|
Post by SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman on Feb 13, 2019 13:12:21 GMT -5
Because in their own words, their "best results in our history" is still "not reaching our full potential", which of course means you have a right of life and death over the people who allowed you to make these ludicrous profits in the first place. www.polygon.com/2019/2/12/18222096/blizzard-layoffs-february-2019And to the Gen-Xers out there, shit like THIS is why us Millenials can't hold a job, this is why we'd rather invest our money towards tangible things that allow us to have a little bit of control over our lives, rather than whatever industry your clickbait blogs have decided we're destroying today because we dare support ones that actually have our interests in mind rather than your nostalgia. And this is why we turn to YouTube, art commissions and all that stuff that again allows us some sort of financial security and mental respite that y'all hate because it's not a "real" job, despite requiring far more work than a desk job ever will. It's not because we're lazy or entitled or we can't take the heat, or whatever other catchphrase you want to throw out, it's because your generation is full of exploitative twats who believe they are owed everything by everyone and find it revolting that any part of society would exist for any other purpose than making them more money, and don't even get me started on how they feel about ever giving anything back. They have no regards for the lives they destroy, they view workers as nothing more than food for them to consume and then expel back, for consuming and expelling is all they know, without that consumption ever nourishing anything constructive. You think Millenials don't value hard work? Mate, I think the guys working as hard as you if not more for a smaller pay at the same age have a pretty good idea of what hard work is. The ones who don't value hard work are the ones who exploit it to make themselves filthy rich without putting in any more than the bare minimum themselves, while constantly fighting to offer less and less support to their works, and then toss away those people whose work allowed them to make incomprehensible amounts of money so they can suck up those last few tasty droplets of cash to put in their offshore bank accounts to make sure society doesn't get any of it back. Take it away, Jim! (language warning)
|
|
Captain Stud Muffin (BLM)
FANatic
You can either sink, swim, or be the captain....Long live the cheif
Posts: 113,374
Member is Online
|
Post by Captain Stud Muffin (BLM) on Feb 13, 2019 13:16:04 GMT -5
F*** you Activision
|
|
lionheart21
Patti Mayonnaise
Once did a thing...
Posts: 30,531
|
Post by lionheart21 on Feb 13, 2019 13:18:17 GMT -5
Reminds me of why I decided to get out of the business field, behavior such as this. If the decision to make a profit came at the cost of a mass layoff, my conscience wouldn't allow me to do so. And that would also mean I'd probably be out of a job since I'd most likely be viewed as too soft.
EDIT: The top comment on there also reminded me why I viewed Satoru Iwata as one of the good ones. Iwata cut his own salary because he said that he refuses to fire anyone as it would reduce morale with the teams in the company. Now that's a true leader.
|
|
|
Post by The Thread Barbi on Feb 13, 2019 13:21:58 GMT -5
I would be annoyed, but see this every other year with my employer. What the headlines don't tell you is the company soon realises it needs the expertise and the numbers to make the business work.
Most are quietly rehired into the same role. So they have a reverence package and a wage.
|
|
|
Post by eJm on Feb 13, 2019 13:22:48 GMT -5
I find it very hard to be a hateful person towards video game companies mostly because the vitriol most of the time should be saved for actual companies who do real harm to people’s livelihoods and stuff like calling EA “The Worst Company in America” always came off as whining and entitled for the reasons given at the time...
On the flip side, yeah, f*** Activision. There’s throwing your workers under the bus when the company loses money and then there’s throwing your workers under the bus when you make A RECORD PROFIT.
Also, the US Game Industry basically needs to unionize right now. If they weren’t for Telltale or Rockstar or the thousands of stories before those two, now is the time.
|
|
|
Post by Cyno on Feb 13, 2019 13:44:05 GMT -5
Lewis Black once said of companies like this: "I used to wonder what drove the French to chop off Marie Antoinette's head. Now I f***ing get it!" I'm starting to feel the same way.
Some of the people who got laid off were friends of friends so I really feel for them. It also rings hollow when Blizzard's higher ups keep saying they want to improve communication with players, yet they just laid off most of the active CM's (including someone who had been with the company for just over 10 years) while the one guy in that role who comes off like he doesn't give a shit about anything stays employed.
|
|
|
Post by SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman on Feb 13, 2019 15:02:34 GMT -5
I find it very hard to be a hateful person towards video game companies mostly because the vitriol most of the time should be saved for actual companies who do real harm to people’s livelihoods and stuff like calling EA “The Worst Company in America” always came off as whining and entitled for the reasons given at the time... On the flip side, yeah, f*** Activision. There’s throwing your workers under the bus when the company loses money and then there’s throwing your workers under the bus when you make A RECORD PROFIT. Also, the US Game Industry basically needs to unionize right now. If they weren’t for Telltale or Rockstar or the thousands of stories before those two, now is the time. How is calling EA exactly what it is "whining and entitled"? It does exactly the same kind of stuff as Activision-Blizzard, only somehow worse. EA is the king of buying smaller companies, draining them to the bone, having them make games that gets them record profits, and then firing everyone once they've outlived their usefulness. On top of that, they basically constantly harass and humiliate employees, and they exploit addictive behaviour and mental manipulation on consumers. You know what's really "whiny and entitled"? A multinational company that makes more money than some nations whilst virtually paying no taxes, getting cuts on what little taxes they do pay, as well as state grants, make further cash from brand deals, have the support of literally thousands of shareholders and investors, meaning they basically take zero financial risks ever since they don't spend their own money, trying to pressure entire nations into changing their laws so they can sell unsupervised gambling in the form of loot boxes, like EA did in Belgium. THAT is whiny and entitled, not calling out a greedy company for behaviour that would have had medieval lords thrown in a dungeon and forgotten about.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 13, 2019 15:33:05 GMT -5
I find it very hard to be a hateful person towards video game companies mostly because the vitriol most of the time should be saved for actual companies who do real harm to people’s livelihoods and stuff like calling EA “The Worst Company in America” always came off as whining and entitled for the reasons given at the time... On the flip side, yeah, f*** Activision. There’s throwing your workers under the bus when the company loses money and then there’s throwing your workers under the bus when you make A RECORD PROFIT. Also, the US Game Industry basically needs to unionize right now. If they weren’t for Telltale or Rockstar or the thousands of stories before those two, now is the time. How is calling EA exactly what it is "whining and entitled"? It does exactly the same kind of stuff as Activision-Blizzard, only somehow worse. EA is the king of buying smaller companies, draining them to the bone, having them make games that gets them record profits, and then firing everyone once they've outlived their usefulness. On top of that, they basically constantly harass and humiliate employees, and they exploit addictive behaviour and mental manipulation on consumers. You know what's really "whiny and entitled"? A multinational company that makes more money than some nations whilst virtually paying no taxes, getting cuts on what little taxes they do pay, as well as state grants, make further cash from brand deals, have the support of literally thousands of shareholders and investors, meaning they basically take zero financial risks ever since they don't spend their own money, trying to pressure entire nations into changing their laws so they can sell unsupervised gambling in the form of loot boxes, like EA did in Belgium. THAT is whiny and entitled, not calling out a greedy company for behaviour that would have had medieval lords thrown in a dungeon and forgotten about. Going to say this once. Calm down.
|
|
|
Post by carp (SPC, Itoh Respect Army) on Feb 13, 2019 15:47:16 GMT -5
Is Generation X going around calling Millennials entitled? I thought that was a boomer thing. GenX is a bunch of slackers.
|
|
|
Post by OGBoardPoster2005 on Feb 13, 2019 16:09:09 GMT -5
Is Generation X going around calling Millennials entitled? I thought that was a boomer thing. GenX is a bunch of slackers. Modern Gen X is becoming their parents. They are realizing it now. I will realize the same in 20 years unless I remember.
|
|
Spider2024
Patti Mayonnaise
Dedicated 6,666th post to Irontyger
I believe in Joe Hendry.
Posts: 39,214
|
Post by Spider2024 on Feb 13, 2019 16:11:07 GMT -5
Why are 'official projections' a thing anyway in business? Is it more or less for the stockholders and other financial investors who, for the money they give, want promises of good results as well as the actual good results?
|
|
The Ichi
Patti Mayonnaise
AGGRESSIVE Executive Janitor of the Third Floor Manager's Bathroom
Posts: 37,292
|
Post by The Ichi on Feb 13, 2019 16:11:51 GMT -5
Ok, I agree "f*** Activision", but what does the millennials vs. boomers thing have to do with anything? lol
|
|
Dub H
Crow T. Robot
Captain Pixel: the Game Master
I ❤ Aniki
Posts: 47,850
|
Post by Dub H on Feb 13, 2019 16:31:43 GMT -5
Keep in mind this is REVENUE. not profit,who knows how much money they wasted
|
|
Chainsaw
T
A very BAD man.
It is what it is
Posts: 90,480
|
Post by Chainsaw on Feb 13, 2019 16:33:04 GMT -5
Bobby Kotick is the literal f***ing worse.
|
|
|
Post by HMARK Center on Feb 13, 2019 17:09:03 GMT -5
Why are 'official projections' a thing anyway in business? Is it more or less for the stockholders and other financial investors who, for the money they give, want promises of good results as well as the actual good results? Pretty much: "Invest in us, because according to our projections we stand to be THIS successful in the upcoming fiscal year!", then say the same thing next year because God forbid you live through a single fiscal year where your company takes even a minor setback in sales or profits, even if you're still successful and profitable, because then the investors will have your ass on a silver platter for not magically making even more money every single year. The business world as we know it is completely screwed, and shit like this is part of the reason why. Companies, particularly publicly traded ones, don't operate with long term vision in mind; even seemingly longterm planning is mostly done with the next two quarters' earnings reports in mind, instead. These companies hire hotshots with MBAs to run them not with any intention of being better at what they do, but only with the intention of increasing profit margins as quickly and as much as possible, even if the company's core philosophies and best interests over the long haul are completely sacrificed in the process. Said hotshot MBAs are given gigantic salaries and bonuses, regularly increase their salary and bonuses once they're in a position to do so, use layoffs to increase profits, spend a lot of their time away on holiday, spend their time at the office annoying the employees with bullshit "c'mon, gang, we're all in this TOGETHER!" team building nonsense, and then bail at the first sign of trouble, usually with a huge golden parachute attached that compensates them incredibly well. All the while the investors demand higher and higher margins, and the new CEOs and bosses bend over backwards to accommodate them, even if the company, still profitable, mind you, still ends up sold off to vulture investors who strip-mine everything and sink the whole enterprise for being profitable, but not profitable enough (see: Toys R Us). Quite the racket, if you can make it. This utter disregard for long-term well being, whether it be of the company itself, its employees, the consumers, the planet, or anything else, is a major factor in so many major issues facing society today.
|
|
|
Post by Ryushinku on Feb 14, 2019 5:42:59 GMT -5
Exactly. It's the slippery slope of making bigger and bigger claims to try to project massive gains every single year on and on to make shareholders happy and artificially pump up your prices.
When you have an enormous pyramid made out of solid gold but you were telling everyone it'll be TWO solid gold pyramids, regardless of (and cynically perhaps intentionally) what was actually likely to happen.
I first started following movie box office a couple decades back and it was quite the gradual eye opener on "Hollywood finance." For videogames, I remember the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot being the start for me. Where Square Enix moaned about it being a disappointing failure for selling only 3.4 million, a big number indeed, in truth because they'd way over-predicted the short term sales to try to prop up financial problems elsewhere in the company (as a coda, TR 2013 ended up shifting 11 million, the most by some distance in the franchise).
|
|
|
Post by Jedi-El of Tomorrow on Feb 14, 2019 6:10:09 GMT -5
I find it very hard to be a hateful person towards video game companies mostly because the vitriol most of the time should be saved for actual companies who do real harm to people’s livelihoods and stuff like calling EA “The Worst Company in America” always came off as whining and entitled for the reasons given at the time... On the flip side, yeah, f*** Activision. There’s throwing your workers under the bus when the company loses money and then there’s throwing your workers under the bus when you make A RECORD PROFIT. Also, the US Game Industry basically needs to unionize right now. If they weren’t for Telltale or Rockstar or the thousands of stories before those two, now is the time. How is calling EA exactly what it is "whining and entitled"? It does exactly the same kind of stuff as Activision-Blizzard, only somehow worse. EA is the king of buying smaller companies, draining them to the bone, having them make games that gets them record profits, and then firing everyone once they've outlived their usefulness. On top of that, they basically constantly harass and humiliate employees, and they exploit addictive behaviour and mental manipulation on consumers. You know what's really "whiny and entitled"? A multinational company that makes more money than some nations whilst virtually paying no taxes, getting cuts on what little taxes they do pay, as well as state grants, make further cash from brand deals, have the support of literally thousands of shareholders and investors, meaning they basically take zero financial risks ever since they don't spend their own money, trying to pressure entire nations into changing their laws so they can sell unsupervised gambling in the form of loot boxes, like EA did in Belgium. THAT is whiny and entitled, not calling out a greedy company for behaviour that would have had medieval lords thrown in a dungeon and forgotten about. You think that EA is worse than Monsanto, Koch, and Wells Fargo?
|
|
|
Post by HMARK Center on Feb 14, 2019 6:39:55 GMT -5
How is calling EA exactly what it is "whining and entitled"? It does exactly the same kind of stuff as Activision-Blizzard, only somehow worse. EA is the king of buying smaller companies, draining them to the bone, having them make games that gets them record profits, and then firing everyone once they've outlived their usefulness. On top of that, they basically constantly harass and humiliate employees, and they exploit addictive behaviour and mental manipulation on consumers. You know what's really "whiny and entitled"? A multinational company that makes more money than some nations whilst virtually paying no taxes, getting cuts on what little taxes they do pay, as well as state grants, make further cash from brand deals, have the support of literally thousands of shareholders and investors, meaning they basically take zero financial risks ever since they don't spend their own money, trying to pressure entire nations into changing their laws so they can sell unsupervised gambling in the form of loot boxes, like EA did in Belgium. THAT is whiny and entitled, not calling out a greedy company for behaviour that would have had medieval lords thrown in a dungeon and forgotten about. You think that EA is worse than Monsanto, Koch, and Wells Fargo? Let's leave that conversation where it is for now, ok?
|
|
Mozenrath
FANatic
Foppery and Whim
Speedy Speed Boy
Posts: 121,068
|
Post by Mozenrath on Feb 14, 2019 6:41:35 GMT -5
'sides, Konami is Konami, and Konami is the worst.
Err, was the worst. They still suck, but as we've seen, the bar has been lowered considerably.
|
|
|
Post by Jedi-El of Tomorrow on Feb 14, 2019 6:51:12 GMT -5
You think that EA is worse than Monsanto, Koch, and Wells Fargo? Let's leave that conversation where it is for now, ok? Okey dokey. I'm sorry. f*** Activision for this.
|
|