-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
Ubisoft reports strong profits, doesn't fire 800 people [PC Gamer]
- Thread starter Zero-ELEC
- Start date
Ubisoft gets tax credits from Quebec, not Canada. It's on the salary mass too.
Corporations aren't your fucking friends, making snazzy dunks that favor one corporation doesn't make it any clever
Thanks gamers for making fabricated beef tweeting amongst PR accounts hip and fashionable because you're the only entertainment medium that laps up conflict and direct aggravation like fucking animals
Thanks gamers for making fabricated beef tweeting amongst PR accounts hip and fashionable because you're the only entertainment medium that laps up conflict and direct aggravation like fucking animals
From everywhere, not just Canada. They recently bragged about how much money from Germany they got to open a studio? (Might have been another dach country) Props to Jason for these tweets though.
I don't understand how it's relevant. Both companies are doing a lot of benefits this year but only one of them decide to layoff for no real (good) reason.
Yeah jschreier has a point here. I know what they were going for. But don't put everyone else on a pedestal for not being as shitty as Activision. Criticise them for their shitty firing people whilst handing out $15m bonuses all you like but putting others on a pedestal for not doing that normalises the behaviour.
Putting words in the mouths of other people doesn't make you clever either. All that headline did was talk shit about Activisions management by pointing out the success of it's direct competitor. Nobody said Ubisoft are a beacon of morality, just that they're better managed than Activision.
He's not critizicing Ubi per se, Jason it's critizicing the headline and the reporter of the article
Jesus 20-37% tax credit plus free health care in Quebec. Why the fuck would anyone open a video game studio anywhere else in the world.
Okay cool this doesn't mean anything and they should still unionize at Ubisoft and everywhere else possible in the US.
It's a very poor headline. You don't need to remind all the people who just got fired that others are doing better in a similar company.
Because Activision-Blizzard wasn't laying people off for this quarter's results, but the fact that they have nothing major coming in the pipe for the next year. By all means you can still complain about tenuous job security and the pretty disgusting benefits the execs continue to take in spite of that, but shedding workers when you know next year isn't going to be great isn't rocket science.
The headline just point out that when two companies is making high profits, only one of them is doing shitty practices. If the reporter want to jab bad management practices with a headline, it is his rights.
Edit fuchsdh: I was saying that getting tax cuts from Quebec doesn't minor the fact that Ubisoft doesn't cut jobs while making profits. It's just showing that Activision is a very bad employer.
Sounds to me like he's actually diminishing Ubisoft's capacity to stick with their employees though...
Still annoyed Quebec didn't somehow get dragged before the WTO, it pretty much killed budding game industries everywhere.
But I'm not really under the impression Activision pays all its dues either. Even if unionization is important (which is the second reason the European game industry didn't take off as much, because it's more difficult to mistreat your workforce), it's still nice when a company isn't focused on profits above their workers (which this may not be an actual example of).
But I'm not really under the impression Activision pays all its dues either. Even if unionization is important (which is the second reason the European game industry didn't take off as much, because it's more difficult to mistreat your workforce), it's still nice when a company isn't focused on profits above their workers (which this may not be an actual example of).
One thing the Guillemont brothers have been nefarious for have been suing employees who leave and threatening them with non-compete agreements. When EA setup shop in Montreal and hired employees (and not even executive level ones) - they were sued.
When I left my job in Montreal, I was very 'kindly' reminded that I was not allowed to be employed by a competitor in all of North America. If I had planned on staying in Montreal, I would have had my options severely limited.
Last edited:
I wonder how many of you in here are like "it's just smart business man!" when you hear Amazon doesn't pay any federal income.
Does that guy have someone else to say than organize and unionize?
That helps with some worker rights issues, but creates some in other areas.
And it does not prevent layoffs or make your job bulletproof.
They received close to 1,6 Million Euro for their Berlin Studio, which is supposed to house 150 employees until 2020. Still I'm fine that they get supported, it's not like we (Germany) are really that rich on Studios. Yeah, still some mobile and browser games stuff, but talking about "big" games at this point.
Don't use a AAA publisher that's just as guilty as Activision re: workers rights and management when discussing...workers rights and management
Unless decades of Ubi horror stories are suddenly null and void now lmfao but hey!!!!! Don't wanna kill the thread mood pointing out an obvious flaw in the fucking article title lmfao
Am
American states throw money around for other industries. Quebec just has chosen to play this game hard in the late 90s and created something like the 4th or 5th largest concentration of game devs in the world in Montreal. It is completely legal and fits within the rules of the WTO. Should Ireland be dragged before the WTO because of its absurdly low corporate tax rate?
But I think the general point that these incentives are bad is a good one. The issue is that if your neighbor gets into it, you simply have to. The solution would be for all countries in the world to agree to stop that crap. But that won't happen.
American states throw money around for other industries. Quebec just has chosen to play this game hard in the late 90s and created something like the 4th or 5th largest concentration of game devs in the world in Montreal. It is completely legal and fits within the rules of the WTO. Should Ireland be dragged before the WTO because of its absurdly low corporate tax rate?
But I think the general point that these incentives are bad is a good one. The issue is that if your neighbor gets into it, you simply have to. The solution would be for all countries in the world to agree to stop that crap. But that won't happen.
Last edited:
Because it's legal in Quebec and I believe they won as well. Not surprising since the government loves funding Ubisoft
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/ubisoft-and-ea-spar-in-canadian-court/1100-6076016/
Wish they had ported something other than AC3 to Switch. Wasn't that on Wii U also? It's not a good AC game. They could have picked any other AC game. Lame.
When an employer thinks they own you, that's the worst nightmare imaginable for me. How did you actually get away from those threats, if you don't mind me asking? I would never prop up the likes of Ubisoft for reasons like the one you demonstrated in your post.
These headlines are as clueless as some of the people that post "Fuck Activison" about this matter. The information is out there but some want to ignore it.
Don't worry Ubisoft will fuck up somehow, maybe not with mass firings, but they will do something. Remember the whole AC: Odyssey lets you make the choices you want and then the DLC said here's a baby.
Jesus fucking christ. But hey look, good guy Ubisoft didn't lay anyone off!!!
Ubisoft is the best comparison because its a major AAA publisher, it has the exact same target audience and business model as Activision. If i were to compare them to a smaller publisher then you could point out that Activision is a much more successful company, and therefore the things they do (like mass layoffs) are justified and a smart business decision.
Comparing them to Ubisoft gives them zero excuses, zero wiggle room. Ubisofts business model of not firing people for no reason is better than Activisions business model. You guys are being intentionally dense and completely missing the point. This is the second time i've had to post this, but nobody said Ubisoft is a shining beacon of morality.
Well it's not that simple. These days, no compete agreement are way easier to challenge because it as been prove in court that some company abused way too much. Now it's way more strict so even big studio avoid them now or are more relaxed. They can escape taxes, but not the law(for now at least)!
It's illegal in California. Pixar and LucasFilm have been fined for similar practices - , including no-hire agreements (something a lot of Montreal based studios have done - save for probably EA) https://www.theverge.com/2013/7/13/...ilm-settle-lawsuit-over-silicon-valley-hiring
Last edited:
i was under the impression that activision's layoffs were due to a change in management direction and not directly due to any financial results
Yes.
Activision just had their best year ever and then proceeded to lay off 800 employees. Ubi also had its best year ever and did not do so. A tongue-in-cheek comment.
Edit/Disclaimer: The Ubisoft comment only makes sense if you stack the facts this way and ignore the fact that Activision missed market expectations, has lost nearly half of its stock value over the last year, King is facing a massive fine, Bungie left, and it will have a lean upcoming year by Activision standards.
Last edited: