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posted by martyb on Thursday February 14 2019, @03:24AM   Printer-friendly
from the employees-got-de-activated dept.

Overwatch and Call Of Duty maker to cut 800 jobs

Video games publisher Activision Blizzard has announced it will lay off about 800 people, despite reporting record revenue in 2018. The company made $7.5bn (£5.8bn) last year, up from about $7bn in 2017. Its chief executive, Bobby Kotick, said the results were "the best in our history" but did not "realise our full potential".

[...] Most of the job losses would not be in game development departments, the company said. But many roles related to its e-sports business appear to have been cut. King's Seattle-based mobile game studio Z2Live will be closed entirely, with the loss of 78 jobs.

Activision's stock price had plunged in recent months. As part of the restructuring, the company will increase (by hiring?) the number of developers working on several of its franchises:

"The number of developers working on 'Call of Duty,' 'Candy Crush,' 'Overwatch,' 'Warcraft,' 'Hearthstone' and 'Diablo' in aggregate will increase approximately 20% over the course of 2019," Activision said in its release. "The company will fund this greater investment by de-prioritizing initiatives that are not meeting expectations and reducing certain non-development and administrative-related costs across the business."

Also at CNBC and The Hollywood Reporter.


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  • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday February 14 2019, @03:42AM (21 children)

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Thursday February 14 2019, @03:42AM (#800865)

    Seriously, working for a gaming company - did they not see this as they came in the door? Abuse served here, get in line and beg for it.

    --
    🌻🌻 [google.com]
    • (Score: 2, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday February 14 2019, @03:53AM (20 children)

      by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Thursday February 14 2019, @03:53AM (#800870) Homepage Journal

      If your company doesn't need someone doing your job, they should get rid of your job. Bitching even in the face of the extremely nice severance packages they received is some Grade A whiny bullshit.

      --
      My rights don't end where your fear begins.
      • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Thursday February 14 2019, @04:57AM (15 children)

        by aristarchus (2645) on Thursday February 14 2019, @04:57AM (#800881) Journal

        Buzzard, you carrion-feeder! The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, written in large part by Eleanor Roosevelt, states:

        Article 22.

        Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.
        Article 23.

        (1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
        (2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
        (3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
        (4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.

        So, yes, they can get rid of your job. But you are entitled to meaningful work, "for his dignity and the free development of his personality."
        Personally, I am still waiting for the this one:

        Article 24. Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.

        Wow. Paid vacation! Instead of having the summer or semester off, with no pay, just because. Enough to make adjunct faculty form a Union, doncha think?

        The entire Universal Declaration of Human Rights [un.org] is available at the UN website. They even have a recording of Eleanor reading from it! And remember, you lawless libertariantard typed, it's not just a good idea, it's International Law.

        • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday February 14 2019, @05:07AM (5 children)

          by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Thursday February 14 2019, @05:07AM (#800884) Journal

          Personally, I am still waiting for the this one:

          Article 24. Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.

          Ok, come on, magister. You can't say "the American way of life is as old as aristachus" and expect me to believe it.
          Surely you've had some paid time-off during the 2k+ years of your life, especially during the "early Greek period".

          --
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
          • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Thursday February 14 2019, @06:22AM (4 children)

            by aristarchus (2645) on Thursday February 14 2019, @06:22AM (#800899) Journal

            Sorry, c0lo, not sure how it is with the coding contractors and whatnot, but faculty, temporary, part-time, casual hire, faculty, have always been like this. There is a reason "tenure", or from the Latin "holding on", was instituted by more enlightened Universities. But for the most part, throughout my long history as a teacher, it has been touch and go, piece work, as it were, residuals from what students pay, and proportional at that. So it is only by luck that I have managed to scrape enough together in any given epoch to stay alive. Of course, current trends seem to be some of the worst in many millennia. Betsy deVos is one stupid bitch, with financial interest in destroying intellectual endeavors, completely. And Teresa May? May not? The British exercise in "accountability" has been a total attack of the Bruces. And of course, the rest of the EU is too afraid of controversy to allow an "intelligesia" to exist. Might go Marxist, or Janessariat.

            • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday February 14 2019, @06:56AM (1 child)

              by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Thursday February 14 2019, @06:56AM (#800906) Journal

              Sorry, c0lo, not sure how it is with the coding contractors and whatnot, but faculty, temporary, part-time, casual hire, faculty, have always been like this.

              I seem to remember that your predecessor, Plato, found it easier to start the first higher education institution in the Western civilization (at that time, it wasn't actually that western as the westerners like to boast today, but I digress, that's not the issue at hand).

              Are you telling me that this is when all this "teachers scrapping just enough to stay alive" started?

              --
              https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
              • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Thursday February 14 2019, @10:20AM

                by aristarchus (2645) on Thursday February 14 2019, @10:20AM (#800935) Journal

                I blame the Sophist, Protagoras, who said, "pay as much as you think my teaching is worth." Thus, the ancient version of Humble Bundle was born. However, the real problem is not that students freeload, it is that administration skims, controls, and ultimately kills education. Aristotle said:

                And so too, it seems, should one make a return to those with whom one has studied philosophy; for their worth cannot be measured against money, and they can get no honour which will balance their services, but still it is perhaps enough, as it is with the gods and with one's parents, to give them what one can.

                Or in the original:

                οὕτω δ᾽ ἔοικε καὶ τοῖς φιλοσοφίας κοινωνήσασιν: οὐ γὰρ πρὸς χρήμαθ᾽ ἡ ἀξία μετρεῖται, τιμή τ᾽ ἰσόρροπος οὐκ ἂν γένοιτο, ἀλλ᾽ἴσως ἱκανόν, καθάπερ καὶ πρὸς θεοὺς καὶ πρὸς γονεῖς, τὸ ἐνδεχόμενον. μὴ τοιαύτης δ᾽ οὔσης τῆς δόσεως ἀλλ᾽ ἐπί τινι, μάλιστα μὲν ἴσως δεῖ τὴν ἀνταπόδοσιν γίνεσθαι δοκοῦσαν ἀμφοῖν κατ᾽ ἀξίαν εἶναι, εἰ δὲ τοῦτο μὴ συμβαίνοι, οὐ μόνον ἀναγκαῖον δόξειεν ἂν τὸν προέχοντα τάττειν, ἀλλὰ καὶ δίκαιον: ὅσον γὰρ οὗτος ὠφελήθη ἢ ἀνθ᾽ ὅσου τὴν ἡδονὴν εἵλετ᾽ ἄν, τοσοῦτον ἀντιλαβὼν ἕξει τὴν παρὰ τούτου ἀξίαν.

                http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0053%3Abekker%20page%3D1164b%3Abekker%20line%3D1 [tufts.edu]

            • (Score: 2) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Thursday February 14 2019, @11:00PM (1 child)

              by fido_dogstoyevsky (131) <axehandleNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Thursday February 14 2019, @11:00PM (#801272)

              ...The British exercise in "accountability" has been a total attack of the Bruces Nigels...

              Minor but important [yahoo.com] correction.

              --
              It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
        • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday February 14 2019, @11:10AM (6 children)

          by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Thursday February 14 2019, @11:10AM (#800956) Homepage Journal

          I give not a fuck what Franklin or Eleanor had to say on anything economics related and even less of fuck what the UN has to say on anything at all.

          --
          My rights don't end where your fear begins.
          • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Thursday February 14 2019, @04:20PM (3 children)

            by aristarchus (2645) on Thursday February 14 2019, @04:20PM (#801030) Journal

            Funny, the rest to the people on your blog here seem to feel the same way about you! Poor Buzzy!

            • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday February 15 2019, @03:18AM (2 children)

              by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Friday February 15 2019, @03:18AM (#801369) Homepage Journal

              I give not a fuck what the people think of me either, ari. Like my own opinions, my self image is not based on what others think. I do not crowdsource either my ego or my morality.

              --
              My rights don't end where your fear begins.
              • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Friday February 15 2019, @08:15AM (1 child)

                by aristarchus (2645) on Friday February 15 2019, @08:15AM (#801456) Journal

                This is what intrigues me about you, Mighty Buzzard. You seem to be a stone-cold stupid conservative, but there are sparks of reason in your posts. Dim sparks, but sparks none the less.

                Let me attempt to reform you. Yes, I know this is an endeavor neither sought nor welcomed, but just imagine the possible consequences! If aristarchus and TMB agreed on something, that would rock the world of SoylentNews, would it not? So try to keep up.

                • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday February 15 2019, @11:49AM

                  by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Friday February 15 2019, @11:49AM (#801494) Homepage Journal

                  Look harder. I fit the classical definition of a liberal far better than of a conservative. I very much believe in doing right by those around you; treating them as equals until proven otherwise by speech or deed and helping those in need as you are able. I also believe the government has no business acting as the master of the people rather than their servant; liberty for all of its citizens, regardless of irrelevant qualities. There is no conflict between the two positions and neither is remotely conservative.

                  --
                  My rights don't end where your fear begins.
          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 14 2019, @05:31PM (1 child)

            by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 14 2019, @05:31PM (#801056)

            Well of course you don't, they all suggest it might matter how you treat the disadvantaged. Switching gears like that might burn out whatever you have left of a mental clutch.

            • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday February 15 2019, @03:21AM

              by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Friday February 15 2019, @03:21AM (#801370) Homepage Journal

              s/disadvantaged/lazy, greedy, little bitches/

              FTFY. "The world owes you fuck-all" and "I should personally treat people decently" are not remotely contradictory concepts, so stop trying to conflate them.

              --
              My rights don't end where your fear begins.
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 14 2019, @08:26PM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 14 2019, @08:26PM (#801184)

          see subject

          • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Thursday February 14 2019, @09:55PM

            by aristarchus (2645) on Thursday February 14 2019, @09:55PM (#801241) Journal

            I suppose, oh mysterious and cryptic AC, that having a right to your opinion does not mean you are entitled to not be mocked for it? Of course a right to meaningful employment entails an entitlement! What would "Right to Work" mean, if it was not an entitlement to work? Oh, right, it is Republican Newspeak for Union busting. No wonder Conservatives are incapable of rational thought. They have Borked the language so much with their "Clean Coal" and "Death taxes", and "collegefixing" that thought as well as speech is impossible.

      • (Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 14 2019, @07:24AM (3 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 14 2019, @07:24AM (#800910)

        "extremely nice severance packages"

        That is a plus for unions. You're mad that people are angry about getting fired when the company is doing better than ever? It does seem a bit backward, as does your leap to incriminate.

        OH! I just figured out why assholes make such a big deal out of "entitled" young people. It is a generational shift away from the white patriarchy so once again a certain segment of society takes its own folly and projects it outward.

        • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday February 14 2019, @11:14AM (2 children)

          by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Thursday February 14 2019, @11:14AM (#800957) Homepage Journal

          You mistake my manner of speech for anger. My attitude towards the whiners is more akin to my attitude towards Tide-pod eaters; fools will be fools.

          How the company is doing is irrelevant. If they have no need of the services being provided by someone, it's absurd to say they should continue employing them.

          --
          My rights don't end where your fear begins.
          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 14 2019, @06:28PM (1 child)

            by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 14 2019, @06:28PM (#801080)

            Nope, you may not be frothing at the mouth but angry you are even if it is mostly intellectual and not emotional. You continue with your hyperbole. You would make a good bean counter / MBA.

            That said your basic point of "don't keep useless people on the payroll" is obviously a solid sounding point, but its purpose is more to derail actual discussion and slide all complaints under "business be business yo".

            Meh, I bet in a past life you were a scab.

            • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday February 15 2019, @03:28AM

              by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Friday February 15 2019, @03:28AM (#801373) Homepage Journal

              You really should pull your head out of your ass, the shit's getting inside it and replacing gray matter. The people laid off by AB were in bits of its business that were not making it money, not showing any sign of making it future money, and it wanted to get rid of. They were owed nothing except a pink slip but they got a cadillac severance package anyway. And still they whine. And fucktards like you lose all of your shit.

              --
              My rights don't end where your fear begins.
  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday February 14 2019, @04:09AM

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Thursday February 14 2019, @04:09AM (#800873) Journal

    Activision Blizzard Reports Record Revenue as They Fuck Over 800 Employees [vice.com]

    The workers at Activision Blizzard are, like most of the industry, not unionized. Unionization is not a catch-all solution. It will not stop layoffs, nor will it suddenly turn capitalism into socialism...

    Recently, VICE’s editorial group negotiated a new union contract with management, and successfully argued for better severance packages. We worried layoffs were coming and they were—250 people were cut this month. The VICE union wasn’t able to save their jobs, but did give them more security.

    Dividend increasing 9%. Headcount reducing 8%. Translation: Giving more to shareholders, while firing employees. (Yes, this is wholly reductive. But it's also true.) [twitter.com]

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
  • (Score: 2) by Snotnose on Thursday February 14 2019, @04:48AM

    by Snotnose (1623) on Thursday February 14 2019, @04:48AM (#800879)

    Company has a pretty good year, but not good enough for Wall Street. So, off with their heads!

    I think most MBAs don't realize what layoffs do to morale. I've survived several, and been caught in a few. The entire company culture changes.

    --
    Why shouldn't we judge a book by it's cover? It's got the author, title, and a summary of what the book's about.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 14 2019, @05:14AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 14 2019, @05:14AM (#800887)

    de-prioritizing initiatives that are not meeting expectations

    Given the widespread backlash against the diablo immortal game to be released on mobile phones, do they consider it to be meeting their expectations?

    And if not... will it be one of the initiatives that gets "de-prioritized"?

    One could only hope, but it is clear where that train wreck is headed.

  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 14 2019, @06:29AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 14 2019, @06:29AM (#800902)

    So again the mega-economy of the United States, with all its alleged brain-power, can only produce computer children's games, so they can pass the time before they are slaughtered in Mass School Shootings, to make more money for the NRA, to get more money from Russia, to get Trump elected? I sense a foul wind, one that blows nobody good. A Blizzard for Humanity, the Storm of the Century, the Apocalypse, the final boss will be the fact that there is a final Boss, and that it is just a fuching game! Why do not all these children undertake a children's Crusade to Vegas and Reno, and Trump's failed game port in Atlantic City. When I was a child, I voted for Trump, and I thought I would win, because I was a child.

    • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday February 14 2019, @07:37AM

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Thursday February 14 2019, @07:37AM (#800911) Journal

      Why do not all these children undertake a children's Crusade to Vegas and Reno, and Trump's failed game port in Atlantic

      I really fail to see how profiting from children's naivety and selling them as slaves [wikipedia.org] would help solving the US 'mega-economy' issue.

      Or... was it a suggestion still made in sarcastic mode? Careful if so, the bosses may take it as a good idea, and Faecebook is at their fingertips. I bet very few USians will understand the reference and defend against it.

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 14 2019, @07:07AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 14 2019, @07:07AM (#800908)

    Such is life held beholden to shareholders as a publicly traded company. Expand forever and always meet expectations because that is the first obligation, not quality of product or creative integrity. Need to constantly grow to satisfy shareholders is likely one of the causes of the rash of loot boxes as they are basically free money.

    Once a game studio goes public, they, arguably, lose a bit of their soul. It will be interesting to see the next game industry crash for various Triple A publishers once they can't meet the endless demand for growth by shareholders.

    • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday February 14 2019, @07:41AM

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Thursday February 14 2019, @07:41AM (#800912) Journal

      Expand forever and always meet expectations because that is the first obligation

      Forever is a bit long. CEOs will take the 'as long as it goes, I only need to have a parachute' offer anytime.

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
  • (Score: 5, Informative) by stretch611 on Thursday February 14 2019, @09:54AM (1 child)

    by stretch611 (6199) on Thursday February 14 2019, @09:54AM (#800927)

    Video games publisher Activision Blizzard has announced it will lay off about 800 people, despite reporting record revenue in 2018. The company made $7.5bn (£5.8bn) last year, up from about $7bn in 2017. Its chief executive, Bobby Kotick, said the results were "the best in our history" but did not "realise our full potential".

    The Republican Tax passage that passed a little over a year ago cut corporate taxes. That money went so that companies would hire more people and give raises out to middle class workers.

    Surely, our elected officials wouldn't lie to us. They must be hiring more people at Activision and giving them raises.

    FAKE NEWS!!! FAKE NEWS!!!

    --
    Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 14 2019, @07:42PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 14 2019, @07:42PM (#801154)

      Bwawawawawawawawawa!

      Oh, wait, you were serious?

      BWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAAAA!

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 14 2019, @10:19AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 14 2019, @10:19AM (#800933)

    Booooring as hell!

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