Activision Blizzard Layoffs - Hundreds of Jobs Could Be Lost

Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-08/activision-is-said-to-plan-job-cuts-as-sales-of-key-games-stall

This is a consequence of all the disappointing sales they've had recently. I'm curious how this alongside Bungie leaving will influence the company moving forward. I feel for the people who may find themselves out of a job soon :(.

The new CFO just made $15 million in bonuses so that’s where that money went....

The Struggle is real!

This is what happens when you say your developing Diablo Immortal for mobile and abandon your PC fanbase.

Luckily they got WoW Classic coming out which could be cool.

Hopefully more on the Activision side and less on the Blizzard side.

Could do with fewer Call of Duties in the world, and more Blizzard games.

Less crap. Yay.

That’s unfortunate. Hopefully they land back on their feet quickly.

Just lol worthy how people still support them.

@vaidream45: Unfortunate truth. When the top people screw up and the company loses profits, it's the people in the trenches who pay the price.

@vaidream45: could've saved 1000 jobs with that bonus....

Yep... hit the nail on the head.

One CEO(Edit: CFO I see) is worth a thousand regulars. That's shown over and over again bigger companies.

As if that will help the company.

Holy shit lol. I love when companies don't meet expectations, but the higher-ups will still take their bonuses. That is the exact opposite to how it should work... Company does well? Bonuses.

"Managers" has taken over than company and may lead to high overhead management e.g. new CFO just made $15 million in bonuses.

I never understand why Western executives earns obscene amount of money and bonuses while Japanese companies like Nintendo do not. At least the late Satoru Iwata did not earn as much as most Western CEOs and he was willing to cut his income when Nintendo did poorly during his tenure.

Sucks for the people who actually make the games, but the sooner Craptivision goes belly up the better.

Seems like a lot of bad companies are having layoffs lately.

Western capitalism has this idea that all it takes is one good CEO to improve a company? The pay no longer seems tied to how well the company does.

Not interested in any of their games. Long term it would be better if their developers were moved to better companies. Even though it of course suck that they lose their jobs now.

Bobby Kotick: "Activision has had their best financial results so far"

770 people get fired...

Just makes me stick to my plan to never buy another Activision product.

Bobby Kotick is a big fat turd. Seeing that turd smile makes me shiver in disgusts. He doesn't care he enjoys exploiting people/gamers/employees.

Yeah, Iwata wasn't a disgusting egoistical piece of shit like most western CEOs. Of all big game companies in the world, Nintendo is probably one of the best to work at.

at least they are hiring more developers, cutting non dev staff

@Litchie: exactly. Iwata took a major pay cut and didn’t lay anyone off. He stated that even though that would have repaired the financial situation it would decrease employee moral and the games would suffer due to that. He didn’t want his employees fearing for their jobs because the higher ups made some bad business choices. That is true leadership.

Look at 2019 and beyond. What the hell does Activision have coming that’s gonna make them money? Is Crash Team Racing gonna keep the lights on in the building? Are we really relying on the fickle WoW crowd for support? And COD is losing its footing to F2P Battle Royale shooters. Sure Activision has done alright recently. But their future looks scary, and it’s probably best that they made this move now instead of kicking the can down the road like so many companies did last gen. You know, all those companies that shutdown or that were purchased by companies like Activision???

@R4gn4r0k: Saw that news today. When they said a couple hundred, I was thinking 200-300. 770 is rough.

Almost 800, wow. About 8% of their people. They are increasing the amount of devs working on their already popular IP's. In other words, they are probably not going to (ever be able to) create something new again. A slowly sinking ship, and a huge waste of talent. Shame, shame, shame.

Japanese workers break their backs for their employers. There is a cultural expectation in Japan to work an insane amount hours if the company needs it.

Iwata may have given himself a paycut, but Nintendo workers were also putting in record crunch times.

Activision said they cut most of the jobs from idle positions (esports, marketing, etc). They cut very few actual game development jobs from what I heard.

I never really cared for Activision with most of their focus being on CoD/Destiny. I saw the writing on the wall with Blizzard as soon as they merged with Activision. They held on longer than I thought they would.

Game developers are contractors.

You should NEVER feel bad for contractors. That is the career path they chose.

They will find a new developer job somewhere else or find a new career.

“Derp it sucks for their families”....

Well maybe they should have picked a better career instead of coding for minimum wage and living in one of the most expensive areas in the world before starting a family.

Oh I would believe that immediately. The suicide rates in Japan related to jobs and job loss are crazy high.

Wow. 800 salaries is enough for 4 or 5 $15M bonuses.

Disgusting corporate attitude.

Somehow I don't think a new CEO with a fat stack of cash will fix much for them.

I will take the same stance that I take with EA on Activision/Blizzard. I am done buying their games. I will miss Diablo (if a good main game ever gets made again). Otherwise they can take a hike. This Oligarchy we have in the US is just shameful at this point. We are in the territory of Rome when it fell to corruption and greed. Speak with your wallets ladies and gentlemen. By the by, I hate saying that because I know that the CEO will get a golden parachute package and we will F the common worker. But this is the only way we can fight back against the greed that now controls our hobby.