You sound amazingly naive. Companies can make no mistakes and still have to let people go. Not that that was necessarily the case here but your argument is painfully simplistic.
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Fire Bobby Kotick (The Jimquisition)
- Thread starter lashman
- Start date
You sound amazingly naive. Companies can make no mistakes and still have to let people go. Not that that was necessarily the case here but your argument is painfully simplistic.
Couldn't be less surprised at everyone in here defending Kotick if I tried, ERA is beyond infamous for being gaming's neoliberal ground zero.
You play or even a mention a game with ONE (1) boob in it and you are to be driven from the earth, but the boot of capitalism is to be deep throated without question at every opportunity.
You play or even a mention a game with ONE (1) boob in it and you are to be driven from the earth, but the boot of capitalism is to be deep throated without question at every opportunity.
No, that is not the case. Layoffs are always the result of some sort of mistake or miscalculation, or simply failing to adapt to a changing market. The sheer fact that you hired hundreds of people for some aspect of the business, and then that business is failing so you have to restructure and no longer need them is a mistake, and a costly one.
Have you ever been involved in any construction project? Every Job I have been on consisted of hiring hundreds if not thousands of people. Then when the job is finished everyone is laid off. The layoffs are never a mistake or miscalculation, its literally how everything is built.
Dude. Seriously, if you don't know how things work in the US then don't comment.
Let's say I do my market research and it says that I should make product x. At the same time my competitors also do their research and make product y. At the same time, the market shifts, and some other company nmakes product y which is actually what the market wants.
No one made a mistake. The market shifted and people don't want x or y. Therefore, I have to cut my product before I spend another worthless dollar which means I cut staff.
It's like no one here has ever managed a P&L nor had shareholders you had to be responsible to.
"Nobody made a mistake, we simply had to reward our CEO with a 15 million dollar package while the workers were all given the boot. You should try being a CEO sometime, fufufu"
Let's say I make a video game. That video game sells very well and I make a sequel based off the original engine. Do I need all of the same staff to create the sequel? No, because the engine is built, I only need so many new new art assets, and my product managers and developers say that some staff is unneeded. I don't have another game to launch, so I cut staff
How do you know Kotick was the one who who made Blizzard perform so horribly? Wouldn't that be on the CEO that just stepped down Mike Morhaime? Like, y'all want to call out Bobby, sure, but no one is actually showing he meddled so much into Blizzard that he caused WoW to decline in subscribers, made them miss opportunities like Dota 2, cancelled Titan and released Overwatch, made Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2 the shit game that it is. Bobby didn't do this to Blizzard, Mike did.
Where was Bobby's mistake, though? The gaming environment changed drastically. Like, people were going for MOBA early on, and now they go for Battle Royale. Things were different 10 years ago: streaming, mobile, and that online games are very popular. These trends change quickly so adapting to the market is harder than you would think.
So is like your whole gimmick fingerwagging at people for not speaking from experience and then proceeding to not speak from experience?
That's not answering my question. If you want to say Bobby did all the wrong things then prove it. I don't think you can.
Did the CEO control costs and make his shareholders money?
You are picking the wrong fight. Layoffs happen. It's the wages and bonuses you should be concerned about. How do we ensure that people working trades and professional jobs ensure that they can maintain themselves if a layoffs happens. We need higher wages and better unemployment.
If you have a skill that is marketable be it plumber, teacher, or professional, we need to ensure that they can afford a middle class life style.
For people who don't have those skills, we need a safety net so that they can survive and education and training to climb up.
We need to tax anyone making over $1m a marginal rate of 70%
I gotta say, now I'm curious about what a game with exactly one boob in it would be
I work in software development. Not gaming related but I speak from experience
this is probably the most depressing thread on Era, next to whatever threads are out there defending overt sexism. That some of you think there's nothing wrong with Kotick's approach to running a business is hilariously depressing. "He makes money, LOL, what's wrong?"
Seriously, your brains are nothing but piggy banks.
Seriously, your brains are nothing but piggy banks.
Can't fire him, he salary is only equal to like 600 ppl or something. Can't save money that way
Not that great. The goal in a Capitalist economy is to drive his competitors out of business and have Activision make all the video games, he's not there yet.
Kotick makes way too much money for the share holders which is why he gets multi-million dollar bonuses. He does exactly what he's meant to do in his position which is why he isn't going anywhere.
One of the few people in this discussion with a well-reasoned point of view...
True but his return has been consistently good right? As much as I love video games I don't invest in that area, the whole industry seems volatile
Working in the videogame industry if they wanted job security. Sometimes that's the only mistake.
Construction workers often have unions to protect them and bargain for them. Not all construction obviously, but many. Gaming industry is entirely different, no reason that all those people need to be laid off at the end of a project and there are no unions. I've already said multiple times that firing Kotick wouldnt solve anything, and that unionization is a better solution to the problem of labor being undervalued in the industry.
That said, it is still shit that the employees are paying the price for Kotick's mistakes, particularly Destiny.
No matter how you view this - "it's just business, Bobby doesn't run a charity" or "Bobby is the devil", I cannot say either side is wrong. However, I would like it if everyone just imagined for a second a room filled with 800 people. Then imagine all in one day all of those people being fired. Sure, appeasing to shareholders and cutting costs is business. But letting go 800 people just to increase your companies revenue/negate cost...800 people?! 800 people with families they need to take care of, with some now having to worry about moving/telling their kids to say bye to their friends, etc. 800 people?! Not because the company was on the verge of bankruptcy or hitting the negative. NO, they just wanted to increase their bottom line. 800 PEOPLE!
And many others are being hired. They are restructuring. At a point, people have to accept that if they could use those people they would. You can't turn a Community Manager into a programmer without training, the same goes for Social Media folk, or whatever the eSports people do.
Also, people are still going at Bobby. From just looking at Blizzard, it seems Bobby is righting their ship because Mike allowed for things to just happen without consequence because WoW was making a lot of money. Like, they wasted so much time, manpower, and money on Titan and that was released as Overwatch. Blizzard has failings that aren't attributed to Bobby.
And more people are being hired?! wtf man what about the people that are now having to scramble from being let go. i mean, i get your point, but come on. 800 people. 800.
Let me clue you in on this thing called the entertainment industry. Sure, you have "union protection" but still many don't get steady work, especially when they move production to areas where union regulations carry little weight.
The best advice I can give everyone in this form is that unless you are directly involved with video game production is to focus on your own life, your career, and your own labor rights. People choose their own paths. You don't hear about a mass swelling of video game designers worried about the pizza delivery guy getting laid off or their concerns about the AWS employee who is hosting their shit.
Focus on your own growth and rights. If you believe in unionization than start doing it at your job.
Normally I hate Jim, but I get where he's coming from here.
But, let's be real, Activision shareholders love the guy. He's made them so much money and got them out from under the thumb of Vivendi. He's not going anywhere.
But, let's be real, Activision shareholders love the guy. He's made them so much money and got them out from under the thumb of Vivendi. He's not going anywhere.
No, I don't think Bobby Kotick, CEO of ATVI, the publisher with the most revenue outside of Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo, should be fired for preparing for a lackluster FY.
Following it as a hobby, and being a Blizzard fan, I fucking hate him but he still nets tons of profit for ATVI.
Following it as a hobby, and being a Blizzard fan, I fucking hate him but he still nets tons of profit for ATVI.
Those positions aren't needed in the restructuring. Yeah, ActivisonBlizzard could put more money into Heroes of the Storm but at this point it's not worth it to see if it an eek out a bit of that pie. It would be a monumental waste of money. Those positions cannot be transferred so they are cut. The people being hired are developers, not more Community Managers, Social media, eSports, etc.
People are looking at only a few things with this situation:
1) Record revenue gain
2) Layoff of 800 workers
3) CFO makes a lot of money
There's more to this situation than just that, and to base any discussion off those is meaningless. ActivisionBlizzard has redundant or departments that aren't part of the business strategy so they are cutting those and adding to places where they want growth. This isn't a fault of Capitalism as every other economic system would lay these workers off because there isn't work for them. Sorry to say, but Blizzard doesn't have as many users as they used to / a lot of their customer service issues are already automated; can't just hire them out of some altruistic ideal.
Not true. I've worked on a ton of M&A, and there is almost always redundancy which gets let go in the process. Sometimes more, sometimes less, but 99 times out of 100, overlap gets cut - intentionally. Heck, one of the more reliable ways of judging synergies (which, admittedly, are a secondary valuation method) is based on cost cutting among personnel. I've seen this done with companies which are from more socialist countries, I've seen this done with companies in the US; it doesn't matter. Companies fire people everywhere, and not always because something went wrong. I'm honestly surprised it took them this long.
I'm in my 40s and have been on both sides. It's not fun but without a stonger safety net, there is nothing possible to do in this political age that can be done.
Also, why are we so worried about skilled workers who can get a new job? What about warehouse workers and farm hands? Those are the people who really get fucked. Those 800 will for the most part and up ok. The ones making minimum wage with no education are the ones who are fucked
If the 800 lived in the right area and had the skills then they would fill those roles with the laid off
Except that they all get to keep their golden parachute. I guess not making all the money in the world is enough punishment for them.
One thing I've been thinking about lately if the COD era is over and sales continues to decline will the support studios (Treyarch, Ravensoft, and Sledgehammer) go back to making their own games/IPs or will Activision just cut costs and shutter those studios.
People might not remember but in the late 90s/early 00s Activision studios were on fire Neversoft was making Excellent Tony Hawk games, Treyarch was doing the fantastic spider man games, Raven has their own shooter IPs, etc.
People might not remember but in the late 90s/early 00s Activision studios were on fire Neversoft was making Excellent Tony Hawk games, Treyarch was doing the fantastic spider man games, Raven has their own shooter IPs, etc.
What does Destiny have to do with Blizzard layoffs? Btw, the investment in Destiny directly and indirectly hired hundreds of people.
Kotick's a large shareholder in Activision and his net worth from those shares declined by $65M in 2018.
This is absolutely terrible advice, literally the worst. Different groups and industries should absolutely show solidarity with each other, yes you should worry about the pizza delivery guy.
Do not for one moment be under the assumption that society can't improve quality of life for all. If the richest "only" had tens or hundreds of millions, they would still live a life of luxury unimaginable to most. The biggest lie we are sold is that the richest got where they are through skill, hard work and talent in total isolation. This is why automation is going to be a disaster for society if the current social and economic norms persist. Right now, workers' labour is still more valuable and general strikes would bring the rich to their knees.
Automate that and power will remain in the hands of those who own the capital.
The layoffs weren't just at Blizzard.
That's a drop in the bucket, it's not his livelihood.
This isn't a reaction to a merger or acquisition, its a reaction to impending poor market performance caused by bad business decisions made by management.
Nintendo has done massive layoffs as well. I believe in 2014 they fired 300 people in Europe during a restructuring. In Korea in 2016 they fired 80% of the workforce(60 people) because the division had been losing significant money for four years.
Sony Pictures had significant layoffs as a result of division reorganization last year despite the overall company doing well.
It sucks when people lose jobs and it's happened to most of us at some point. If certain divisions are bleeding cash though, it unfortunately means layoffs are likely.
True, but I'd imagine some of it is a holdover since they were held at kinda arms reach for so long.
Manager caused by the founder Mike morhaime? This is probably why he "left" blizzard.
It's been many years since the merger. None of the reporting suggests that these layoffs have anything to do with redundancies from the merger.
I mean sure, he is likely partially responsible. But Kotick is the leader of the company.
I mean, if there have been reports of hands-off-ness (which there were) followed by reports of greater Activision involvement (which there also were), then I would expect some of the redundancies to come from the fact that they had previously operated to greater autonomy, which is just the facts of the matter and wouldn't get called "merger RIFs" despite that being, in effect, not that far off.
No, because he lets go of 800 employees while giving the CFO a $15 million sign on bonus.
Ah, so the goalposts move from "he made a ton of money while doing layoffs" to "he can afford to lose $65M."
CEO's decide the signing bonus of a CFO? Huh, that's news to me.
How is that goalpost moving? Those statements are not mutually exclusive, he makes a ton of money and he can afford to lose $65 million.