Microsoft Lays Off 1,900 Activision Blizzard and Xbox Employees; Mike Ybarra Leaves | MMORPG.com

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Microsoft Lays Off 1,900 Activision Blizzard and Xbox Employees; Mike Ybarra Leaves | MMORPG.com

After finding overlap post-acquisition, Microsoft Lays Off 1,900 mostly Activision Blizzard employees, and ends some Xbox and ZeniMax roles. Blizzard president Mike Ybarra announced today is his last day, leaving the company.

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Angrakhan

Not surprised at all. Microsoft is going to have a ton of overlap with both companies being in the software industry. The acquisition was about owning IPs, not the people no matter what platitudes were made about buying the team blah blah blah. Don't be surprised to see more execs and middle management go. Microsoft has plenty of that to go around. They want the technical SMEs and skilled wrench turners. All the HR, Marketing, legal, and tech ops people (networking, server, and desktop support) can go.

uriel_mafess

Too many non production related expenditures in western companies and specifically in the US ones.

If you have a captured market by legislature you can rob the consumers but gaming is a worldwide market and too competitive for so much ballast.

Unions only make it worse. Instead of layoffs its just foreclosures and bankrupcies.

Djijin

The bubble popped a while ago. It just takes time to see it.

Slapshot1188

Yup... round 1.

Folks cheered when Kotick was booted, here comes "the rest of the story" as they say.

kitarad

Pity them.

JeroKane

Slapshot1188 said:

Yup... round 1.



Folks cheered when Kotick was booted, here comes "the rest of the story" as they say.

This was fully expected. Anyone thinking otherwise, is delusional. It's a massive acquisition. ActiVision Blizzard is a huge behemoth and so is Microsoft.

So it shouldn't be a surprise that redundant positions will be cut. Like upper management, Sales, Marketing, etc.
All positions Microsoft & XBOX division has more than enough themselves already and can fill in themselves.
They not going to cut critical positions in game development staff, that is currently actively working on their major franchises ( WoW, Diablo, Call of Duty, etc ) and maintaining them.

In my line of work (working in Professional IT for over 25 years) I have seen this happening all the time and had my fair share of it as well during acquisitions and mergers.

It's of course never fun for the people involved.

PS. People also shouldn't forget the horrible toxic work culture that Kotick created within ActiVision Blizzard, that has caused several walkouts, lawsuits and negative press over the last couple years.
It will require more than the removal of Kotick himself to clean house and try to restore employee trust and implement cultural change.
So you can bet that Microsoft management has gone through the reports and investigations and marked all these people that were involved and/or close to Kotick to be laid off as well.

Gorwe

Slapshot1188 said:

Yup... round 1.

Folks cheered when Kotick was booted, here comes "the rest of the story" as they say.

To paraphrase Rob Roy:

"There aren't any gentle big guys. All of them are wolves of various size and danger" (to which I might add: "You can freely like or dislike a thing, but please do be aware of what a thing really is")

Kyleran

What really sux is they canceled work on their survival game project.

@Scot wins again.  

“Today’s actions affect multiple teams within Blizzard, including development teams, shared service organizations and corporate functions,” Matt Booty, head of Xbox Studios, said in a note to staff. “As part of this focus, Blizzard is ending development on its survival game project and will be shifting some of the people working on it to one of several promising new projects Blizzard has in the early stages of development.”


https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/25/24050297/blizzard-survival-game-cancelled-layoffs

Sovrath

Kyleran said:

What really sux is they canceled work on their survival game project.

@Scot wins again.  

“Today’s actions affect multiple teams within Blizzard, including development teams, shared service organizations and corporate functions,” Matt Booty, head of Xbox Studios, said in a note to staff. “As part of this focus, Blizzard is ending development on its survival game project and will be shifting some of the people working on it to one of several promising new projects Blizzard has in the early stages of development.”


https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/25/24050297/blizzard-survival-game-cancelled-layoffs

Damn you Scot!!!! 

There should be a raised fist in the air emoji 

Aeander

Kyleran said:

What really sux is they canceled work on their survival game project.

@Scot wins again.  

“Today’s actions affect multiple teams within Blizzard, including development teams, shared service organizations and corporate functions,” Matt Booty, head of Xbox Studios, said in a note to staff. “As part of this focus, Blizzard is ending development on its survival game project and will be shifting some of the people working on it to one of several promising new projects Blizzard has in the early stages of development.”


https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/25/24050297/blizzard-survival-game-cancelled-layoffs

Guess you'll just have to settle for the 9,001 other survival games, including the massive one that dropped a week ago. 

OldKingLog

Aeander said:

Kyleran said:

What really sux is they canceled work on their survival game project.

@Scot wins again.  

“Today’s actions affect multiple teams within Blizzard, including development teams, shared service organizations and corporate functions,” Matt Booty, head of Xbox Studios, said in a note to staff. “As part of this focus, Blizzard is ending development on its survival game project and will be shifting some of the people working on it to one of several promising new projects Blizzard has in the early stages of development.”


https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/25/24050297/blizzard-survival-game-cancelled-layoffs

Guess you'll just have to settle for the 9,001 other survival games, including the massive one that dropped a week ago. 

News that surprises no one. I'd like to think this could bring about a positive change for Blizzard, but all I see is some faceless Blizz/Act corporate drones being replaced by faceless Microsuck corporate drones. 

As to the survival game being shit-canned, all I can say is hell yes! I miss the days when companies like Blizzard set trends rather than chasing the rest of the industry in monkey see monkey do banality. I find no end of humor that Wow's recent "NEW" features were pilfered directly from some of the more enterprising renegade Wow servers. Sad days indeed.

Kyleran

Aeander said:

Kyleran said:

What really sux is they canceled work on their survival game project.

@Scot wins again.  

“Today’s actions affect multiple teams within Blizzard, including development teams, shared service organizations and corporate functions,” Matt Booty, head of Xbox Studios, said in a note to staff. “As part of this focus, Blizzard is ending development on its survival game project and will be shifting some of the people working on it to one of several promising new projects Blizzard has in the early stages of development.”


https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/25/24050297/blizzard-survival-game-cancelled-layoffs

Guess you'll just have to settle for the 9,001 other survival games, including the massive one that dropped a week ago. 

Which one was released last week?

Slapshot1188

All I can take from this is that Matt Booty should change his name to Max

Aeander

Kyleran said:

Aeander said:

Kyleran said:

What really sux is they canceled work on their survival game project.

@Scot wins again.  

“Today’s actions affect multiple teams within Blizzard, including development teams, shared service organizations and corporate functions,” Matt Booty, head of Xbox Studios, said in a note to staff. “As part of this focus, Blizzard is ending development on its survival game project and will be shifting some of the people working on it to one of several promising new projects Blizzard has in the early stages of development.”


https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/25/24050297/blizzard-survival-game-cancelled-layoffs

Guess you'll just have to settle for the 9,001 other survival games, including the massive one that dropped a week ago. 

Which one was released last week?

Palworld, of course

Kyleran

Aeander said:

Kyleran said:

Aeander said:

Kyleran said:

What really sux is they canceled work on their survival game project.

@Scot wins again.  

“Today’s actions affect multiple teams within Blizzard, including development teams, shared service organizations and corporate functions,” Matt Booty, head of Xbox Studios, said in a note to staff. “As part of this focus, Blizzard is ending development on its survival game project and will be shifting some of the people working on it to one of several promising new projects Blizzard has in the early stages of development.”


https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/25/24050297/blizzard-survival-game-cancelled-layoffs

Guess you'll just have to settle for the 9,001 other survival games, including the massive one that dropped a week ago. 

Which one was released last week?

Palworld, of course

The silly one ..no thanks

Xiaoki

Mike Ybarra worked with Microsoft for 20 years. He was only at Blizzard for like 4 years.

Either he was fleeing because he didn't want to work for Microsoft again or his mission was finished.

ValdemarJ

Kyleran said:

Aeander said:

Kyleran said:

What really sux is they canceled work on their survival game project.

@Scot wins again.  

“Today’s actions affect multiple teams within Blizzard, including development teams, shared service organizations and corporate functions,” Matt Booty, head of Xbox Studios, said in a note to staff. “As part of this focus, Blizzard is ending development on its survival game project and will be shifting some of the people working on it to one of several promising new projects Blizzard has in the early stages of development.”


https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/25/24050297/blizzard-survival-game-cancelled-layoffs

Guess you'll just have to settle for the 9,001 other survival games, including the massive one that dropped a week ago. 

Which one was released last week?

A question no one ever asks about MMOs lol. Probably why so many get so salty about crafting builders.

cheyane

OldKingLog said:

Aeander said:

Kyleran said:

What really sux is they canceled work on their survival game project.

@Scot wins again.  

“Today’s actions affect multiple teams within Blizzard, including development teams, shared service organizations and corporate functions,” Matt Booty, head of Xbox Studios, said in a note to staff. “As part of this focus, Blizzard is ending development on its survival game project and will be shifting some of the people working on it to one of several promising new projects Blizzard has in the early stages of development.”


https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/25/24050297/blizzard-survival-game-cancelled-layoffs

Guess you'll just have to settle for the 9,001 other survival games, including the massive one that dropped a week ago. 

News that surprises no one. I'd like to think this could bring about a positive change for Blizzard, but all I see is some faceless Blizz/Act corporate drones being replaced by faceless Microsuck corporate drones. 

As to the survival game being shit-canned, all I can say is hell yes! I miss the days when companies like Blizzard set trends rather than chasing the rest of the industry in monkey see monkey do banality. I find no end of humor that Wow's recent "NEW" features were pilfered directly from some of the more enterprising renegade Wow servers. Sad days indeed.

This part made me laugh. I mean I myself play on a private server and Blizzard is also stealing those ideas from my server too. However when I saw Reddit threads complaining about what Blizzard 'stole' I was quite tickled that these pirates are complaining about being robbed.

Scot

Guys you cant blame me for this one and by now you should know how much I champion diversity of gameplay.

We need every arrow in the quiver to keep games fresh, for me I just wish they had thought of something else than survival for a fresh approach. If you like it play it as I always say. But like Aeander said there are countless games like this out there now, so one down is hardly stopping you from playing one.

Terazon

A massive amount of companies are laying off right now.
Not just in gaming but in all industries.
With as much bloat that Acti-Blizzard must have had, this isn't layoffs it is trimming the fat.

Arglebargle

The_Real_Dural said:

CEO's will never take a pay cut.

Only a golden parachute....

ShinyFlygon

It's really hard for me to feel bad about this. When I think about all the design decisions being made at Blizzard recently, I can't help feeling there were a LOT of people there not doing their jobs (or simply very, very bad at their jobs). I just hope they are the ones being tossed out. Like, everyone in charge of battle passes and other shady monetization tactics. Also everyone who had a hand in budgeting for Seasonal content in Daiblo 4, which was clearly underfunded. Also anyone who believes endless rep grinds in WoW count as fresh content. All of those people can go.

ValdemarJ

Most of these layoffs are in marketing, community, esports, and QA, with the latter being most directly connected with development.

The layoffs exist outside of ActiBlizz as well. Lady Devann, the FO76 community manager, has been let go and it's a bit sad because she was good at her job and promoted a healthy community.

The number of people laid off after this merger is about 8% of the ActiBlizz workforce, but only about 4% of the Microsoft Games employees combined with the new ActiBlizz people. In the couple of mergers I've seen up close, it's usually a lot more than that, like 20 - 30%, so this is a lot less than I expected. It still sucks to get laid off though. Something something late stage necrotic laissez-faire capitalsim blah blah blah.

Theocritus

Kyleran said:

What really sux is they canceled work on their survival game project.

@Scot wins again.  

“Today’s actions affect multiple teams within Blizzard, including development teams, shared service organizations and corporate functions,” Matt Booty, head of Xbox Studios, said in a note to staff. “As part of this focus, Blizzard is ending development on its survival game project and will be shifting some of the people working on it to one of several promising new projects Blizzard has in the early stages of development.”


https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/25/24050297/blizzard-survival-game-cancelled-layoffs

I dont really have much faith in Blizzard anymore, especially in making a new game....They couldnt even come up with a decent plan to make WoW2.

Scot

Theocritus said:

I dont really have much faith in Blizzard anymore, especially in making a new game....They couldnt even come up with a decent plan to make WoW2.

Making a second version of your MMO is hugely problematic tough. I liked EQ2 but it had all sorts of issues for EQ "1" players. Same for AC2, its fraught with difficulty. But should they have tried to make one by now sure, it never seems to have got past the ideas stage.