It was already in development for 6+ years apparently, and according to Schreier it was many years away still. Something was clearly not working out.
I totally donāt disagree about this and I had a post on here a while ago why this is not specific to this industry the whole system is just horrible. But even in this system some compankes can and should be able to behave better, MS is the closest company to Apple in how much growth and margins they operate, Apple manage to avoid mass layoffs so should MS in some way.
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Surprisingly enough even they are starting to do job cuts. Microsoft, among many others, grew as fast as they could during Covid and now with the economy in a shitty state are firing to ārecoverā.
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Looks like MS took the ABK as a cover to lay off people in Xbox and Zenimax too. Reminder that Microsoft made around $21 billion profit last quarter, thatās more than apple at half the revenue. They had the chance to show everyone that Xbox could be a place where your future is more secure but they did what everyone else is doing.
Not that I didnāt expect any layoffs after a huge acquisition, but 1900 seems like a lot. Maybe they could have done it over a longer period too, Idk, maybe this is the best way to do it.
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To be fair, that assumes that making things different means letting the project continue. We donāt know how the project was going or what drove itās creation - we all saw what happened when Bethesdas former management pushed Arkane to make a more money friendly title that wasnāt really the game they wanted to make, and how it went when Xbox didnāt intervene. This could have been the same thing.
Though I should really stress that is just one hypothetical, itās also possible none of that is the case and I donāt want anyone to assume otherwise based on this post. Laying off so many staff should not come without criticism.
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Acquiring a 70 billion company and then firing 1000 employees and canceling their first new IP in almost a decade is a disaster, thereās no other way to describe it. Even more so when you add Ybarraās departure.
And all of this before even adding any AB game to Gamepass. Iām sure that MS has their priorities in placeā¦
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@BRiT Iām sensing we need a new topic please. Between this and the XGS thread discussing todayās news I think we are in for a few hundred/thousand posts.
I think everyone on this forum can create a new topic. If I would be at home I would make it.
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This is the problem with us all only posting in like ten threads, no one wants to be the one to actually go make the 11th 
. Feels like too official an action.
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Yeah belive me I understand and despise it.
I just hoped they would be at least a little better. Probably best to admit that Microsoft is so successful precisely because they perfected a busted, evil system.
I just want the people who create so many beautiful experiences in one of my favourite hobbies to have a secure livelihood and good working conditions. This fucking sucks.
Well, that sucks. Just another great reminder, if you even needed one, that youāre just a number on a sheet in any company. Capitalism baby! 
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Maybe the new IP wasnāt worth pursuing. If you know of the troubled development of project Titan you know Blizzard has had issues on the last with new core franchises.
Mike Ybarra was an asshole though honestly, he was bad when he was at Xbox and I didnāt like him at Blizzard. I donāt really think he fitted there and Iām not sad to see him gone to be honest.
Redundancy was bound to happen, capitalism is what it is and we are in recession as well. There are mass layoffs pretty much everywhere right now, itās going to be hard times for a lot of people for the next few years thatās for sure.
MS must know what theyāre doing, I doubt they took that decision lightly. But in the corporate world, itās just the way it is unfortunately.
I donāt know about āevilā per se, but itās a solemn reminder that no publicly-traded companyās mission is based on altruism, no matter how their leaders present in public. Thatās why console warring is ridiculous.
That said, the timing sucks but layoffs after major acquisitions are inevitable. There was always a ticking clock.
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Holy Christ thatās like half of Sonyās or MSās first party team pre Bungie/ABK, also, wasnāt there like a 600-700 layoff thing on Xbox studios like 1-2 years ago already? and a hiring freeze.
I guess most of the layoffs are from ABK, but by most i hope weāre talking about 99% or more.
And being crystal clear, iāll say something thatās probably very impopular here but, about ABK:
Shit acquisition, trash company, both Activion and Blizzard, who only make mediocre stuff nowadays, spent 200ā¬ on Diablo 4 for me and gifting another copy to a friend, one of the letdowns of 2023, and itās not like i was expecting much.
And probably the reason the Xbox console brand as we know it could die in the next years, with the more than rumours that MSās releasing some XGS games on PS5.
The positive part is that all these guys might be able to work on other companies or even fund one thatās not forced to be a CoD factory, or to work on games like Diablo 4 focusing ONLY on how to get the most money from it instead of thinking a bit on the customer.
Next months are going to beā¦ interesting i think
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Another thing to think about is that for several years ABK hovered around 10,000 employees, but that jumped up to 13,000 last year. Iām not sure why the jump happened or how accurate that info is.
Also, everyone is focused on the MS part of this as a 3 trillion dollar company instead of the Gaming division where these layoffs are occurring. The gaming division has their own budget and they have to turn a profit, so saying āthey can afford itā isnāt realistic without being able to see where Phill and Co are allocating their resources. Iām not saying any of this is āOkā or anything, just offering a different perspective. I think we all expected there to be some layoffs due to redundancy, but the actual number is a bit shocking.
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When the acquisition happened I was hoping they would find a way to make it work but I imagine a hell of a lot of jobs will just end up being redundant, maybe they no longer need a whole bunch of social media, community managers or whatever else when they already have their own that can do the same job
Not that it makes it any better but thatās just often the case when it comes to acquisitions unfortunately
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Sony isnāt even done yet because based on insomniac leak theyāre making cuts too . The tech industry is extremely volatile at the moment
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Ybarra was not well liked by the Blizzard employees there were articles that can be found on this subject. Xbox content creators love him because he would leak them things which is another issue . Hopefully this will lead to a better Blizzard in the long term.
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For real, itās January and by the sound of things itās gonna get worse over the next year or 2, if you havenāt seen a company cut many jobs yet, chances are they just havenāt happened yet
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Wow. Did not expect this. What a kick in the nuts.
Not a good look for the first few months of owning ABK.
Edit: referring to the layoffs more than the game cancellation - though both suck.
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