I haven’t seen it reported either way. Honestly, in a large company like that, they might be offered something, maybe not enough. It’ll still shave down their headcount, though, as people have families they don’t want to leave or relocate, etc.
What’s interesting is that the CWA has backed the merger with Microsoft, largely as a result of Microsoft’s pro-union stance, but with that merger potentially blocked, it’s not clear what the future of those employees within Activision is gonna look like.
Yeah, a lot of companies hired up a bunch of remote folks the past few years and now that return-to-the-office is becoming normalized again, they’re using the ultimatum to reduce headcount. What’s really funny is that when they do rehire, they’ll outsource anyway.
Capitalism ho!
After 10 years, I’m not sure how well I would handle being back in the office. Sometimes I think it would be nice, but it would definitely be a big disruption to how our life is now, since I help with getting the kids places during the day if needed.
The new WoW expansion is fairly well recieved, Overwatch was pretty good, but uhhh, it has been a bit of a drought yes.
I really enjoyed Diablo 2 Resurrected. It’s an excellent remaster and brings the original to modern consoles, modern controllers, and a nice upgrade in graphics.
They’ll be unionized workers within Activision, and Activision will get to decide how much they want to continue getting on the wrong side of the NLRB. (Until a pro-corporate president is elected and stacks the deck in Bobby Kotick’s favor, perhaps.)
Primarily developed by Vicarious Visions, I believe.
But anyway, I was being unfairly snarky, with my point being that there just might be a correlation between treating your people well and making genre-defining all-time-classic games. The whole acquisition of Blizzard by Activision is exhibit A in that case.
Remember they are now Blizzard Albany, effective before the release of D2R.
I know, but that’s kind of part of the problem, the dilution of Blizzard’s identity and focus. And I don’t mean that to denigrate Vicarious Visions. They’re a studio that should have been given the opportunity long ago to create their own unique IP, an expression of their team’s identity, but instead has been doing licensed games, sequels to over-sequelized properties like Guitar Hero and Skylanders, and co-development their whole existence.
I loved this
because it clarified the question of, who exactly attends Blizzcon?
The answer is: gamblers, whales, merch collectors, scalpers, fomo eaters…
The Activision-Blizzard Traveling Carnival show
Brings the games and the frames so the shekels will flow
When the heat comes along then there’s palms to be greased
If the marks wasn’t sheep, then they couldn’t be fleeced
Hara-ay, hara-ay, step right this way
For the best little show in the whole Milky Way
We’ll show a little, you’ll think it’s a lot
And all that it costs you is all that you got
With apologies to Duane Elms.
I watched that video as well. Why does it seem like so many different activities eventually converge on gambling?
Because it’s addictive and highly profitable for the people on the other side?
Looks like Bobby’s gone before the end of the year:
Guess they need a new bullet point on their ‘threat’ slide.
It does feel like Sony is behind the curve this generation, and those slides seem to show that perception being seen on their end. Gamepass is hugely disruptive for ex. We have people here saying that Xbox disk sales have almost collapsed thanks to it, for ex, and so Gamepass might well be the herald of the end of retail video game software.
Which is too bad - I think the PSVR2 is actually supposed to be pretty good, but VR just isn’t the primary future, only an amusing sidebar, like 3D TVs were.
Xbox disc sales have collapsed, but both Nintendo and Sony are still selling a ton of physical software. They’re also selling a ton of digital software. There’s no reason that disc sales needed to be ruined to move to a subscription model.
Behind the curve? Sony is killing it, gaining ground, putting out much more influential games than Xbox, which is apparently fast moving towards irrelevance anywhere that’s not the US.
So, how are they behind the curve?
Now, they’re probably correct in being worried because Microsoft is trying to make consoles obsolete.
The Insomnia hack really is breathtaking. Probably the most impactful to the gaming industry ever, more than Valve certainly and even Sony back in the day, which was more Hollywood.
Beyond that the slides don’t expose anything new, completely predictable and anodyne.
MS is making a huge, incredibly expensive bet on Game Pass and subscription revenue. They may well find it bites them in the ass. A couple bad quarters and they’ll be forced to pump prices and drop benefits just like we’ve seen a million times before with Netflix, etc. If I were Sony I would basically do what Sony’s doing, honestly. Continue to focus money and effort on producing great exclusive titles.
MS can afford to lose billions without turning off the lights, Sony cannot. They simply cannot afford to match Game Pass.
If MS’s bet succeeds, it is indeed an existential threat to Playstation-- but I don’t see how they could do anything differently. And ultimately I’m with DarthMasta in respect to consoles becoming rapidly obsolete, or at least fully commoditized. That’s already happening due to the inexorable march of technological advance.