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Not really sure what to make of this…been a Blizzard fan since ToD, saw Blizz growing, merging, corporated, massive growth… 3 Major Projects in the Pipeline, 1

Not really sure what to make of this…been a Blizzard fan since ToD, saw Blizz growing, merging, corporated, massive growth… 3 Major Projects in the Pipeline, 1 Untitled Project, and it lays off 600 people? It's a money printing machine with it's stranglehold on subscription based MMO (as opposed to freemium), I'd hate to think they're laying off people to appease the shareholders and maximize profit.

puppop 15y ago
So, instead they can keep the 600 people, piss off shareholders and reduce profit?
- nkassis 15y ago
  I see it a little differently, I wouldn't feel good about keeping people around doing nothing of worth for the company. I guess they could have thought of other projects for them but that could put stress on other parts of the company. At least some of these people can now work for companies that do need them. It might be because I never want to work for a company that thinks of me as dead weight. It wouldn't be a good environment to work in.
  - res0nat0r 15y ago
    The key here is to make sure you never let yourself become an employee who is considered dead weight.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- _delirium 15y ago
  In this case the shareholders outside the multi-layered conglomerate are fairly distant, so I'd guess internal bean-counting is a more proximal pressure on Blizzard. They're owned by a holding company, Activision Blizzard, which is public, but has the majority of its shares owned by yet another holding company, Vivendi SA. So Vivendi's shareholders are the main ultimate shareholders, but those individuals control Blizzard in only a very convoluted and indirect way. I would guess that you might see different kinds of decisions from an independent Blizzard, even if it were public (though it would also have more risks in that case).
icefox 15y ago
Maybe they have been successful year after year and there are a some people that should have been let go or became redundant over the years and this partially being used to clean house? Seen it plenty of times before and wouldn't be surprised.
gyardley 15y ago
Just speculating -- but perhaps Blizzard prefers to get rid of their lower performers all at once in a 'layoff' instead of sacking them one-by-one. Many larger companies do this; I suspect it minimizes dismissal-related lawsuits.
- marshray 15y ago
  Probably depends on the state, but wouldn't a 'layoff' mean the company would pay higher unemployment compensation premiums?
  - itsameta4 15y ago
    ...which is still probably cheaper than a single wrongful termination suit. Calling it a layoff prevents that.
    - marshray 15y ago
      Former employees can still sue over the way the layoffs were conducted.
cube13 15y ago
Technically, it's 2 major projects: Diablo 3 and the new MMO Titan. Starcraft 2 and WoW are in more of a maintenance cycle with the expansions coming out this year. Neither probably need as many developers as the new projects at this point. The layoffs are probably due to WoW losing subscriptions over the last few years, and Diablo 3 nearing completion. The majority of the 540 non-developer positions are probably level 1 support or low level IT related positions because they don't need as much support personnel. The developer positions are most likely contract employees for Diablo 3 that aren't getting their contracts renewed.
- NickPollard 15y ago
  SC2 and WoW expansions are still major, MAJOR projects, believe me. Calling it just maintenance really does a disservice to the amount of work that goes into these things. For Blizzard, this applies doubly so. I expect that Heart of the Swarm is a bigger project that most studios can dream of, in all manners - technology, art and design, production, distribution, marketing, and all the other attendant features that go with modern game development.
  - justjimmy 15y ago
    Not to mention the sick cinematics that Blizzard is renowned for. Definitely not 'maintenance' work. Patches for WoW – maybe – but expansions are huge effort! Not to mention Blizzard aim for global simultaneous release for its games whenever it can. (Asia used to lag behind WoW's expansion up to a whole year compared to NA/Europe) Can't imagine the effort and coordination required for that task.
  - cube13 15y ago
    I'm not arguing that the WoW and SC2 expansions not major projects. I'm saying that compared to the new projects(D3 and Titan), the overall personnel allocation is smaller for Heart of the Swarm and Mists of Pandaria. The development effort on those isn't on a new codebase(unlike D3 or Titan). They're adding new features and reworking game systems in the expansions(especially with the WoW expansion, where they're completely rewriting basically every class), but the overall effort required to complete those isn't nearly as much as what they need for the new MMO.

puppop 15y ago

So, instead they can keep the 600 people, piss off shareholders and reduce profit?

nkassis 15y ago
I see it a little differently, I wouldn't feel good about keeping people around doing nothing of worth for the company. I guess they could have thought of other projects for them but that could put stress on other parts of the company. At least some of these people can now work for companies that do need them. It might be because I never want to work for a company that thinks of me as dead weight. It wouldn't be a good environment to work in.
- res0nat0r 15y ago
  The key here is to make sure you never let yourself become an employee who is considered dead weight.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
_delirium 15y ago
In this case the shareholders outside the multi-layered conglomerate are fairly distant, so I'd guess internal bean-counting is a more proximal pressure on Blizzard. They're owned by a holding company, Activision Blizzard, which is public, but has the majority of its shares owned by yet another holding company, Vivendi SA. So Vivendi's shareholders are the main ultimate shareholders, but those individuals control Blizzard in only a very convoluted and indirect way. I would guess that you might see different kinds of decisions from an independent Blizzard, even if it were public (though it would also have more risks in that case).

icefox 15y ago

Maybe they have been successful year after year and there are a some people that should have been let go or became redundant over the years and this partially being used to clean house? Seen it plenty of times before and wouldn't be surprised.

gyardley 15y ago

Just speculating -- but perhaps Blizzard prefers to get rid of their lower performers all at once in a 'layoff' instead of sacking them one-by-one. Many larger companies do this; I suspect it minimizes dismissal-related lawsuits.

marshray 15y ago
Probably depends on the state, but wouldn't a 'layoff' mean the company would pay higher unemployment compensation premiums?
- itsameta4 15y ago
  ...which is still probably cheaper than a single wrongful termination suit. Calling it a layoff prevents that.
  - marshray 15y ago
    Former employees can still sue over the way the layoffs were conducted.

cube13 15y ago

Technically, it's 2 major projects: Diablo 3 and the new MMO Titan. Starcraft 2 and WoW are in more of a maintenance cycle with the expansions coming out this year. Neither probably need as many developers as the new projects at this point. The layoffs are probably due to WoW losing subscriptions over the last few years, and Diablo 3 nearing completion. The majority of the 540 non-developer positions are probably level 1 support or low level IT related positions because they don't need as much support personnel. The developer positions are most likely contract employees for Diablo 3 that aren't getting their contracts renewed.

NickPollard 15y ago
SC2 and WoW expansions are still major, MAJOR projects, believe me. Calling it just maintenance really does a disservice to the amount of work that goes into these things. For Blizzard, this applies doubly so. I expect that Heart of the Swarm is a bigger project that most studios can dream of, in all manners - technology, art and design, production, distribution, marketing, and all the other attendant features that go with modern game development.
- justjimmy 15y ago
  Not to mention the sick cinematics that Blizzard is renowned for. Definitely not 'maintenance' work. Patches for WoW – maybe – but expansions are huge effort! Not to mention Blizzard aim for global simultaneous release for its games whenever it can. (Asia used to lag behind WoW's expansion up to a whole year compared to NA/Europe) Can't imagine the effort and coordination required for that task.
- cube13 15y ago
  I'm not arguing that the WoW and SC2 expansions not major projects. I'm saying that compared to the new projects(D3 and Titan), the overall personnel allocation is smaller for Heart of the Swarm and Mists of Pandaria. The development effort on those isn't on a new codebase(unlike D3 or Titan). They're adding new features and reworking game systems in the expansions(especially with the WoW expansion, where they're completely rewriting basically every class), but the overall effort required to complete those isn't nearly as much as what they need for the new MMO.