Activision Blizzard Layoffs, Blazing Ingots and Animacones Quests Hotfix, DLC #765

[Icelin]

I have been mentioning the past couple of months a new PVP map was missing this expansion or big participation/teamwork map. I think it is one of those things that put a big damper on the current expansion.

Wotlk: Wintergrasp
Cata: Tol Barad
MoP: Had new maps
WoD: Ashran
Legion: A new PVP talent system, ranks and reward system
BFA: Warfronts were a huge missed opportunity but I participated in them the whole expansion.
SLs: I think this will be the first time we didn't receive anything.

Other expansions also implemented a couple of new maps. I personally enjoy the bigger scale teamwork tho. I think Warfront participation should solidify this for the playerbase. (I couldn't have been the only one)

WoW has shifted the competition into PVE, example: Mythic +, I think this has overall made the PVE community more tense and not as friendly. Definitely not towards new players. Which can overtime have repercussions. Now I am not saying.. that Mythic + competition was the worst idea ever and I do not believe it should be removed. I just think this complete neglect of "competition" in a category that is dedicated to it PVP (player vs player) should be getting more attention. This overall would keep everyone a lot more happier. (community)

I did read no one at World of Warcraft was laid off, still I am sorry to hear that people within the company were. If the company genuinely wants more players participation in "e-sports" get your employees to create something interesting in PVP. They could've potentially shifted these guys. From what I read this is common there. Hoping the people that got laid off will be ok and I hope it wasn't anyone with a lot of talent. Unsure of all the details.

Blizzard making all these cuts to the game and wondering where all their customers are going. . . . not just in PVP but no good incentives in raiding either. Even leisure activities are bare minimal this expansion. I wish they would stop with the cuts in so many different aspects.

[jellmoo]

So if people aren’t needed company’s should just have to start some new project to fit them into a job? So what company’s should just expand until there losing money because they have a bunch of people they can’t fire?

When you have a company that evades taxes and grabs onto tax credits and incentives to be in business (check the links at the bottom), there should absolutely be repercussions when they decide to shrink their workforce despite having massive record profits. Companies are given tax incentives in order to drive things like employment, and if they're cutting jobs during the best of times, they are quite simply taking advantage of the system.

Also, workers are more than just their role. They bring value and contribute to the culture of a company and should not be seen as a disposable resource. Cutting jobs should be a last resort, not the very first thing a company does. There are things that a company can do to keep talent in house and repurpose them throughout the organization, keeping those skillsets and experiences as part of their collective.

https://www.inputmag.com/culture/act...-irs-paid-them

https://www.dexerto.com/business/act...-2018-1302064/

[Low Hanging Fruit]

When you have a company that evades taxes and grabs onto tax credits and incentives to be in business (check the links at the bottom), there should absolutely be repercussions when they decide to shrink their workforce despite having massive record profits. Companies are given tax incentives in order to drive things like employment, and if they're cutting jobs during the best of times, they are quite simply taking advantage of the system.

Also, workers are more than just their role. They bring value and contribute to the culture of a company and should not be seen as a disposable resource. Cutting jobs should be a last resort, not the very first thing a company does. There are things that a company can do to keep talent in house and repurpose them throughout the organization, keeping those skillsets and experiences as part of their collective.

https://www.inputmag.com/culture/act...-irs-paid-them

https://www.dexerto.com/business/act...-2018-1302064/

I agree with you in principle completely. I just know, at least in the states, it really isn't about that at all even though that might be what is written in the laws. Really all it is about is making rich and powerful people richer and more powerful.

[Spicymemer]

From the end of 2021.

Congratulations to bobby kotik for doing shit all but fire 50 people and watching the money flow in from covid lockdowns.
He will now receive an additional bonus of 1 million and $1000 in blizzard.net battle net balance.

[rhorle]

The separation is so clear they trade even under the same stock.

Right. The parent company is publicly traded. That was the case as well prior to Vivendi acquiring Activision and merging it with their game division holdings. At the time Vivendi only kept Blizzard as a separate entity and if you look at the filings of Activision Blizzard it clearly labels Blizzard Entertainment as its own subsidiary. Blizzard controls Blizzard. They are still beholden to their parent company but not in the way you keep trying to make it out.

And lol at saying you do not accept reality. Blizzard Entertainment is still its own company that has a parent company of Activision Blizzard. So your very own example shows they are separate despite your insistence they are not. Weird right? Using your logic Blizzard was never Blizzard since they have had a parent company for most of their well known hits.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

When you have a company that evades taxes and grabs onto tax credits and incentives to be in business (check the links at the bottom), there should absolutely be repercussions when they decide to shrink their workforce despite having massive record profits. Companies are given tax incentives in order to drive things like employment, and if they're cutting jobs during the best of times, they are quite simply taking advantage of the system.



https://www.inputmag.com/culture/act...-irs-paid-them

https://www.dexerto.com/business/act...-2018-1302064/

ok so should the option be expand until you lose money but get said tax incentives or forgo the incentives but be able to mangle your unneeded people freely?

Also, workers are more than just their role. They bring value and contribute to the culture of a company and should not be seen as a disposable resource. Cutting jobs should be a last resort, not the very first thing a company does. There are things that a company can do to keep talent in house and repurpose them throughout the organization, keeping those skillsets and experiences as part of their collective.

ok what about when those experience and skillsets are comply uneeded? should they just be kept for there "culture"?

[ChampionChains]

Imagine being laid off from a company and they have the nerve to "gift" you $200 that you can only spend on their products/services. That would boil my blood.

[kiramon]

Imagine being laid off from a company and they have the nerve to "gift" you $200 that you can only spend on their products/services. That would boil my blood.

Its laughable lol

And 3 months severance... without regards to how long someone has been with the company.

If my company were to lay me off right now, based on my tenure, id get 9 months severance lol

[jellmoo]

I agree with you in principle completely. I just know, at least in the states, it really isn't about that at all even though that might be what is written in the laws. Really all it is about is making rich and powerful people richer and more powerful.

Oh, I'm very realistic about the whole thing. It's the way businesses have been run for years. t's just a terrible practice that does little to assign actual value to the people that contribute to, and make companies great. I find it terrible that companies are allowed to do nothing but take and then turn around and offer next to no loyalty in return.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

Oh, I'm very realistic about the whole thing. It's the way businesses have been run for years. t's just a terrible practice that does little to assign actual value to the people that contribute to, and make companies great. I find it terrible that companies are allowed to do nothing but take and then turn around and offer next to no loyalty in return.

For sure. It is really sad to be honest. The double standard is insane.

[kiramon]

Contrary to what other people think I don't mind the 200$ gift card at all. Especially considering the other stuff they get. It's sort of like "you get some future games for free as well". People seem to forget people who work in gaming are often gamers themselves.

If it were something useful, like a $200 gift card for Kroger or Publix or whatever food store, at least it would make sense.

$200 to spend on their own games is like a kick in the teeth

[jellmoo]

ok so should the option be expand until you lose money but get said tax incentives or forgo the incentives but be able to mangle your unneeded people freely?

Why is it either/or? Why isn't there accountability for taking that money in the first place, and using the profits gained from what is essentially a massive loan to support the people of the community? Shouldn't there be, at the very least, an agreement in place saying that some of that money should be repaid, since there's a strong chance that people being laid off will need access to public services, thus increasing tax burden on the community?

ok what about when those experience and skillsets are comply uneeded? should they just be kept for there "culture"?

Should the absolute first solution be to let them go? Not when the company is struggling mind you, when the company is doing ridiculously well. Because skillsets are a lot more malleable than that and there is more often than not ways to translate those skills to other areas. This promotes the notion that people are more than just a disposable resource. This also plays a big factor on the morale of the people still working. This is a company that already laid a bunch of people off last year despite massive profits, and then salaries leaked showing people being underpaid. Patterns like this will absolutely result in lower engagement and ultimately higher turnover.

[Kazlehoff]

and a $200 gift card for Blizzard's Battle.net Shop.

What the actual hell, Blizzard.

[Depakote]

Blizzard bad!!! right?

Correct. lol @ the 200$ gift card.. Sure we laid you off but here's 200$ you can give right back to us!

[SinR]

Having a responsibility for the people that have helped you build your business is not charity. Record profits allows them the flexibility to find new roles for people and to take on new initiatives.

Whose to say that they didn't offer them positions elsewhere in the company?

For all we know, those 50 took the severance knowing they'd get jobs elsewhere (Not Blizzard) and maybe 100 got shuffled around to other parts of the company.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

Why is it either/or? Why isn't there accountability for taking that money in the first place, and using the profits gained from what is essentially a massive loan to support the people of the community? Shouldn't there be, at the very least, an agreement in place saying that some of that money should be repaid, since there's a strong chance that people being laid off will need access to public services, thus increasing tax burden on the community?

so that's lose money but with more steps. either they avoid letting people go to not lose the loan and grow unstably or they forfeit the loan and mange there people, either way the end result is the same unless said loan just kept getting bigger and bigger to match the bloated employee size.

Should the absolute first solution be to let them go? Not when the company is struggling mind you, when the company is doing ridiculously well. Because skillsets are a lot more malleable than that and there is more often than not ways to translate those skills to other areas. This promotes the notion that people are more than just a disposable resource. This also plays a big factor on the morale of the people still working. This is a company that already laid a bunch of people off last year despite massive profits, and then salaries leaked showing people being underpaid. Patterns like this will absolutely result in lower engagement and ultimately higher turnover.

so we don't know what the first solution is the only time we get info is when people are let go.

skillsets may be malleable but there is often still a point where people just don't fit any where and when it comes to game development that applies even more as you cant just move a pr person into a dev role like art or coding.

[jellmoo]

Whose to say that they didn't offer them positions elsewhere in the company?

For all we know, those 50 took the severance knowing they'd get jobs elsewhere (Not Blizzard) and maybe 100 got shuffled around to other parts of the company.

Sure, anything's possible. Previous rounds of layoffs though make it somewhat unlikely, however.

[rhorle]

Shouldn't there be, at the very least, an agreement in place saying that some of that money should be repaid, since there's a strong chance that people being laid off will need access to public services, thus increasing tax burden on the community?

You do realize that companys have to pay an unemployment tax right? And when layoff you can collect unemployment after your severance runs out. So Activision Blizzard will realisticlly be paying more given the pandemic since the prospect of immediate employment seems unlikely. You also can not say that they could have just put those people into other positions. You keep preaching about things that you are assuming. Your articles, at least the first one, seems a little biased to enrage rather then inform. The second one clearly states they used existing tax breaks to reduce their what they owed or gain rebates. It also talks how Amazon got out of 1 billion in taxes by making use of the tax breaks.

It really has nothing to do with this situation at all and just general rage against whatever target people have set their sights on. Should tax code be reformed or changed? Sure. But it really has nothing to do with Activision Blizzard or any other company that makes used of legally allowed things. It is with the government that allows those tax breaks to exist in the first place which is a topic for gen OT

- - - Updated - - -

Whose to say that they didn't offer them positions elsewhere in the company? For all we know, those 50 took the severance knowing they'd get jobs elsewhere (Not Blizzard) and maybe 100 got shuffled around to other parts of the company.

Doubtful. There were actually 190 layoffs across the entire company this round. 50 were from the e-sports division for COD and Overwatch as they readjust to handle less in-person events. I am guessing those 50 were positions that covered what is needed for in-person events that won't be needed or can be covered by others with a bigger focus of online only events. The Bloomberg article (behind a pay wall for X free articles per month) also states King! saw a large number of layoffs as well.

[jellmoo]

so that's lose money but with more steps. either they avoid letting people go to not lose the loan and grow unstably or they forfeit the loan and mange there people, either way the end result is the same unless said loan just kept getting bigger and bigger to match the bloated employee size.

Except it's not so simple as that. Remember the company is making record profit and not paying their share of taxes anyway, so there is no "lose money" here. There is only "make less overwhelming amount of profit".

so we don't know what the first solution is the only time we get info is when people are let go.

skillsets may be malleable but there is often still a point where people just don't fit any where and when it comes to game development that applies even more as you cant just move a pr person into a dev role like art or coding.

Sure, but there are going to be multiple PR teams, multiple dev teams, multiple art teams, etc... All within the company. Then, there's also going to be new projects and new endeavors starting up down the line. When they need to source for those positions, it may very well have been possible to have had those people fill those spots. But in the mindset of pure cost savings *now*, they neglect the fact that there is cost associated with onboarding new people in the future, costs related to lost knowledge, and costs to morale within the company.

Here's an example: At Ubisoft (granted a company with its own problems, but I digress), they create non-project teams for when things like this happen. So, if a game gets cancelled in an early phase, or a game wraps and there's nothing new to put people on, they create "fictional game teams" that engage in training and passion projects. The idea being that it's more important to keep the talent in house and improving their skill sets than it is for the short term gains of cutting salary. It's not a perfect system, but it lets them retain talent, keep morale up, have a training program, and not engage in shafting the community from which they take things like tax breaks and incentives.

[ZazuuPriest]

It's for CoD and OW. Competitive PvP games. Why would you be glad for it to die out?

because activision is fucking lazy and blatantly doesn't give a shit about the rampant hacking that goes on in CoD. Fire everyone. Eports are a joke anyway, basically no one is watching OW or hyped for OW2 i mean shit Apex Legends gets more views than OW.