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[BennyBlanco]

That is an insane ultimatum. Glad he left. Hope his new game turns out good.

Full interview with Lex Fridman

 

[Salz01]

Who was the cfo?

 

[OmegaSupreme]

Jesus Christ

 

[kpopSuperstar]

That sounds rotten as hell. Kaplan was only in his 40's when he quit, so you could assume something was up.

 

[Baemono]

TL;DR: money

 

[An Corp]

Blizzard has fallen because of the people Jeff is talking about. The company is so far from the quality they once were known for.

Great interview btw, miss hearing from the passionate people that made Blizzard great in the old days.

 

[BennyBlanco]

Who was the cfo?

Dennis Durkin - On | LinkedIn

Experience: On · Education: Dartmouth College · Location: Santa Monica · 500+ connections on LinkedIn. View Dennis Durkin’s profile on LinkedIn, a professional community of 1 billion members.

www.linkedin.com

 

[VGA-Games]

Awful!!!

That's why I personally only would want to work for Nintendo in this Industry.

Nintendo is probably not perfect, but at Nintendo are still working People for over 30 Years so they must do something Right!!!

 

[Hudo]

Dennis Durkin - On | LinkedIn

Experience: On · Education: Dartmouth College · Location: Santa Monica · 500+ connections on LinkedIn. View Dennis Durkin’s profile on LinkedIn, a professional community of 1 billion members.

www.linkedin.com

Education: Dartmouth College

I am not surprised.

 

[LyricalShrike]

Is this any different from what is expected of upper management in other sectors? Executive bonuses are always tied to achievement of KPI. Good managers walk instead of accepting an unachievable KPI

 

[Topher]

Gotta love the culture of some corporations.

 

[DenchDeckard]

Idiot CFO. What a thing to say to someone. I would quit too.

 

[kikkis]

Giving it as ultimatum is stupid ofc and "on you", but if the cash flow was that way that if it didn't meet those expectations, they would need to fire 1000 people, I don't know if reality would have been any different even if it was presented in more sensible way.

 

[Drell]

That CFO sounds like a modern slave owner: "I've got the power so either you attain these impossible objectives I decided or there will be huge consequences.". That kind of person should get the taste of their own medicine, but I guess they're too big in our society to risk anything like that.

 

[winjer]

That CFO is a complete psychopath.

 

[Revolutionary]

I know they bleeped out financial details but I hope Microsoft Blizzard doesn't find some way to fuck him over for speaking about it

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Jesus Christ

Shocking, but only because the CFO put it in the open. Blame the AAA system. We see it all around - game is not successful, layoffs happen. The CFO is looking at it like a number:

X people at Y salary for Z years
Predicted ROI = A
Needs to do B to justify current hiring

It's what happens in every single company.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Giving it as ultimatum is stupid ofc and "on you", but if the cash flow was that way that if it didn't meet those expectations, they would need to fire 1000 people, I don't know if reality would have been any different even if it was presented in more sensible way.

This guy gets it. The form was terrible, but the CFO is not wrong in principle.

 

[BennyBlanco]

Shocking, but only because the CFO put it in the open. Blame the AAA system. We see it all around - game is not successful, layoffs happen. The CFO is looking at it like a number:

X people at Y salary for Z years
Predicted ROI = A
Needs to do B to justify current hiring

It's what happens in every single company.

But then you see BF6 beating CoD and having its most popular entry in forever, and there was still a bunch of layoffs. AAA model is untenable.

 

[adamsapple]

"I'm gonna fire a thousand people and it's gonna be on you"

Is this a gaming CFO or a mafioso, lol.

 

[Ryseer]

Blizzard has fallen because of the people Jeff is talking about. The company is so far from the quality they once were known for.

Great interview btw, miss hearing from the passionate people that made Blizzard great in the old days.

Was a point in time when Blizz could do no wrong...how they have fallen.

 

[memoryman3]

But then you see BF6 beating CoD and having its most popular entry in forever, and there was still a bunch of layoffs. AAA model is untenable.

They hired based on the amount of recurring revenue and active players they anticipated…and didn't meet the targets. Plus you don't need to burn money on so much staff after the main production of the game ends.

 

[RoadHazard]

TLDW?

 

[corgiix3]

New plot for the next Mafia game leaked

 

[Hypereides]

That CFO is a complete psychopath.

"I'm gonna fire a thousand people and it's gonna be on you"

Is this a gaming CFO or a mafioso, lol.

Blizzard's culture and philosophy shifted for the worse once it got into Bobby's and Activision's hands. Similar thing happened to Infinity ward after CoD:MW took off.

 

[Smiggs]

TLDW?

Yeah, is there at least a transcript of the whole thing? I would love to read it.

 

[BennyBlanco]

TLDW?

The first clip with the relevant info is like 90 seconds long

 

[Truthtellers]

Fuck Blizzard. Good call Jeff.

 

[RoadHazard]

The first clip with the relevant info is like 90 seconds long

I'm at work, and anyway I think every news thread should at least have a written summary of what it's about.

 

[Loomy]

"I'm going to ruin peoples' lives and it's going to be on you"

Or

"The company needs your product to generate this amount. Let's talk about what we can do to help you and your team reach that goal"

Easy choice if you're not an asshole. Only reason the CFO has a job is because people like Kaplan and his team actually make things.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

But then you see BF6 beating CoD and having its most popular entry in forever, and there was still a bunch of layoffs. AAA model is untenable.

Yes, but it didn't beat // didn't perform enough to justify the headcount while accounting for predicted ROI. You either lay people off (less fixed cost), or you lower your ROI, which very, very few companies will do.

 

[Celcius]

TLDW?

Yeah, is there at least a transcript of the whole thing? I would love to read it.

"If Overwatch doesn't hit these numbers, I'm going to fire 1000 people and it's all going to be on you"
"Nah I'm out"

 

[Smiggs]

"I'm going to ruin peoples' lives and it's going to be on you"

Or

"The company needs your product to generate this amount. Let's talk about what we can do to help you and your team reach that goal"

Easy choice if you're not an asshole. Only reason the CFO has a job is because people like Kaplan and his team actually make things.

A lot of business people are the worst, especially upper management. Vast majority have absolutely zero experience creating anything, and the only capital they "generate" is by attaching their name to the hard work of people that actually get shit done, while often making hand over fist off the backs of the people with the real talent. All they can do is regurgitate corpo speak and talk about numbers they pulled from their ass.

I understand oversight is required and that's why we have the middle managers and C suite, but they're often so disjointed from reality and create insane demands. If you've never talked to someone like that, I implore you to whenever you get the opportunity (their favorite word!). Most of them come off as robots.

 

[Hari Seldon]

Shocking, but only because the CFO put it in the open. Blame the AAA system. We see it all around - game is not successful, layoffs happen. The CFO is looking at it like a number:

X people at Y salary for Z years
Predicted ROI = A
Needs to do B to justify current hiring

It's what happens in every single company.

The problem is that CFO wanted NFL money. There is delusional, and then there is thinking your nerd Hero Shooter can compete with the NFL. That is Hitler 1945 levels of delusional.

 

[Pedro Motta]

Who was the cfo?

Hermen Hulst