.

https://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/atvi/i...ional-holdings (source for institutional holdings).

To add onto that, sometime last year I did some digging on why institutional investors were so positive about ATVI, beyond stock prices. ATVI, it turns out, is a juicy dividend stock - which are great for 401ks and retirees living on interest income, which is an interesting tact for ATVI to take, to drive interest in their stock. That's the kind of decision making Kotick and the Board make, that made ATVI such a popular stock. It's not so much the stock price, as it is a good source of dividend income. Kind of surprising to me when I discovered this, but makes sense now.

[CynicalPenguin]

Then again, it is also a cultural thing because the Japanese actually take responsibility for their actions and will apologize if even a minute goes by that they didn't forsee closing down or being late on.

Exactly this.

Nintendo: "Metroid Prime 4 isnt up to your expectations, so we are unfortunately going to have to start from scratch, we are so sorry for this"
Any western company(except CDProRed): "this game is half finished, but fuck it, released with microtransactions"

[rhorle]

Blizzard was not merged into Activision, in any way, shape, or form. They were kept a separate entity during the merger. They've always existed as a separate entity, regardless of who owned them. The Sears/Kmart issue is irrelevant to this, I don't know why you'd even bring it up, as it has nothing to do with this at all.

I have never said they were. So nope I am not wrong. Sears and Kmart was brought up because of you saying that a company has no brand power. Black and Decker paid millions of dollars to obtain the Craftsman name because it has brand power.

Again nothing you have said contradicts anything I have said. Nor did anything I say contradict anything you have said about ATVI. I have never said that the name on Blizzard payroll checks is Activision. I have never said that security access is the same across all of Activision. I didn't say a King security clearance is the same as a Blizzard security clearance. You keep inventing things and I am not sure why.

Vivendi bought Activision and merged it into Vivendi games. Blizzard was a division of Vivendi games. They took the Blizzard name because of the brand power of the name and it was the only one not rolled into Activsion (or closed). Blizzard has always been owned by a parent company. They have always had that proverbial "nanny".

This is the original post that triggered you. Everything you have said to claim I am wrong doesn't refute any of what I said. Vivendi merged their games division with Activision. Vivendi retained a controlling stake. Blizzard was the only division of Vivendi Games that wasn't closed or merged into Activision. Blizzard has always been owned by a parent company. Prior to being called Blizzard they were not.

They added Blizzard to the name of Activision for the parent company because of the brand power Blizzard has. Again nothing you have been triggered into saying proves anything I said is wrong. It supports what I said to be correct. I am not sure what your real motive is here to be so delusional as to agree with what I've said and use arguments that prove what I said is correct but insult and deny that what I posted is actually correct.

[Pillerina]

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/...174215488.html

What's your guys opinion on this?

Personally...
I really hate Activision Blizzard and what they did with WoW and all my favorite games.

Layoffs suck and I know they happen especially in the video game industry but I will definetly remember this next time they release a game.
Ive already begun my boycott with Blizz and unsub'd 2 months ago from a recurring sub since 2005.
I know I dont effect much but it makes me feel better that I'm not supporting this shit company anymore that is known to take advantage of it employees with their "dream job"...

I guess with these layoffs their stocks increased with investors and as sad as it is... this whole thing probably wont effect them but I do hope and pray that they lose everything.

Layoffs have little to do with the short term, and are generally caused by predicted longterm redundancy. In fact, this has little to nothing to do with stocks.

Also, Jobs are a symptom of a corporations needs, not the purpose of the corporation.

[angrys13]

it's capitalism at it's best, and that's how this country is run.
doesn't mean i/we like or support it, but that's just the sad realization of how it is. if you don't support it, don't feed into the company anymore, and don't give them 'record profits'

[Gadzooks]

How much did Bezos/Lofwyr pay you to sell your soul to the AA megacorps?

Ah, youth.

Look, corporate greed is bad, but in the real world, especially one where things like mortgages and children are a thing, the better pay is often working for the megacorps - and often the only realistic option. Sure, it would be great if we could all work for small, independents who care and are all warm and fuzzy and pay equitabily and are perfect citizens and all that, but such companies are unicorns. If you don't like corporations, fine. I don't especially like them, either, by my landlord likes getting paid rent, and it's harder to make enough money to pay him, working for small companies.

Life is compromise, and some people can hold their noses and make money working for the Evil Bosses.

Don't want to? Don't. Start your own company. Some people are really good at it, and do well. But when you sneer at people who understand how life actually works, and understand that sometimes, survival means working for Evil Megacorp™ is the only real option until a massive culture shift happens and corporations somehow magically start acting more ethically.

Want to live in a world without evil corporations? Get to work. Where do you start? Fuck if I know. But you're part of the world, if you want to change it, get your hands dirty. Me? I need to pay rent. I'll cash my Evil Megacorp paychecks while you figure it out.

[Pillerina]

To add onto that, sometime last year I did some digging on why institutional investors were so positive about ATVI, beyond stock prices. ATVI, it turns out, is a juicy dividend stock - which are great for 401ks and retirees living on interest income, which is an interesting tact for ATVI to take, to drive interest in their stock. That's the kind of decision making Kotick and the Board make, that made ATVI such a popular stock. It's not so much the stock price, as it is a good source of dividend income. Kind of surprising to me when I discovered this, but makes sense now.

That just means they're not investing their results Into expansion, has little to nothing to do with this.

[Gadzooks]

That just means they're not investing their results Into expansion, has little to nothing to do with this.

Nothing to do with...what?

You know, fuck it, I'm done arguing with people who don't want to understand. Believe what you want, you're going to anyway.

[Triceron]

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/...174215488.html

What's your guys opinion on this?

It's a toothless effort 10 years too late.

[sam86]

so they want the ceo who flat out hates video games the most in entire video game industry, from being ceo? what power they have exactly to do so ? how can they 'fire' him ?
Bobby Kodick hate video game since ages, most his game-hating quotes are now nearly decade old, yet he stayed, and he has zero plan to ever leave actiblizz before he sucks dry the last penny every idiot consumer stay because he knows very well we are willing to invest in losing properties just because humans aren't willing to let things go or lose investments they have in stuff no matter how bad it is

[Triceron]

The best thing to do is vote with your wallet. If people would stop buying call of duty year in year out and stop paying for wow per month and just stopped giving overwatch the time of day they would have no choice but to fix things or die.

I'm sure millions of players have voted with their wallet in regards to WoW, and WoW is still very much alive despite that happening.

The only thing different is that they're bringing back classic, which is more money in their pocket regardless.

[Bladesyphon]

That's nice, who do they propose to replace him?

Oh, they don't have a proposal? So..they want to fire Kotick, without any suggestions or plans on who to replace him with, which would throw the entire company into complete turmoil, and cost far more than 800 people their jobs in the ensuing financial disaster as the companies stocks plummet, share holders with draw, and development studios struggle to maintain schedule and development costs without anyone at the top to actually organize the whole thing.

Look, I don't like Kotick as much as the next person, but let's be honest here - Firing the CEO in charge of a major company, with NO PLANS on who to replace him with, and just assuming someone would step in that's better is laughable, and holds a complete lack of understanding of how management on any level works. There would be FAR more damage done - both to the company employees and the consumers, to just outright fire Kotick with no replacement plan (and even with a replacement plan, it would still lead to a huge restructuring that's far larger than what Activision-Blizzad just went through, along with an extremely tumultuous time period following it) and think things will be better.

I'm also getting really tired of seeing that Iwata example float around like that. Yes, he cut his own salaray to prevent lays off *ONE* time, and that was done in response only to the 3DS failing to meet expectations, and Nintendo trying to get back into everyone's good graces by doing a large price cut on the handheld only a few months after it released. It's also worth mentioning that Iwata cut his *base* Salray, which was the equivalent to $770K Dollars. Nothing was said about performance based bonuses he received, which to my knowledge were not slashed (and a quick google search reveals would bring his annual salary up to the equivalent of 2.2 Million USD).

All this is, is just yet another knee jerk reaction to a company restructuring. In a few months time, everyone's going to forget about this, and it's going to be business as usual. Even those laid off will likely have found jobs by then, and be once again working in the industry, or finding themselves diving into a new career in a completely different field.

[buddhapunch09]

I'm sure millions of players have voted with their wallet in regards to WoW, and WoW is still very much alive despite that happening.

The only thing different is that they're bringing back classic, which is more money in their pocket regardless.

Maybe we should use shame tactics. Like "omg you play WoW and CoD!? What a noob lol"... Or you know like ring a bell and say shame like the lady from game of thrones...

Essentially we need to make it uncool to play Activision games. ������

[Pillerina]

Nothing to do with...what?

You know, fuck it, I'm done arguing with people who don't want to understand. Believe what you want, you're going to anyway.

Well, i was raised by a PhD in business, and studied it myself at a pretty premier university. Personell decisions and dividends have little to nothing to do with one another,