Xbox lays of nearly two grand of employees at Activision Blizzard.

@loudheadphones: If I wasn't on my phone, I'd pull out my favorite gif of comedian and advocate Jon Stewart, commenting in disgust "Shameful."

Impossible. I was told this merger would be good for the industry and people would have job security.

Are you really trying to feel victimized about this? MS was touting that the merger would empower the workforce back in October, and some ABK workers said they were excited about the acquisition... OOPS! That's where the heat is coming from.

Xbox isn't in trouble, it's not going anywhere. People are just pointing out with all the PR they set out before, it's kinda fucked up.

Those loudheadphones have clearly caused you some mental damage.

I have called for Spencer to go for years, he is your saint, without him you wouldn't have anything to cry about.

I never cheered for the acquisition, I said I didn't care as I don't buy Craptivision games and haven't done so since they closed Bizarre Creations in the 360 generations and that won't change just because MS owns them.

It's hilarious that out of all the lems on this board you chose me to quote on this subject, when out of all the lems here I criticise MS the most.

As much as I joke around about MS, I feel bad for the employees who have been laid off. it annoys me to see Sony, and MS making all this cash, but still lay off people.

“Microsoft has also shut down departments dedicated to bringing Xbox games to physical retail"

And there it is... Xbox going %100 fully digital.

The bad news for Microsoft keeps rolling.

wow, I must of missed this. I guess MS has finally got their dream, get rid of used games.

I really do not understand the tribalism found in this thread for something that is bad for affected employees. Perhaps if they were laid off they would have responded differently.

@navyguy21: You claimed baited the same folks you were implying.lol

I completely agree.

But... at the same time, we crap on companies all day, with the hope, presumably, that they'll lose business. Natural outcome of that is likely to be job losses.

I probably shouldn't, but, for some reason, I do feel less bad about that when it's larger studios and publishers getting cut.

Sure you had called out him. LOL What a Xbox liar. Will you continue to lie in serve of him when Xbox hardware dies for good? What you, Xbox peeps, gonna do when they come for you.

Even more important, Xbox hardware will GTFO from gaming industry and that's good

@loudheadphones: It is clear you don't know who you are talking to. LOL, but it is not like you are verse on the topics you entertained.

Looks like you need a compass. Who will talk with irrelevant Xbox peeps like you when Xbox is completely dead ( well, it already is )? Bye Pedro, you won't be missed.

Peeps are still talking about the inevitability of cutting redundancies when they've laid off a lot of developers for their biggest franchises, and almost an entire team that was working on that survival game. Lots of COD (Sledgehammer seem most impacted, but lots of the studios hit), Blizzard (entire teams let go for stuff like OverWatch 2, their survival game cancelled). People at Toys For Bob, Some Zenimax marketing people, Blizzard Cork and High Moon were thinned, Blizzard Austin's Cs dept gone

@loudheadphones: Your meltdowns every time you are wrong is entertaining.

Haven't say anything wrong, Xboy.

You are screwed up Xbox being ( not surprised actually ) mentally since you saying that i'm having a meltdown over 1900 lay offs. HAHAHA WTF is that kind of thinking? So, on the contrary, you are cheering up for this move at MS so you can have games on Gamepass. Yes, you are disgusting being, Pedro. Well, not surprised since you are from Xbox fandom.

Maybe you should go check out posts 24 & 27 in this THREAD. They are the most recent ones, but not the only ones.

Like I said you have some real mental issues, now i'm not trying to make fun of them, just trying to highlight them in the hope you can get some professional help.

Me have mental issues, yet ANY Xbox being here SHOULDN'T be trusted what he says. At all. You Xbox peeps should get help. Your Xbox is going bye bye.

@loudheadphones: And you double down on your meltdown.😂

See you were proven wrong and STILL carry on. You are unable to admit you were wrong, instead double down on your lunacy. Seriously, seek help.

Phil Spencer is a genious - first right the ship of Xbox and now Phil will fix ABK.

This is normal with merging the company Phil makes the right decision allways.

ResetEra is on fire right now lmao! Back before the merger went through, users critical of the acquisition faced HEAVY moderation on that board. A user damn near nailed the number of people that would be fired due to the deal, and folks brought it up today on the board. That user was “thread banned” for another incredibly spot on post. Then folks found posts of the GM at Era discussing his Xbox/ABK stock purchases. The user was then banned again lmao! People are starting to ask questions and Era is tearing itself apart. You hate to see it.

With Sony having to rely so much on remasters/ports, is my dream of a video game market crash gradually coming true? Eh, probably not. Can see them limping by on the same games made to sell to too many people and thus bland and too expensive to make.

40% of Toys For Bob staff have been let go 😮

Wtf is Microsoft doing?! This is insane 🤯

"Half the environment art team cut from OW2"

The hits keep coming.

"Microsoft is laying off the entire internal customer support team(s) for ABK games, save a few.

MS will outsource the rest to external companies abroad.

ABK was one of the few games pubs with a high-quality internal customer support team"

The ship is sinking very fast.

Ooff, it was inevitable, but I hope these people find other jobs quickly. Thankfully the gaming industry is booming, and with the generous severance package that MS is offering, I'm sure they will be back working in the industry soon!

Welp, time to buy some MS stock; usually reports of "record profits" tend to follow reports of "mass layoffs".

@blaznwiipspman1: what's the "generous severance packages" that are being offered to the enormous amount of laid off people today?

That is a negative. Their stock is record high.

Yeah I see that now, ah well.

Oh boy. Loudheadphones is having an epic meltdown in here. Didn’t see that one coming. 😅

Notice a ton of cows in here, but didn't see them in the thread when Sony was laying off Bungie staff, hmmm.

@last_lap: did Bungie shut down their entire internal customer support team(s)? Or how about did Sony shut down departments dedicated to bringing PS games to physical retail? Or did Sony lay off half an environment art team? I wonder who did all that in 1 day... Oh right, it was Microsoft.

I do not understand the tribalism on the subject of layoffs, as I feel that it is unfortunate that people are losing their job regardless of what company they work at.

Exactly. It went UP after the news broke. The markets LOVE layoffs.

Some senior staff got let go and Sony let Bungie take all the blame, Sony hid in the background while pulling the strings, not only that but Sony stated they would not lay off any staff at Bungie after the purchase.

Don't get me wrong I think what MS is doing is just BS, and being big on physical it sucks and i'm not in anyway defending MS on this one. Phil should have taken a pay cut (or better yet quit) to keep actual workers within the company.

But my point still stands, cows were absent in Bungies lay off thread. At least show the same amount of enthusiasm with both companies instead of acting like a cow who sees this as an opportunity to slag one company off while being quiet about the other.

This sucks and nearly 2k people need to find work in an industry that is laying off people here, there and everywhere. Being in game development is hardly an industry where you know your job is safe.

I hope the industry crashes & burns because its currently unsustainable.

I hope that explains my feelings on this subject.

@uitravioience: I don't have insider knowledge about the size of the package, but MS is very generous, unlike cheap arse sony, and these workers will be compensated very well.

@blaznwiipspman1: So you lied? There is no severance package to all those people who got laid off. Got it 👍

Another one. When will it stop?!

"30% of Sledgehammer games staff have been laid off"

Still trying to wrap my head around this. How do you buy a company that makes games like Call of Duty, claim you want to bring games like Call of Duty to more platforms like Nintendo Switch, and then gut the teams that would be tasked with doing all this work?

Either they misled regulators about their intentions about supporting Switch or they are about to put the absolute worst Call of Duties in history.

Bobby and Co. knew what was coming and that's why they had them make some crappy in less time than usual.

Sony didn't lay off Bungie staff. Bungie, for now, has full control of its staff.

They dissolved the studios that develop COD?

Their agreement with Nintendo was to put COD on the Switch?

Stop Zero, just stop. If you for one minute think that any layoffs at Bungie didn't go through Sony, then you're as delusional as it gets.

Seriously I expect that excuse from the bigger cows here, maybe you are one of the biggest ones here 🤷‍♂️

https://www.ign.com/articles/bungie-devs-say-atmosphere-is-soul-crushing-amid-layoffs-cuts-and-fear-of-total-sony-takeover

While the exact details of Sony’s deal to acquire Bungie remain unknown to the public or employees, sources say they were told by leaders that the current split board structure is contingent on Bungie meeting certain financial goals. If Bungie falls short of certain financial thresholds by too great an amount, Sony is allowed to dissolve the existing board and take full control of the company. And with Destiny 2 expansion The Final Shape delayed into the next fiscal year and Bungie still investing heavily on Marathon, many employees understand that Bungie is struggling to meet the necessary targets to keep its last vestige of freedom. Such a takeover wouldn’t necessarily be shocking given its 2022 acquisition, but it would nevertheless be a stunning development for a company that has historically prided itself on its independence.

It was with this threat looming that Bungie leadership - not Sony, according to Parsons - made the choice to lay off roughly 100 employees last month. But the cost-cutting at Bungie isn’t limited to just personnel. Multiple current employees confirmed to IGN that the company has implemented numerous other cost-cutting measures recently, including a studio-wide hiring freeze, reduced travel budgets, elimination of holiday bonuses, keeping its annual Bungie Day virtual, delaying its weeklong company “Pentathalon” event to next December, and reducing numerous morale events such as cooking and knitting classes from monthly to quarterly. Bungie is also pausing or fully ending benefits like annual employee compensation adjustments to meet market rates, its new hire lunch program, employee donation matching, its peer recognition program, and gift cards for employees birthdays. And yearly studio performance bonuses this year will only be the contractually obligated 80% minimum, after being above 100% for good performance several previous years running.

"They dissolved the studios that develop COD?"

Where did I say that?

"Their agreement with Nintendo was to put COD on the Switch?"

https://www.charlieintel.com/call-of-duty/is-call-of-duty-on-nintendo-switch-279781/

Didn't take long for Washington to notice.

Where are you getting these numbers from?