LOL I had to read this book! TLDR “try harder if things start to suck for you and take personal responsibility” a great read for layoff season.
Layoffs are a potential price you could pay for decent health insurance & stock options.
In the end, investor mistakes are paid most heavily on those mid-lower level guys laid off.
Former ITSM Incident Analyst for a Fortune 500 company here.
Our consolidations occurred due to revenue and customer loss, of which were due to the implementation of features, software and pursuit of profit. Prior to the consolidations, many of the company’s customers had been loyal due to fervent and genuine customer support and relations, as well as the fact that customer feedback had far more impact on new releases and services.
Once the company began prioritizing profits and metrics over customer feedback and relationships, stock prices began to take a hard hit. The base reasons/framework for consolidations and layoffs are identical to what Activision Blizzard is facing now.
Metrics are great, and can be a powerful tool to both propel your business and keep it in a great place, but only when you use it in the interest of your customers - not your profit margins.
You can’t have one without the other.
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We’d like them to see some of these indicators and maybe fix the game(s).
Tanking stock price…most investors aren’t gamers. They look at reports (or pay brokers to do this). When product X gets mixed press…its not a good sign. When it gets bad press its really not a good sign.
How do you get better press…fix the game. Crafting, RNG, no flying, azerite gear hate…all this adds up. they become bad hits on searches as that broker/investor goes so how healthy is this company?
they don’t go well its game development thing, lets see what happens in 8.2…8.3. They don’t go well Wrath had issues too. These people probably never played wow really lol.
they go I want to invest 10K now. Company A research is not looking rock solid. Lets look at company B. Company B looks good enough broker/investor makes the call. Pull Actiblizz stock to fund company B stock buy.
Virtually all of the Gaming companies have been having some rough times. Part of the reason is the unbelieveable popularity of Battle Royale games like Fortnite. Heck, even Netflix said that Fortnite is costing them more viewership that their streaming competitors. Personally I don’t like games like Fortnite, but then I’m an older fellow.
Having gone through restructuring at two of my previous companies, I am willing to bet this means they are going to be shutting down some satellite offices. A quick look on their website and you can easily see where there are no job openings. They have 32 locations. It costs a lot of money to operate a satellite office if they can easily relocate people or consolidate.
Also…I am surprised that they have in-house PD working on things like merchandise when they can probably make a lot more money licensing things like that out with an in-house team signing off on approvals.
I am willing to bet they start contracting their HR team as well. HR is always hit in layoffs. Fewer benefits paid, more money made.
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I think we can all hope that Blizzard can somehow get free of Actitentacles soon
It won’t matter at this point, at least not enough to care. All the people that made Blizz great are long gone.
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yeah…and then theres that.
God I wish Id been around when MoP was current.
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Oh god MoP. That was my favorite PvP expansion hands down. Timeless Isle was a blast.
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WOW is dying yet again.
Not so much the game as the jokers in charge not being able to figure out how to keep paying customers happy.
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Sitting in my garden with my panda monk watching the green cabbage growing.
One solo run thru throne of thunder and i was hooked.
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“Centralization” and such is just executive bs speak. It means nothing and they have no actual plan. They are just firing a bunch of dudes to show they are reducing expenses. It’ll make the stock holders some what happy, and for the short term bump the stock price.
Sorry to be blunt, but that’s the real world smacking these folks that gets laid off right in the face.
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Yes and my theory is that Activision tried to make wow into Battle Royale and we got…BFA. It is the only reason I could think of for those nasty GCD changes last year, slowing the game down so their infrastructure could handle what they were preparing for as a massive success. Whoops.
The game is being dumbed down so it can be played on phones
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Exactly the stuff my wifes company is doing.
They literally think that cutting payroll = more money made.
Uh…no…it doesnt. Incoming $$$ stayed exactly the same. They just left their branches with half the workers they needed.
Yeah…short term it might look good to blind investors but if theyre doing their homework they’ll figure it out soon enough.
Im not a laywer, but I think intentionally trying to dupe investors might be illegal.
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How long as Acticrap had their hands in the Blizzard pot, though?
Never.
Maybe. Maybe we can also wait for the actual announcement, and not a “insider knowledge” statement before getting our tin foil hats and pitch forks out.
But that would interrupt the “i dont know what I am talking about” hatefest. So…I guess we shouldnt do that.
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we dont even know who will get lay offs, they could take another hit at hots, or target king’s games
Or even the positions that were working with Destiny
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