Activision Blizzard Q4 2018 Earnings Call and Layoffs

[Gadzooks]

That bit about "We made leadership changes"...yeah, Morhaime was forced out. That's corporate speak for "Morhaime wasn't playing ball." And, of course, it could also mean Morhaime wasn't doing a very good job. He's well liked, but that doesn't drive the money machine.

I was on the "He made the decision on his own" team, but looks like I was wrong.

[The Stormbringer]

Ythisens is gone.

https://twitter.com/CadenHouse/statu...50053001371649

Well, I guess that guy who was trolling us earlier today with a 'YTHISENS AND LORE SHOULD BE FIRED!' is going to be half-way happy.

[Kathranis]

lol fuck rip wow

WoW is still their biggest earner. They are clearly talking about StarCraft and Heroes of the Storm.

They are actively growing the development teams for WoW, Overwatch, Diablo, and Hearthstone.

[Gadzooks]

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

How many CMs are there these days, anyway? Him and Lore are the only ones I can name, although I haven't poked around their forums in a long time.

So there's some good from this, if Lore has to actually work, he'll melt down faster.

[Cazmosis]

How did Josh Allen survive this purge?

[Aeula]

Aerythlea might be gone too. From the EU forums.

https://twitter.com/ashliiful/status...40834672160769

[crusadernero]

Makes record profit. Leaders gets huge bonuses and salary. Starts firing people. Keep the work on creating shitty ass games with some kind of cashshop.

Oh Blizzard, I feel sorry for you. Your passion for games, creating your awesome universes with great gameplay and story and share them with us. All you once wanted was to share just that.

Now its more about the dollar dollar bill.

[Frostyfire14]

They purged the only CM for NA that was engaging with the community on the official forums. Thanks for nothing.

[Kathranis]

the company is just profit whoring

Hate to break it to you, but that's the point of a company. Especially a publically traded company.

It's not good enough for a company to be profitable and to continue being profitable, they have to keep increasing the profit margin every quarter.

Even if they're doing record numbers overall, their profits aren't breaking records, so it was considered a bad quarter. The layoffs are also moreso in anticipation of a lean 2019 than they are a response to a poor 2018.

[telygroar]

This pairs perfectly well with my comment above.

And I said it's about the explanation, thanks for participating :P

[Gadzooks]

Makes record profit. Leaders gets huge bonuses and salary. Starts firing people. Keep the work on creating shitty ass games with some kind of cashshop.

Oh Blizzard, I feel sorry for you. Your passion for games, creating your awesome universes with great gameplay and story and share them with us. All you once wanted was to share just that.

Now its more about the dollar dollar bill.

Just gonna point something out here: Blizzard didn't make the decision to make these layoffs did. ATVI did. In this one instance where Bobby Kotick and ATVI are clearly in the wrong for this decision, you're all...blaming Blizzard?

Having been through layoffs in my own career, I can tell you one thing - they GUT the people who have to decide who to cut, when orders come down from up high. I guarantee you there are people at Blizzard right now who feel like they're utter shit because they have to fire people.

[telygroar]

It's non-development staff. They just closed the e-sports division for HotS and gave the publishing rights for Destiny back to Bungie. There are staff that were in these roles which are no longer needed. This is a perfectly sound business decision.

Ho, yeah, I understand that, even if it's not like people can be reassigned, but it's another discussion. It's about the "we have the best profit and sales ever, so we fire people", it's just the worst momentum, always the worst communication ever. Like at blizzcon with the D3 smartphone thing.

[mvaliz]

As long as they give me more narratively driven Warcraft experiences, I'm interesting. Hopefully, this influx of talent also means an influx of new ideas and leadership with more upward movement for innovators.

After reading this and, coupled with that avatar, I feel like smiling innocently and patting you on the head with a mix of both pitty for the naivety but also knowing you're trying to be a "good kid" with an optimistic view on things. >.>

[yamix]

Whoa, 8%. That's quite a lot.

[Malikath]

Hate to break it to you-

love to break this to you.

NO-ONE. FUCKING. CARES.

no one cares what a company is supposed to do, no one cares what the investors want, no one fucking gives a shit about the profits.

they want a game, preferably a good one, and if acti/bliz is out of the business of making them then they're quickly going to go out of business altogether.
because at the end of the day, it's not their choice that determines the profits, it's the customer's.
both Ea and acti should of learned that lesson this year, guess they'll only learn it when it's pounding into their head at the unemployment line or better yet, the court room.

[Panmisiek]

I dont feel sorry for them at all. In fact they are victims of their own doings and any of you criticising layoffs played integral part in doing this anyway.

Hypocrites quickly forgot a reddit letter they signed by 100k people at the time a month ago about WoW direction and now standing to defend ordinary employees? What did you actually thought is going to happen? Failed game turned 180 degrees all of a sudden?

I played it all. Diablo, Warcraft, Starcraft. Long before you most of you were born. I seen rise of this empire and now downfall. They imposed on it themselves. Is Activision to blame? Perhaps.

[ONCHEhap]

Can't wait for Kotick to die

[Boricha]

Seems ambiguously worded enough that it's hard to make any real commentary without seeing what they do (or how funds are allocated).

[The Stormbringer]

They didn't, actually.

You got a source that they didn't? I've seen plenty of articles from relatively reputable sources saying otherwise.

Makes record profit. Leaders gets huge bonuses and salary. Starts firing people. Keep the work on creating shitty ass games with some kind of cashshop.

Oh Blizzard, I feel sorry for you. Your passion for games, creating your awesome universes with great gameplay and story and share them with us. All you once wanted was to share just that.

Now its more about the dollar dollar bill.

I think it's more that Acti-Blizz has been handing down proclamations from on high to Blizzard Entertainment, the people who actually make the games. Very sad.

[crusadernero]

Just gonna point something out here: Blizzard didn't make the decision to make these layoffs did. ATVI did. In this one instance where Bobby Kotick and ATVI are clearly in the wrong for this decision, you're all...blaming Blizzard?

Having been through layoffs in my own career, I can tell you one thing - they GUT the people who have to decide who to cut, when orders come down from up high. I guarantee you there are people at Blizzard right now who feel like they're utter shit because they have to fire people.

Yes, you are probably right. Maybe some part of the old Blizzard is there, somewhere. I feel sorry for those who gotta fire people, but most sorry for the people getting fired. Especially all the while knowing that the company is making record profit.

It just sucks that it all, in the end, is all about the money. Like Activison never can get enough of it. No amount is ever enough. No matter what. They will stomp and do whatever to generate more money. If that means ruining everything Blizzard once were while firing people, then so be it.