eurogamer.net

Kit, do gaming w Microsoft to lay off 1900 people across Xbox and Activision Blizzard

Name a single merger in any industry that didn’t result in layoffs of at least 8% of the workforce.

CharlesReed,

Yep, the moment this acquisition was in talks, you could see this coming from a mile away.

Midnitte,

It’s literally the point, merging companies are a left join, not a full outer join. The entire point is to save money by removing overlap - anyone who doesn’t expect that has no idea how businesses operate.

stoly, do games w Microsoft to lay off 1900 people across Xbox and Activision Blizzard | Eurogamer

This is not unsurprising. In fact, it is fully expected.

KingThrillgore, do games w Microsoft to lay off 1900 people across Xbox and Activision Blizzard | Eurogamer
@KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml avatar

CALLED IT

remotelove,

It wasn’t that difficult of a call. Layoffs are common after buyouts like these. I am surprised they didn’t just blame it on “redundant roles”. (It was overused during the pandemic, I suppose.)

woodenskewer,
@woodenskewer@lemmy.world avatar

They did blame it on redundant roles, they just called it overlap instead.

scrubbles, do gaming w Microsoft to lay off 1900 people across Xbox and Activision Blizzard
!deleted6348 avatar

Don’t worry, by buying so many studios they will invest more into gaming, and we’ll get better games than ever!

Monopolies are never good, kids. Attempted monopolies are just about as bad.

I’m also real tired of the copro euphemisms going around trying to hide that they’re firing people.

SnotFlickerman,
@SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

copro euphemisms going around trying to hide that they’re firing people.

Like Return to Office? Never has the corporate C-Suite ever had an easier excuse to shitcan people for no good fucking reason.

scrubbles,
!deleted6348 avatar

The easiest layoff method there is.

Still, the most putrid word for me is “right-sizing”

t3rmit3,

I’m not sure if “copro” was meant to be “corpo”, but either way works. xD

scrubbles,
!deleted6348 avatar

Phones really don’t like “corpo”… but I’ll leave it for you

t3rmit3,

Damn Google and Apple trying to program us against anti-corporate thought. :D

SnotFlickerman, do gaming w Microsoft to lay off 1900 people across Xbox and Activision Blizzard
@SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

You know, these companies share mountains of data with each other before mergers or buyouts.

The idea that they don’t know these “areas of overlap” as they call them before the deal is done is a joke.

MagicShel,

Of course they know them. That’s how Microsoft buys a multi-billion dollar company and expects to turn a profit - not by continuing to run the company the way it was, but by trimming staff from one or both companies.

Every time there is a massive capital investment, whether by a hedge fund or a bigger company, there is an unstated “and profit by making it worse” in the headline. Sometimes, a poorly managed company can yield profits just through better management, but most of the time it hurts workers which in turn hurts customers, but there is massive profit to be made while the coasting on the inertia of the former quality.

I can say from experience, if your company gets bought out your job is about to get worse if it even still exists.

SnotFlickerman,
@SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

Of course they know them.

I know, that’s why I called it a joke. They always post these bullshit PR statements after the fact as if everyone didn’t know this was coming.

MagicShel,

Yes. I was agreeing with you and ranting further, not trying to infer you didn’t get it. Sorry if that wasn’t clear.

SnotFlickerman,
@SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

No problem I’m not upset, I was just clarifying. We’re obviously both on the same page with this haha.

scrubbles,
!deleted6348 avatar

This always happens with mergers, and it’s disgusting that our government knows this and allows it to happen without a plan.

T-Mobile buying sprint did the same thing. “Oh, we’ll need everyone on deck!” Really? You’ll need 2 teams rolling out the same phone? You’ll need twice as many people managing the same amount of plans? That’s just not how it works.

Surprisingly, as soon as the heat was off of them after the merger they laid off entire departments that were “redundant”. Never trust a corpo kids.

ampersandrew,
@ampersandrew@kbin.social avatar

Even without any cynicism, I think the government was more interested in there being tighter competition among cell carriers than they were with the people who will lose their jobs in a merger. With all due respect to those who fall on tough times as a result of that kind of merger, it's a more short term and small scale problem than there being fewer viable competitors in an important sector of the market.

Ethereal87,
@Ethereal87@beehaw.org avatar

It’s also not necessarily easier, but more understandable, for roles such as HR, marketing, etc…yes, it’s still someone’s job but one company probably doesn’t need two HR teams worth of people and cuts accordingly.

Message being that everyone should have their head on a swivel during a merger and that goes double for those jobs that provide day-to-day business support to keep things running.

umbrella,
@umbrella@lemmy.ml avatar

the govmt is in on it, thats why they know & still let this happen

Fiivemacs, do games w Microsoft to lay off 1900 people across Xbox and Activision Blizzard | Eurogamer

Story is developing…lol ok

Anyone who didn’t see this coming is just blind. Anytime a company acquired another, there is ALWAYS layoffs. Before and after mergers.

echo64,

there is. this is at a large scale however. and involved cancelling projects. normally this happens because of redundancies in rolls (like QA for example, microsoft already has QA, marketing, stuff like that)

this is still an unusual size.

Paradachshund,

The level of cope around this merger was insane. It’s never a good thing, people.

stardust, do gaming w The Day Before developer resurfaces to blame failure on "hate campaign"

Why aren’t they playing the reliable death threat card to get criticism off their backs.

Viatorem,

Waiting for the day a company trys suicide baiting on twitter

Computerchairgeneral, do gaming w The Day Before developer resurfaces to blame failure on "hate campaign"

Sure, it was. That was the big problem when the game launched. And I'm sure all the other claims in the article are equally true.

BolexForSoup, do gaming w The Day Before developer resurfaces to blame failure on "hate campaign"
@BolexForSoup@kbin.social avatar

“People on the black market paid $200 for our game!”

[X] Doubt

NounsAndWords, do gaming w The Day Before developer resurfaces to blame failure on "hate campaign"

“And we would’ve gotten away with it too if it wasn’t for those meddling bloggers.”

Turious, do gaming w The Day Before developer resurfaces to blame failure on "hate campaign"

This story should be done and dusted but these devs keep dredging it up and coming back for more. It’s really astounding.

verysoft,

People keep reading their tweets and clicking on the articles.

amio,

It's like Sideshow Bob in a field of rakes.

bstix, do gaming w The Day Before developer resurfaces to blame failure on "hate campaign"

I enjoy popcorn with this shit show.

The whole thing was poorly managed and there’s nothing they can say now to tell a different tale. I hope the people who put any effort into it gets paid somehow.

littletranspunk, do gaming w The Day Before developer resurfaces to blame failure on "hate campaign"

Does… Does he not know people recorded themselves trying to play?

thingsiplay, do gaming w Valve likely earned over $1bn in Counter-Strike 2 loot boxes last year
@thingsiplay@kbin.social avatar

Last year after I showed off my brother the Steam Deck, he decided to sell most of his CS:GO skins and purchase with the money the Steam Deck (but 64gb model). It was one of his best decisions, because he was thinking of getting a cheap laptop to play simple games and do simple web browsing.

Now he is a Linux user. :> Gott'em!

FeelzGoodMan420, do gaming w Valve likely earned over $1bn in Counter-Strike 2 loot boxes last year

I haven’t bought a single fucking skin/box key since I started playing csgo in like 2014 :-). I guess I’m a fucking weirdo or something

snooggums,
@snooggums@kbin.social avatar

Me either, although a few years ago I sold some weapon skins and loot boxes that I received from playing CS Go when it first came out for enough Valve bucks or whatever to buy a couple of new games!

Loot boxes should not be in computer games.

FeelzGoodMan420,

This is the way.

thingsiplay,
@thingsiplay@kbin.social avatar

Loot boxes should not be in computer games.

As much as I like Valve, Valve is one of the major player bringing and normalizing Lootboxes into games. Even before the Lootboxes was a thing on smartphones, let alone before they arrived on other AAA games as well. I think this is the worst contribution of Valve to videogames. And this statement comes from someone who usually defends this company.

snooggums,
@snooggums@kbin.social avatar

Same! I don't play CS 2 and pretty much forgot that they do the lootbox thing.

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