Why Fire People, Blizzard?

So, someone please explain to me why it’s okay to lay off 800 workers after the games they work tirelessly on make you what I am expected to believe are “record profits?”

Rhetorical question, I know why they’re doing it. CORPORATE GREED!!! Blizzard, is, and this is going to be a nuclear take for all of you, NO BETTER THAN EA. I said that. Yes, I just said that. And no, I am not taking that back, I am not apologizing, and if I have to, I will double down, TRIPLE down if necessary. This is COMPLETELY unacceptable. Some people may dismiss this thread by saying, “but they’re a private company; they can do what they want.” Fair enough… But, does this dismiss the moral question in this situation?

No, it doesn’t. This is an immoral act, being committed by a company that doesn’t care about its staff, its consumers (Blizzcon 2018), or its fans, and is quick to make statements that are completely out of touch like, “what? You guys don’t have phones?” Yes, we do, you idiot. We also have PCs, consoles, and have supported your brand for decades, and it’s comments like that that really show how out of touch Blizzard has become. I have had it. I’m done. Feel free to ban my account, because I have already uninstalled my Blizzard games, and Battlenet upon hearing the news that Blizzard unfairly fired 800 people, despite making record profits.

This is corporate greed, crony capitalism 101. Screw you, Blizzard. I hate you, ALMOST as much as I hate EA.

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actiblizz is almost 10k people. Do you think all of them actually needed and not someone who was hired long time ago but not needed now?

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Pretty sure I saw someone on here asking for people to be fired yesterday…

We’re no different man…companies lay off people when people are angry and/or necessary

This isn’t exactly ground breaking news

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This is not a valid counter argument. Those 800 lives have now been upended because of corporate greed.

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so they should just throw money at people even though they’re doing nothing? That’s now work, that’s charity

But a guy got a job and was given a $15m sweetener - how can they afford to do that without firing some disposable people?

ActiBlizz only care about money guys, hit them where it hurts (the wallet) and stop buying into their garbage.

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So one guy is worth more than 800 others who work tirelessly to make games? Stupid argument.

I…was agreeing with you. Wow.

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Oh… Sorry about that. I honestly thought you were being sarcastic

If what I recently discovered about Blizzard behind-the-scenes is true, perhaps ATVI-Blizz Thanos-ing them was a blessing in disguise.

With recent events in mind EA is slightly better than ActiBlizz. Don’t worry I bet they will figure out how to get to top of most sleazy, greedy, snake people list.

Stocks are funny things don’t you think? If they rise employers wont even know it. If they drop they lose their job.

I was, but not at your expense. Giving a guy a $15m bonus while simultaneously firing 800 people is vulgar.

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Agreed. Absolutely horrendous

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I hate to say it but… Duh.

It’s a business. Their number 1 goal is money. Always has been, always will be. You think them doing x, y or z is purely for the benefit of the player? No, it’s not keep people happy so they continue to spend money on the game, and maybe they’ll get their friends to pick it up too.

They’re probably buying their own stocks to artificially inflate its value. Speaking of which, stock buybacks should be illegal.

You act as if they’re being left on the side of the street and aren’t being given severance, benefits, and support to help them along, the cost of doing so for so many people will easily be in the millions.

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Well if thats true, it barely buged. Still all times low.

Giving a new hire at an executive position $15 million while firing 800 other people is indefensible.

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Even we as a community have aknowledged that Activision Blizzard has had some resource management issues with non-development departments and that has had both direct and indirect effects on the actual development of the games. Them cutting on excessive (as they stated) non-development related resources and focusing even more resources on development itself is what we’ve been asking for and what they’ve deemed to be right for not just for the games but for the company itself. Just because they had a slightly better fiscal year than last year doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t improve especially since their expected growth wasn’t met.

More corporate apologetics, I see.