Blizzard Lays Off 600, Including About 60 Developers • Hacker News Board

Re: Blizzard Lays Off 600, Including About 60 Developers

#11

Post by icefox » Wed, Feb 29, 2012, 7:46 PM UTC

justjimmy wrote: post #2

Not really sure what to make of this…been a Blizzard fan since ToD, saw Blizz growing, merging, corporated, massive growth… 3 Major Projects in the Pipeline, 1 Untitled Project, and it lays off 600 people? It's a money printing machine with it's stranglehold on subscription based MMO (as opposed to freemium), I'd hate to think they're laying off people to appease the shareholders and maximize profit.

Maybe they have been successful year after year and there are a some people that should have been let go or became redundant over the years and this partially being used to clean house? Seen it plenty of times before and wouldn't be surprised.

Re: Blizzard Lays Off 600, Including About 60 Developers

#12

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Feb 29, 2012, 7:47 PM UTC

puppop wrote: post #4

justjimmy wrote: post #2

Not really sure what to make of this…been a Blizzard fan since ToD, saw Blizz growing, merging, corporated, massive growth… 3 Major Projects in the Pipeline, 1 Untitled Project, and it lays off 600 people? It's a money printing machine with it's stranglehold on subscription based MMO (as opposed to freemium), I'd hate to think they're laying off people to appease the shareholders and maximize profit.

So, instead they can keep the 600 people, piss off shareholders and reduce profit?

[deleted]

Re: Blizzard Lays Off 600, Including About 60 Developers

#13

Post by gyardley » Wed, Feb 29, 2012, 7:47 PM UTC

justjimmy wrote: post #2

Not really sure what to make of this…been a Blizzard fan since ToD, saw Blizz growing, merging, corporated, massive growth… 3 Major Projects in the Pipeline, 1 Untitled Project, and it lays off 600 people? It's a money printing machine with it's stranglehold on subscription based MMO (as opposed to freemium), I'd hate to think they're laying off people to appease the shareholders and maximize profit.

Just speculating -- but perhaps Blizzard prefers to get rid of their lower performers all at once in a 'layoff' instead of sacking them one-by-one.

Many larger companies do this; I suspect it minimizes dismissal-related lawsuits.

Re: Blizzard Lays Off 600, Including About 60 Developers

#14

Post by ori_b » Wed, Feb 29, 2012, 7:47 PM UTC

dpio wrote: post #9

shingen wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, hopefully now we won't have to wait a decade for a better version of Diablo.

Indeed, this could be potentially awesome for southern California tech.

I don't know how much difference 60 developers (probably not the best and brightest, as I'd expect Blizzard to hold on to those) would make.

I'd be happy to be wrong, though.

Re: Blizzard Lays Off 600, Including About 60 Developers

#15

Post by latortuga » Wed, Feb 29, 2012, 7:48 PM UTC

ajross wrote: post #3

Presumably the era of "printing money with WoW" is over, then?

I wouldn't be so sure. First off, they list 10.2M as the current subscriber base, taken times a conservative estimate of $13/mo (the every 3 months plan, IIRC) and that's over one and a half billion dollars a year. Second, they are rumored have a new MMO in the pipeline - suppose everyone that ever tried WoW returns to dip into that bucket. I think that, on the contrary, the era of Blizzard printing money is still going strong.

Re: Blizzard Lays Off 600, Including About 60 Developers

#16

Post by vyrotek » Wed, Feb 29, 2012, 7:48 PM UTC

I was under the impression that this sort of churn happened at all game dev companies when projects were nearing completion. Typically they are roles like QA, writers, and designers that may move to other projects or not.

Re: Blizzard Lays Off 600, Including About 60 Developers

#17

Post by Goronmon » Wed, Feb 29, 2012, 7:50 PM UTC

The company's massively popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game has struggled in the past year, slipping to 10.2 million subscribers through the end of December.

I'm not sure "struggled" is the word they were looking for there.

Re: Blizzard Lays Off 600, Including About 60 Developers

#18

Post by ineedtosleep » Wed, Feb 29, 2012, 7:51 PM UTC

RandallBrown wrote: post #7

Those 10% are related to game development, but that doesn't mean they're developers. I would guess that it's more likely to be slightly more "disposable" roles like testers. It still sucks though. It seemed like Blizzard was just printing money.

They were, and are likely still are, however, I have a feeling this hinges on something from the Activision HQ.

Re: Blizzard Lays Off 600, Including About 60 Developers

#19

Post by chc » Wed, Feb 29, 2012, 7:54 PM UTC

RandallBrown wrote: post #7

Those 10% are related to game development, but that doesn't mean they're developers. I would guess that it's more likely to be slightly more "disposable" roles like testers. It still sucks though. It seemed like Blizzard was just printing money.

They're presumably winding down some parts of Diablo 3 development and maybe even Heart of the Swarm, so it could just be that they don't expect to be doing as much in the near future rather than simple cost-cutting.

Re: Blizzard Lays Off 600, Including About 60 Developers

#20

Post by gaius » Wed, Feb 29, 2012, 7:54 PM UTC

ori_b wrote: post #14

dpio wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed, this could be potentially awesome for southern California tech.

I don't know how much difference 60 developers (probably not the best and brightest, as I'd expect Blizzard to hold on to those) would make. I'd be happy to be wrong, though.

Doesn't work like that in layoffs. If an entire business line is cut, individual performance is irrelevant.