So many armchair economists here.
Fact check - they are laying off internal support staff NOT customer facing support staff. They clearly said and I quote "without impacting development or customer support staff".
Lol stay mad guys
This comment is gonna get a lot of hate, but having 200 employees on payroll with nothing to do is bad business for the company. Their analysts probably deduced that corona affected world isn't going to have live events in the next year 100% and probably in the next 2-3 years, cuz it ain't going anywhere soon.So why employ event managers for 3 years? When it's 1 guys, sure, maybe you can cut him some slack, even though it's a complete loss, but over 200+ people? I'd fire them the same as them tbh.
Gotta pump that support ticket time from 2 weeks to 2 months... Think I'm done paying for a service I'm not getting anymore.
"Everything we do is from the perspective of our players, and in the past year we have explored how we can best meet your needs."this is a fluff statement.This company sells games, provides gaming services, it is literally their job to have the players in their mind when doing things. But they also have the profit in mind.Since we have little insight in what is actually happening and why they are closing down branches, it is very hard to actually form an opinion on this.Of course the company wants to look good and have their customers on their side so they say something like this. What else would they say?In the end I hope that the employees that are getting laid off have rights that won't leave them on the street by Monday.A good company would think about how they can repurpose a branch and keep employees and just have them work on a different project that requires similar skills. I hope they get financial security that helps them to find a new job.And to be honest - I get a "hire and fire" impression from Activision Blizzard sometimes. They promote a very happy environment where people are family and friends and they work together on these amazing things and everybody is cherished and appreciated because everybody has such a brilliant brain - at least that is what Blizzcon talk sounds like.And then you get messages of hundreds of people getting fired. And to the uninformed me it looks like they are not happy with a project and they just shut everything down.and of course they have the players in mind. because players mean money. and it looks like they care more about the players money than their employees. At least to me. Because I just glance over things.And if they have the wellbeing of players in mind then I ask myself why so little is being done about racism and inappropriate content. I constantly see usernames in WoW that are debatable or outright offensive. I report people for racist or derogatory comments weekly - sometimes daily. And there is no end to me doing this.and I feel like this is due to less personal in support. Of course I don't know. I wrote to support about this and wanted a comment on what Blizzard is doing about this. The answer was "use the ingame report button and we cannot comment as support team on blizzards stance"So I wonder - if they have the customers experience in mind, wouldn't it help to have more people around to fight the things Blizz claims to fight in public announcements?Of course gamers want Activision/Blizzard to be financially stable so they can put out more games, better games and whatnot. So players want the company to send the money into the areas that are helping that. But players also want a good experience while playing a social game. And honestly the social experience is often lacking. And I think blizz is not doing enough there.And back to the topic of firing people. A company like Blizzard that advertises with their good work environment should feel more of a responsibility to their employees. Of course I do not know if that isn't the case already. maybe it is common in this industry to work on a project and then get fired when it's done. But even then, Blizzard promotes this care they take for "their people" and if it doesn't go right down to the last foot soldier this claim is worth nothing. because if you only take care of the top people and consider the rest expendable you are not a family, then you would be considered royalty.All I can say that to me I get a lot of mixed messages from blizzard activision. and when Diablo 1 and Warcraft 3 came out I thought Blizzard was the coolest company there is. Of course they were small back then. And maybe it was easier then. But in a way they can't continue advertising this small indie company vibe that has a flipper in their break room while doing things that a hardcore capitalist company does. And don't get me wrong - I am sure what they do is legal. It is allowed and to a degree socially accepted. But maybe we have to look at this company different.They do have the players (money) in mind when they make any decision. because ultimately they are a company that needs to make money and the best way to ensure this is to have more players (money) buying and using their games.And that is okay. But the image that is being shown is sometimes a little off.Like they say they are against racism. I dare you, google the top racist massmurders and see if you can find character names in wow. I found dozens, hundreds.I told support. Nobody cared. "use the ingame report button"When all you need is one person in customer support sitting down for a week and just put in names and see what comes up.So is this all just press talk or are there actually actions taken in this company to do what is being said.
This leaves a bad taste in my mouth, give the CEO $200 million due to a share option he had in his contract and then announce MORE layoffs on top of the first wave of layoffs..
They have been milking wow for years but I feel like they think that the game has a limited furture (5 years or so) and this is them slowly preparing to squeeze the last few eggs out of this golden goose whilst it goes through its death rattle. These people dont care about you or your games. They care about money.
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Again, all I have to say ishttps://i.redd.it/3y551cdbvzo51.jpg
This always makes me think of the time the Nintendo CEO (and other top execs) took pay cuts to look after their staff.
I was not going to comment on this depressing news, but as I have been following the company for years (I played Blackthorne and Lost Vikings when they were released in '93). I am a technical and financial consultant, among other things today. I deal with business people and commercial people every day and honestly I don't understand these stupid decisions. However, I have a question for the company's board: Are you trying to "almost bankrupt" the company for some group from "another country" to save and supplement things as they want? For example on things that make more money like "mobile games"?This is my only doubt. Thanks.
yep, and meanwhile their CEO gets the 200 million stock bonus. seeeeeems legit. nothing to see here, move along. just the usual ripp off
