“While our financial results for 2018 were the best in our history, we didn’t realize our full potential.” — Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby "Moneyball" Kotick
This is some fuckin scummery.
eat the rich. 15 chars
That fucking chart in there.
Thanks Patrick. Eat the rich.
ETA: I really want to say thanks to Waypoint for putting such an extreme amount of time and effort into education about these things. Given that I follow the industry at large, I probably would have wisened up to labor stuff in time regardless because it has consumed the industry so thoroughly now, but I’m very grateful for the past… year and a half or so of following Waypoint, and what I’ve learned about supporting unions and workers. It has accelerated my knowledge on the topic and helped me talk to less-aware gamers around me.
Thanks.
Activision could also at least pay their fucking taxes too.
This really cuts to the heart of the issue. Every time circumstances like this have come up recently, there has been an understandable call for greater unionization. Make no mistake, that is 100% necessary. But it’s not close to sufficient.
Unless the over-sized, short-sighted influence of the investor class is massively reduced, this is going to keep happening. Unions can help treat the symptoms - which is vital - but the disease is still rampant.
This sucks so much. You could make an argument that the jobs they were cutting weren’t needed. But you can’t be giving million dollar bonuses while cutting a ton of jobs and at the same time saying you had a record year. Nah thats a straight dick move.
As much as we love some of these companies we need to realize they can cut you off at any moment. The industry needs to unionize ASAP.
Thanks Waypoint for pointing all this out and really putting on the pressure.
At least they got severance I guess. This is super fucking rough.
I know that the business world at this level operates by it’s own rules that don’t necessarily make any logical sense, but boy this entire situation seems at odds with itself.
Made record profits - that are disappointing because they weren’t record breaking enough
The profits prove that Activision has a successful strategy - so let’s restructure and shake things up
Cut 8% of the people responsible for generating those profits - management remains untouched
I’m hollerin at this headline
eat the rich
Hey so probably a dumbass question but what can we do as consumers or gamers or whatever that is supportive and productive in this scenario? Like this sucks ass but beyond retweeting the article I don’t really know what I can do (and saying a retweet is doing something is laughable). Any thoughts, advice, or reading material greatly appreciated.
Thank you for writing this, Patrick, and for the way you wrote it.
And echoing what’s been said already, thank you Waypoint for making this a point you won’t drop.
As for many circumstances, Fobwashed said it best:
A short term boost in company profits by some executives to get fat bonus checks. To hell with the lives of employees and to hell with the company’s long term ability to produce quality vidya games. By that time said executives will have moved on to some other company seeking their next big paycheque.
Find, support, elect labor-friendly policy makers.
The literature on the effectiveness of boycotts, individual consumer choices, etc. is not exactly scientifically rigorous (can’t exactly do a double-blind study), but the sad truth is that media attention is far more effective at pressuring corporations than any direct action. So, like, share and subscribe, I guess.
Firefox or adblock or something is being crummy with the embeds. What did Patrick put after “Oh, and there’s this:”?
Numbers showing that they’re paying 9% more dividends to stockholders, in case that embed doesn’t work either.
Euh… This is such sickening news to wake up to.
Hey folks,
We’d ask that you please refrain from the guillotine stuff. We get it, but on a Vice platform such as this there are certain risks to using violent or otherwise inappropriate language that could cause trouble for the staff overseeing it. There are other places that are a better fit for that sort of thing, and we hope that even in the absence of that particular sentiment we can all agree that the imbalance of wealth/power that brought about this news is wholly unjust and worth fighting wherever possible.
Thanks
I read earlier today that Bobby Kotick is personally worth $7 billion, to put his own $30 million/year salary into perspective.
