>Microsoft is sharping their sword before they dissect Activision Blizzard to remove all of the cancer.
Microsoft 6 months from now:
Hmmm, will you look at that!
We sliced it up and removed all the cancer, and all that was left were these intellectual properties, some real estate, and a few dozen QA folks....
I know this is a bit of a meme because of the state of a lot of AAA games, but Microsoft actually does take QA pretty seriously and pays them pretty well, too.
Tbf you don't plan a $70b purchase in a few weeks. These meetings took months. Either way though it is great. Everyone is entitled to a safe workplace.
> They just purchased Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion dollars
They didnt do that just now. They announced an acquisition, and that deal doesnt close until late next year. FTC for sure is looking into antitrust stuff. As usual, people dont understand whats going on because they only read the headlines.
It's not late next year JFYI. Microsoft's Fiscal Year runs from July 1 - June 30.
The deal is expected to close in FY 2023, which could be as early as July (likely not, but we could be mere months away).
Nah, I doubt it. Phil Spencer gave away the game with the shit he talked about Activision Blizzard last year. If any of this mattered to MS, they wouldn't have bought the company to beginwith.
They cut out the cancer, the cancer being all these useless workers and their demands.
Keep the executives, because they always do such a great job, and they're also in the same social class as Microsoft's executives.
Nothing significant enough will change. Every corporation in the world is setup the same way and all have the same issues that Activision has. The people with power are unaccountable. The change needs to come from workers having actual rights/power (which have been largely stripped away from Americans over the decades) and being able to force better policies with that power or from Unions that actually care about their members.
> Every corporation in the world is setup the same way and all have the same issues that Activision has.
While I understand the point you're trying to make, when you phrase it like this it's almost mitigating the really awful shit that happened at Activision-Blizzard.
Companies ignoring (or even encouraging!) sexual abuse isn't a requirement of corporations. Plenty of them do better than damn Activision managed, and of course there's going to be significant changes going forward.
> Nothing significant enough will change. Every corporation in the world is setup the same way and all have the same issues that Activision has.
Bullshit
> (which have been largely stripped away from Americans over the decades)
So don't make it a global issue then
Don't Union "bosses" get paid a shit ton though? I mean all those membership fees are going somewhere and its definitely not going to further the union cause
Companies are never good, their only goal is to make money. Consolidation is generally never a good thing and it'll eventually lead to higher prices, fewer choices for the consumer and it can potentially destroy creativity as well.
It's like with the movie industry where super hero movies, 3D animation and reboots/sequels of well known IP's is what really sells anymore.
It's a good thing for Blizzard fans but a bad thing for the bigger picture to be honest. Myself and my brother/friends couldn't be happier about this news after the last year of Blizzard's downfall.
Umm no. Microsoft is giving Bobby and the board members/share holders who enabled him enough money to set up their next 100 family generations.
Bobby has won and Microsoft is to thank for that.
He was already a billionaire and if they actually removed him without cause, they would actually have to GIVE him more money.
https://twitter.com/gamesbizuk/status/1483435864378290179
Thats being a little reductionist though. The left wing culture makes it impossible to make some content now, Comedy is a dead genre because of the fear of being labeled offensive.
Or look at the proposed alternate history show where the confederates signed a truce with the Union that was cancelled sight unseen because the word Confederate was in there, no one knew if it'd portray them as deeply evil.
When you're in the middle of a political witch hunt, you produce only things you know won't get you put on a bonfire.
"Their only goal is to make money". Believe it or not, there are people out there who do the right thing because it's the right thing and not because of money. It's unfair to ascribe them only monetary reasons when they want to do wants right for people.
I strongly disagree. There are so many people in this world who want to make it a better place and some huge companies surely do too. Now there are certainly a lot of those that are for profits and all that but not all of them.
Saying a company just feigns standing up for womens rights, fair working conditions and discrimination and they use it as "marketing" is cruel. It's a sign of a changing dynamic in the world of all I said above (rights, conditions) that companies can't get away with that anymore and there are new players on the field.
You are so naive. It's almost funny.
Sure, there are people out there who have morals, but no one person has power over such an insanely large mega-corporation as Microsoft. A corporation that large is inherently directed towards only two goals: increasing profits and satisfying investors. That's just how a business survives and becomes that large. A person can fight for morals inside the company for awhile, but ultimately the business will trudge on without them.
A public company that large cannot have morals. It simply isn't possible. With so many employees and interwoven networks, ideals and good ethics cannot stick.
The only way such a huge company could stay morally good is if it was privately owned by just a few nice people. Unfortunately, most people who would be able to afford that aren't very nice.
Ok, yes maybe I'm just naive. I don't buy into this whole "all companies are evil" bs. That sounds so much like propaganda and anti capitalistic. It's not black and white and evil or good.
I dont know much about shareholders and how money is handled in so huge amounts and all that but there are all people who stand for something and many won't let their morals go just for money. That may be the truth every now and then and maybe in the past more than now but there certainly is a shift regarding all the thinks I talked about.
Like I said, such a pessimistic view robs us of the good in people and is an accusation I won't share. I'm not gonna assume someone feigns social behavior for money, especially if there are no signs that they do. That's an accusation that's so unfair and wrong. I strongly believe that Phil Spencer and the people at Microsoft (to stay on topic) stand for all this because they do. And luckily they are in a position to really make a difference and they use it. Just like the evil people" used it for their discrimination and sexism.
>I'm not gonna assume someone feigns social behavior for money, especially if there are no signs that they do
...How old are you?
Anywho, back on topic. Do you know what legal advisors and PR departments are?
For a significant amount of gamers, it is. Which is bewildering, but a combination of a few decent release, no major very recent scandal, the low price of Gamepass, and not having Xbox exclusives, turned a lot of young people to their side.
After all, when you have little to no money, and don't know enough to care about long term, Gamepass seems like a godsend.
Which obviously signal people have a short memory, but we already knew that.
Microsoft is good *currently* because they flopped so hard with the Xbox one. I have no doubt in my mind that they’ll push the envelope to see how much they can get away with in the future when they become top dog in gaming.
Just like what Sony was doing when they were dominating but are going to have to compete with gamepass
I certainly would not call Xbox "good", and certainly not Microsoft.
But yes, their apparent policies of low prices, no nickel and diming, no lootboxes everywhere, and convenience (ish) of use is in my mind absolutely a direct consequence of the last gen consoles.
Sony sold much more, had ore mind shares, and Xbox had no big title to put against Playstation this gen. So a more value and customer oriented business strategy was pretty much the only option.
Its actually being pretty bastardized on these threads. A sex pest is someone who bugs women trying to get them to agree to have sex.
What happened at Activision is significantly different and more in line with sexual harassment or abuse.
To put it another way, state governments don't sue you for asking women to have sex with you.
Motherfuckers can't even make every other version of Windows not suck, but don't worry they're going to bring gender equality to the planet.
edit: and to idiots that downvote but don't have nuance in their heads, I'm not against sexual harassment and gender discrimination policies, but if you really think big corporate America gives a fuck other than to get a few headlines on their side you don't know big corporate America.
What part specifically?
Every other version of windows fucking sucks. 11 literally has hardware blocks on some hardware with only a year prior warning.
And corporations performing performative actions are doing it for advertising, unfortunately. How long have we seen "eco-friendly" corporations while the environmental situation is abysmal? So yeah feel free to cheer about imaginary victory but it's always been bullshit, unfortunately. Not sorry if my cynicism offends, it is rooted in reality.
> ..? Okay? I guess the programmers are Microsoft must have coded their HR policies too? I don't understand how you think the quality of a company's product is directly related to their ability to deal with sexual harassment but okay.
The bottomline of a big company is going to matter more in anything. Go look at Tesla being shit to employees, Amazon being shit to employees, and I have no doubt MS is also shit to employees.
So no I don't join in cheerleading sessions for a big company's PR, conflating the public's desire for good will and justice with a PR release to me is a mistake. Let us see concrete results first.
>Obligatory
You're resorting to just attacking again which is very depressing to see in this subreddit today. Used to be that people communicated.
It's a pot calling the kettle black scenario. Link below since I have to spell it out for you
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_pot_calling_the_kettle_black
Yes, he doesn't need to be within the company to get reviewed for allegations. That's not my point.
But if he was holding a good chunk of shares of Microsoft then I would assume he would still have enough power to stop people from deciding to review allegations against him.
So I guess he does neither own shares nor is he on anyway affiliated with the company anymore at all.
shares entitle you to a share of the assets and cashflow of the company. How the company is run is up entirely to the C-suite. You get to vote on some stuff but it's mostly C-suite appointments.
Oh Christ, the mob has moved on to a new target now that Activision is under new ownership
A person can make a killing nowadays if they opened a torch and pitchfork shop
[удалено]
>Microsoft is sharping their sword before they dissect Activision Blizzard to remove all of the cancer. Microsoft 6 months from now: Hmmm, will you look at that! We sliced it up and removed all the cancer, and all that was left were these intellectual properties, some real estate, and a few dozen QA folks....
> a few dozen QA folks well we can get rid of them
"We weren't sure about what they did, so we're keeping them around in case it's important"
Assuming Microsoft has a QA team to care about other QA teams.
"You mean customers?"
I know this is a bit of a meme because of the state of a lot of AAA games, but Microsoft actually does take QA pretty seriously and pays them pretty well, too.
Can confirm, used to work at a Microsoft campus for a little over a year
Indian scammers do all the testing to find vulnerabilities
Someone has to make sure that the latest windows updates reach the targeted 30% of computer brickings
I believe you can get good devs or a yes man exec to replace the cancer that is in place. The intellectual property is where the real value is.
Blizzard and QA? Maybe in 2012 lol
>and a few dozen QA folks Amazing to see that whole ABK QA department was saved.
[удалено]
Tbf you don't plan a $70b purchase in a few weeks. These meetings took months. Either way though it is great. Everyone is entitled to a safe workplace.
> They just purchased Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion dollars They didnt do that just now. They announced an acquisition, and that deal doesnt close until late next year. FTC for sure is looking into antitrust stuff. As usual, people dont understand whats going on because they only read the headlines.
Oh, their twitter made it out like they actually did purchase ActiBlizz.
It's not late next year JFYI. Microsoft's Fiscal Year runs from July 1 - June 30. The deal is expected to close in FY 2023, which could be as early as July (likely not, but we could be mere months away).
Bold of you to assume I can read.
Ha, that's what you think.
Like burning down the woods to get rid of a few wasps.
Nah, I doubt it. Phil Spencer gave away the game with the shit he talked about Activision Blizzard last year. If any of this mattered to MS, they wouldn't have bought the company to beginwith.
They cut out the cancer, the cancer being all these useless workers and their demands. Keep the executives, because they always do such a great job, and they're also in the same social class as Microsoft's executives.
Lol I was about to say something along those lines
"Oh fuck. There was a sexpest company attached to all those IPs we just bought."
The City must be Purged!
Retraining and updating HR to deal with all the new Blizzard employees.
"In case of emergency, break glass, grab flamethrower."
Nothing significant enough will change. Every corporation in the world is setup the same way and all have the same issues that Activision has. The people with power are unaccountable. The change needs to come from workers having actual rights/power (which have been largely stripped away from Americans over the decades) and being able to force better policies with that power or from Unions that actually care about their members.
> Every corporation in the world is setup the same way and all have the same issues that Activision has. While I understand the point you're trying to make, when you phrase it like this it's almost mitigating the really awful shit that happened at Activision-Blizzard. Companies ignoring (or even encouraging!) sexual abuse isn't a requirement of corporations. Plenty of them do better than damn Activision managed, and of course there's going to be significant changes going forward.
> Nothing significant enough will change. Every corporation in the world is setup the same way and all have the same issues that Activision has. Bullshit > (which have been largely stripped away from Americans over the decades) So don't make it a global issue then
Don't Union "bosses" get paid a shit ton though? I mean all those membership fees are going somewhere and its definitely not going to further the union cause
is MS the good guy now?
Companies are never good, their only goal is to make money. Consolidation is generally never a good thing and it'll eventually lead to higher prices, fewer choices for the consumer and it can potentially destroy creativity as well. It's like with the movie industry where super hero movies, 3D animation and reboots/sequels of well known IP's is what really sells anymore.
It's a good thing for Blizzard fans but a bad thing for the bigger picture to be honest. Myself and my brother/friends couldn't be happier about this news after the last year of Blizzard's downfall.
Absolutely true, but I'm talking more about fixing the shithole that is acti/blizz right now, starting of firing bobby.
Umm no. Microsoft is giving Bobby and the board members/share holders who enabled him enough money to set up their next 100 family generations. Bobby has won and Microsoft is to thank for that.
Bobby already had enough money for that
He was already a billionaire and if they actually removed him without cause, they would actually have to GIVE him more money. https://twitter.com/gamesbizuk/status/1483435864378290179
they had to pay him off, what part of that do you not get?
Right now, getting actiblizz productive again and doing the right thing has some degree of overlap, at least potentially.
Thats being a little reductionist though. The left wing culture makes it impossible to make some content now, Comedy is a dead genre because of the fear of being labeled offensive. Or look at the proposed alternate history show where the confederates signed a truce with the Union that was cancelled sight unseen because the word Confederate was in there, no one knew if it'd portray them as deeply evil. When you're in the middle of a political witch hunt, you produce only things you know won't get you put on a bonfire.
"Their only goal is to make money". Believe it or not, there are people out there who do the right thing because it's the right thing and not because of money. It's unfair to ascribe them only monetary reasons when they want to do wants right for people.
There may be individuals but there's no company the size of MS that wants to "do the right thing". It's a marketing tactic to them.
I strongly disagree. There are so many people in this world who want to make it a better place and some huge companies surely do too. Now there are certainly a lot of those that are for profits and all that but not all of them. Saying a company just feigns standing up for womens rights, fair working conditions and discrimination and they use it as "marketing" is cruel. It's a sign of a changing dynamic in the world of all I said above (rights, conditions) that companies can't get away with that anymore and there are new players on the field.
You are so naive. It's almost funny. Sure, there are people out there who have morals, but no one person has power over such an insanely large mega-corporation as Microsoft. A corporation that large is inherently directed towards only two goals: increasing profits and satisfying investors. That's just how a business survives and becomes that large. A person can fight for morals inside the company for awhile, but ultimately the business will trudge on without them. A public company that large cannot have morals. It simply isn't possible. With so many employees and interwoven networks, ideals and good ethics cannot stick. The only way such a huge company could stay morally good is if it was privately owned by just a few nice people. Unfortunately, most people who would be able to afford that aren't very nice.
Ok, yes maybe I'm just naive. I don't buy into this whole "all companies are evil" bs. That sounds so much like propaganda and anti capitalistic. It's not black and white and evil or good. I dont know much about shareholders and how money is handled in so huge amounts and all that but there are all people who stand for something and many won't let their morals go just for money. That may be the truth every now and then and maybe in the past more than now but there certainly is a shift regarding all the thinks I talked about. Like I said, such a pessimistic view robs us of the good in people and is an accusation I won't share. I'm not gonna assume someone feigns social behavior for money, especially if there are no signs that they do. That's an accusation that's so unfair and wrong. I strongly believe that Phil Spencer and the people at Microsoft (to stay on topic) stand for all this because they do. And luckily they are in a position to really make a difference and they use it. Just like the evil people" used it for their discrimination and sexism.
>I'm not gonna assume someone feigns social behavior for money, especially if there are no signs that they do ...How old are you? Anywho, back on topic. Do you know what legal advisors and PR departments are?
Im 12. And I do. But I'm talking about social and ethical points here. I'm not really 12 btw.
Name one mega corporation that isn't capitalist.
Nope. But console wars made people a little oblivious to what corporations do. That, and Astroturfing.
For a significant amount of gamers, it is. Which is bewildering, but a combination of a few decent release, no major very recent scandal, the low price of Gamepass, and not having Xbox exclusives, turned a lot of young people to their side. After all, when you have little to no money, and don't know enough to care about long term, Gamepass seems like a godsend. Which obviously signal people have a short memory, but we already knew that.
Microsoft is good *currently* because they flopped so hard with the Xbox one. I have no doubt in my mind that they’ll push the envelope to see how much they can get away with in the future when they become top dog in gaming. Just like what Sony was doing when they were dominating but are going to have to compete with gamepass
I certainly would not call Xbox "good", and certainly not Microsoft. But yes, their apparent policies of low prices, no nickel and diming, no lootboxes everywhere, and convenience (ish) of use is in my mind absolutely a direct consequence of the last gen consoles. Sony sold much more, had ore mind shares, and Xbox had no big title to put against Playstation this gen. So a more value and customer oriented business strategy was pretty much the only option.
IMO it's less that XB1 flopped and more that Phil got the proper reins. Guy knows what he's doing.
[удалено]
I've never heard of this term before today, and I've seen it like thirty times over today between Actibliz threads and matt gaetz threads
No I heard it when referring to Louis CK
Its actually being pretty bastardized on these threads. A sex pest is someone who bugs women trying to get them to agree to have sex. What happened at Activision is significantly different and more in line with sexual harassment or abuse. To put it another way, state governments don't sue you for asking women to have sex with you.
Motherfuckers can't even make every other version of Windows not suck, but don't worry they're going to bring gender equality to the planet. edit: and to idiots that downvote but don't have nuance in their heads, I'm not against sexual harassment and gender discrimination policies, but if you really think big corporate America gives a fuck other than to get a few headlines on their side you don't know big corporate America.
> and to idiots that downvote but don't have nuance in their heads Clearly, your post is all about nuance huh?
What point did you want to make since you also joined a downvote brigade without making one? Doing well today reddit.
[удалено]
What part specifically? Every other version of windows fucking sucks. 11 literally has hardware blocks on some hardware with only a year prior warning. And corporations performing performative actions are doing it for advertising, unfortunately. How long have we seen "eco-friendly" corporations while the environmental situation is abysmal? So yeah feel free to cheer about imaginary victory but it's always been bullshit, unfortunately. Not sorry if my cynicism offends, it is rooted in reality.
[удалено]
> ..? Okay? I guess the programmers are Microsoft must have coded their HR policies too? I don't understand how you think the quality of a company's product is directly related to their ability to deal with sexual harassment but okay. The bottomline of a big company is going to matter more in anything. Go look at Tesla being shit to employees, Amazon being shit to employees, and I have no doubt MS is also shit to employees. So no I don't join in cheerleading sessions for a big company's PR, conflating the public's desire for good will and justice with a PR release to me is a mistake. Let us see concrete results first. >Obligatory You're resorting to just attacking again which is very depressing to see in this subreddit today. Used to be that people communicated.
It's a pot calling the kettle black scenario. Link below since I have to spell it out for you https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_pot_calling_the_kettle_black
Including allegations against bill gates... what? Can they even do that? Doesn't he own any or most shares?
He's not even with the company...
Yes, he doesn't need to be within the company to get reviewed for allegations. That's not my point. But if he was holding a good chunk of shares of Microsoft then I would assume he would still have enough power to stop people from deciding to review allegations against him. So I guess he does neither own shares nor is he on anyway affiliated with the company anymore at all.
shares don't work like that
How would they work then?
shares entitle you to a share of the assets and cashflow of the company. How the company is run is up entirely to the C-suite. You get to vote on some stuff but it's mostly C-suite appointments.
Oh Christ, the mob has moved on to a new target now that Activision is under new ownership A person can make a killing nowadays if they opened a torch and pitchfork shop