See. People have been bitching so much about the bad treatment of Blizzard employees that now they're assuring the community that those employees will be treated fairly on their departure instead of giving clear details on what exactly their vision is for the restructure. The only thing we know is that that the dev people aren't impacted, which is a good thing. But what does this mean: "we will be reducing the number of non-development positions in North America and anticipate a related process in our regional offices over the coming months subject to local requirements"
The thing is - game company employees are creative focused and this sort of cutthroat line simply doesn't work in such environment.
This might work at an investment firm. But if CEO took that tone, he'd lose all employees within a year. No game devs will put up with that shit.
Thing is, a company that willy nilly cans 800 people. It is not safe place to work anymore.
Anyone smart with good portfolio will immediately start looking for new place.
You can sure as day bet that during next year Blizz will leak its best developers and artists. It will not something that will be advertised or we will know about. But it will happen.
Sadly I dont think they will recover.
The way they do games, and why their games were the best was dependent on highly protective, safe, creative environment. Where they could experiment and polish their ideas until perfection.
As its now, they are just going to start churning titles.
And worse , they seem connecting with Chinese development whole lot lately. USA jobs are expensive, I would not be surprised they simply move their development to china.
Of course we know what kind of games we will be getting than
Any coincidence this happens after the BFA debacle? Poor decisions and not listening to customers gets you here.
BFA?
Yes, it was so popular you have to ask what it is, that in itself is a sure sign that it might be part of the problem, its a huge problem with WoW after all.
When it comes to Blizzard, it was BfA that disappointed me the most. Compared to previous releases, it was just so basic and bland. This is kind of an ironic opinion to express since I've disagreed with it over pretty much all past expansions where people made the exact same complaint.
Overwatch is still a great game, but competitive FPS of any type is insanely competitive. Hearthstone is still a great game, but it is 5 years old now.
Mobile Diablo is probably going to be pretty lame, but I think that the reaction was way overblown. It is going to be fairly terrible in my opinion just based on how terrible controls are for mobile arpgs.
In my opinion, it has been a matter of priorities. I'm not certain that they de-prioritized WoW (likely based on some assholes opinion that you shouldn't base your business on a 14 year old game), but it really felt like they did with BfA. They prioritized Diablo Mobile over Diablo 4 and it's 2019 - straight stupid. They have not publicly announced anything else and it's 2019. So to me at least, time to change whoever is deciding on what to prioritize. So much good will is being blown for no reason.
Brevik said Gazillion was "restructuring" right before he left and the company went down the tubes. That word is gaming industry code for "we're completely screwed".
Didnt they make like 7 bil last year ? I am not going to jump on the millennial band wagon and start calling for forced profit sharing (taxation on the rich) or crow on 'corporate' greed. But when you lay off people it isnt because a company is in trouble. Not generally. because math never adds up. If your LOSING billions (not MAKING billions like they do) then obviously laying off 800 people isnt going to solve anything. Even if they all made a half million a year thats less than half your losses.
Nah this is surely about something somewhere that kicked in for these people and a few more got thrown in to 'hide' it. It also assures the people at the top will not have to take pay cuts or have bonuses dinged. Even though the company line is they didnt meet expectations. Which falls squarely on leadership not the drones. Another great irony in all this.
Bottomline is people get hired and fired everyday now. Working in an industry like this has always been volatile and even moreso now. Also 30 is probably considered ancient in terms of age in the workforce. Dont be surprised to see Activision/Blizzard hire/obtain a few hundred 'interns' that are either free or bottom basement priced whom they will promote and then can say in some future PR spiel that they 'promote from within' and that job security at their company is top of the line. Because this will be forgotten in a month or less.
Typical management letter. Could be copied&pasted for any other company. And talking about some "Blizzard family" and at the same moment kicking 800 from that "family" should tell everyone what company "family" talking is worth.
Take anything you can get from a company as an employee is all I can say. And ignore that "family" propaganda. It's nonsense.
That guy should do paid reviews,sounded more lie ka marketing speech than a passionate gamer.
It is VERY easy to tell when someone is citing a prepared speech from one that is passionate from the heart,simply put,this guy is your typical fake person.
I have seen nothing that says they aim for quality or content,all their games are simple to maintain and heavy on cash shop.
This guy should try a new speech angle.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
The thing is - game company employees are creative focused and this sort of cutthroat line simply doesn't work in such environment.
This might work at an investment firm. But if CEO took that tone, he'd lose all employees within a year. No game devs will put up with that shit.
Yes this is why the Gaming companies should not be publicly traded because it does not work in a shareholder world. Gaming companies are not building Cars, or construction vehicles. They build art which might or might not work and the value is not there to be endlessly making money.
That is such a bad piece of news. I remember Blizzard as one of the greatest game companies.
Not me,nowhere that i was gaming was Blizzard even mentioned.Back i nthe very early days batle.net was one of the bigger entities but Blizzard being greedy/selfish ONLY promoted their games sop the majority of serious gamer's were on Heat.net.At Heat.net run by Sega they allowed you to use their servers to make your own game servers,something nobody would do now a days.
All the talk was Quake and Unreal/Doom etc etc,the side attraction was EQ and nobody ever mentioned a single game by Blizzard.
Blizzard only became mainstream when Wow came out during the heavy influx of new online games and DSL now in every home at an affordable price.So al the young easily influenced kids flocked to find their first mmo much akin to young kids now all needing cell phones and facebook.
That does not mean cellphones or Facebook are good,just the bandwagon mentality of people now a days.Anyhow the only oen pushing Blizzard back in the day was Blizzard,the biggest gaming sites gamespy and Allahkazam were not caring one bit about Blizzard.So i think is more a single minded mentality that all the new upstart gamers saw was blizzard so they were brainwashed to think they were the shit.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Didnt they make like 7 bil last year ? I am not going to jump on the millennial band wagon and start calling for forced profit sharing (taxation on the rich) or crow on 'corporate' greed. But when you lay off people it isnt because a company is in trouble. Not generally. because math never adds up. If your LOSING billions (not MAKING billions like they do) then obviously laying off 800 people isnt going to solve anything. Even if they all made a half million a year thats less than half your losses.
Nah this is surely about something somewhere that kicked in for these people and a few more got thrown in to 'hide' it. It also assures the people at the top will not have to take pay cuts or have bonuses dinged. Even though the company line is they didnt meet expectations. Which falls squarely on leadership not the drones. Another great irony in all this.
Bottomline is people get hired and fired everyday now. Working in an industry like this has always been volatile and even moreso now. Also 30 is probably considered ancient in terms of age in the workforce. Dont be surprised to see Activision/Blizzard hire/obtain a few hundred 'interns' that are either free or bottom basement priced whom they will promote and then can say in some future PR spiel that they 'promote from within' and that job security at their company is top of the line. Because this will be forgotten in a month or less.
This is the big secret of our age. I am really worried more people are not talking about this.
I know you young dont care. But working today is very different than working just 10-20 years ago, where people would find a job and work there until pension.
Today being 30 is already old for most jobs. Most companies are so volatile that you can be happy if you can be on same job for 3 years. Its started to be 2-3 years cycles and than looking for next job. Until you go over 35, when you are already "old" - because young workers are easier to exploit, and agree to lower pay.
Watched some youtuber talk about this a few days back, while I really couldn't be bothered fact checking everything, wouldn't surprise me that it was true. So while they lay off everyone, the fat cats at the top are laughing all the way to the bank with getting paid an overkill amount of money. Which of course happens to basically everything "Oh we aren't doing so well, we need to layout so many people." "Oh what will I take a pay cut? We aren't going that badly yet."
I wish blizzard could somehow break free of activision. But then so many people have left blizzard. It wouldn't even be the same company anymore anyway. Like people looking forward to WoW classic, you can't get the past back. Time to just write off that company. It's only surprising they have not joined the milk train of BR games.
I'm a bit confused about this decision. I understand that they made more revenue but potentially were losing profit due to jobs that weren't necessary, but it seems like they got rid of a majority of jobs that weren't devs but you need those jobs filled still. You NEED community managers for your games, you NEED customer service people. I don't know why they would axe the CM's from Warcraft, the 100% online game that has a pretty damn toxic community when they don't get answers.
Also wasn't Blizzard under fire already for having a lower than average pay that employees dealt with so they can say they worked for Blizzard?
Blizzard is nothing close to the company it used to be. If they decide to move away from making quality titles, and just pumping out crap, then I hope that it comes back to bite the higher ups in the ass.
Didnt they make like 7 bil last year ? I am not going to jump on the millennial band wagon and start calling for forced profit sharing (taxation on the rich) or crow on 'corporate' greed. But when you lay off people it isnt because a company is in trouble. Not generally. because math never adds up. If your LOSING billions (not MAKING billions like they do) then obviously laying off 800 people isnt going to solve anything. Even if they all made a half million a year thats less than half your losses.
Nah this is surely about something somewhere that kicked in for these people and a few more got thrown in to 'hide' it. It also assures the people at the top will not have to take pay cuts or have bonuses dinged. Even though the company line is they didnt meet expectations. Which falls squarely on leadership not the drones. Another great irony in all this.
Bottomline is people get hired and fired everyday now. Working in an industry like this has always been volatile and even moreso now. Also 30 is probably considered ancient in terms of age in the workforce. Dont be surprised to see Activision/Blizzard hire/obtain a few hundred 'interns' that are either free or bottom basement priced whom they will promote and then can say in some future PR spiel that they 'promote from within' and that job security at their company is top of the line. Because this will be forgotten in a month or less.
This is the big secret of our age. I am really worried more people are not talking about this.
I know you young dont care. But working today is very different than working just 10-20 years ago, where people would find a job and work there until pension.
Today being 30 is already old for most jobs. Most companies are so volatile that you can be happy if you can be on same job for 3 years. Its started to be 2-3 years cycles and than looking for next job. Until you go over 35, when you are already "old" - because young workers are easier to exploit, and agree to lower pay.
And I am talking here about high-tech jobs
It is very scary trend
It's more about jobs where people are expendable, Trade professions of highly skilled people, and jobs where talent matters are still very secure jobs, and truth be told, highly skilled and talented people will not work for a company with poor or bad employment practices.
This is what people are talking about, when they discuss lack of recovering. See in a job like making a car, the vast majority of the workers are assembly, talent and skill do not play a role in that situation, that is why it can be automated very easy and production can be increased. Which is why they are also immune for the most part to layoff panic, as the majority of their layoffs happen to people that are just cogs in a line.
In fields like gaming, talet to make the game, does matter. Securing that Talent, can be the dividing factor between making a great game and making a mediocre game, not only that, if a company can't secure the talent, other companies can and will, which will suddenly give them a competitive edge, notice how some upstart companies can pump out amazing games, and massive companies are making "Meh" .. that is a product of talent. Hiring people that have the skills, insight, and ability to really connect with what the client wants.
That is also why some companies fall back on series games like EA, depending on making Series games, typically that is a result of having lost their talented employees and staff, and need to pump out production line stuff to stay alive. Basically, going from being a fine dining with a 5 star chef to only having a line cook.
So, it really depends on the product you plan to sell, at how you can treat your employees.
Egotism is the anesthetic that dullens the pain of stupidity, this is why when I try to beat my head against the stupidity of other people, I only hurt myself.
I'm a bit confused about this decision. I understand that they made more revenue but potentially were losing profit due to jobs that weren't necessary, but it seems like they got rid of a majority of jobs that weren't devs but you need those jobs filled still. You NEED community managers for your games, you NEED customer service people. I don't know why they would axe the CM's from Warcraft, the 100% online game that has a pretty damn toxic community when they don't get answers.
Also wasn't Blizzard under fire already for having a lower than average pay that employees dealt with so they can say they worked for Blizzard?
Blizzard is nothing close to the company it used to be. If they decide to move away from making quality titles, and just pumping out crap, then I hope that it comes back to bite the higher ups in the ass.
That was my sentiment as well. CMs aren't about customer service in the traditional sense; they're about facilitating communication between players and devs, communication Blizzard literally admitted they were doing a poor job at. So, to improve on this they... Layoff the communication facilitators? That makes no sense. Of course, if the company wasn't truly searching for a way to improve communication, but was essentially paying lip service to serve as an opium of the playerbase, then it makes a lot more sense.
Goodwill runs dry when left to smolder under a sun of insincerity.
Comments
Thing is, a company that willy nilly cans 800 people. It is not safe place to work anymore.
Anyone smart with good portfolio will immediately start looking for new place.
You can sure as day bet that during next year Blizz will leak its best developers and artists. It will not something that will be advertised or we will know about. But it will happen.
Sadly I dont think they will recover.
The way they do games, and why their games were the best was dependent on highly protective, safe, creative environment. Where they could experiment and polish their ideas until perfection.
As its now, they are just going to start churning titles.
And worse , they seem connecting with Chinese development whole lot lately. USA jobs are expensive, I would not be surprised they simply move their development to china.
Of course we know what kind of games we will be getting than
mmorpg junkie since 1999
Overwatch is still a great game, but competitive FPS of any type is insanely competitive. Hearthstone is still a great game, but it is 5 years old now.
Mobile Diablo is probably going to be pretty lame, but I think that the reaction was way overblown. It is going to be fairly terrible in my opinion just based on how terrible controls are for mobile arpgs.
In my opinion, it has been a matter of priorities. I'm not certain that they de-prioritized WoW (likely based on some assholes opinion that you shouldn't base your business on a 14 year old game), but it really felt like they did with BfA. They prioritized Diablo Mobile over Diablo 4 and it's 2019 - straight stupid. They have not publicly announced anything else and it's 2019. So to me at least, time to change whoever is deciding on what to prioritize. So much good will is being blown for no reason.
Unfortunately "J Allen" you can't create your future, making good games and DLC might give you a chance of one though.
Nah this is surely about something somewhere that kicked in for these people and a few more got thrown in to 'hide' it. It also assures the people at the top will not have to take pay cuts or have bonuses dinged. Even though the company line is they didnt meet expectations. Which falls squarely on leadership not the drones. Another great irony in all this.
Bottomline is people get hired and fired everyday now. Working in an industry like this has always been volatile and even moreso now. Also 30 is probably considered ancient in terms of age in the workforce. Dont be surprised to see Activision/Blizzard hire/obtain a few hundred 'interns' that are either free or bottom basement priced whom they will promote and then can say in some future PR spiel that they 'promote from within' and that job security at their company is top of the line. Because this will be forgotten in a month or less.
Take anything you can get from a company as an employee is all I can say. And ignore that "family" propaganda. It's nonsense.
It is VERY easy to tell when someone is citing a prepared speech from one that is passionate from the heart,simply put,this guy is your typical fake person.
I have seen nothing that says they aim for quality or content,all their games are simple to maintain and heavy on cash shop.
This guy should try a new speech angle.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Yes this is why the Gaming companies should not be publicly traded because it does not work in a shareholder world. Gaming companies are not building Cars, or construction vehicles. They build art which might or might not work and the value is not there to be endlessly making money.
Not me,nowhere that i was gaming was Blizzard even mentioned.Back i nthe very early days batle.net was one of the bigger entities but Blizzard being greedy/selfish ONLY promoted their games sop the majority of serious gamer's were on Heat.net.At Heat.net run by Sega they allowed you to use their servers to make your own game servers,something nobody would do now a days.
All the talk was Quake and Unreal/Doom etc etc,the side attraction was EQ and nobody ever mentioned a single game by Blizzard.
Blizzard only became mainstream when Wow came out during the heavy influx of new online games and DSL now in every home at an affordable price.So al the young easily influenced kids flocked to find their first mmo much akin to young kids now all needing cell phones and facebook.
That does not mean cellphones or Facebook are good,just the bandwagon mentality of people now a days.Anyhow the only oen pushing Blizzard back in the day was Blizzard,the biggest gaming sites gamespy and Allahkazam were not caring one bit about Blizzard.So i think is more a single minded mentality that all the new upstart gamers saw was blizzard so they were brainwashed to think they were the shit.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
This is the big secret of our age. I am really worried more people are not talking about this.
I know you young dont care. But working today is very different than working just 10-20 years ago, where people would find a job and work there until pension.
Today being 30 is already old for most jobs. Most companies are so volatile that you can be happy if you can be on same job for 3 years. Its started to be 2-3 years cycles and than looking for next job. Until you go over 35, when you are already "old" - because young workers are easier to exploit, and agree to lower pay.
And I am talking here about high-tech jobs
It is very scary trend
I wish blizzard could somehow break free of activision. But then so many people have left blizzard. It wouldn't even be the same company anymore anyway. Like people looking forward to WoW classic, you can't get the past back. Time to just write off that company. It's only surprising they have not joined the milk train of BR games.
Joined 2004 - I can't believe I've been a MMORPG.com member for 20 years! Get off my lawn!
Also wasn't Blizzard under fire already for having a lower than average pay that employees dealt with so they can say they worked for Blizzard?
Blizzard is nothing close to the company it used to be. If they decide to move away from making quality titles, and just pumping out crap, then I hope that it comes back to bite the higher ups in the ass.
This is what people are talking about, when they discuss lack of recovering. See in a job like making a car, the vast majority of the workers are assembly, talent and skill do not play a role in that situation, that is why it can be automated very easy and production can be increased. Which is why they are also immune for the most part to layoff panic, as the majority of their layoffs happen to people that are just cogs in a line.
In fields like gaming, talet to make the game, does matter. Securing that Talent, can be the dividing factor between making a great game and making a mediocre game, not only that, if a company can't secure the talent, other companies can and will, which will suddenly give them a competitive edge, notice how some upstart companies can pump out amazing games, and massive companies are making "Meh" .. that is a product of talent. Hiring people that have the skills, insight, and ability to really connect with what the client wants.
That is also why some companies fall back on series games like EA, depending on making Series games, typically that is a result of having lost their talented employees and staff, and need to pump out production line stuff to stay alive. Basically, going from being a fine dining with a 5 star chef to only having a line cook.
So, it really depends on the product you plan to sell, at how you can treat your employees.
Goodwill runs dry when left to smolder under a sun of insincerity.