Someone said it earlier in another post that ABK was collapsing under it’s own weight. As for how they were pre-acquisition; under Kotick, they couldn’t get any lower than rock bottom
A lot of the outrage is overblown and there for attention. I don’t understand people that complain on social media about the layoffs, that’s definitely not the right approach. I had two immediate family members laid off this past year in tech, one was actually with Microsoft. They never complained or had a bad thing to say about MS, it was quite the opposite. They understood, the company grew to fast and the economy is under pressure with inflation. They made their contacts and started applying right away. Now have a better paying job, and MS referrals or even ABK referrals are respected. The talented employees will land great jobs out of this.
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I don’t think much is gonna change at all
CoD will continue yearly, Blizzard will still have new games coming and we will get some new projects from the “in the CoD mines” studios even if they will still largely be working on CoD
I view this as pretty much standard industry job losses, doesn’t make it any less shitty but it is what it is, happening everywhere right now
Agreed. Microsoft laid off 10,000+ employees last year. Were they doomed, in fact it turned out to be quite the opposite. They became more efficient and innovative. Also broke their all time market growth with +65% increase. I’m positive on ABK merging and outputting better games in the future with Xbox.
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ABK was sold for a reason, we’re seeing the fruits of those seeds laid over the decades by Kotick and his lust for quick gains. I hope Microsoft runs things well but I have zero idea how it will go.
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No different. More variety and less reliance on CoD.
Didnt know OW2 and Diablo 4 werent incredibly successful.
I see CoD releasing every year for the next 5 years. I also believe we’ll see those studios work on other games.
New Blizzard CEO? New blood.
When we actually have an accurate accounting of what/who was cut that will be a question we can answer. But anyone familiar with mergers know it is generally redundant staff (HR, administrative, etc). Right now cuts on the game development side appear to be fairly limited.
And to clarify again, just to be sure, none of this diminishes that is awful for anyone to lose their job.
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I am also optimistic. Whether for Blizzard or Activision. The potential is great and I would like these companies to experience a new golden age. Regarding COD, I wish they would release a game every two years to let the IP breathe. Focus on the quality of games and let them live longer. The ridiculous micro transactions of the latest games almost make me miss the paid maps of the older games.
Oh yes I hope they cook us some good things.
The worst part is that Kotick wanted to hire 5,000 more people. Probably to work on COD. This is a very different vision from Microsoft, which prefers smaller teams and better management. I’m curious to see which sectors are affected. I hope this will not impact the projects currently in development (apart from the survival game which was canceled…).
Xbox seems to be gaining more importance over Activision, Bethesda and Blizzard.
I also hope this all leads to a better future for Activision and Blizzard. Today is a sad day, let’s hope the news to come is better.
Not a veteran? They brought back Chris Metzen last year so maybe…
Ubisoft says hello… 11 years 
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wow insanity. I am very unsure about the future of COD because that’s a lot of people to let go. We of course don’t know the full details, but I am starting to lose confidence about Microsoft being caretakers of ABK.
https://twitter.com/_Tom_Henderson_/status/1750648438524371370
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30% is a lot but it’s a drop in the ocean when you know there’s 1000s of devs working on CoD
Or it is a more evidence for what we all already knew, that where the COD franchise is/was heading is wholly untenable.
And just to be fair, Im not singling you out, but I’m just pointing out that you can read that and spin it anyway you want based on whatever perspective you have.
Everyone wanted MS to clean up Activision, and as soon as the moves start getting made the world gets squeemish.
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Be it 1% or 30%, a lost job is still a lost job.
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Of course but point is it will have minimal impact on CoD
This is exactly the goal as stated by Phil Spencer and Amy Hood in the FTC court case.
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I can only speak for myself but when people said they want MS to clean house they meant leadership and not Devs.
I mean almost the entire Blizzard Survival team was laid off because of bad management decisions even though from all we hear they actually made something with potential within that limitation. These are talented people and shouldn’t have to pay for decisions not their own.
Also laying off basically all QA people has nothing to do with cleaning up and actually is ensuring that things get worse.
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Cleaning up Activision unfortunately does not just mean what people want it to mean. Bad managers making bad decisions doesn’t begin an end with those people. Entire divisions can be poisoned by poor choices. Areas can be overstaffed due to inefficiencies; the list goes on, and yeah, it is awful that other people get caught in the middle.
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Really unfortunate to see the number of folks that will be losing their jobs. I hope the individuals impacted are able to bounce back quickly enough.
With that said, this is a major reason why I’m hesitant about MS acquiring more publishers. They have a huge workforce already at Microsoft Gaming that’s bolstered by 3 different publishing branches.
I know people like their specific brands, but at the end of the day these are real people that are impacted.
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Safe to say, January is a month to always assume grim atmosphere. No, I’m not telling you guys to suck it up, but some are acting like a reset, going back in time to the point it felt like we went back to five studios speaking.
If you think no one else will get this, prepare for rude awakening.
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I think removing the physical media team will have a major impact on the brand, personally.
I’m not going to be all doom and gloom about it, but it will push at least some people away from the console at the very least.
Edit: Thank you for the correction @BRiT. Wasn’t the full team.
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