Mass layoffs at Activision Blizzard on the way

[Thiluro-illidan]

Alrighty. Thanks for your insight. I’ve learned a lot from you, Askton.

I think I need a knife to cut through all that passive aggressiveness

It’s fine. I’ll provide the knife.

[Nalliah-wyrmrest-accord (Nalliah)]

I’m sure it’s already been mentioned, but this most likely has absolutely nothing to do with World of Warcraft. Keep in mind they recently sold off their IP for Destiny 2, so the support staff for that game is largely defunct and they can’t just move them all into other areas. Therefore, layoffs being necessarily is not a startling conclusion.

Far be it from me to say WoW (or Blizzard, or especially Activision) is perfect, but this isn’t a sign that ‘WoW is dying’ or whatnot. This probably has nothing to do with WoW whatsoever, since they still need a full team to continue developing substantial amounts of content in the middle of a WoW expansion.

[Spinster-farstriders (Spinster)]

Okay, well he’s a slumlord so you just lost your security deposit, have to pay ANOTHER security deposit and now have to pay to have all of your things moved into a new home or apartment.

Worse yet, if we want to complete the analogy, since WoW in your example is a slumlord or bad apartment then every other MMO which is doing worse than WoW right now, they’d be an even more rundown apartment run by and even slummier slumlord.

So, yeah good job you just payed to downgrade to a worse living location, but at least you got to watch someone else suffer because of… reasons.

Um no.

First of all, what security deposit? Blizzard can’t keep any of my money if I leave. I can just walk away.

As for moving my stuff…I can’t. I was renting a furnished place and all the stuff stays in my leaky old apartment, lol. Oh well it was all moldy anyway.

Other MMOs doing worse than WoW? Yeah I’m not sure that’s true any more. WoW might have the most subs, but not by much. In any case, I don’t have to move to another MMO. There are lots of games to play. There are many things to do in this world. WoW doesn’t just compete with other MMOs, they compete with Netflix and board games and ice fishing and dive bars and EVERYTHING I can do with my spare time. I think I’ll be looking into a tabletop RPG. I love dice…

Peace my friend. If you are happy residing in WoW then by all means stay their and hope they patch that roof.

[Boomdoggle-zuljin]

Companies make money by providing products and services that their customers want to pay for. That’s pretty basic. Company-wide, Activision seems to have lost track of that, which is why they’ve had issues with enough of their products that investors are noticing.

Denying that this could be a factor, hmm…

For all the people who were supposed to play longer because of changes turning all parts of the game into a giant grind, where are they now? Playing the game happily, unhappily, or not at all?

People who aren’t playing the game aren’t buying mounts and service.

[Kittredge-azjolnerub (Kittredge)]

Okay, well let me explain.

In this case your security deposit would be you buying the game and then having to buy another game.
You moving your furniture would be progression which would be lost and then you having to go through everything all over again.

Also, you don’t know that WoW is doing completely terrible, the sub numbers might not be incredible but they’re probably still a lot higher than anything else out there.

Blizzard still has more potential than anyone else. Also, let’s not forget that any MMO you switch to will be a WoW clone.

BUT this is all besides my point. My original point was, why would a person want a gaming company to fail instead of correct their mistakes, it sounds absurd doesn’t it? So yes I will hope that they patch a leaky roof because it’s easy to do.

[Phydeaux-windrunner (Phydeaux)]

BUT this is all besides my point. My original point was, why would a person want a gaming company to fail instead of correct their mistakes, it sounds absurd doesn’t it? So yes I will hope that they patch a leaky roof because it’s easy to do.

It’s not about a gaming company failing, it’s about a financial strategy failing.

Almost a decade ago the government passed a bill that mandated that companies pay millions for Healthcare. A result of that legislation was a new way to maintain profitability and still pay for this new expense.

Once companies started cutting costs and looking for extreme efficiencies in their cost models, they figured out that you can pile on work to your employees and you can take many shortcuts in products with your customers.

This isn’t unique to blizzard, it’s happening in many places. The problem is, if you focus on SVA and ROI you tend to spend less on innovation.

Gaming companies haven’t been giving players new things, they’ve been giving them less. They have been delivering half done products, and people even pay for them ahead of time. I mean who in their right mind would pre pay full price for a product that doesn’t even exist? That’s freaking idiotic.

This isn’t about blizzard falling, it’s about any company that relies on this business model. People are more than happy to pay for a product they feel is worth it. But for a nearly a decade blizzard has been living off of the reputation that the old company built, while taking advantage of their players to appease shareholders.

Now the shareholders are leaving, and their players have left too. ATVI will decide the future.

[Bonekollektr-azjolnerub]

This is Blizzards biggest sin, they have failed to come out with new games and instead coasted on their reputation

[Nemsmess-sargeras (Nemsmess)]

the development of the game could definitely benefit from asking professional class guide writers what they feel would improve/fix/make fun any given class and spec in the game. maybe even hire them. this could also apply to any other expert in any other field of the game.

instead, they ignore everyone and believe they can do no wrong.

[Spinster-farstriders (Spinster)]

In this case your security deposit would be you buying the game and then having to buy another game.
You moving your furniture would be progression which would be lost and then you having to go through everything all over again.

Also, you don’t know that WoW is doing completely terrible, the sub numbers might not be incredible but they’re probably still a lot higher than anything else out there.

Blizzard still has more potential than anyone else. Also, let’s not forget that any MMO you switch to will be a WoW clone.

Kittredge, I don’t have the heart to argue with you. You are clearly very invested in this game being fine, and I really do understand that. I really do.

I have zero problems with someone like you who just still loves WoW.

We disagree on the state of the game, but we both have had fun in WoW and that makes us WoW fam. So here’s hoping a patch will patch any holes in your WoW roof, eh? Have a good night!

[Merridae-aerie-peak (Merridae)]

The product, job, and career existed before the customer.

No.

No product has ever been invented or discovered without the need for the product having existed prior to its invention. Literal meaning of Necessity is the mother of invention. The necessity need not be macro in scope it only need exist in the mind of the inventor.

[Ohgodmyeyez-hyjal]

I’m a little late to the party, but here goes:

[Xintao-tichondrius]

Precisely.

Activision side along with King are raking in the money. Blizzard side of the business is under fire now.

[Akston-bloodhoof (Akston)]

No.

No product has ever been invented or discovered without the need for the product having existed prior to its invention. Literal meaning of Necessity is the mother of invention. The necessity need not be macro in scope it only need exist in the mind of the inventor

Yes or No.

Were people purchasing and paying for WoW before the people working on it, were working on it?

WoW spent many years in development with zero customers. Therefor. The careers and jobs existed long before the customers.

And for a very brief period, before WoW launched, the product existed with no customers.

[Merridae-aerie-peak (Merridae)]

Yes or No.

Were people purchasing and paying for WoW before the people working on it, were working on it?

WoW spent many years in development with zero customers. Therefor. The careers and jobs existed long before the customers.

And for a very brief period, before WoW launched, the product existed with no customers.

No product has ever been invented prior to its need or desire

[Akston-bloodhoof (Akston)]

No product has ever been invented prior to its need or desire

Thats fine. And it has nothing to do with what I said.

I stated that the careers and jobs of the people working on WoW existed before there were customers.

I am not having a philosophical debate about “potential customers”. I am talking about real. Literal. Customers.

[Tragik-khadgar (Tragik)]

Activision side along with King are raking in the money. Blizzard side of the business is under fire now.

You have that backwards. ATVI is in rough shape due to the proportionally tiny margins that Destiny’s obscene budget translated into sales-wise. King is about to get sued by Sweden for $370 Million due to perceived tax evasion.

Blizzard, and namely WoW, with roughly $65M a month in revenue is keeping ATVI afloat during restructuring, which will yield higher EPS for Q1 of 2019 when that report is released in April.

Destiny was an abysmal failure and anchor driving down share prices because its development costs were out of control. If you hate BFA, blame Destiny.

[Talbyy-tichondrius (Talbyy)]

I’m sure it’s already been mentioned, but this most likely has absolutely nothing to do with World of Warcraft. Keep in mind they recently sold off their IP for Destiny 2, so the support staff for that game is largely defunct and they can’t just move them all into other areas. Therefore, layoffs being necessarily is not a startling conclusion.

Far be it from me to say WoW (or Blizzard, or especially Activision) is perfect, but this isn’t a sign that ‘WoW is dying’ or whatnot. This probably has nothing to do with WoW whatsoever, since they still need a full team to continue developing substantial amounts of content in the middle of a WoW expansion

Yeah, this probably has some truth behind it, but we won’t know until details are leaked. If I’m not green after today, rip, MVPs didn’t bring in enough revenue

[Merridae-aerie-peak (Merridae)]

I stated that the careers and jobs of the people working on WoW existed before there were customers.

No. You are talking about potential customers" as you stated and I quote:

The product, job, and career existed before the customer.

Without a customer no need for a product exists. Without a product no job or career exists. Products without need sit idle until and unless there is a need for them and I do not know any company that will pay anyone to sit idle while they wait on the need or desire for a product to be created. The customers of World of Warcraft existed prior to World of Warcraft. They were not yet customers of Blizzard Entertainment. They were customers of Daybreak Game Company, Ubisoft, and 989 Studios. They were customers of Origin Software (UO). They were customers of Epic Games. World of Warcraft was a need or desire realized and properly marketed to attract those customers from those other places and they competed with and surpassed the competition based on merit, thus creating the need that created jobs that created careers.

[Akston-bloodhoof (Akston)]

Without a customer no need for a product exists. Without a product no job or career exists. Products without need sit idle until and unless there is a need for them and I do not know any company that will pay anyone to sit idle while they wait on the need or desire for a product to be created. The customers of World of Warcraft existed prior to World of Warcraft. They were not yet customers of Blizzard Entertainment. They were customers of Daybreak Game Company, Ubisoft, and 989 Studios. They were customers of Origin Software (UO). They were customers of Epic Games. World of Warcraft was a need or desire realized and properly marketed to attract those customers from those other places and they competed with and surpassed the competition based on merit, thus creating the need that created jobs that created careers.

Once again. You are talking about potential customers. I am not.

Zero people were paying for WoW while the devs worked on it for what…5 years? There were zero customers. Only potential customers.

Therefor…the careers and jobs existed before the customer.

That is my only point. Zero paying customers existed while the jobs and careers did exist. Only “potential customers” that you keep referencing. I never once referenced a “potential customer”.

[Merridae-aerie-peak (Merridae)]

Zero people were paying for WoW while the devs worked on it for what…5 years? There were zero customers. Only potential customers.

True. They were not paying for WoW before it existed. They were paying for Warcraft III Frozen Throne. They were paying for Warcraft III. They were paying for Diablo II. They were paying for Warcraft II. They were paying for Warcraft: Orcs and Humans. The JOBS were created when the need and the desire for the new project World of Warcraft solidified as a means to bring the WORLD of Warcraft to as many people concurrently within the same connected milieu as possible. It is an evolution of what existed prior and the jobs were created and then staffed by those who did not work for Blizzard Entertainment OR by those who did and wanted to be a part of the new project. This is how ALL projects that produce results within a company are brought about (with VERY few exceptions).