It’s safe to say that the gaming industry in its current form is doing better than ever before, financially at least. Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick recently gleefully informed investors that the company had experienced a “record year” in sales; but alas, at the same time some 800 employees from across the company report being beckoned into offices and ordered to empty out their desks. It’s a move that one employee described as “a bloodbath”.
Despite this year’s success for Activision, it was reportedly an “open secret” in the company that cuts would be coming, however, the full scope of the lay-offs was unprecedented. The company, which last year employed 9,100 people, slashed 8% of its entire workforce in the past week. Some were junior staff, whilst others had been working for Activision for as long as 15 years. Sources report that cuts primarily came from support teams, QA and IT, in addition, the teams behind Destiny and those focused on Blizzard titles, in particular, faced the sack. So, the big question that’s on everyone’s minds is why?
Well, despite a record annual performance, Activision Blizzard reported how its holiday sales had been particularly weak, and it’s not a surprise with Black Ops 4 having to compete with games like Fortnite and Red Dead Redemption 2. In addition, it has been stated that the company’s fortunes for 2019 are looking gloomy. However, it’s reasoning to callously slash positions left and right was solely out a desire to increase the amount of money going into the pockets of shareholders and investors. Oh, might I say what an excruciatingly noble sacrifice the fat cats had to make, tossing the pawns out in a disgusting degree of decadence and greed. The depravity of people like Bobby Kotick is sickening. Why not, oh I don’t know, take a cut out of your own bloated salary, Mr Kotick himself wouldn’t struggle too much with his own net worth of $7 billion!
And it’s not even as if this is an unheard-of move, back in 2011 Nintendo’s president and board of directors unanimously came to the agreement to make substantial pay cuts to themselves by 50%. This came following poor sales regarding the 3DS, and instead of turning his wrath on their employees, the late company President Satoru Iwata took responsibility for their cock-up and announced to investors that his salary of $770,000 would be cut in half. Such is an example of leading with integrity, an example that Kotick will remain blissfully ignorant to out of his own shameless greed.
