Lol. Mike is a bit of a controversial figure, he for sure likes the games and plays them but he also came across during his time at Xbox as a raging console warrior and enjoyed baiting people, then at Blizzard he had both fans and employees annoyed at him and he pissed off Blizzard employees once before with a tone deaf internal email about forcing them to return to the office, he threw quality assurance and customer service employees under the bus by saying they weren't long-term disciplines, he tried to essentially say "poor us too" when he said that executives (like himself) aren't making much money either and people who think otherwise are living in a myth. Caused Blizzard employees to openly trash him on social media, Lol.

But I don't actually think that's why he has left, I've always got the feeling from Mike that he's a bit of a career ladder sort of guy, he was an EVP at Xbox but I'm almost certain he wanted the top spot and when Phil got it over him, he left to become Blizzard CEO, a higher position for his career with likely his sights set on Bobby's seat in the future, but now Matt Booty has essentially took that position, he leaves once again, I think he just cashed out and will go somewhere else where he will try to be the sole leader.

That or he doesn't like working with Phil, Lmao.

The entire industry over hired during covid and I am assuming this is a continuation of the market correction we are seeing industry wide. Additionally, I would imagine a large number of non developer jobs were made redundant by the merger.

It’s really anger inducing that regular workers are having to pay the price for management’s mistakes (over hiring when times were unusual assuming those times would last forever)

Never heard anything about the game itself but I heard the team created a really nice atmosphere and it was one of the least toxic teams inside of Blizzard, which may not be saying much given Blizzards recent history but it wasn't just a "ah it's at least better than shit" it sounded like the team was actually really nice and led by a nice guy who was really trying to remove Blizzard's toxicity.

5,900 video game industry layoffs in 2024 so far, nearly 60% of 2023s total.

That's a lot of people without jobs. Infuriating.

If I was in college or something, looking at this industry as a possible route I want to go into, I'd change my mind after 2023/2024. With all the layoffs, everyone is cutting back on hiring, so it's hard to get a job and if you already do have a job in the industry, good luck because you're going to need to cling onto that one for dear life and hope you're not next in line to be cut, basically have to gamble leaving one job for another.

I've seen multiple developers in the span of the last year get laid off, join another company, only to be laid off from that one too. There's little appreciation for the work you do, the pay can be shit depending on the role, contractors are treated poorly, other roles aren't seen as "essential", go to social media and you're being blasted by fanboys, go to work and you're being worked to the bone for years.

Feels like the gaming industry is heading for a collapse Tbh...Games are selling better than ever but profits still "aren't good enough", meanwhile companies are making billions of dollars in profits still but got to keep them shareholders happy with eternal growth. Yeah, the dumb managers over hiring during the pandemic too.

The Tremendous Yet Troubled State of Gaming in 2024 — MatthewBall.co

Games Industry Leaders Braced 'For Up To Two Years of Pain' | GamesIndustry.biz

I feel like most the cuts will be to marketing, community management, business operations, etc. Because laying off development teams for say, Call of Duty, would be insane considering how much difficulty they're having in yearly releases. It feels like they're merging ABK way faster than they merged Zenimax (which didn't have cuts until years later and only minor ones at that). This fucking sucks.

This is also surprising considering over the past several months, nearly all of Xbox and Bethesda studios have been hiring developers in big amounts, and still are! Quite a few studios have dozens of open positions.

Are these layoffs not tied to development? With how much turn over there's been in the gaming industry, if you get laid off, how many different places are there to go now? We may end up seeing an exodus of people who just don't want to work in the game industry anymore. And I wouldn't blame them.

Lol. Guess him being pushed out is a possibility.

Chris Metzen would be a major upgrade in this case, but who knows who it will be.

Jschreier said:

Yeah, execs don't seem to realise how much "unintentional" damage this could do to the industry. Join a company, get laid off, join another company, get laid off, join another company, get laid off, all in the same industry. At some point, you blame the industry, thousands upon thousands of layoffs every year and it shows no signs of slowing down.

The crazy thing is, we've long been told that there is actually a shortage of talent/developers in the industry.