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Activision Blizzard Cuts 8% of Jobs Amid 'Record Results In 2018' (kotaku.com)
On an earnings call this afternoon, publisher Activision Blizzard said that it would be eliminating 8% of its staff. "In 2018, Activision Blizzard had roughly 9,600 employees, which would mean nearly 800 people are now out of work," reports Kotaku. "This afternoon, the mega-publisher began notifying those who are being laid off across its various organizations, which include Activision, Blizzard, and King." From the report: On the earnings call, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick told investors that the company had "once again achieved record results in 2018" but that the company would be consolidating and restructuring because of missed expectations for 2018 and lowered expectations for 2019. The company said it would be cutting mainly non-game-development departments and bolstering its development staff for franchises like Call of Duty and Diablo. Development sources from across the industry told Kotaku this afternoon that the layoffs have affected Activision publishing, Blizzard, King, and some of Activision's studios, including High Moon. At Blizzard, the layoffs appear to only have affected non-game-development departments, such as publishing and esports, both of which were expected to be hit hard. "Over the last few years, many of our non-development teams expanded to support various needs," Blizzard president J. Allen Brack said in a note to staff. "Currently staffing levels on some teams are out of proportion with our current release slate. This means we need to scale down some areas of our organization. I'm sorry to share that we will be parting ways with some of our colleagues in the U.S. today. In our regional offices, we anticipate similar evaluations, subject to local requirements."
Thankfully, the letter promised "a comprehensive severance package," continued health benefits, career coaching, and job placement assistance as well as profit-sharing bonuses for the previous year to those who are being laid off at Blizzard. "There's no way to make this transition easy for impacted employees, but we are doing what we can to support our colleagues," Brack wrote.
Thankfully, the letter promised "a comprehensive severance package," continued health benefits, career coaching, and job placement assistance as well as profit-sharing bonuses for the previous year to those who are being laid off at Blizzard. "There's no way to make this transition easy for impacted employees, but we are doing what we can to support our colleagues," Brack wrote.
>> the layoffs appear to only have affected non-game-development departments
Good news from the perspective of a Slashdot citizen: tech skills continue to keep us out of the pool of commodity humans.
"It's not even like we don't know what to do:"
Boy you got that right!
" Regulate Wall Street so they can't gamble with our money"
Never going to work... not ever!
The only thing that is going to happen is that new laws designed but make it look like you are getting what you wanted but ultimately will be used to just make you subservient and to further entrench the wealth of the elite into a smaller group of hands.
You, like most others, are going to spend their entire lives under the thumb of the bourgeois because you keep giving them power over you. When you elect someone to perform that regulation you are either going to elect them from the crowd you are trying to regulate or they will join their cause when all of that money get flashed in their face. They will crumble too... and not long after you have already trashed them as part of the problem the moment they make even a single mistake.
" It doesn't do good to put tariffs on China when they can just build their stuff in Mexico and ship it here duty free (lord I shouldn't have to explain that)."
No, you do have to explain that, and what is the real shame is that you figured that much out but still think you can "vote in" relief.
There is only 1 viable source of regulatory control... the consumers, for them to effectively boycott shit businesses and institutions... that is REAL democracy! Voting with your wallets, and as long as you convince yourself that voting in a buyable stooge that is going to betray you to look after the interests you should be looking after you are going to deserve every dagger you get in the back!
It is better to have to deal with the inconveniences of too much liberty than to have to deal with the inconveniences of too little liberty.
Regulation will only work long enough for the generation that put it into place to die, after which it is forgotten and then turned into a bludgeon to further bash over the heads of the next generation... just like College Tuition fees and the near impossibility of getting out from under them even during a bankruptcy.
The entire financial institution from top to bottom is there to treat you like a servant and regardless of the mouth breathing of either party it will be maintained.