Seems to be the same with FM and FH5 over there.
Yeah, the series usually got decent sales but the latest game bombed . The Motorsport games usually sold 1/3 of horizon . I think fm4 sold a good amount . Itâs just sales wise Motorsport never came close to gran tourismo for example so it was always more of a niche game . Then horizon blew up
âthe latest game bombedâ you do not âknowâ that. please donât talk so definitively 
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Arenât the numbers where it performed in charts low and same with most played list and whatnot? Youâre right about that part since we donât have numbers. Iâll say it had a weaker launch compared to other Motorsport games
Sucks that this happened, but long term I think both ABK and MS suffer more layoffs, and more abuse from execs (in ABKâs case) if this merger doesnât go through. People are knee-jerk emotional reacting to this because these are the short-term costs of long term health, and most donât care to think about the long term ramifications in an alternate world where ABK is never acquired. Whether this merger was good or not will ultimately be decided in the long term, for now we know to little info on MSâs plans
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The only numbers we have about Crash 4 âbombingâ (we donât even know the gameâs budget for example) is that it sold about 100k less than the Nitro Fueled release prior to it. We donât have anything else otherwise.
Pretty much
Companies are only ruthless if they are allowed to be.
In the US you get this hire and fire bullshit from companies, because the laws allow that financial capital is way more important than human capital. In other countries with better laws and strong unions workers are just protect more.
Doesnât help that your options in the US to vote against the system are basically not existent.
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But Phil is a c-suitâŠ
The only âexcuseâ is that MS end up with a company with much more human assets than what they made an offer in early 2022. One has to understand that they made an offer carefully tuned by an evaluation of IP and manpower. Then during the trial year, Activision ballooned, which incurs a cost to they buyer that may not be in the first evaluation.
Imagine, you make an offer for a 10K people company and at the end of the discussion, the company is 12k people. This change a lot in the resulting managing costs.
So, the real question is why Activision was allowed to inflate so much during the course of being bought.
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I find it crazy that the âgovernmentâ are only concerned about regulating competition, not what the companies actually do with their social responsibility to employees and customers.
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While the offer was on the table and going through trial and such, ABK was still operating freely without any influence from Microsoft. So basically, they went ahead on their path while this was all happening as their was no guarantee for the deal to go through and you are not supposed to start acting as if it was already a done deal until it actually is.
So Iâm guessing Kotick had a different vision? Or maybe he just wanted to push out as much as possible under his reign and actually hired workers in droves with the intention of mass firing them?
I actually wonder if a lot of those decisions on the firing of 1900 people were made while he was still advising before he left on December 29th to be honest. While itâs all in MSâs hands now, he might have had a say in how he would run things and maybe he is a bit responsible for what is happening right now.
Just speculation on my part of course.
On the flipside itâs easier to jump from job to job in America.
I mean these are mostly all clichĂ©s now anyway (i.e. debates around capitalism, American hiring & firing culture, the free market etc.) but personally speaking I find the after the fact guilting of pro-acquisition people by anti-MS people (this is particularly prevalent on other era right now) very egregious. Their entire schtick seems to be âwe told you so!â followed by ânever again!â⊠like supporting Xbox, buying the hardware & cheering for acquisitions is a quasi crime against humanity & morally wrong.
Tbh Iâve suspected from minute one the vast bulk of the outpouring of anger regarding the 1900 layoffs was fuelled by a console war undercurrent & Iâve seen nothing since to change my mind. Itâs simply ammunition for folks who spent years campaigning online against Xbox buying publishers.
If Xbox grows & hires people down the line, these same people will remain silent & not utter a single positive word for the brand.
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You can still wonder why buying a 3rd party publisher, all its assets and people, just to fire them. We know that MS has a terrible problem of manpower, it can be seen by every studio helping other. In that sense, more people is always better. We have discussed on the prospect of buying support studios like Certain Affiniy, something Sony has done quite a lot in the last years. In that perspective, firing people is a short sighted, shareholder pleasing, move that will hurt them later on.
because they agreed to buy ABK which had an employee count of 10-12k, not 17k, all these companies have been guilty of excessive hiring for Covid and itâs come back to bite them on the ass
Using this for personal vendetta or console wars against a certain company is more pathetic and insensitive than the people they attack for trying to move on from the conversation. I better see this energy when their favorite company inevitably lays off people. If I donât see the seething and anger they are doing now, they are hypocrites and corporate shills to me, no matter how much they virtue signal.
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The only reason as to why corporate consolidation is so applauded is because the means of preventing consolidation were, again, eroded by the government over the course of 50 or so years.
Itâs honestly depressing that, once again, the discussion around acquisitions are back into the âpeople just donât want to see Xbox winâ fallacies. Why cant you guys just be normal about like the brand lmao
conglomerates have a social and cultural responsibility to their workforce. That it takes flimsy state and federal government labor laws and collective action to actually make sure things are done right on the behalf of the worker is fucked.
Except within a capitalist system the acquisition of something like game development is inherently meaningless. The impetus is on the buyer to make the whole thing work. If they squander it, the people leave, and they are left with husks of companies and names of franchises that people may no longer care about. In the US the âfire at willâ aspect of employment is a two-way street, employees can leave at any time they want.
And lets be honest, layoffs immediately, even if expected, isnât a good start.
1000s of their staff can leave, start a new studio, and create âBeckon of Responsibility: Current Combatâ or a platformer called âWham the Hamâ and it be a breakout hit. Palworld is proof that anything can take off in an instant and it doesnât take a megacorp to make it happen.
Considering Microsoft aided in the monetary support of Palworld, that is a lot more than a lot of other smaller developers get idk. Lethal Company is a better example to use.
The game is irrelevant; you understood the point. Stardew Valley, Lethal League, Phasmaphobia, pick your poison.