EA only published it, it pretty much belongs to Respawn.
it wasn’t blizzard IT WAS ACTIVISION
1 Like
Well stated, Cerrick, GreyFalcon, Idocrase, KNIGHTHOOD.
What happened to precipitate the crash in 2007 was criminal.
Without speaking about Activision, what Blizzard used to be, and the people trying to clean up this mess, what’s happened Tuesday was an action that was necessary in business – it’s not uncommon. One needs to go back to the fact that unless there is factual proof that the company is actually abusing its employees, what a lot of you are stating as evil, unethical, etc. is misinformed and a lot of assumptions based upon reading titles of posts etc. rather than understanding the financials and the business decisions that may not even have to do with Overwatch.
Where do salaries come from? Paid vacations? 401k’s? Healthcare packages? Free coffee or whatever is offered in the employee canteens? Pencils? Stand-up desks? Redundancy packages including help to find another position?
I encourage people that are hating on the decision made by Activision/Blizzard to do a search on “layoffs.” A lot of the companies you throw money at have done worse and “dumped” a lot more people overall.
A lot of people have been swearing off this game and encouraging people to leave – yes, this affects revenue and may make the “rich greedy executives” change course. But what if that course is to shut down? Think of the thousands of people who are STILL at the company you’d be screwing over. The companies you throw money at have done worse and “dumped” a lot more people overall.
I for one am not advocating doing something against your will, against anyone else’s will, or to “fill the pockets of the rich.” What I’m asking you to do is to inform yourselves as to what went into a decision like this, to find out other examples of this exact action and to be realistic about your own actions with regard to ensuring that if you make a conscious decision to do this, have you always made this same decision in other instances?
I’ve already given examples of other companies many of us have paid for, and still pay for, goods or services to that have made massive cuts in their respective workforces. I won’t paste it here again because quite honestly I have run out of fuel trying to help everyone inform themselves rather than lash out. To speak for themselves instead of putting words into those who aren’t here to speak for themselves.
Yes, we all feel poorly about job layoffs. We realize these people worked hard for their company. Here’s to them all finding a better path forward and to this company taking a situation and turning it around for the better. (Please don’t respond to this last statement. We won’t get anywhere having an argument about it.)
1 Like
I’m pretty sure they fired non devs to hire more devs
Fun fact! The parasitic CEO of Activision-Blizzard was the second-highest paid CEO in the U.S. in 2013. We’re talking the likes of Apple, GE, Microsoft, etc.
There’s your problem. And before anyone mentions anything about “CEO’s need high salaries because economics”, it’s not about economics after many millions in salaries, but an entrenched power structure looking after their own interests.
1 Like
This. As far as I’m concerned, Actiblizz gets to join Squeenix and EA on the list of companies I refuse to buy from.
This is their PR release on several matters
TL/DR; they want to invest more in development departments
Morality is subjective and most of the time people playing the morality card are looking to dictate how other should think and feel.
Is it immoral (just going to use an extreme, this is in no way directed at anyone) to kill someone? The answer is no, it is illegal but death has been used infinitely more for the better of the world than ever used in a what I see as an immoral way. Yes there are times I see murder as immoral (like germany in WW2 for example) but things have killed things for territory (protects their area for young to grow up safe), food, culling sick and weak so the whole doesn’t die, so that the fittest continues to lead or is removed, exc…
Inherently, it is not immoral and even what view as immoral isn’t to many.
Claiming morality is just a way of justifying an attempt to control others with no real argument.
Mad as heck at Blizzard for this, but your entire OP is based off of a concept that has done and led to more harm than my previous example.
1 Like
Every report I have read regarding the layoffs is that it is “nonessential” personnel. They are not laying off people who work on games.
1 Like
Most don’t get how things work. The guy who is just a game tester does not have the skills and know-how to actually RUN a company to be profitable. If it was that easy then all these failed CEO’s would not have failed. Why do people equate a general to a private?
2 Likes
Yes, why doesn’t every company hire as MANY people as possible? It’s good for everyone to have jobs, right? What could go wrong?
Exactly. And if they did, they wouldn’t be bothered by a layoff. They’d just go create their own company and make millions. As it is, if they’re good at their jobs, they should be snapped up by other companies, especially since Blizzard is providing resources to help them with that, and having worked for a company like Blizzard is in itself a big testament to your ability. But we can’t acknowledge that because then we can’t call the company/CEO heartless. XD
Bet you 10 BootLoxes nothing will change for the better
If we’re talking in the realm of “making things better,” having more resources in development means they are likely to push more content to their consumers.
And everyone on these forums have been asking for an increase in content
1 Like
Why does a business fire people? Because keeping someone hired is no longer producing profit.
Do you know we all depend on corporate greed for our retirement fund? A corporation is a large group of people (share holders). Anyone with a 401k, a IRA, or invest directly in stock or mutual funds are owners of the corporations.
Blizzard is a public company, not a private company. If you can buy a stock of a business, it is public.
How well a business has done in the past does not matter. If/when people see a company outlook isn’t looking good, share prices fall, when share prices fall, the company has less capital to invest into projects to make profit.
Crony capitalism is when a business makes profit with the help of the government politicians.
If you are going to hate every business that lays people off, you will be hating lots of businesses.
2 Likes
People are talking like this some sort of never seen before ground breaking event.
Tell you what why don’t you go tell this heartbreaking tragedy to even person who used to work in the car manafacturing industry.
See if you can gets some sympathy from the guy that lost his job because either a robot can do it 3 times faster, or the company has shut the factory down to move it overseas for cheaper labor costs.
The word immoral does not belong in the corporate industry and never will.
This is the way businesses work, I’m sure they have their reasons. It might even be a good thing who knows, we have no idea what’s happening behind the scenes.
Overwatch is incredibly important for Actiblizz, they aren’t going to throw it under the bus.
Do you live in a fairytale land?
What kind of business doesn’t fire people they don’t need anymore, also their contracts could have already warned them about it
It’s not like they’re dead, they can find a new job like everyone else
Maybe get your facts straight before rushing to bash a situation you clearly don’t understand.
Activision Blizzard’s market cap dropped from 63 billion to 32 billion in a matter of months. It’s actually miraculous that they haven’t laid off more people.
I’m annoyed with Blizzard as much as anyone else lately but it doesn’t help to spread misinformation like this.
Cute how you think Blizzard had any say in the layoffs. Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. isn’t Activision Blizzard, Inc.
Meanwhile the suits at the time don’t face any consequences, instead they get bonuses. They’re more the reason why their stocks tanked than some game developer who help make a game that didn’t meet the unrealistic goals set forth by the suits.
Record revenue not profits, big difference.