600 Blizzard Employees Laid Off.

http://pc.ign.com/articles/121/1219674p1.html

Yup. But they aren't related to the game development teams though, just support/admin personnel.

And I think a lot of call-centre/technical support/web folks.

But 600? Wow, didn't know Blizzard has that many employees.

I'm extremely surprised. Considering how well Activision-Blizzard is doing... how the hell? Call of Duty releases annually and sells over 15 million guaranteed basically, and World of Warcraft makes 100's of millions a year off subscriptions alone.. not including their other games. What seems to be the problem? :( I feel really bad for those people that got laid off.. I know it's rough economic times but for a huge company that is doing extremely well, sales wise, I certainly did not expect this.. Could someone explain in detail, why? How?

I re-read it again.. I see.. but still.. even though they are not related to game development.. there are other departments that are required to run a company. I guess they're really cutting out every corner.

Kotick's great-great-great-great grandson needs a new Rolls-Royce. That's why.

Kotick's great-great-great-great grandson needs a new Rolls-Royce. That's why.

ChubbyGuy40

Probably cutting alot of the CSR department.

What is up with all the raging comments on IGN... What do you want Blizzard to do? Keep them around just "because"? Is this a charity now? Should they start building shelters for homeless people next or what?

Is this a charity now? Should they start building shelters for homeless people next or what?

xWoW_Rougex

Well they did just auction off all of their old servers and donated it all to St. Judes (Which was quite a lot.) Homeless shelters would be a good next step.

[QUOTE="xWoW_Rougex"]

Is this a charity now? Should they start building shelters for homeless people next or what?

ChubbyGuy40

Well they did just auction off all of their old servers and donated it all to St. Judes (Which was quite a lot.) Homeless shelters would be a good next step.

I'm extremely surprised. Considering how well Activision-Blizzard is doing... how the hell? Call of Duty releases annually and sells over 15 million guaranteed basically, and World of Warcraft makes 100's of millions a year off subscriptions alone.. not including their other games. What seems to be the problem? :( I feel really bad for those people that got laid off.. I know it's rough economic times but for a huge company that is doing extremely well, sales wise, I certainly did not expect this.. Could someone explain in detail, why? How?

I re-read it again.. I see.. but still.. even though they are not related to game development.. there are other departments that are required to run a company. I guess they're really cutting out every corner.

Elann2008

I think that the public notion of "World Of Warcrfat active accounts" is largely overestimated. At they peak Blizzard had around 12 million of active accouts in WoW, but at least a third of those were in the Asian market, in which the bussiness model is way different, with players payin per hours (not monthly subscriptions) and the incomings x player were waaay shorter.

I don't think that, realistically, the number of active WoW suscription reach the number of 7 millions at current day, and the number of refgular players seems to be in fast declive in the late 18 months, despite the "free up to levl 20" slogan.

Which is awesome due WoW is a aberration in the Blizzard career: before the MMO behemot they had a near to perfect track of games, focused on polishing and quality; currently maximizing the profits seems to be the main concern of they roadmap of releases, leaving behind the quality. Under this circumstances, the 600 employees fired fit perfectly with the Activision kind of management.

WoW lost 2 million subscribers in a short while, could this be the first sign of the end of WoW?

Not shocking they are pulling away more and more support and gm's compared to a few years ago. And GM's have less and less "power" and cant help with as much as before. But like i said not shocking. They are trying to milk as much money from wow as they can before it sinks.

To the person above:

Ofc they can... Damn they had tons of more people working at support and so on years ago. The thing is that they want money and they want Moar of it. And due to the fact that wow is on a decline with subs well... They will try to make as much money as they can and try to spend as little as they can. Like most coperations and so on do.

Well they do have 10 millions players? Shouldn't they be able to keep them? Just a thoughtThe_Last_Ride

[QUOTE="Elann2008"]

I'm extremely surprised. Considering how well Activision-Blizzard is doing... how the hell? Call of Duty releases annually and sells over 15 million guaranteed basically, and World of Warcraft makes 100's of millions a year off subscriptions alone.. not including their other games. What seems to be the problem? :( I feel really bad for those people that got laid off.. I know it's rough economic times but for a huge company that is doing extremely well, sales wise, I certainly did not expect this.. Could someone explain in detail, why? How?

I re-read it again.. I see.. but still.. even though they are not related to game development.. there are other departments that are required to run a company. I guess they're really cutting out every corner.

Ondoval

I think that the public notion of "World Of Warcrfat active accounts" is largely overestimated. At they peak Blizzard had around 12 million of active accouts in WoW, but at least a third of those were in the Asian market, in which the bussiness model is way different, with players payin per hours (not monthly subscriptions) and the incomings x player were waaay shorter.

I don't think that, realistically, the number of active WoW suscription reach the number of 7 millions at current day, and the number of refgular players seems to be in fast declive in the late 18 months, despite the "free up to levl 20" slogan.

Which is awesome due WoW is a aberration in the Blizzard career: before the MMO behemot they had a near to perfect track of games, focused on polishing and quality; currently maximizing the profits seems to be the main concern of they roadmap of releases, leaving behind the quality. Under this circumstances, the 600 employees fired fit perfectly with the Activision kind of management.

I suppose they just dont need as many people anymore in the support. Also, WoW has been declining in population by quite a bit recently.

Still sad though. Hope those affected by this find new jobs soon.

What is up with all the raging comments on IGN... What do you want Blizzard to do? Keep them around just "because"? Is this a charity now? Should they start building shelters for homeless people next or what?

xWoW_Rougex

If you still insist on boo-hoo'ing for Blizzard.... http://tagn.wordpress.com/2011/11/09/blizzard-down-nearly-2-million-subscribers-but-still-insanely-profitable/

It baffles me how people on here defend everything these companies do just because they make a good game. I take it most of you who do this are young and have never had to sweat being evicted or having to eat cheap pasta for a month to save money for bills. I am all for profits, but greed sucks.

[QUOTE="xWoW_Rougex"]

What is up with all the raging comments on IGN... What do you want Blizzard to do? Keep them around just "because"? Is this a charity now? Should they start building shelters for homeless people next or what?

vfibsux

[QUOTE="vfibsux"][QUOTE="xWoW_Rougex"]

What is up with all the raging comments on IGN... What do you want Blizzard to do? Keep them around just "because"? Is this a charity now? Should they start building shelters for homeless people next or what?

Elann2008

[QUOTE="xWoW_Rougex"]

What is up with all the raging comments on IGN... What do you want Blizzard to do? Keep them around just "because"? Is this a charity now? Should they start building shelters for homeless people next or what?

vfibsux

If you still insist on boo-hoo'ing for Blizzard.... http://tagn.wordpress.com/2011/11/09/blizzard-down-nearly-2-million-subscribers-but-still-insanely-profitable]

It baffles me how people on here defend everything these companies do just because they make a good game. I take it most of you who do this are young and have never had to sweat being evicted or having to eat cheap pasta for a month to save money for bills. I am all for profits, but greed sucks.

[QUOTE="Elann2008"]

[QUOTE="vfibsux"] Yea you're not biased, nice screen name lol. People are tired of these corporations screwing their employees when the going gets tough so they can get back to their pre-recession profit margin. Do you really think Blizzard was not still bringing in huge profits all this time while so many of us are struggling to put food on our tables? So instead of bringing in 1 billion a year they were bringing in 999 million......let's throw 600 people on the street and make that 1 million back we "lost". People are tired of it and are suffering out there trying to live...........you are playing a game and defending the billionaires who run it. I think I will side with the 600 who are wondering how they will pay their rent this month.... vfibsux

Small businesses tend to have a way more personal interaction between the owner/ceo/head w/e you want to call it than large corporations.

[QUOTE="vfibsux"][QUOTE="xWoW_Rougex"]

What is up with all the raging comments on IGN... What do you want Blizzard to do? Keep them around just "because"? Is this a charity now? Should they start building shelters for homeless people next or what?

Elann2008

Before the merger they actually needed more staff to accomodate the CSR departments because of WoW's rapid growth. With the decline in popularity, I assume many of these have been redundant or unnecessary. Still it's very sad for all those affected.

The usual hategasm from people that just can't move on. I don't get why people that don't care about WoW, really care so much about it and analyze its every single move...get over it already. It has 10 million subscribers still and it's not going anywhere, no matter what you think or believe.

Shame for those people, I find it disturbing tho, to fire "Valve" and then some and still have a company, the only thing it really made me think about is how Blizzard has so many employees for support and Valve, that owns the biggest digital platform has none (unless we count John and Terry, the custodians).

WoW lost 2 million subscribers in a short while, could this be the first sign of the end of WoW?

JW-toch

[QUOTE="JW-toch"]

WoW lost 2 million subscribers in a short while, could this be the first sign of the end of WoW?

MythPro1

[QUOTE="MythPro1"][QUOTE="JW-toch"]

WoW lost 2 million subscribers in a short while, could this be the first sign of the end of WoW?

DanielDust

Cause they won't be able to pay them, when all their players leave for GW2.C_Rule

Cause they won't be able to pay them, when all their players leave for GW2.C_Rule

• And Aion
• And Star Wars Galaxies
• And Star Wars TOR
• And Final Fantasy 11
• And Final Fantasy 14
• And Age of Conan
• And Rift
• And Warhammer Online
• And City of Heroes and Villains
• And DC Universe Online
• And Everquest 2
• And APB

Who knows though, you might be right and the majority of people are finally bored enough after 7 years of WoW and will play something else in place of it.

The usual hategasm from people that just can't move on. I don't get why people that don't care about WoW, really care so much about it and analyze its every single move...get over it already. It has 10 million subscribers still and it's not going anywhere, no matter what you think or believe.

Shame for those people, I find it disturbing tho, to fire "Valve" and then some and still have a company, the only thing it really made me think about is how Blizzard has so many employees for support and Valve, that owns the biggest digital platform has none (unless we count John and Terry, the custodians).

DanielDust

What the hell does Valve have to do with this? Why is Valve always the bullseye on your wall whether the topic has to do with Valve or not?

I talk about Valve, when there's something that is related to them or is something that directly involves Valve.

What the hell does Valve not have to do with this? huge companies offering support and now a huge company lays off 600 employees most of them being from support, Valve does NOT have 600 employees in the entire company, but they offer the most popular DD service in the world, it's pathetic.

Show me where I said about Valve when they should have not been reminded, because this is not an example. (most of what I talk about Valve is in Valve threads where idiotic fanatics come and harass people that have a problem with Valve like they're some kind of ignorants making problems for themselves, "cuz Valve is gawd high five").

I talk about Valve, when there's something that is related to them or is something that directly involves Valve.

What the hell does Valve not have to do with this? huge companies offering support and now a huge company lays off 600 employees most of them being from support, Valve does NOT have 600 employees in the entire company, but they offer the most popular DD service in the world, it's pathetic.

Show me where I said about Valve when they should have not been reminded, because this is not an example. (most of what I talk about Valve is in Valve threads where idiotic fanatics come and harass people that have a problem with Valve like they're some kind of ignorants making problems for themselves, "cuz Valve is gawd high five").

DanielDust

The usual hategasm from people that just can't move on. I don't get why people that don't care about WoW, really care so much about it and analyze its every single move...get over it already. It has 10 million subscribers still and it's not going anywhere, no matter what you think or believe.

Shame for those people, I find it disturbing tho, to fire "Valve" and then some and still have a company, the only thing it really made me think about is how Blizzard has so many employees for support and Valve, that owns the biggest digital platform has none (unless we count John and Terry, the custodians).

DanielDust

I love the "it's just business" people, you can certainly tell the who's who around here regarding who is being supported and who has to support themselves. Let's hear you say "it's just business" the first time you are laid off and have a family to support. To those 600 people it IS personal, trust me.

[QUOTE="vfibsux"]

[QUOTE="Elann2008"] Well said. Before the merger, I don't recall Blizzard laying off any of their employees. At least not this staggering number. Activision at their "best" I guess.. ugh.

GD1551

Small businesses tend to have a way more personal interaction between the owner/ceo/head w/e you want to call it than large corporations.

I love the "it's just business" people, you can certainly tell the who's who around here regarding who is being supported and who has to support themselves. Let's hear you say "it's just business" the first time you are laid off and have a family to support. To those 600 people it IS personal, trust me.

vfibsux

I'm one of those who said "it's just business"...I'm also responsible for supporting 3 other human beings financially...so please keep the baseless generalizations to a minimum.

Anyways it is just business. Their main game is getting smaller, and the amount of people required to support it therefore also shrinking. It's not rocket science. Sometimes companies find other positions for employees like that to fill, and in many other cases, there isn't any room for them. It's the reality of the situation.

I'd imagine once Titan launches they will have to ramp up again, and yup, you guessed it, hire a **** load more peope.

Also, I think the Valve comment made by someone else is relevant...as it speak to the great hypocrisy in the gaming community. Valve constantly gets a pass on so many things, and other companies fart wrong and they get painted as evil. You got Valve talking about DRM and people freaking cheer...meanwhile Steam is one of the biggest DRM solutions out there...it's amazing to me the response.

More to this situation though...Valve doesn't even bother staffing support people like Blizzard does, and yet they should considering how big they are and how much money they make. Blizzard, on the other hand, actually properly staffs their support departments and has actual real live people you can talk to.

The point is, Valve doesn't even freaking bother to employ the support personnel they should have, meanwhile Blizzard does provide that service to it's customers. And when Blizzard's main game requiring support shrinks and they also have to reduce personnel supporting it, why is Blizzard the bad guy? They offered service that other companies don't even bother to offer because they are too cheap (looking at you, Valve).

Don't tell me it's two totally different kinds of services either...EA has the same service and so does many other major publishers/distributors.

A thread about Blizzard firing employees (likely due to they're MMO game going down) and you bring up a different company that serves a very different service and isn't known for customer service. Completely relevant.timma25

It's also part of the discussion, since there is nothing to discuss if we limit ourselves to "Blizzard fired 600 people", period, end of story, there's nothing to discuss or debate on.

However this is related to support of companies. What, you don't like me giving Valve as an example? sorry, there is no other example, the other and most important company also has outstanding support, EA, even a small company like NCsoft, that has a lot of customers across multiple games, has decent support.

What Blizzard laid off is an insane amount of people and it gets you thinking what is required for a big company to offer great support, no doubt a company like EA has thousands of employees strictly for support and then we reach Valve, that has under 600 for the entire company, no support and a relatively long acceptance period for content (games, DLC, patches, etc), they are all for profit, they don't wast a single cent, all that at the cost of consumer patience which they don't care about, because the "internet" has their back if something would happen, so they afford to be hypocrites, cheap and to manipulate people and not worry that somebody out there might think they're bad or less than awesome.

It doesn't get more relevant to this subject than this, if you're not seeing it, don't have anything else to say to you.

Also, I think the Valve comment made by someone else is relevant...as it speak to the great hypocrisy in the gaming community. Valve constantly gets a pass on so many things, and other companies fart wrong and they get painted as evil. You got Valve talking about DRM and people freaking cheer...meanwhile Steam is one of the biggest DRM solutions out there...it's amazing to me the response.

More to this situation though...Valve doesn't even bother staffing support people like Blizzard does, and yet they should considering how big they are and how much money they make. Blizzard, on the other hand, actually properly staffs their support departments and has actual real live people you can talk to.

The point is, Valve doesn't even freaking bother to employ the support personnel they should have, meanwhile Blizzard does provide that service to it's customers. And when Blizzard's main game requiring support shrinks and they also have to reduce personnel supporting it, why is Blizzard the bad guy? They offered service that other companies don't even bother to offer because they are too cheap (looking at you, Valve).

Renevent42

Let me play here the devil's advocate role: despite I don't like too much the current Valve's games neither Steam, Valve is well known for hiring talented modders which where related in the use of their Hammer engine (Portal, Left 4 Dead and Alien Swarm creators were raised to Valve employees status thantks to their work with Hammer) and also Valve has a good track record of hiring some gifted people -as the main facial animator in Weta Digital aka Gollum programmer- or IceFrog -the main modder admin of DotA Allstars-. Meanwhile, Blizzard did almost nothing for hiring people from the modding scene, despite how strong in the past were some mods based on they games. I also did read in the past that the conditions of the location people and managers of WoW in Europe were far from being stellar, despite how wealthy and successful was the game.

Otherwise you're right: the level of tolerance about Valve and Steam in terms of how they mistakes are usually diminished is embarrasing sometimes -people was calling for blood with the PS Network fiasco despite no consistent data about credit cards leaks were confirmed, and on the other side the recent leaks in Steam were treated with a lot more indulgence... Just to point an example.

I love how a thread about Blizzard suddenly becomes a thread about Valve. Somewhere I can almost here the lonesome wails of a high school debate coach thrashing about and weeping. When in Rome...

I like potatoes.

No to shocking, Wow has took a big hit and the econy sucks. Companies are looking to save money how ever they can

I love how a thread about Blizzard suddenly becomes a thread about Valve. Somewhere I can almost here the lonesome wails of a high school debate coach thrashing about and weeping. When in Rome...

I like fried potatoes.

-wildflower-

FTFY.

I know they're bad for you, but they're so good! :D

Probably they were in charge of the WoW team..

I'm extremely surprised. Considering how well Activision-Blizzard is doing... how the hell? Call of Duty releases annually and sells over 15 million guaranteed basically, and World of Warcraft makes 100's of millions a year off subscriptions alone.. not including their other games. What seems to be the problem? :( I feel really bad for those people that got laid off.. I know it's rough economic times but for a huge company that is doing extremely well, sales wise, I certainly did not expect this.. Could someone explain in detail, why? How?

I re-read it again.. I see.. but still.. even though they are not related to game development.. there are other departments that are required to run a company. I guess they're really cutting out every corner.

Elann2008

People are tired of these corporations screwing their employees when the going gets tough so they can get back to their pre-recession profit margin. Do you really think Blizzard was not still bringing in huge profits all this time while so many of us are struggling to put food on our tables? So instead of bringing in 1 billion a year they were bringing in 999 million......let's throw 600 people on the street and make that 1 million back we "lost". People are tired of it and are suffering out there trying to live...........you are playing a game and defending the billionaires who run it. I think I will side with the 600 who are wondering how they will pay their rent this month.... I take it most of you who do this are young and have never had to sweat being evicted or having to eat cheap pasta for a month to save money for bills. I am all for profits, but greed sucks.

vfibsux

No to shocking, Wow has took a big hit and the econy sucks. Companies are looking to save money how ever they can

James161324

For those who missed the link, here is an example. http://tagn.wordpress.com/2011/11/09/blizzard-down-nearly-2-million-subscribers-but-still-insanely-profitable/