With the speed at which news comes out in the gaming industry we sometimes miss important or news worthy things. Some of these things we want to talk about in a way that is both easy for you guys and allows us to get all the facts together as some of these stories develop quickly. Sometimes we also just cover topics that we find interesting and want to discuss.

Bloomberg reports Activision’s plan to cut jobs

As reported by Bloomberg Activision Blizzard Inc. has announced its plans to lay off employees on Tuesday due to slow sales affect stock prices. The Bloomberg article continues to by stating the layoffs could number in the hundreds is an attempt to restructure and centralizing to boost profits.

Source: https://techraptor.net

Wiggin’s thoughts on the subject:  It’s always interesting when game publishers downsize especially publicly traded ones. I mean they must not be meeting expectations and see the only way to make expectations next quarter is to cut staff. On the other hand is this a signal the games they were creating were not what consumers wanted. Destiny 2: Forsaken had disappointing sales accord to a sales call in November along with the split from Bungie Inc. would reduce annual revenue but as much as $400 million as stated in the Bloomberg article. I can’t help but wonder what the project revenue for some of these titles is supposed to be. What number are they giving investors that would make these goals unachievable? EA recently was disappointed by “only” selling 7.3 million copies of Battlefield V. That is crazy to me, how is 7.3 a failure? I get that they want to make money, but it really seems like they want to make ALL the money not just some. There is a finite number of video game players in the world and the idea that those players only play your one game and will spend untold amount of money on just your product seems delusional at best. Then again 7.3 million copies of one game was sold so maybe I’m the one delusional with just how wide spread and far reach a title can be. Back to the topic of Activision Blizzard they may need to readjust their expectations, or they could not pay their CFO a $15 million bonus. I can only hope these trends in game design and all or nothing mentality changes soon, but I fear it will take a shift in consumer spending to force these companies to make a change.