Microsoft fires 1900 ActiBlizz employees + president Mike Ybarra

Probably not the first wave of firing this year.

Microsoft will identify the earners.

Yes, that was very bad.
i Myke’s case, HE left cause He disliked Microsoft…
I don’t know about the other guy.
what is really annoying about this is news like this will fuel console wars from the blue side

There’s nothing to suggest that in the slightest. Mike used to work for Microsoft and was a champion of the acquisition throughout the last two years. I don’t know why he would bolster its success rather than simply exit the company if he didn’t like the company.

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Wait, corporate M&A playbook is to reduce redundancy positions (including top leadership) when you already own gaming companies? Hold the presses!

And yes, obviously sad for those that lost their jobs, but as for the President, I think he would actually prefer to be ‘fired’ and get the severage package than simply just leave.

However, since this is the blizz forums, obviously this has to do with big brother microsoft indiciating their disapproval of S3 launch!!! Nevermind D4 is only part of a wider portfolio!

How were you mislead or scammed? There is no basis for a lawsuit because you dont like a video game, lol. Some of you are really upset over a little video game.

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There will not be a ‘lawsuit’ of any kind that can hold water if Microsoft were to move the D4 team onto another title and put the game into maintenance mode.

Which to be crystal clear, that won’t happen. But let’s assume it did.

You not only got a complete game at release (no matter how many times you want to repeat it, D4 is not in beta, it has been fully released for almost a full year now), but you’ve gotten 3 seasons of content and multiple patches to fix what issues are there. No judge is going to look at that and think: “Yeah, you gamers sure were inconvenienced, better order Blizzard to give you your money back.”

Instead you’ll just be laughed out of the courtroom, or worse, penalized for wasting the judges time.

Tod Howard better be a part of these layoffs

Highly unlikely.

If he was getting laid off, it would have been announced already, in the same way Mike Ybarra leaving has been announced.

So no, you’re stuck with Todd.

All I would have to say is, good luck with that lawsuit. The EULA alone would cover this, and in the event it even appeared before a judge they wouldn’t give it the time of day.

Now let’s just play a hypothetical, and say a lawsuit was actually filed, against a rather large company such as Microsoft. Do you know how long the whole process would take? The litigation alone would take years. You’re lookin a good 2-3 years to maybe get placed in front of a judge assuming it doesn’t get thrown out in the process. If it managed to get to court that would take several more years, all for what? To reimburse a purchase for the player base of $70 USD?

No lawyer firm would take that case, there’s no money in it, it’d be a huge waste of time. You couldn’t quantify the amount of monetary loss due to not being able to play a video game, especially when it’s a one time purchase and the amount of time spent in that game on average per person (which honestly would be irrelevant).

I’m not saying it’s impossible, but you’re more likely to find a winning lottery ticket on the ground then you are to see this go to court.

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Oh dang. That sucks especially since these games have been growing. 2 more just launched within a week or 2. I am not into those games but Blizzard usually makes genres I am not into fun. ie. I never got into mobas but actually tried HotS and had a blast. I don’t play anymore but had fun when I did.

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This is what I am thinking too.

Layoffs were across Zenimax and Xbox too, but ATVI took the brunt of it. I do suspect cancelling a whole game at Blizz resulted in a lot of layoffs.

I am also wondering how much of the core corporate functions at ATVI (stockholding company) have been made redundant.

OP linked an excellent article though. Good source, copies of the corporate memos, and no speculation. It also points out the other industry layoffs recently.

The layoffs come the same month Riot Games, Google, Discord, Twitch, Unity, eBay, and others announced cuts.

Tough for all the folks impacted :frowning:

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Yeah Palworld has sold tons and is blasting Steams charts hard atm from all the disgruntled Pokemon players.

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You people act like Diablo IV is the equivalent of an actual scam like The Day Before when it is, at its worst, an aggressively average experience. Your expectations for the game not being met do not warrant a lawsuit.

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If you goto the Bethesda boards they freakin out too.

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what do you mean ? he produced starfield :open_mouth:

a game that gets good after 300 hours :slight_smile:

Mike Ybarra was generally viewed as unpopular at Blizzard internally, especially after his gaffs about how ‘executives are not rich’ which felt like something Bobby Kotick made him say, but he said it all the same, so he copped the flak for it.

As for the cancelling of the survival game. That was apparently in development hell for years and draining Blizzard’s resources considerably, especially staff, since many veterans of the company were put on that project. They’ve already said the team working on it will be moved to other titles that Blizzard is working on.

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Honestly in my opinion, and a lot of other peoples I’ve seen, Starfield was a pretty average overhyped game. I think it’s safe to say at this point Fallout 76 currently after all the fixes is a better game. Also think it’s fair to say that regarding a game that’s been 20 years in the making.

Im watching cnbc (one of 20 tvs at the gym) and its layoff day in silicon valley. I dont think layoff here are personal

Ryan Bingham and George Clooney would be proud of you. You nailed the line! :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

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We’ll have to see how exactly that is going to transpire.

However, right now I’m sure a lot of people (including me) are having their ‘told you so’ moment.