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.)