The refund is for US consumers who bought the game between December 1, 2017 and January 1, 2019, and while the publisher didn’t say, it’s assumed the refund is a result of the shutdown of the Guitar Hero TV streaming music service in the game. Engadget notes in a piece today that with the shutdown of the game’s streamer, that also culled its library of songs from 484 to just 42 — no doubt frustrating gamers who paid for more songs.
The news about alleged Activision/Blizzard layoffs next week could mean hundreds of great game makers will be without work. We can't have that.
— Mitch Dyer (@MitchyD) February 9, 2019
PLEASE RT this document: a massive list of game dev job opportunities across the world. Help folks find work!https://t.co/UkzvwvyLTi
Company-wide, meanwhile, it looks like Activision Blizzard is also set to announce layoffs tomorrow that could number in the hundreds.
A number of news reports out today single out Destiny teams and support staff as likely most worried about their jobs, given that Activision announced a split from Destiny developer Bungie just last month. Gaming site Kotaku noted that Activision had an entire Destiny team with staff handling everything from public relations to marketing and social media — staffers who have reportedly found limited opportunities to move elsewhere within Activision.
Activision’s stock shed about 10 percent of its value a few days ago after rival gaming companies Electronic Arts and Take-Two Interactive reported less-than-stellar earnings results. One storyline that’s emerged to put all this into context is that free-to-play games like Fortnite have upended the traditional video game business model built around the release of physical titles that consumers buy to play on dedicated consoles.
Electronic Arts shares recovered in value by week’s end after an announcement from the company that its Fortnite rival Apex Legends had quickly picked up 10 million players after just 72 hours.
As far as Activision goes, Bloomberg reported on Friday that the layoffs are part of a restructuring at the company, which employed 9,800 people at the end of 2017. “The game maker, one of the largest in the world, acknowledged on a November conference call that some key titles, such as Overwatch and Hearthstone, were seeing flat or declining numbers of users,” the news service reported. “After disappointing sales of Destiny 2: Forsaken, the company parted ways with its developer, Bungie Inc., a move that could reduce annual revenue by as much as $400 million.”
Activision Blizzard: "Our financial results for 2018 were the best in the company's history"
— James Whitbrook (@Jwhitbrook) February 12, 2019
Also Activision Blizzard: https://t.co/mEU0sDrkEn
My heart is absolutely breaking for those affected by the Activision-Blizzard layoffs today. I've been laid off before by a company I worked so hard for, it's not easy. I'm so, so, SO sorry to those that received that news today ...
— Liana 'LiLi' Ruppert (@DirtyEffinHippy) February 12, 2019
Before you decide the Activision-Blizzard layoffs are a great jumping-off point for your hot take or sick dunk about their games, business decisions, etc... just don’t okay? Today’s gonna be rough for a lot of hardworking people and no one needs your snotty venom in the wound.
— Eric Stirpe (@stirpicus) February 12, 2019
Okay, so, for anyone speculating about this (which I know is not the majority of you, but is still FAR too many people) the lay-offs at Activision-Blizzard this week do not have anything to do with Apex Legends’ success.
— Alanah Pearce 🔜 #DICE19 (@Charalanahzard) February 12, 2019
I promise, that’s... really not how this works.
Posted:
Related Forum: Gaming Discussion
Source: https://kotaku.com/activision-blizzard-begins-massive-layoffs-1832571288
"Activision Blizzard Lays Off Hundreds Of Employees" :: Login/Create an Account :: 8 comments