Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Microsoft lays off 1,900 Activision Blizzard and Xbox employees

theverge.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

221–230 of 322 posts

Re: Microsoft lays off 1,900 Activision Blizzard and Xbox employees

#221

Post by bravetraveler »

JohnFen wrote: post #203
saos wrote: post #12

> It’s been a little over three months since the Activision, Blizzard, and King teams joined Microsoft Always on the table after an acquisition. Especially close to earnings I hope severance is nice for all impacted

Having been through a few acquisitions, I have learned the truth of this. Eventually, I learned that if a company I work for announces they're being acquired, the best course of action for me is to start looking for other opportunities. Even if I'm not laid off (which I haven't been yet in these situations), I'm effectively being hired by a new company that I haven't vetted. It's the perfect opportunity to reassess t…

My first three SysAd gigs got acquired, all three were for the worse.

I'll disclose one long enough ago: HostGator

100% start looking, the company will fundamentally change

Sure, hopefully for the better, but I'm batting 0

Re: Microsoft lays off 1,900 Activision Blizzard and Xbox employees

#222

Post by CoastalCoder »

saos wrote: post #12

> It’s been a little over three months since the Activision, Blizzard, and King teams joined Microsoft Always on the table after an acquisition. Especially close to earnings I hope severance is nice for all impacted

I want to make some joke about Blizzard not releasing software/employees until they're ready, but I can't.

Being laid off just plain sucks.

Re: Microsoft lays off 1,900 Activision Blizzard and Xbox employees

#223

Post by CoastalCoder »

bravetraveler wrote: post #221
JohnFen wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having been through a few acquisitions, I have learned the truth of this. Eventually, I learned that if a company I work for announces they're being acquired, the best course of action for me is to start looking for other opportunities. Even if I'm not laid off (which I haven't been yet in these situations), I'm effectively being hired by a new company that I haven't vetted. It's the perfect opportunity to reassess t…

My first three SysAd gigs got acquired, all three were for the worse. I'll disclose one long enough ago: HostGator 100% start looking, the company will fundamentally change Sure, hopefully for the better, but I'm batting 0

Glass half full perspective: you're pretty good at picking new employers :)

I.e., the post-merger companies aren't as good as your own picks.

Re: Microsoft lays off 1,900 Activision Blizzard and Xbox employees

#224

Post by araes »

iammjm wrote: post #3

"primarily laying off roles at Activision Blizzard, some Xbox and ZeniMax employees will also be impacted / work out to roughly 8 percent of the overall Microsoft Gaming division that stands at around 22,000 employees in total." 2k employees look like a lot, 8% looks kinda better. I need Starcraft 3 badly :)

The 22,000 number makes it look better, yet if they're "mostly" coming out of the Blizactivision employees, then the real math is ~1900/9200 (Wikipedia article number), or 20%. So, welcome to Microsoft, there goes 1/5 of your coworkers.

Re: Microsoft lays off 1,900 Activision Blizzard and Xbox employees

#225

Post by CoastalCoder »

nebula8804 wrote: post #196
solardev wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same, in 20+ years doing this, I've never seen it this bad.

Were you around for the dot com crash? You said 20 years so it sounds like you started when the wave began right after the crash.

I was lucky enough to work for the DoD during the .com crash, but not this time.

I guess the silver lining is that I can now better emphasize with the challenges of protracted unemployment.

Re: Microsoft lays off 1,900 Activision Blizzard and Xbox employees

#226

Post by honkycat »

seydor wrote: post #87

Last time the stock market was surging, everyone was hiring. This time it's different

Check out section 174.

Due to some GREAT legislation you can no longer write off engineers as an expense... it makes SWEs a tax liability instead of a write-off.

https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/section-174/

Re: Microsoft lays off 1,900 Activision Blizzard and Xbox employees

#227

Post by ajkjk »

WhackyIdeas wrote: post #134

I keep hearing of huge lay-offs. I wonder, is this the result of LLM’s making everything just so much quicker to code develop? I mean as soon as ChatGPT 3.5 came out, it was the first question on people’s minds so I am guessing that it’s all related and with each advancement in AI there will be more layoffs. Maybe the future consists of multibillion-pound companies which only have 1 staff member (the cleaner) to get…

Of course it's not because of LLMs. This happens after every acquisition. Anyway do you think LLMs are magic or something?

Re: Microsoft lays off 1,900 Activision Blizzard and Xbox employees

#228

Post by 0xfae »

blibble wrote: post #104
FirmwareBurner wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>spoiler warning! I think when an IP is over 10 years old, you don't need to warn for spoilers anymore, Dumbledore dies in the end.

> I think when an IP is over 10 years old, you don't need to warn for spoilers Legacy of the Void was released in November 2015

Fenix didn't die in LotV.

Does every new harry potter book or movie that comes out reset the timer on spoiling that dumbledore dies?

This isn't mickey mouse and disney extending copyright law into perpetuity, this is a nicety among people to not spoil things until people have a change to experience it themselves.

Re: Microsoft lays off 1,900 Activision Blizzard and Xbox employees

#229

Post by jallen_dot_dev »

kirse wrote: post #216
vhiremath4 wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Coming from both a place of kindness and a place of selfishness: 1. Please keep at it. We need more people with experience staying in software. I don’t know your financial situation, but software is huge and something will land! 2. Based on this comment, I highly recommend likely not ever starting a company. It’s fucking hard, and it’s not glamorous. And even though it’s hard times in the macro, it’s actually way har…

It’s fucking hard, and it’s not glamorous "Fucking hard" compared to what? Things I'd qualify under the category of "fucking hard": - Agricultural Farming - Lifetime debilitating disease / health issue - Being enslaved or a POW - Living in a 3rd world country - Moving West in the 1800s - Fighting in the American Revolutionary or Civil War This narrative that starting a company is "fucking hard" is all part of the SV/…

Compared to a 9-5 in tech? Which is what they're suggesting instead.

What is the point of moralizing?

Re: Microsoft lays off 1,900 Activision Blizzard and Xbox employees

#230

Post by graphe »

FirmwareBurner wrote: post #199
graphe wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So did the homeworld series. Story isn't enough. AoE2 had online and so did StarCraft so they stayed. Homeworld never got that, without the story, multiplayer and mods it's not quite up there. I remember CoH2 was popular, but you're right it's hard for me to want to try something other than AoE2 or SC, when they're pretty perfect.

> Story isn't enough. Characters and stories is everything. It keeps consumers invested and loyal to the franchise, even when the gameplay is boring and repetative, instead of jumping ship to a game with equal mechanics. It's why so many still cosplay as Kerrigan, Mario, Link, etc. It's how so many people remember Ezio and Altair instead of the other forgettable characters that followed.

People cosplay for many reasons and attachment to a character is rarely one of them. Most female cosplay thirst trapping from fans of the looks who looked good in a gantz suit.

I see fromsoft cosplay and the main character with no lines as well. It may be as factor but it's far from "everything". Bioshock infinite was a crappy game with a good cosplay character who most who cosplay as her have no idea what bioshock infinite is.

Post reply on HN