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  1. #81
    The Insane rhorle's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by jellmoo View Post
    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.
    https://kotaku.com/ubisofts-game-dev...mbo-1644500222

    It isn't as romantic as you make it out to be. Weird right? They also make those employees re-apply to get on new projects and will often "clear house" from that "vacation". If you think that Ubisoft isn't benefiting from tax breaks and the like as well then you are just purposefully blinding yourself. The article I linked to also talks about the tax breaks they get and benefit from. Everyone always tries to crap all over Activision Blizzard (or just Blizzard) but it isn't any different then what other companies and game studios do.

    Also lol at your "shafting the community" bit. How has Activision Blizzard shafted the community with any of their layoffs?
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  2. #82
    Who in gods name thought the gift card was a good idea? Sometimes less is more. Should have offered the 3 months pay with healthcare for a year, and left it at that. But nooo, let's give everyone a piece of toilet paper that has a flavor text of "LOL enjoy you unemployed bum" written with sharpie.

  3. #83
    The Unstoppable Force Lorgar Aurelian's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by jellmoo View Post
    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".
    It is exactly that simple. While they might be making record profits right now if they weren’t able to remove people without losing the loans they would either have to grow until they started losing money or give up the loan and lose money. Just because your making profit now doesn’t mean that you’d keep making profit if you were forced to constantly expand.


    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.
    and if those
    Pr teams don’t need more people and those being let go don’t have any art/coding ability? What if there are no spots to be filled, why assume there are?

    Why are we assuming that there are new projects down the line that aren’t already being taken into account? What if those new projects have already been accounted for and staffed to what they need or if there are no new projects in the timeline just keep them on it until you want to do something new?

    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.
    game devs and pr people are totally different conversations if your hired for art for example you should be educated enough to swap to a different art project but if your job is managing pr stuff and that’s not needed there might not always be something for you to be shifted to.

  4. #84
    Quote Originally Posted by jellmoo View Post
    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".



    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.
    Your comments in this thread read like how a child/teen thinks a company should be run, and has no clue to the real ways companies operate.

    You'll be in for a very, very rude awakening when you enter the job world.

  5. #85
    and a $200 gift card for Blizzard's Battle.net Shop.
    Haha what a punch in the face.

  6. #86
    Old God Kathranis's Avatar
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    Really sucks for those folks, though like others I can't say I'm surprised, given the state of ATVI esports, even before the quarantine.

    Seems like a solid severance package, but it's also a dusty fart compared to how much the executives net each year in personal income and bonuses.

  7. #87
    Quote Originally Posted by Low Hanging Fruit View Post
    The separation is so clear they trade even under the same stock.

    - - - Updated - - -



    Are they a holdant to the same investors under the stock umbrella and that ultimately they tried to provide profit for to insure future investment? Sure, your pet store might not be ran by the same people as your restaurant but you are still the dot that connects them both no? I get the "legal" part of the situation. I just don't respect it as reality. Both these companies obviously part of each other. They are call Activision Blizzard. If your pet store was called Greens and the Restaurant was Jerrys I could get behind them being separate. But if they are both called Green and Jerry's then I kind of scratch my head..

    - - - Updated - - -



    For someone that replies to me a lot you see to think I care. Cancelled. (to the ignore list)
    Except that's not how it is. What they call themselves is irrelevant. Take a car dealership who are owned by the same overarching company, like Jeep and Dodge. The overarching company is called Jeep-Dodge, with Jeep and Dodge being subentities within them. They both have their own company infrastructure operating independently from one another. Jeep can have layoffs for some reason or another, and it has nothing to do with what Dodge is doing. And vice versa. Activision had layoffs in their CoD department, which has nothing to do with Blizzard.
    The most difficult thing to do is accept that there is nothing wrong with things you don't like and accept that people can like things you don't.

  8. #88
    Quote Originally Posted by Gadzooks View Post
    Your comments in this thread read like how a child/teen thinks a company should be run, and has no clue to the real ways companies operate.

    You'll be in for a very, very rude awakening when you enter the job world.
    Dude, I know exactly how it is. I'm saying that how it is is fucking awful. I'm in my 40s. I've worked for multiple gaming companies, including one of the largest in the world. I know what it's like to have a massively successful company being propped up by tax breaks, tax incentives and salary credits decide to close out large departments just to save a buck. I've been exactly there and know exactly what it does to the company, to the people let go and to the loss that the company experiences.

    I know how the real world is my man. I'm just saying it sucks and companies like these should be held accountable when they put the profits of shareholders above everything else, even when it's the pockets of the people that are letting them do it.

  9. #89
    Pit Lord smityx's Avatar
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    HAHA A gift card from and for the company that has possibly short term just ruined your life and financial situation. Basically lowkey scrip for the company store.

  10. #90
    i really hope the 200$ gift card thing turns into a meme.
    the other 2 things are pretty nice tho! but the gift card feels wrong

  11. #91
    Quote Originally Posted by Kralljin View Post
    While it's sad to see people get laid off, it doesn't surprise me, at least on the Blizzard side this whole E-sport thing has become one massive meme and hopefully those people had the foresight to scout the horizon for other jobs.

    I'm not blaming Activision or Blizzard outside of their irrational need to push into E-Sports, jobs must justify their existence and Blizzards E-sport section has been so artifically created that it cannot work.
    It's something that needs to grow from the bottom and not just inject a lot of money from the top.
    The interest must be there and not bruteforced by management with embedded streams to boost numbers in order to appease some metrics.

    Those people were thrust into a battle they couldn't win, those layoffs are sadly the logical consequence of out touch decisions from the top.
    But it did grow from the bottom with people playing overwatch and cod on twitch and making their own community tournaments where people raised thousands of dollar through ads and donations. Activision-Blizzard saw that it's a profitable and growing market and invested a lot of money and made a lot money but with the popularity of overwatch falling, they started loosing money.

  12. #92
    Quote Originally Posted by Frinata View Post
    No no you're right. For whatever reason I thought you had said that "There should be a law that requires them to state why they let these employees go"

    As for why they stated what their severance package is, I think it's PR.

    Some people here have derided the $200 gift card as salt on the wound, but I disagree. It might be that way for a few of them, but I don't think it'd be that way for the majority of them. The selection of where these layoffs came from suggest that the Esports in those areas are suffering, and they're bleeding money all around in that area, so the only choice was to downscale. These employees LIKELY knew this even before hand.

    Of course, there is a chance in equal measure that this blindsided them, but I don't think it was done out of malice.

    But to circle back to why I think it's PR, it's to show that the Company cares for it's employees, current or former. If they just said that they were fired, then people would be like "Oh, fire them during a pandemic, what are they going to do about health care and finances?" And the Gift Card is for their mental health as well, albeit it's a bit targeted at Blizzard products
    I agree that it's PR, but as was said in this thread, a 200dollar gift voucher can be seen as a bit derisive even though I don't think that's their intent. Surely, blizzard are internet savvy enough as to not publicize details like that and just leave it at "they get health benefits and a great severence package", so thats why I was curious as to wether they were mandated to announce, even the 200dollar item.

  13. #93
    lol 200$ card , what a greedy shaddy company...

    yeah let kick out some employee in pandemic time and give them no job but wait, here a 200$ card, dont say we are not generous !!!111

    lol...

  14. #94
    Quote Originally Posted by ZazuuPriest View Post
    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.
    That does not support. "Why would you be glad for it to die out?". Sounds more like "because I don't like it"

  15. #95
    Bloodsail Admiral ipoststuff's Avatar
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    What's this blizzard/activision hatred? Every company hires/fires people. Why are people trying make a 200$ gift into a big insult? Grow the fuck up.
    Last edited by ipoststuff; 2021-03-17 at 07:50 AM.

  16. #96
    Quote Originally Posted by kaintk View Post
    lol 200$ card , what a greedy shaddy company...

    yeah let kick out some employee in pandemic time and give them no job but wait, here a 200$ card, dont say we are not generous !!!111

    lol...
    Ah yeah of course, it's just a $200 gift card. Let's forget the twelve full months of health coverage in the middle of a fucking pandemic and three entire months of salary as a severance. Some of you people must be completely devoid of a brain.

  17. #97
    Quote Originally Posted by Nzx View Post
    Ah yeah of course, it's just a $200 gift card. Let's forget the twelve full months of health coverage in the middle of a fucking pandemic and three entire months of salary as a severance. Some of you people must be completely devoid of a brain.
    Dunno what shithole country you come from, but where I am three month of severance is pretty basic, and kicking people when you make billions of profit is still being a big asshole.

  18. #98
    Quote Originally Posted by rhorle View Post
    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.
    You must be over the top naive if you think the parent company does not have ANY influence with shared stock....As the example was mentioned beforehand...Let`s say your restaurant losing money, getting bad reputation (ran by hired management)....But your parent company is the pet store (your stock running under Green&Jerry name) Tell me you do not want to take control over the restaurant and fix the issues to stop the stock value losing..Please tell me you won`t....And now talk about Bobby Kotick "Bobby was the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Activision from February 1991 until July 2008, when he became the President and Chief Executive Officer of the combined company after the Activision-Blizzard merger." Separate entity, huhh? Seriously mate...

  19. #99
    Stood in the Fire keelr's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Akka View Post
    kicking people when you make billions of profit is still being a big asshole.
    What are you talking about lol, when i company don't need some ppl they will lay them off, thats not just blizzard but literally every company in the world who seeks to have profit. Thats how the world works since the medieval ages. You can say that "bad blizzard/activision booo" but thats what a child thinks of the business world.

  20. #100
    The Insane rhorle's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by cateran100 View Post
    You must be over the top naive if you think the parent company does not have ANY influence with shared stock....
    There is no shared stock. Blizzard is a wholly owned subsidiary so it has no separate stock to trade. Prior to the merged with Activision it was traded as part of Vivendi. Prior to that it was part of Davidson and Associates. Does a parent company have a say in some stuff? Sure.

    Mr. Kotick is only the CEO of Activision Blizzard. Each division has their own president. I also never said the parent company has no influence over a subsidiary. Did you miss where I said that they are still beholden to their parent company? It just isn't in the way people always make out to be when they go for the low hanging fruit of Activision hate. That doesn't mean a parent company can't get actively involved in the day to day operation. But Blizzard runs Blizzard. The parent company doesn't go fire X, Y, Z. Nothing has been shown that Blizzard is micro managed by the parent company and instead is given the freedom to make its own choices as one of five divisions/subsidiaries.
    "Man is his own star. His acts are his angels, good or ill, While his fatal shadows walk silently beside him."-Rhyme of the Primeval Paradine AFC 54
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