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[Darsxx82]

That's a fair point, but also calls into question the profitability and sustainability of the gaming division, does it not?

As happens in any other situation and company.....

But the specific case here is a company that has added 17,000 new employees to its gaming division (which was previously (~5,000). It doesn't seem that the profitability and sustainability of that division have much to do with this case when you move was to grow 3x in that division.
It makes more sense that it is an action of "losing weight" or "cleannning" after an acquisition that makes you grow 3x your original size.
Which does not mean that ethically and at the image level it is totally reprehensible, especially after the promises to workers and even that meeting with them celebrating the closing of the acquisition.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

Check up on your buddy HeisenbergFX4

I knew it was coming

 

[FeralEcho]

did phil got fired?!

He ate all the fat instead of cutting it.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

So Ybarra fought hard to get this done as a Microsoft plant, and now he's leaving before the shit hits the fan and everyone at blizzard turns their attention to him.

He should probably be investigated at this point. He's a serial bankrupter.

 

[Shut0wen]

Not to mention diablo 4 and mw3 didnt even live up to actis investment target

 

[yurinka]

22k. 8.6%

MGS+Zenimax+ABK must be much more than 22000. ABK alone were 17000 last year.

 

[ReBurn]

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

The executive team was trimmed as part of Kotick's exit. Lulu, the biggest internal ABK cheerleader for the acquisition, was cut along with other leadership positions. I imagine their severance packages were probably better than the ones these folks are getting, though.

 

[demigod]

It seems like Ybarra wasn't thrilled with the direction things are going and decided to part ways.

More like he has to answer to Booty and Bond so he's not happy and decided to leave. That would be my guess.

 

[devilNprada]

Laid off all the Playstation programmers makes sense!

Playstation was 17% of Activision Revenues how come they only laid off 8% though? Oh yeah COD will stay a bit......

 

[Tomi]

So gamepass is not that good afterall?

Poor people

 

[reinking]

I knew it was coming

The timing seems like he was not in agreement with something that is going on. I understand if you do not want to share anything since this impacts his personal life.

 

[balls of snow]

Godam its a clensing.

 

[GameCritic]

Wow, so they acquire Blizzard / Activision then fire people...I thought Bobby Kotick left LOL

 

[Zheph]

 

[yurinka]

They are firing folks very quickly post acquisition. It's unlikely people had enough time to properly evaluate people being let go.

They announced the acquisition two years ago, and started negotiations months before that. Since then they knew that there were going to be reduncancies and in which related areas and sizes. More than two years is more than enough who evaluate who has to go, specially when in big companies they make yearly or twice per year personal evaluations.

 

[tommib]

Multi trillion, you mean. Also known as the biggest company on earth.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Microsoft is one off the most overweight corporations out there and acquiring more fat is just no good..

They know this, I'm just surprised they started the process so quickly, but generally q1 is the preferred quarter for layoffs.

MS's FY starts in July, so this is during their Q3, right after Christmas break no less.

Man, to think a lot of these people spent tons on presents for friends & family thinking they'd still have a job by the next month. Whoops.

 

[Cyborg]

Consolidation....... It only begins here! All those being so happy with MS buying Activision are outraged now.

 

[Nydius]

It seems like Ybarra wasn't thrilled with the direction things are going and decided to part ways.

A classic case of "be careful what you wish for" since Ybarra was constantly posting/speaking about how Microsoft would do great things for Activision-Blizzard.

 

[CoreyFlawless]

Read they also have like 22000 just thru the whole Xbox division it self. Yeah that's a lot of ppl. Wouldn't be surprise it's gonna be lot of the office top ppl.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

The timing seems like he was not in agreement with something that is going on. I understand if you do not want to share anything since this impacts his personal life.

Yeah I can't say anything

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Consolidation....... It only begins here! All those being so happy with MS buying Activision are outraged now.

I wished. A lot of them are trying to sugarcoat it with blunt "it's just business" talk.

Like yeah no shit it's just business. The problem is they were the same people cheerleading for the acquisition in the first place on nothing but empty talking points, thinking people wouldn't get fired once the deal was closed. They lied to themselves over delusion and are now downplaying the news because they still want to live in the delusion.

 

[M1chl]

u little commie u

Nah just left, nothing to do with Marxism, etc. I am from post-communistic country, thus fuck that shit.

 

[yurinka]

Erm Sony committed to a large retention package of $1+ Billion to retain staff *as that was the big worry* - so yeah, those Bungie employees were not immediately terminated post-acquisition, they had a year+ where their jobs were safe because of that

Sony will spend $1.2bn on retaining Bungie staff

This week is video game industry earnings report week, which means we get a sense of how well each of the major platfor…

www.eurogamer.net

It sucks when anyone is let go.

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?

Bungie had "more than 900 employees" when Sony announced the acquisition. They are around 1500 people now.

Somewhere in the middle Bungie (not Sony) decided to fire around 100 people, going temporally down from 1200 to 1100.

In recent years SIE has been growing all their teams including Bungie (with the exception of Pixelopus, which was shut down).

 

[Katatonic]

LOL these execs like Lulu were pushing hard for this deal so they could get their golden parachutes. All the fanboys fell for that shit hard.

 

[jm89]

I was told MS were the saviours.

 

[Alebrije]

 

[IAmNotFromDelaware]

That's bound to happen...They just bought them and a lot of corporate job will overlap.

Excuse me sir. I would ask that you keep that reasoning and logic out of this discussion. Thank You.

In all seriously, I feel bad for the employees but overlaps are a real thing in any industry that merges or buys another one.

 

[OmegaSupreme]

Multi trillion. To be fair that's how these huge companies get huge. Fuck over the workforce.

 

[ByWatterson]

Good Guy Phil strikes again.

He's just like us!

 

[GHG]

The timing seems like he was not in agreement with something that is going on. I understand if you do not want to share anything since this impacts his personal life.

It's likely something to do with this:

 

[Zheph]

LOL these execs like Lulu were pushing hard for this deal so they could get their golden parachutes. All the fanboys fell for that shit hard.

It was so obvious with Lulu but all the clowns were like
"yees queen tell them" / "you with us!!"

Lulu right now :

 

[Shakka43]

This is one of the reasons I find it weird when some employees blindly cheer for their big companies to merge with even bigger companies, the result always ends up in fat trimming due to overlapping functions.

 

[Pop]

The fuck?

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

Well buddy...

You're fired

 

[devilNprada]

Little did they know!

 

[twilo99]

Nah just left, nothing to do with Marxism, etc. I am from post-communistic country, thus fuck that shit.

Same.

So you know they were firmly on the left…

 

[Yonyx]

Those promised acquisition Unions working wonders

Yes, of course, now the unions are to blame for management's decisions to lay off thousands of people

 

[Fess]

Brutal. And this close to the trillion dollar news. Should've fired some Office people instead.

 

[Krieger]

Seems like they still have enough money to pay all the shills.

 

[BigLee74]

It's almost like 75% of this forum don't know how businesses work…

 

[llLeonhart]

Aged like the finest milk in the land Windows Central also forgets there were massive layoffs at MS even before the acquisition. What a joke ass website dude.

At least Microsoft is not showing us the dangers of irresponsible consolidation like Embracer.

Opinion - News - [Windows Central]Embracer Group is showcasing the dangers of irresponsible consolidation, which stands in stark contrast to Xbox.

Summary by chatgpt This article delves into Embracer Group's expansion strategy, highlighting the risks of irresponsible consolidation and its potential negative impact on industry engagement. Embracer Group's approach, marked by the acquisition of numerous game studios, is presented as...

www.neogaf.com

 

[XXL]

 

[Zheph]

Seems like they still have enough money to pay all the shills.

Must be the marketing division and not gaming, god bless

 

[Heisenberg007]

Wow. For context, that's equal to Sony closing all of Insomniac, Naughty Dog, ICE, Sucker Punch, Santa Monica, HouseMarque, Bluepoint, Polyphone Digital, and Team Asobi simultaneously!

 

[Moses85]

Remember…
The aquisition is good for the industry

 

[Darsxx82]

Strange that in his memo Matt Botty only refers to BLIZZARD and its employees and not to the rest of the editors, Studios or employees of the games division.

Perhaps most of these layoffs are at Blizzard or perhaps it is where it affects developers the most (in the others, more redundant staff).

 

[Zheph]

so fresh and so clean

 

[SEGAvangelist]

 

[dottme]

I remember seeing on X employee defending the acquisition. I wonder if they are getting fired.

 

[Rockman33]

Absolute disaster.

Please explain?