Just a reminder to everyone out there that this game we all know and love is part of a business. If part of the business isn’t doing well, people can lose their jobs and development for games can be cut. I know that this game is free to play, but please consider buying some packs in the near future, at least when the new set comes out. We want to let Activision Blizzard know that we love this game. They only see dollars. If the dollars aren’t there, then the game won’t be either.
What do you mean the business isn’t doing well? They had a record year last year.... Don’t draw random conclusions from this press statement, if you don’t understand business....
Layoffs are not always because of a bad year, they may just as well be because of a change in strategy/direction. Like in this case
Cuts in esport and Distribution are so telling. The second one espacially since it indicates that they have nothing new in the pipeline besides mobile stuff, which is distributed over existing platforms (app stores).
Blizzard just needs to produce some new games. WoW is in decline. SC2 is in decline. Diablo is in decline. HotS, Overwatch, and HS are probably flat to down in growth.
Fortnight is on a tare right now which leaves Blizzard with trying to milk old titles. A few years from now the Fotnite fad might be in decline to some new Blizzard game... probably not.
Oh yeah, have you heard about Warcraft 3 remastered? that's new. I'm actually glad they rereleased that game, but it won't save jobs.
No they don't need to rush out new games. Blizzard, when it works well, sits on their games for a LONG time and goes for years without a new product. Having nothing but old games in a holding pattern was normal business for them to the point where they didn't mind shelving a new game that didn't suit what they wanted even if it meant a longer dry spell of a lack of games.
This is what made the company the megastar it is today along with it's devoted, if perpetually hostile fanbase. This is the basis behind the 'SoonTM' meme.
From a pure business standpoint, they are in an excellent position. WoW is STILL profitable and can easily hold for years before worrying over how to end it. SC is in a decent holding pattern to maintain itself until a good quality new game can be added. Hearthstone is still raking in the bucks, its competition is proving non-competitive (either because there's room for both, like Shadowverse and MTGA, or it falls on its face like gwent and Scrolls*). Overwatch is also raking it in and, though is getting siderailed by Battle Royal, has plenty of room to grow or simply carve out a niche for itself. Diablo is finally at 'too old' but the public is screaming for D4 so they'll gobble it up once its made, and all of the above points means you have time to make it.
Blizzard, company wise, doesn't need to rush out ANYTHING. They can spend the 5-10 years they normally take to make a game and let things sizzle comfortably in the meanwhile.
From an investor's outlook, all of that is absolutely horrible for your portfolio.
The problem is that they the successful son of a family of gutted out husks of siblings and a single parent with a gambling problem and a desperate need to impress their rich fickle sunshine friends. And that parent has nearly finished gutting the saving's accounts of Blizzard's sister to go horse racing. Blizzard is fine. Activision-blizzard is desperate for anything to make investors happy again after utterly pissing them off last year. Activison is out of IPs to ruin in achieving that goal.
Not sure of the solution beyond getting a CEO for Acti-Bliz that feels they don't need the investors to keep the company going.
Pockets 15 million aye I mean why save 800 jobs and do those workers compensation rubbish when you can employ 1 clown that makes horrible decisions easy
You seem to think the hierarchy as a race where the best and most hardworking get on top, while in reality is like the game of thrones, full of backstabbing, internal conflicts and "unsavory "relationships.
Oh, yeah, and that's why I love the series so much, hehe. :) Only two months left for the final seson... According to the actors, the end is going to be totally f...ked up, hehe. Fuck yeah!!! I'm so hyped, I can't wait!!! :D
I'm 32 years old and the fact some grown up people seem to believe life is like a fairy tale still surprises me, hehe. Maybe I can't process that much silliness, I don't know, LOL. :P
"Activision Blizzard brought in a record high net revenue of $7.5 billion in 2018, which is the highest in the company’s history. However, Activision Blizzard is going through a restructuring and isn’t anticipating as much success in 2019. As a result, cost-cutting measures are being put in place, which includes laying off approximately 800 people."
I find this to be a strangely difficult paragraph to understand. The business made it's highest net revenue in history. EVER! And yet they still need to lay off 800 people...
"Activision Blizzard brought in a record high net revenue of $7.5 billion in 2018, which is the highest in the company’s history. However, Activision Blizzard is going through a restructuring and isn’t anticipating as much success in 2019. As a result, cost-cutting measures are being put in place, which includes laying off approximately 800 people."
I find this to be a strangely difficult paragraph to understand. The business made it's highest net revenue in history. EVER! And yet they still need to lay off 800 people...
What's there to understand Scorpyon? The rich get richer and the people that make them rich in the first place get fucked. That's Capatalism at it's finest.
It's the same everywhere. In my line of work I'm close to the top of the food chain, but let me tell you now, shit rolls downhill. If things went South overnight my Bosses would not hesitate in firing me. Despite my 15 years service.
And that's all part of the world we live in. No one wants to accept responsibility for thier actions. It's a lot easier to have a crappy year, fire the Faceless employees that you are never going to meet and ensure that you and the Top Brass are paid. And the Investors of course. 🙄
"Activision Blizzard brought in a record high net revenue of $7.5 billion in 2018, which is the highest in the company’s history. However, Activision Blizzard is going through a restructuring and isn’t anticipating as much success in 2019. As a result, cost-cutting measures are being put in place, which includes laying off approximately 800 people."
I find this to be a strangely difficult paragraph to understand. The business made it's highest net revenue in history. EVER! And yet they still need to lay off 800 people...
It is easy to understand.
The company had a record year last year. However, Blizzard has no new games in the work that are scheduled for 2019. Therefor they are cutting on costs, because money will just be spent on Blizzard's side, by firing people from the departments for which they believe that they can go without this year.
"Activision Blizzard brought in a record high net revenue of $7.5 billion in 2018, which is the highest in the company’s history. However, Activision Blizzard is going through a restructuring and isn’t anticipating as much success in 2019. As a result, cost-cutting measures are being put in place, which includes laying off approximately 800 people."
I find this to be a strangely difficult paragraph to understand. The business made it's highest net revenue in history. EVER! And yet they still need to lay off 800 people...
What's there to understand Scorpyon? The rich get richer and the people that make them rich in the first place get fucked. That's Capatalism at it's finest.
It's the same everywhere. In my line of work I'm close to the top of the food chain, but let me tell you now, shit rolls downhill. If things went South overnight my Bosses would not hesitate in firing me. Despite my 15 years service.
And that's all part of the world we live in. No one wants to accept responsibility for thier actions. It's a lot easier to have a crappy year, fire the Faceless employees that you are never going to meet and ensure that you and the Top Brass are paid. And the Investors of course. 🙄
You're just speaking in cliches. I helped them get rich, and I'm not getting fucked. They didn't have a crappy year and fire faceless employees. They had a good year and fired specific employees in spots where they perceived redundancies.
How do you talk about "people who helped them get rich" getting fucked and in the same breath talk about the investors getting paid off? Presumably, you'd answer that you mean the employees get fucked, but some front-line customer service rep is fungible. Heavy investors in video game companies aren't. If there's some allegation that these employees did work for which they were not paid, that's illegal. Otherwise, they are not owed a job. By the way, I know for a fact that a lot of Blizzard employees got stock options in the merger, or in other words, the line between employee and investor is nonexistent.
And on the subject of paying the CEO a shit ton of money, apparently they believe the guy is worth keeping. Given that some of his paycheck is literally paid by me, I'm somewhat skeptical, but guess what? If they make a $15 million bet and lose, the market will punish them and punish me for allowing my money to be used on that bet. On the other hand, maybe next year is even better, in which case you'll be free to baselessly speculate something like, "they didn't need that CEO to have that good year". People who have a fairly good track record at this say differently. We'll see.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Helpful Clarification on Forbidden Topics for Hearthstone Forums:
Enjoying Americans winning in the Olympics is forbidden because it is political. A 14 plus page discussion of state-sponsored lawsuits against a multi-national corporation based on harassment, discrimination, and wrongful death allegations is apparently not political enough to raise an issue.
Just a reminder to everyone out there that this game we all know and love is part of a business. If part of the business isn’t doing well, people can lose their jobs and development for games can be cut. I know that this game is free to play, but please consider buying some packs in the near future, at least when the new set comes out. We want to let Activision Blizzard know that we love this game. They only see dollars. If the dollars aren’t there, then the game won’t be either.
Dude, I want some of that you are smoking.
Did you read your post? Are you from out of Milky Way? In general, I can not imagine worse status quo than Blizzard in Activision slavery.
The only money I will (for 99,99 %) spend this year on HS are first 2019 expansion preorder, second 2019 expansion preorder and third 2019 expansion preorder.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
EU 11/2015+ , f2p 03/2021+: DK 63/ DH 205 /Dr 277 / Hu 733 / Ma 6666 / Pa 1072 / Pr 1165 / Ro 1791 / Sh 1303 / Wl 707 / Wr 664
Just a reminder to everyone out there that this game we all know and love is part of a business. If part of the business isn’t doing well, people can lose their jobs and development for games can be cut. I know that this game is free to play, but please consider buying some packs in the near future, at least when the new set comes out. We want to let Activision Blizzard know that we love this game. They only see dollars. If the dollars aren’t there, then the game won’t be either.
Dude, I want some of that you are smoking.
Did you read your post? Are you from out of Milky Way? In general, I can not imagine worse status quo than Blizzard in Activision slavery.
The only money I will (for 99,99 %) spend this year on HS are first 2019 expansion preorder, second 2019 expansion preorder and third 2019 expansion preorder.
The use of the word "slavery" really illustrates the divide here. What aspect of this whole saga was anything but a voluntary transaction? At what point did anything happen beyond what was contractually agreed by all parties involved?
I understand being frustrated. I'm very frustrated. But it's just intellectually dishonest and emotionally absurd to throw "slavery" into the mix.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Helpful Clarification on Forbidden Topics for Hearthstone Forums:
Enjoying Americans winning in the Olympics is forbidden because it is political. A 14 plus page discussion of state-sponsored lawsuits against a multi-national corporation based on harassment, discrimination, and wrongful death allegations is apparently not political enough to raise an issue.
What do you mean the business isn’t doing well? They had a record year last year.... Don’t draw random conclusions from this press statement, if you don’t understand business....
Layoffs are not always because of a bad year, they may just as well be because of a change in strategy/direction. Like in this case
They plan to increase Hearthstone developer staff by upwards of 20% - Hs is just fine :)
We hope that Hs will be fine. Like now it is not. We are very far from the "fine" situation.
That’s a matter of opinion. I’m having a blast playing this game - sorry for you that you aren’t :(
Cuts in esport and Distribution are so telling. The second one espacially since it indicates that they have nothing new in the pipeline besides mobile stuff, which is distributed over existing platforms (app stores).
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
#JeSuisFieryWarAxe!
No they don't need to rush out new games. Blizzard, when it works well, sits on their games for a LONG time and goes for years without a new product. Having nothing but old games in a holding pattern was normal business for them to the point where they didn't mind shelving a new game that didn't suit what they wanted even if it meant a longer dry spell of a lack of games.
This is what made the company the megastar it is today along with it's devoted, if perpetually hostile fanbase. This is the basis behind the 'SoonTM' meme.
From a pure business standpoint, they are in an excellent position. WoW is STILL profitable and can easily hold for years before worrying over how to end it. SC is in a decent holding pattern to maintain itself until a good quality new game can be added. Hearthstone is still raking in the bucks, its competition is proving non-competitive (either because there's room for both, like Shadowverse and MTGA, or it falls on its face like gwent and Scrolls*). Overwatch is also raking it in and, though is getting siderailed by Battle Royal, has plenty of room to grow or simply carve out a niche for itself. Diablo is finally at 'too old' but the public is screaming for D4 so they'll gobble it up once its made, and all of the above points means you have time to make it.
Blizzard, company wise, doesn't need to rush out ANYTHING. They can spend the 5-10 years they normally take to make a game and let things sizzle comfortably in the meanwhile.
From an investor's outlook, all of that is absolutely horrible for your portfolio.
The problem is that they the successful son of a family of gutted out husks of siblings and a single parent with a gambling problem and a desperate need to impress their rich fickle sunshine friends. And that parent has nearly finished gutting the saving's accounts of Blizzard's sister to go horse racing. Blizzard is fine. Activision-blizzard is desperate for anything to make investors happy again after utterly pissing them off last year. Activison is out of IPs to ruin in achieving that goal.
Not sure of the solution beyond getting a CEO for Acti-Bliz that feels they don't need the investors to keep the company going.
One does not simply walk into Mordor,
unless they want to be the best they can be.
we should buy some more packs right so this CFO https://www.pcgamer.com/au/activision-blizzards-new-cfo-is-getting-awards-worth-dollar15-million-for-taking-the-job/
Pockets 15 million aye I mean why save 800 jobs and do those workers compensation rubbish when you can employ 1 clown that makes horrible decisions easy
Trash corporate america structure
Oh, yeah, and that's why I love the series so much, hehe. :) Only two months left for the final seson... According to the actors, the end is going to be totally f...ked up, hehe. Fuck yeah!!! I'm so hyped, I can't wait!!! :D
I'm 32 years old and the fact some grown up people seem to believe life is like a fairy tale still surprises me, hehe. Maybe I can't process that much silliness, I don't know, LOL. :P
UPDATE:
https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/matthew-wilson/activision-blizzard-is-letting-go-of-around-800-employees/?fbclid=IwAR0C8mYzeVvwTqJsp2AV-tiXzFlGhJf7ExdWQdW5aeTpvLCav91O-qpHpbo
"Activision Blizzard brought in a record high net revenue of $7.5 billion in 2018, which is the highest in the company’s history. However, Activision Blizzard is going through a restructuring and isn’t anticipating as much success in 2019. As a result, cost-cutting measures are being put in place, which includes laying off approximately 800 people."
I find this to be a strangely difficult paragraph to understand.
The business made it's highest net revenue in history. EVER! And yet they still need to lay off 800 people...
What's there to understand Scorpyon? The rich get richer and the people that make them rich in the first place get fucked. That's Capatalism at it's finest.
It's the same everywhere. In my line of work I'm close to the top of the food chain, but let me tell you now, shit rolls downhill. If things went South overnight my Bosses would not hesitate in firing me. Despite my 15 years service.
And that's all part of the world we live in. No one wants to accept responsibility for thier actions. It's a lot easier to have a crappy year, fire the Faceless employees that you are never going to meet and ensure that you and the Top Brass are paid. And the Investors of course. 🙄
4/3/19 RIP Keith Flint. 😔
It is easy to understand.
The company had a record year last year. However, Blizzard has no new games in the work that are scheduled for 2019. Therefor they are cutting on costs, because money will just be spent on Blizzard's side, by firing people from the departments for which they believe that they can go without this year.
You're just speaking in cliches. I helped them get rich, and I'm not getting fucked. They didn't have a crappy year and fire faceless employees. They had a good year and fired specific employees in spots where they perceived redundancies.
How do you talk about "people who helped them get rich" getting fucked and in the same breath talk about the investors getting paid off? Presumably, you'd answer that you mean the employees get fucked, but some front-line customer service rep is fungible. Heavy investors in video game companies aren't. If there's some allegation that these employees did work for which they were not paid, that's illegal. Otherwise, they are not owed a job. By the way, I know for a fact that a lot of Blizzard employees got stock options in the merger, or in other words, the line between employee and investor is nonexistent.
And on the subject of paying the CEO a shit ton of money, apparently they believe the guy is worth keeping. Given that some of his paycheck is literally paid by me, I'm somewhat skeptical, but guess what? If they make a $15 million bet and lose, the market will punish them and punish me for allowing my money to be used on that bet. On the other hand, maybe next year is even better, in which case you'll be free to baselessly speculate something like, "they didn't need that CEO to have that good year". People who have a fairly good track record at this say differently. We'll see.
Helpful Clarification on Forbidden Topics for Hearthstone Forums:
Enjoying Americans winning in the Olympics is forbidden because it is political. A 14 plus page discussion of state-sponsored lawsuits against a multi-national corporation based on harassment, discrimination, and wrongful death allegations is apparently not political enough to raise an issue.
Dude, I want some of that you are smoking.
Did you read your post? Are you from out of Milky Way? In general, I can not imagine worse status quo than Blizzard in Activision slavery.
The only money I will (for 99,99 %) spend this year on HS are first 2019 expansion preorder, second 2019 expansion preorder and third 2019 expansion preorder.
EU 11/2015+ , f2p 03/2021+: DK 63 / DH 205 /Dr 277 / Hu 733 / Ma 6666 / Pa 1072 / Pr 1165 / Ro 1791 / Sh 1303 / Wl 707 / Wr 664
The use of the word "slavery" really illustrates the divide here. What aspect of this whole saga was anything but a voluntary transaction? At what point did anything happen beyond what was contractually agreed by all parties involved?
I understand being frustrated. I'm very frustrated. But it's just intellectually dishonest and emotionally absurd to throw "slavery" into the mix.
Helpful Clarification on Forbidden Topics for Hearthstone Forums:
Enjoying Americans winning in the Olympics is forbidden because it is political. A 14 plus page discussion of state-sponsored lawsuits against a multi-national corporation based on harassment, discrimination, and wrongful death allegations is apparently not political enough to raise an issue.
FUCK THEM. NOT A SINGLE $ FOR ACTIVISION. They doing extremely poor job with all franchises of Blizzard (with HS being hit less than others).