Commissar SFLUFAN Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 Microsoft Lays Off 1,900 Staff From Its Video Game Workforce - IGN WWW.IGN.COM Microsoft is cutting 1,900 staff from its video game workforce, sources have told IGN. Quote Microsoft is cutting 1,900 staff from its video game workforce, sources have told IGN. In a message to staff viewed by IGN, Xbox boss Phil Spencer said Microsoft will provide “full support to those who are impacted during the transition, including severance benefits informed by local employment laws.” IGN has asked Microsoft for comment. The layoffs come following the $69 billion acquisition of Call of Duty owner Activision Blizzard. Microsoft is currently worth more than $3 trillion — the second company to ever break that threshold. Quote As part of the layoffs, Blizzard Entertainment President Mike Ybbara announced he is leaving the company. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Firewithin Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 Ybbara is a weird one. one hand he was an asshole pushing to make people go back to the office i believe but the other hand he seems a huge part in getting certain things back on track with some games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bacon Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 Man, I was going to keep reposting the same message until Valentine's Day (as that is when the new year stops being new), but this is just absurd now. I get that this is the letting go of many covid hires but still. Shit's rough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 Microsoft lays off 1,900 Activision Blizzard and Xbox employees - The Verge WWW.THEVERGE.COM The cuts primarily affect Activision Blizzard employees. Quote Microsoft plans to name a new Blizzard president next week. Allen Adham, Blizzard's chief design officer, is also leaving the company. "As one of Blizzard's cofounders, Allen has had a broad impact on all of Blizzard's games. His influence will be felt for years to come, both directly and indirectly as Allen plans to continue mentoring young designers across the industry," says Booty. Quote Blizzard's previously announced survival game has also been canceled as part of these changes. Booty says Microsoft will be "shifting some of the people working on it to one of several promising new projects Blizzard has in the early stages of development." To have Matt Fucking Booty providing comment is hilarious. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperSpreader Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 Dumb ass gamers thought MS was gonna allow ABK to now develop more stuff, lmao idiots Blizzard cancels survival game following layoffs - The Verge WWW.THEVERGE.COM A rare new property from Blizzard gets the ax. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.Vic20 Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 Of course! We've see this time and time again. Large acquisitions, lead to talent drain when they are expected to produce the hits, and only the hits, they are known for. This leads to the EA effect on studios (insert classic meme here) but it also results in the formation of so many new studios/indie teams. when I look back over the last few years, I can honestly say that many of my favorite games have been complete surprises from studios unknown to me. Gaming moves on, even as the traditional model struggle to find ways to reinflation itself each year. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AbsolutSurgen Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 The destruction of the ABK IPs begins! This is how these deals are justified by the Investment Bankers. These cost reductions are part of the "synergies" that are used to calculate the premium that MS paid. Of course, the REAL value is the desirability of the games that get pumped out -- but they can't put that in a spreadsheet to justify the people. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dodger Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 Seems weird they would cancel the Blizzard game and not Redfall. Phil's team must really not have liked it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commissar SFLUFAN Posted January 25 Author Share Posted January 25 Just now, Dodger said: Seems weird they would cancel the Blizzard game and not Redfall. Phil's team must really not have liked it. Redfall is effectively in "maintenance" mode and any remaining costs are going to be miniscule compared to the development costs for the Blizzard project. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dodger Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 Just now, Commissar SFLUFAN said: Redfall is effectively in "maintenance" mode and any remaining costs are going to be miniscule compared to the development costs for the Blizzard project. I understand they can't cancel it now, I meant cancel it after the Bethesda acquisition. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commissar SFLUFAN Posted January 25 Author Share Posted January 25 11 minutes ago, Dodger said: I understand they can't cancel it now, I meant cancel it after the Bethesda acquisition. That's more than likely the result of Microsoft's largely "hands off" approach to its management of the Bethesda entitles post-acquisition, and the "fallout" (pun fully intended!) from that approach with Redfall's critical and commercial reception directly led what appears to be a complete 180 in the management of the post-acquisition ABK entites and the cancellation of the Blizzard project. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyser_Soze Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 19 minutes ago, Dodger said: Seems weird they would cancel the Blizzard game and not Redfall. Phil's team must really not have liked it. Allegedly Microsoft never looked at Redfall and heard good things so they let it go. If Blizzard is cancelling this other thing, and they aren't strangers to cancelling projects, then it was probably more their decision not Microsoft's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commissar SFLUFAN Posted January 25 Author Share Posted January 25 Look at the number of redundancies from the acquisition a ResetERA poster estimated in November 2022: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commissar SFLUFAN Posted January 25 Author Share Posted January 25 2 hours ago, Mr.Vic20 said: it also results in the formation of so many new studios/indie teams... I wish the very best of luck to those new studios/indie teams in actually finding funding in this capital environment when practically every VC investor has tightened their purse strings, especially for a relatively high-risk industry like this one. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dodger Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 Looks like Jason Schrier will also have a story about Odyssey and that it was still several years away and not nearly done as a lot of "insiders" have been claiming. So yeah looks like it was just a sunk cost MS is walking away from. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dodger Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 1 minute ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said: I wish the very best of luck to those new studios/indie teams in actually finding funding in this capital environment when practically every VC investor is tightening their purse strings. Form an indie studio and then hit up MS for some GamePass funding Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crispy4000 Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 I wonder if we’ll hear more about where the cuts are. Blizzard is getting hit, but where else? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crispy4000 Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 Just now, Dodger said: Form an indie studio and then hit up MS for some GamePass funding Games Pass payouts for indies are diminishing too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.Vic20 Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 9 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said: I wish the very best of luck to those new studios/indie teams in actually finding funding in this capital environment when practically every VC investor has tightened their purse strings, especially for a relatively high-risk industry like this one. Absolutely true! But apparently all you have to do to safe guard your finances is to add off brand Pokémon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dodger Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 3 minutes ago, crispy4000 said: I wonder if we’ll hear more about where the cuts are. Blizzard is getting hit, but where else? ERA is saying it will mostly be redundant support roles in A/B Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AbsolutSurgen Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 5 minutes ago, crispy4000 said: I wonder if we’ll hear more about where the cuts are. Blizzard is getting hit, but where else? I don't have inside information on this deal. A LOT of them are likely in areas like legal, HR, IT, Finance, Investor Relations, etc. You no longer need two teams to do comp planning, or benefits administration, or cloud infrastructure, etc. When the investment bankers are looking for efficiencies, that's what they put on the list. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commissar SFLUFAN Posted January 25 Author Share Posted January 25 3 minutes ago, Dodger said: ERA is saying it will mostly be redundant support roles in A/B It appears that the entire team for the cancelled Blizzard project was let go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paperclyp Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 This is an industry wide problem but there are some pretty concerning red flags with Microsoft specifically in recent months. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dodger Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 Jez Corden reporting that basically all of A/B internal customer service team will be affected and they will outsource with going forward. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 4 minutes ago, Dodger said: Jez Corden reporting that basically all of A/B internal customer service team will be affected and they will outsource with going forward. Quote Microsoft has also shut down departments dedicated to bringing Xbox games to physical retail ... which if you've seen the digital-only Xbox console leaks ... well, you can get an idea of where Microsoft is going here. All digital future is here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dodger Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 2 minutes ago, Brian said: All digital future is here It just saves so much money not to be physically distrubuting games anymore, and we've seen it's what, upwards of 80% of games sales are digital now? We've accepted it pretty much everywhere else, it was going to come for vidya soon enough. Honestly other than like the Vinyl music movement, is there really any physical media doing well these days? I can't remember the last time I bought a cd/dvd/blue ray/physical game disc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 1 minute ago, Dodger said: It just saves so much money not to be physically distrubuting games anymore, and we've seen it's what, upwards of 80% of games sales are digital now? We've accepted it pretty much everywhere else, it was going to come for vidya soon enough. Honestly other than like the Vinyl music movement, is there really any physical media doing well these days? I can't remember the last time I bought a cd/dvd/blue ray/physical game disc. I’m a dinosaur and use GameFly so yea I play most games on discs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyser_Soze Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 2 minutes ago, Dodger said: I can't remember the last time I bought a cd/dvd/blue ray/physical game disc. I preordered that new Bruce Dickinson album and the new album Sadistik is putting out too. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commissar SFLUFAN Posted January 25 Author Share Posted January 25 1 hour ago, Dodger said: Jez Corden reporting that basically all of A/B internal customer service team will be affected and they will outsource with going forward. 1 hour ago, Brian said: All digital future is here 1 hour ago, Dodger said: It just saves so much money not to be physically distrubuting games anymore, and we've seen it's what, upwards of 80% of games sales are digital now? We've accepted it pretty much everywhere else, it was going to come for vidya soon enough. Honestly other than like the Vinyl music movement, is there really any physical media doing well these days? I can't remember the last time I bought a cd/dvd/blue ray/physical game disc. Also from Jez: Quote Microsoft has also shut down departments dedicated to bringing Xbox games to physical retail ... which if you've seen the digital-only Xbox console leaks ... well, you can get an idea of where Microsoft is going here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commissar SFLUFAN Posted January 25 Author Share Posted January 25 From the CoD LiveOps/Multiplayer Senior QA Lead at Sledgehammer: Quote I lost basically my entire team. I am at a loss for words right now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AbsolutSurgen Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 2 hours ago, Brian said: All digital future is here That is consistent with the rumours that Walmart has been preparing to remove all Xbox games from their stores. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commissar SFLUFAN Posted January 25 Author Share Posted January 25 Just now, AbsolutSurgen said: That is consistent with the rumours that Walmart has been preparing to remove all Xbox games from their stores. Starfield is already gone 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commissar SFLUFAN Posted January 25 Author Share Posted January 25 7 hours ago, Keyser_Soze said: Allegedly Microsoft never looked at Redfall and heard good things so they let it go. If Blizzard is cancelling this other thing, and they aren't strangers to cancelling projects, then it was probably more their decision not Microsoft's. Current reporting from Jason Schreier appears to indicate that it was MSFT who pulled the plug and that's the reason for Ybbara's depature. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AbsolutSurgen Posted January 26 Share Posted January 26 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeneticBlueprint Posted January 26 Share Posted January 26 In terms of player experience a physical edition of a game is no different than a digital one. Not so for other media. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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