Support NeoGAF

[reinking]

Happens with every merger. There are always redundancies when two companies merge.

Don't defend this. It is a bad look no matter how green you bleed.



My hope is the talent finds or creates a home and does not leave the industry. If talents start leaving for greener pastures the gaming industry is screwed and these big acquisitions are going to be a part of it.

 

[Denton]

Bobby and Phil

That said, with large mergers usually come large overhead overlap, so this is not particularly surprising. Although 1900 is more than I expected (I expected around 500-600).

 

[Banjo64]

Right, because no other large companies have recently laid off anyone.....especially right after a large merger.....this is an outrage! Oh wait......

Here they come to spread the gospel.

Hallelujah. For a moment I was worried that we wouldn't have people on NeoGAF defending Microsoft after they've sacked 1900 people.

 

[Darsxx82]

Whatever the reason (economic of course), ethically it is a move that is hardly justifiable just 3 months after closing the acquisition.

Perhaps, once they have taken control of ABK, they have detected a situation that is not as correct as what they expected. It is surprising in that ABK (Activision more specifically) had expanded the number of Studios and hiring in recent months and these are not actions that are done without the consent of the company that has acquired you.

On the other hand, this race of layoffs and closure of Studios affects the entire industry and it seems that 2024 is going to be even worse. And there is also the advance of the use of AI in game development that will inevitably end jobs....

It is a dark situation for sure, all the best to those affected.

 

[JackMcGunns]

Microsoft continues to be scum.

I'll close my eyes and ignore the layoffs other companies do after acquisitions because only MS is scum in my little bubble, so I'll rage at them, but ignore when someone like Sony does the same thing to Bungie employees... amirite?

 

[digoutyoursoul]

phily boy at his best again

I wish he would fuck off. He always talks like he's reading off a teleprompter .

 

[SEGAvangelist]

I am quite relaxed, thanks. Just pointing out that "this board" had many differing views on the subject.

My initial post was "Most people here were against the acquisition." I get the anti-hive-mind stuff around here. I've been a member since the Gaming Age Forum days, so I'll go and edit the following "this board" comment, but you obviously know what I meant.

 

[Del_X]

Aye, among all the companies out there, MS is in the direst need of trimming, because kids in Redmond are starving for truffels.

Has nothing to do with how profitable or sustainable the gaming division is.

 

[Klayzer]

Makes the Ybarra was a plant conspiracies actually seem legit, if his severance package is huge it basically confirms it: ABK was an inside job.

Meanwhile, Bobby is on his yatch, with hoes and blows making it rain. Hopefully everyone got a nice severance package.

 

[ThatStupidLion]

As an artist whos been out of work for 5 months due to the hollywood strikes, these gaming layoffs DO NOT help.

The talent pool is already oversaturated and job availabilities are scarce af

 

[LordCBH]

It's almost like this acquisition was bad for the industry and the employees.

 

[demigod]

Not everything is covid, but in general tech companies amping up hiring like crazy for whatever reason has now gone the other way. Last year Meta canned 10,000 employees alone.

Half the time it's probably not even overzealous sales forecasts (covid gravy train) or too much hype in VR or whatever. But simply just no control. Like tech CEOs dont know what they are doing or too afraid to fire people. Tech companies typically have deep pockets, so it's just hand out jobs and costs like it's nothing. Ping Pong tables in every floor too.

But it seems to got to a point the past year that once one company fires people, everyone jumps on the train too.

It's like when Twitter got bought by Musk and he gassed half the company I think. Even Jack Dorsey admitted he had too many people. Well, if there's too many people working there and Twitter is a company that I dont think had made profit in 15 years, then why keep hiring like crazy to like 7500 people? You should be going the other way. But Twitter employee count kept going up.

What are you going on about? I said the covid layoffs happened last year already, that includes MS. Now you can't blame covid again. Funny how your response didn't mention the huge layoffs MS had last year.

 

[Del_X]

This is Microsoft's second round of layoffs. They laid off 10k last year, including gutting 343.

Yeah - there's a bunch of layoffs happening in tech elsewhere this January as well. I thought last year was going to be the brunt of it, but I'm not sure yet. I expect a lot of layoff announcements next week. My LinkedIn is a graveyard of "#OpenToWork" profiles.

 

[Jibran#one]

Nobody should lose their jobs but after what turn 10 did to Forza shutting that dogshit studio would be the first thing I would do

 

[ShaiKhulud1989]

Has nothing to do with how profitable or sustainable the gaming division is.

We're less than a quarter into this acquisition to judge anything.

ActiBlizz was sustainable before Xbox with it's headcount and now AB employees is literally paying up for Phil's mishandling of Xbox as a platform.

 

[Ogbert]

They've likely fired all the competent developers and retained the blue haired polyamorous lady-dicked land whales.

 

[JTCx]

That was one person you quoted, and it wasn't a popular opinion here that the acquisition was good for Activision employees. Try again.

Why you throw your boy under the bus like that?

 

[Ogbert]

Also, why are people shocked?

This happens with every acquisition.

 

[SEGAvangelist]

Why you throw your boy under the bus like that?

 

[DrFigs]

Also, why are people shocked?

This happens with every acquisition.

I think most people knew it would happen. but 1900 is pretty crazy.

 

[Punished Miku]

I'm pro acquisition, and still am, because I want 3 consoles competing. I never once argued in favor of worker's rights, or unions or any of that. Not really my concern. I don't get up in arms about gaming sector employees that have relatively great jobs making bank. It's just not my area of concern. If they fired developers, that's bad. I just want the games and that's who makes them. If they fired some of these useless waste of space developers, that's good, but there's really no way we will ever know.

If they fired redundant managerial / administrative positions that no longer serve a purpose, I honestly don't care. I'm not interested in virtue signaling that I care about it, because I don't. It's literally illogical to employ people in duplicate positions that don't serve a purpose.

 

[JTCx]

Exposed.

 

[ProtoByte]

Microsoft continues to be scum.

69 Billion Dollars went towards that Activision Blizzard purchase so of course the first move they make to save money is to cut off people working on the product they are trying to make and sell.

Sheesh.

Eh, this isn't about Microsoft being bad or removing useful people for the sake of it (if at all).

I'll have a good laugh at all this considering the propaganda that almost insinuated that layoffs would never happen at ActiBlizz again if they were protected by MSFT cash; but this is the reality of a massively expensive merger between 2 huge publishers, during a period of general economic correction and downturn + the platform holder's business model collapsing in on itself.

I bet all the Activision employees now wished Bobby K was still CEO. I dont think he gassed tons of employees.

No, he definitely did a few times. Similar percentage in 2019 too. The games media still had their panties in a bunch about even though most of the positions were the exact kind of bloat some of them and some of us point out as unnecessary (Bungie anyone?) They even made to increase actual development headcount by 20%.

Activision Blizzard sees "record year," plans to lay off hundreds

During today's Q4 and full-year earnings call for Activision Blizzard, it was announced that despite a "record year" of…

www.gamesindustry.biz

The layoffs, Kotick said, would be focused on back office, commercial operations, and consumer marketing areas as the company works to reduce admin expenses and underperforming intiatives, de-prioritize games and intiatives that don't meet expectations, and reduce non-development costs.

 

[xHunter]

 

[Topher]

My initial post was "Most people here were against the acquisition." I get the anti-hive-mind stuff around here. I've been a member since the Gaming Age Forum days, so I'll go and edit the following "this board" comment, but you obviously know what I meant.

I know now, yeah. Not that big of a deal dude. Again.....just making a point and you've already clarified. It's fine.

 

[iHaunter]

did phil got fired?!

What has he actually done outside of push GamePass? Not like it didn't exist before him.

 

[ipukespiders]

Acquisitions are goooooooooooooooooood

Buy mooooore so you can fire moooooore

Sega neeeeeext, more layoff neeeeeext

 

[yazenov]

I

Hope the effected land on their feet.

I hope you aren't affected as well.

 

[Solidus_T]

Asset stripping operation

 

[Draugoth]

 

[Larivel]

Phil stays?

 

[Ass of Can Whooping]

I'll close my eyes and ignore the layoffs other companies do after acquisitions because only MS is scum in my little bubble, so I'll rage at them, but ignore when someone like Sony does the same thing to Bungie employees... amirite?

 

[LordCBH]

I'll close my eyes and ignore the layoffs other companies do after acquisitions because only MS is scum in my little bubble, so I'll rage at them, but ignore when someone like Sony does the same thing to Bungie employees... amirite?

"He's not talking about Embracer and Sony in the topic about Microsoft laying off over 1000 employees for the second or third time in recent memory. REEEEEEEEEE."

 

[demigod]

Also, why are people shocked?

This happens with every acquisition.

We are shocked because folks were claiming in the acquisition thread that jobs wouldn't be cut post merger. Hell that other thread about Embracer had people claiming this due to MS warchest.

 

[Dr. Samuel Hayden]

Trainwreck. MS just can't get it together.

 

[rhodesianshepard]

Bobby and Phil

That said, with large mergers usually come large overhead overlap, so this is not particularly surprising. Although 1900 is more than I expected (I expected around 500-600).

Yeah, there is no way 1900 is just "overlap"

 

[sankt-Antonio]

Why buy a Dev and IP for 70 bill and then cut jobs. This should not be allowed to happen.

Further proof that the Acti deal was only to fuck the competition.

 

[K' Dash]

The fuck?

Yesterday I was offered to start a recruiting process as a Dev at Activision-Blizzard!

 

[Pedro Motta]

Don't say we didn't warn about this.

 

[JaksGhost]

They love to start the New Year off with a bang because this is reading just like the first round last year in January:

Microsoft layoffs hit the Bethesda and Halo teams

The recent round of Microsoft layoffs has affected the Bethesda team, makers of Starfield

ftw.usatoday.com

 

[GHG]

That was one person you quoted, and it wasn't a popular opinion here that the acquisition was good for Activision employees. Try again.

Nobody ever said it was the popular opinion.

You're arguing against something that wasn't said in the post you initially responded to with your "I don't remember".

 

[Dr. Wilkinson]

Didn't they just lay off 8-10% of Msoft Game Studios last year? Holy shit

 

[Dr. Wilkinson]

They love to start the New Year off with a bang because this is reading just like the first round last year in January:

Microsoft layoffs hit the Bethesda and Halo teams

The recent round of Microsoft layoffs has affected the Bethesda team, makers of Starfield

ftw.usatoday.com

Let me guess, the executive team isn't being trimmed though, it's just all the people that do all the work. LOL

 

[H-I-M]

Xbox sales are in shambles.
Starfield has left the monthly sales charts.
GamePass numbers have been hidden for years.
Xbox doesn't communicate profits numbers, while Sony and Nintendo do it.
'but revenues'
'but Activision'


Been telling yall that the Xbox division is in red.

 

[twilo99]

I can't believe they are actually doing it … cutting fat is a huge win

 

[mayham2199]

Nobody ever said it was the popular opinion.

You're arguing against something that wasn't said in the post you initially responded to with your "I don't remember".

It was the popular opinion over at Res. I started following the trial over there first before I had to leave.

 

[THE DUCK]

Here they come to spread the gospel.

Hallelujah. For a moment I was worried that we wouldn't have people on NeoGAF defending Microsoft after they've sacked 1900 people.

It's one thing to say that's unfortunate, or maybe they shouldn't be laying off that many, but to call ms "scum" for layoffs similar to that of many other tech companies is whats out of line. I'm sure you guys were all over the internet calling Google and Amazon and all the other big companies scum for thier layoffs?

 

[StereoVsn]

Right, because no other large companies have recently laid off anyone.....especially right after a large merger.....this is an outrage! Oh wait......

Yes, Meta, Google and Co were also scummy as hell.

Again, MS made $70bil last year.

 

[Gen.Grievous]

Cleaning house in the marketing department most likely.

 

[twilo99]

Let me guess, the executive team isn't being trimmed though, it's just all the people that do all the work. LOL

Hopefully it's all the HR and diversity hire people..