I kinda expected this but still.
EDIT:
Another Blizzard news: Blizzard cancels “Unannounced Survival Game”
https://www.vg247.com/activision-blizzard-cancels-survival-game-as-mike-ybarra-and-allen-adham-leave-the-company
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Wow that’s messed up. Hope team 4 escapes unscathed they can’t afford any layoffs with the game struggling like this
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% expected this.
Microsoft’s goal was/is/always will be to make money. Cutting costs after buying out a company is extremely common, entirely predictable.
How much of it will effect OW? Hmm… the bar the devs have set for this game is pretty low imo. Could be minimal. Could be nothing at all.
Or we could be screwed. There’s nothing new about that tho imo.
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I hate news of layoffs. I hope that all employees who have lost their jobs can find new employment.
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That’s a lot of people. Really sucks.
A record 10,500 game developers, artists, testers, and other gaming employees were laid off in 2023, topping the prior record holder, 2022, which saw 8,500 in job losses. Unfortunately, 2024 has seen 3,950 in cuts in only 23 days.
The Tremendous Yet Troubled State of Gaming in 2024 — MatthewBall.co
That 3,950 doesn’t include this 1,900 so let’s call it 5,850 in a month. Wild and sad.
50% of total 2023 job losses in 25 days
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This is very unfortunate news…
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And to top things off, Mike Ybarra (President of Blizzard) is leaving.
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I even said it earlier.
Merges are always followed by huge layoffs.
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Didn’t Elon Musk do something similar when he took control of Twitter?
Cleaned house for cost-cutting?
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Me too. Or if they’ve did at least to find a new job very soon.
I won’t miss him tbh. He agreed with everything Kotick did.
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Do you even know how dev studios operate? Do you genuinely think the impact of one graphic designer or one software developer is going to be able to change the studio around?
That’s not how this works.
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How so.
You’ve merged 2 companies, and there is a lot of overlap… It was going to happen at some point
Sucks for those getting cut, I’ve been there it’s rubbish. But 2 people doing 1 persons job doesn’t work for very long.
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probably just DEI cuts, which is a good move.
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Tbh, surprises me the timeframe. I expected this to happen more down the road. Considering December holidays, I was thinking march-april timeframe.
Either this means that would have more through the year or just they had too much folks on non-rentable projects for a couple years. I expect DIV, WoW and Rumble not being hit too much, as at same time sc2, sc1, hots, d3, d2r and ow2 being hit the hardest. At least on blizz side of it.
They, at least for now, would focus on the things that are fresh and are generating some revenue for them in at least 6-24 month period. Due OW2 team increased size for PvE content and that content being cancelled, I expect that those layoffs would be on that regard. Paired with the survival IP being put on hold.
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What’s with the condescending “Reddit phrasing”? You’re not superior to me so stop typing like it.
They’re clearly not laying off “just one” person or even a handful of people. If you don’t understand how 10-20% of a team even at the working level can make a big impact then I’m not sure you’re in a position to raise this argument.
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i actually hope they get rid of the bad apples exactly because of how bad the game is doing. Those will be replaced with other staff anyway.
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“ow2 bad, blizz bad” but sympathy is a good trait to have
I hope they got a decent severance package
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What’s the obsession with Reddit?
They’ve merged multiple businesses and are trimming the fat. It’s nothing personal, they just don’t need 3 people doing work that could be done by 1 or 2.
Pretty standard post merger stuff.
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They’d probably already coordinated with Bobby what they could trim before the hand over. All that juicy HR fat.
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Reddit phrasing?
… What?
The decisions that the teams are making that the community doesn’t like don’t come from the same positions that typically get laid off at companies when layoffs happen.
Firing off 20% of your graphic designers when it’s management making decisions isn’t going to make the game better or even alter anything. The roles that make decisions are essential roles to the company and won’t get fired.
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