Activision Blizzard to Lay off 800 from today's call

you make it sound like those 800 people just sat in a chair playing solitaire all day long.

Furthermore the company took a 50% stock decrease in value,yet people at the top wernt’ taking pay cuts for messing up.So I guess your right,the people on the bottom deserve to lose their jobs when people at the top screw up.

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Hmm, contributes little huh? Some of the people that were sacked were the esports of their games, you know that thing they’ve desperately tried to push for years?

It’s a simple concept. Try to figure it out by yourself can you?

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Yeah esports of the games… like Hots… which didn’t work out did it?

In your dream world everyone gets a medal right? You don’t get laid off when you fail to deliver results. Oh boy wait till you grow up

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You don’t get rewarded for hard work that failed to yield results. Like I said, it seems like everyone here is living in fairyland.

People at the top absolutely pay the price when things go wrong. But if you notice, ATVI just had its best year ever. That’s why people at the top get rewarded, not cut. Then they make strategic decisions (like cutting 800 people) to ensure that the company stays on track for the future. You aren’t able to see it, because you’re not cut out for that kind of job and you don’t have the required talent to do it. And that’s why you’re not paid that kind of money.

It’s really THAT simple.

Not sure why everyone here is so outraged. Just because the company as a whole is profitable, doesn’t mean every business division is.

Hots and HGC is a prime example. Everyone is so upset about what Blizzard did, but can you really blame them? HGC was a complete failure for the amount of investment they poured into it, and Hots the game itself is undeniably the least popular and successful Blizzard game ever.

In light of this, the fact that this game still exists and Blizzard is still developing this game (different cadence of course), we should count ourselves very lucky.

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How much do you think the people losing their jobs were compensated? Probably pretty nice given their responsibility and job detail.

$15 million is a lot but I’m guessing a vast majority of it is stock options so take it easy ha.

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Diablo 3 is that, actually.
It sold tons of boxes at its release for the massive hype behind the IP but when it was clear how much trash it was and the RMAH was removed then not a single €/$ ever come from it.
They’ve expanded it on other platforms because it was the only way to squeeze out more money from an otherwise “burned” franchise.

In the long run HotS may be more sustainable because it will keep a flow of income from skins and Heroes in the future. It was not generating enough income in order to keep alive a massive thing like HGC.

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Diablo is a best seller game.The game did not failed.

The first iteration of d3 was my favorite and I was very sad to see the auction go. That didn’t stop me from buying RoS and necromancer on day1 though - got nice few weeks of gameplay from both.

Your statement is beyond delusional. Diablo franchise is far far ahead in revenue of what any competitor offers(-ed).
Granted they’re missing out on opportunities to squeeze out some more money from us(e.g., I would have gladly bought extra stash tabs if they bothered to offer; and the scrapped 2nd expansion would most definitely still have been a big hit). I’m sure diablo4 is not too far away (5-10 years, in blizzard-time) and that’s going to be the next big hit, as always (especially with some fresh superstar devs like the story dev from witcher). Diablo franchise is in the dormant stage now while waiting for next big release (Immortal is just a filler, although I’m sure it will still rake in some considerable revenue, especially considering it can’t have been too hard to make), but even now, I’m sure it’s generating more than it eats (I’d guess d3 itself has no more than 2-3 devs left on it and it’s still selling quite well (I know people who have bought it for the first time not that long ago)).

Of course they can. That’s what companies do all the time.

Afaik, Blizzard itself has always had a fast turnover of people. They’ve always thrived on fresh young and cheap workers. If there’s a need, the vacancies will be quickly filled with new blood, probably cheaper (so better for us in the end).

And if most of the laid off people are from marketing, well that’s kind of expected considering they were clearly blundering on the marketing side lately (e.g., the incorrect Diablo immortal announcement may have brought more harm than good - kind of logical to fire people behind it).

Best wishes to those who were laid off! If there is anyone that was laid off from Act/Blizz with ARPG development experience, and has a strong passion for ARPGs, PM me if you would be interested in potentially working with me on an ARPG that I have been recently designing.

Activision is just EA 2.0. Dead company who puts out crap and treats staff like crap. It’s a sweatshop and the end of any original or good games.

This is worrying… They do not mention Heroes of the storm as one of the major franchises but literally list every other Blizzard game, plus they say they are de-prioritizing initiatives that are not meeting expectations (Heroes of the Storm?)

"Pink slips will be issued across divisions, including Activision Publishing Inc., Blizzard Entertainment Inc. and King and mostly affect non-development support roles.

At the same time, Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI) will increase the number of developers on key franchises by 20 percent, including “Call of Duty” “CandyCrush,” “Overwatch,” “Warcraft,” “Hearthstone” and “Diablo.”

The company will fund this greater investment by de-prioritizing initiatives that are not meeting expectations and reducing certain non-development and administrative-related costs across the business,” Activision Blizzard said in a statement “The company is also integrating its global and regional sales and go-to-market, partnerships, and sponsorships capabilities.”"

Shrugging at the status quo is a good way to get screwed for your entire life. The “real world” as you call it is unsustainable. You can probably find relevant knowledge on the matter (and how those cuts actually work. Mass layoffs like that are not performance based) if you care enough. If not… well, keep posting false statements I guess.

There is a difference between detailing their decisions and actually having good justification, they dont have a good justification based on their earnings.

From units sold. You’re correct. For everything else? It was a 100% failure. Itemization is a joke. Set items are a joke. 1000000000000% multiplier is a joke. The story is the biggest joke of them all. Tyrael becoming mortal? LAWL. Mortals didn’t even exist without the world stone draining their god-like powers for thousands of years to the point mortals didn’t even remember anything about Heaven or Hell.

Sorry, but whose idea was it to release a Diablo mobile game that nobody wanted and started it’s downfall? It certainly low-end workers doing desk jobs. Right? They made that choice.

Who destroyed Destiny 1 and 2?

It was the higher ups. The higher ups are screwing up and making business choices to maximize profit while making crappy half baked games with 1.00$ red dot.

You know who make great games? Developers with their passion - but those people don’t get promoted into higher officer like the marketing team does.

The wrong people are in charge who don’t care about games and only care about profits… well - guess what - you start pissing off your community and making bad games. You’re stock and consumer trust and loyalty is going to fall.

So before you come at me with the “COMPANIES EXIST TO MAKE MONEY HUR DUURR” You can’t make any money if you don’t make good products.

Whose idea to push more microtransaction into a game that’s struggling instead of releasing a proper expansion and fixing the problems the game has? OH RIGHT, IT WAS TOTALLY THE DESK WORKERS.

The people who got fired have nothing to do with ANY of that.

So I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about because you clearly don’t understand a damn thing about anything regarding this subject.

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It sold so much because of the massive hype on the Diablo series, not because it was a good game.

A game that “works” for Blizzard will recieve constant updates and support (look at WoW, HS, OW, SC2). HotS has been put on a stand but - for now - we still get something that was already down the pipe before the cut.

Diablo 3 has been out for ages and, after they tried and failed with new classes DLC, there is nothing new coming out for it ever (the announcement of Diablo: Immortal and of a “new Diablo project” basically killed the future of the game).

PoE and GD are known for being much more interesting as H&S, but they clearly lack the AAA polishness that a Blizzard’s title will always have.
In terms of gameplay they keep being far better than Diablo 3 on almost every single aspect (costumization, depth, balance and so on).

Anyway, back on topic: a cut is not always a sign that the company is getting down. If you look back at Activision or even Blizzard’s own history you’ll find several other years when this happened. But back there the focus on such things was so low that none cared, while now there is a big spotlight about this kind of behavior and info from the players themselves.

Having worked for a big company almost always guarantees a new job, usually with bigger payroll.

Good. They laugh at my frustration and tricked me into investing money into games that they later ruined. Now I hope they can’t feed their kids.