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[DaGwaphics]

Some of the reactions to this on Twitter, LOL.

It's like some posters on there don't realize that nearly 4000 non MS employees have also been laid off in the gaming sector this year and it's only the 25th. Of course to go along with the nearly 10,000 that got laid off last year. Clearly an industry wide thing, not a MS or ABK exclusive problem. It's sad for those let go, but maybe we'll see some new studios pop with brand new ideas built by some of these developers.

 

[Del_X]

That's a fair point, but also calls into question the profitability and sustainability of the gaming division, does it not?

I think it's sustainable after these job cuts and after basically going 3rd party. I mean, MSFT absorbed a bigger 3rd party publisher than their own gaming division. It makes sense they'd gravitate in that direction.

 

[Hugare]

Yes they do

For Xbox? Game Pass?

Where are they?

 

[devilNprada]

An issue with this is that unlike other tech M&A and redundancies: gaming is a creatives business. POV you work at ABK and half of your team has just been laid off. Your mates, the people you sit with every day, see outside of work. You know they have families and mortgages and they’ve just been discarded like they’re worthless.

Hardly instils loyalty to the company, a desire to do your best etc. Would just make you bitter and looking for an out unless you’re one of the crap people just coasting for a pay check.

Stuff like this influences end product.

It's not necessarily like that.. This is CA they had to give 30 days notice they have to pay you for whether you work or not.
I was the controller for a company that discontinued operations.
Showed up to say HI in the morning, then just left for my new job. I got retainer bonuses to stay the 30 days, plus full salary from two jobs.
I made $40k that month, it was the best thing ever happened... Everybody there, that I know of, had new jobs (most of them higher paying) before the 30 day notice was up.

 

[Ass of Can Whooping]

Some of the reactions to this on Twitter, LOL.

It's like some posters on there don't realize that nearly 4000 non MS employees have also been laid off in the gaming sector this year and it's only the 25th. Of course to go along with the nearly 10,000 that got laid off last year. Clearly an industry wide thing, not a MS or ABK exclusive problem. It's sad for those let go, but maybe we'll see some new studios pop with brand new ideas built by some of these developers.

 

[jm89]

Satyas bonus is linked to revenue, and he will get it no matter what.

 

[devilNprada]

For Xbox? Game Pass?

Where are they?

Stop! You said MS doesn't report profit, don't move the goalpost.

MS doesnt report profit numbers for a reason

 

[Luigi Mario]

Very bold of them to mess with Activision’s well-oiled CoD machine.

 

[Stooky]

Most of these are outside the actual development, Q&A got hit the hardest development side, most of the jobs though were outside development; The legal department as well as the HR department from Activision is merging with the Microsoft one, they’ll retain what they need, but past that they don’t need the headache of running two separate legal departments and HR departments especially when both have a questionable history Activision side.

No matter what, in a merger like this you get a musical chairs scenario; too little work for too many people…You going to convince a para-legal to learn to wax the floors? An accountant to clean toilets? Convince half the people to break contract and take half the hours to let the other people stay? When there’s overlap there’s overlap.

It sucks but it’s the norm for a merger.

NOPE, many devs are getting cut right now. its not just QA

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Very bold of them to mess with Activision’s well-oiled CoD machine.

The impact to CoD will be minimal.

8% layoffs mostly against non-developers and heavier hit for companies like Toys for Bob and we haven't heard it, but i guarantee you Turn 10 is in double digits.

You're looking at at most like 2-3% of CoD developers impacted and mostly at sledgehammer rather than treyarch and infinity ward...

 

[Pelta88]

 

[ManaByte]

As far as Blizzard goes, aside from the survival team, it sounds like most of the people let go were in redundant roles. Even the Diablo Immortal team was spared.

Source: people I used to work with who are still there.

 

[DaGwaphics]

Not a defensive post at all, just having a laugh at the complete lack of understanding on display.

I don't cheer on layoffs anywhere, in any industry, LOL. But those overlooking the fact that the industry is clearly downsizing a bit across the board (in head counts) are looking a little clownish.

@ ManaByte , that's good to hear. The developers and all those involved in making the software are the ones I'm the most concerned about from my perspective as a player. Don't want to lose any good games.

 

[Ass of Can Whooping]

Not a defensive post at all, just having a laugh at the complete lack of understanding on display.

I don't cheer on layoffs anywhere, in any industry, LOL. But those overlooking the fact that the industry is clearly downsizing a bit across the board (in head counts) are looking a little clownish.

I think the real clowns are the ones who parroted that this was ever good for the employees. Oops

 

[FunkMiller]

And it looks like he got banned for questioning the great and powerful Phil.

 

[Hugare]

Stop! You said MS doesn't report profit, don't move the goalpost.

Doesnt report profits for the Xbox division

This is an Xbox thread. I was obviously talking about MS reporting about Xbox.

I'm not moving goalposts, I just expected you to use your brain

 

[Banjo64]

I think the real clowns are the ones who parroted that this was ever good for the employees. Oops

These same people would be saying the exact same thing if this was M$ gutting Nintendo or Valve. Absolutely clueless.

 

[DaGwaphics]

I think the real clowns are the ones who parroted that this was ever good for the employees. Oops

I don't see how the comparison between the work environments of the two (ABK pre-merger and MS) would be changed based on the number of employees working there. Bungie laid off about this same percentage of employees recently (100 or so of 1300 or about 7.5%), do you think they've become a bad place to work now? If so, why?

 

[Ass of Can Whooping]

I don't see how the comparison between the work environments of the two (ABK pre-merger and MS) would be changed based on the number of employees working there. Bungie laid off about this same percentage of employees recently (100 or so of 1300 or about 7.5%), do you think they've become a bad place to work now? If so, why?

So fucking predictable

 

[jcorb]

That is definitely a LOT of folks suddenly without jobs. That sucks.

I would definitely be curious to know where those cuts were all made, though. I can easily imagine a scenario where over time, as companies continue to grow larger, you can wind up with a lot of inefficiency. Too many cooks in the kitchen, too much red-table, there are just a lot of reasons they might need to downsize, particularly when you see the declining quality of Blizzard releases these past few years.

 

[Senua]

Mega corps gonna mega corp

Sad for those who got butt fucked

 

[DaGwaphics]

So fucking predictable

It's a serious question, if this is a belief you hold go on and explain it. It would be an interesting discussion.

I can see where maybe you could make a case that anxiety over further cuts could be an issue.

 

[HeWhoWalks]

So fucking predictable

BungieToo™

 

[damidu]

career moment for phil.

 

[Tal Shiar Agent]

 

[Ass of Can Whooping]

It's a serious question, if this is a belief you hold go on and explain it. It would be an interesting discussion.

I can see where maybe you could make a case that anxiety over further cuts could be an issue.

 

[Pop]

Satyas bonus is linked to revenue, and he will get it no matter what.

Xbox about to destroy another gaming dev

Tale as old as time

 

[DaGwaphics]

Pardon me for trying to have a conversation at the kiddie table, my bad.

 

[UltimaKilo]

Large companies are able to sustain losses for longer due to have expansive their portfolios are. One sector is down, they can continue to fund negative sectors with revenue from elsewhere, but over a long enough period of time of loss, all companies eventually cut. This particular case is 1900 workers. Currently as far as I can find, this 1900 does not break down salaries/positions of all cuts, just a general number. Glassdoor has ABK positions ranging from $50k to $200k+, so lets just take an average of $80k a pop. That's $152 million a year in wages cut and that's not including benefits. Xbox sales are declining YoY in many regions. Large titles, like Starfield, didn't meet expectations. D4 is lackluster. MW3 saw a 38% decline in the UK compared to MW2 by the 3 week mark of release. At least from what can be viewed publicly, it makes 100% sense to cut back.

Children who don’t understand how business works. No division can be subsidized forever by another, and Blizzard/ Activision was incredibly bloated. Probably could have made further cuts.

 

[Ass of Can Whooping]

Pardon me for trying to have a conversation at the kiddie table, my bad.

Debate season was in the ABK thread which you weren't active in. We're past that now

All that's left is the clown show

 

[Moridianae]

Micro$oft strikes again!

Yes, the industry is having a lot of trouble, but this is ridiculous. This merger was never a good thing, but damned if you didn't see the random proponents out there.


Where's ol Tom Warren and all those other people? They surely have gotten quiet with all the negative news lately(poor sales, third party rumors, now this)


No checks coming in??

 

[Banjo64]

You can’t show me another man selling sucking a dick better than Shawn here. Really impressive work.

 

[Mortisfacio]

That is definitely a LOT of folks suddenly without jobs. That sucks.

I would definitely be curious to know where those cuts were all made, though. I can easily imagine a scenario where over time, as companies continue to grow larger, you can wind up with a lot of inefficiency. Too many cooks in the kitchen, too much red-table, there are just a lot of reasons they might need to downsize, particularly when you see the declining quality of Blizzard releases these past few years.

It's really not, though. It's 8% of a division, not even the entire company of 200k+ employees. We had companies like X, Meta, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, etc. just last year laying off 10% or more of staff. Over 300k people were laid off in tech alone in just the first half of 2023. Add to this many of the big titles seem to have not done as well as some analysts predicted, this was kind of expected.

 

[Ass of Can Whooping]

You can’t show me another man selling sucking a dick better than Shawn here. Really impressive work.

He's my aspiration when I turn gay

 

[digoutyoursoul]

Destin is getting some shit on social media, seems to be coping pretty well so far

 

[35cent]

Not all that surprised to be honest. This tends to happen after mergers. It still sucks for those affected though of course. Hopefully those affected will land on their feet quickly but there's been a lot redundancies in this industry lately.

 

[DaGwaphics]

Destin is getting some shit on social media, seems to be coping pretty well so far

That's weird, I just saw his video on the layoffs this afternoon. I don't think he was pro layoffs.

 

[kruis]

 

[Ass of Can Whooping]

40% eh

Must be redundant roles

 

[kruis]

 

[bender]

I think the real clowns are the ones who parroted that this was ever good for the employees. Oops

Leave Lulu alone!

 

[Nydius]

The entire industry is trying to reset the landscape and ensure future profitability when game costs are clearly getting out of hand.

Which has nothing to do with COVID, despite the word salad you tossed above this line.

The point I'm making is places are using COVID as an excuse. They've been saying COVID restructuring is the cause of layoffs for over two years now, across all sectors but particularly in tech. Hiring and development costs were out of control years before COVID hit; this would have happened with or without COVID. I don't even think the work from home changes are as big as you think they are because a lot of developers have returned to in-studio work.

 

[Salty Popsicle]

Very bold of them to mess with Activision’s well-oiled CoD machine.

Well-oiled? MW3 has been lambasted by the entire gaming community for being a glorified expansion. Most people would say having a new COD every 2 years instead of every single year would be best for the franchise.

 

[FIREKNIGHT2029]

They deleted their tweet but aren't these the guys that some of the corporate cheerleaders were begging Phil to buy? I guess we know where they stand on that issue.

 

[rhodesianshepard]

From statements today by Microsoft Execs, it is clear they have missed financial targets. For the first time, I'm am convinced Xbox will be mostly 3rd party by the end of this generation. They are 100% banking on cloud to blow up in the next 5-10 years, which if it does, would perfectly work to their benefit. Gamepass subscriptions reportedly at 33.5mil and moving at a glacial pace, especially on consoles

 

[Mr Moose]

That's weird, I just saw his video on the layoffs this afternoon. I don't think he was pro layoffs.

Was he pro Activision acquisition?

They deleted their tweet but aren't these the guys that some of the corporate cheerleaders were begging Phil to buy? I guess we know where they stand on that issue.

Yeah I seen that earlier lol.

 

[bender]

He's my aspiration when I turn gay

 

[Salty Popsicle]

From statements today by Microsoft Execs, it is clear they have missed financial targets. For the first time, I'm am convinced Xbox will be mostly 3rd party by the end of this generation. They are 100% banking on cloud to blow up in the next 5-10 years, which if it does, would perfectly work to their benefit. Gamepass subscriptions reportedly at 33.5mil and moving at a glacial pace, especially on consoles

Xbox games will be every platform that allows GamePass. So far, that means Xbox consoles, PCs, and any device with integrated wi-fi capabilities. Until Nintendo and PlayStation decide they need GP on their platforms, things will stay relatively unchanged and Microsoft will always offer a gaming device/console of their own.

 

[Nydius]

As far as Blizzard goes, aside from the survival team, it sounds like most of the people let go were in redundant roles.

I've read on Twitter posts that multiple producers - including Jeremy Monken, a senior producer - of Overwatch 2 were let go. As were a huge chunk of art, vfx, animators, and designers. You're going to sit there and argue that they're all "redundant roles"? Because your "Trust Me Bro" source?

Over half the team, totally redundant!

 

[Ass of Can Whooping]

Xbox games will be every platform that allows GamePass. So far, that means Xbox consoles, PCs, and any device with integrated wi-fi capabilities. Until Nintendo and PlayStation decide they need GP on their platforms, things will stay relatively unchanged and Microsoft will always offer a gaming device/console of their own.

Expecto Pacopium