Blizzard/Microsoft Unions Grow Ahead of Mass Layoffs at Microsoft, Apparently Starting Next Week (as Many as 30,000 Workers Laid Off by Year's End)
Microsoft already fired about 5,000-6,000 workers this year by our estimates; that's not counting resignations compelled through pressure (i.e. pushed, did not jump) and contractors
The atmosphere at IBM and Microsoft is really bad. I heard this from Microsoft staff. Yesterday we compared IBM to Microsoft, noting the impact on contractors (the media hardly reports on that). Those two companies combined might get rid of 50,000 workers this year as debt soars and no turnaround is foreseen, only tariffs*.
Scanning for new commentary in the IBM 'forums', this one person noted: "Also if they target getting rid of contractors they don't have to report those since contractors are not IBM employees" (WARN notices are flawed by design; they can also be bypassed by firing under 20 people at the time, in each site, but in many sites)."
Another person said: "PIPs have been flying out for weeks now. [...] PIPS are always in play. Depends on what way the wind is blowing and what groups are targeted for thinning."
This is how IBM gets many people to resign. Microsoft does the same thing (the acronyms vary somewhat; they're also misleading by intention).
Some hours ago someone wrote: "I would not say hate is the right word. IBMers present and part are just very frustrated due to the many years of extensive layoffs via PIPs or RAs. As many corporate consultants have stated, “You cannot cut your way to growth”. Yes, IBM has had revenue growth lately, but it is conservative growth in the single digits while competitors are enjoying much great revenue growth percentages. So let’s see what happens a little while longer before you proclaim Arvind a hero."
The more interesting comments, however, are about Microsoft, for example: "This kind of sh-t is why I've left other companies. If you need to have above average performance to be considered normal, you better be fu--ing paying my a-s above average, and with their 5 year vesting sh-t, they sure aren't."
Someone there tried to shed doubt on next week's layoffs. The original poster (OP) said: "To the comment “This is all speculation. Rumor mill” I will say let’s both return to this thread next week and admit who ended up being wrong or right. Its only Rumor mill if it’s not proven, and like I said there are already large M1 meetings scheduled for the 12th."
It meanwhile seems likely that gaming staff, knowing how appalling a performance the XBox unit had (tons of layoffs last year, too), prepares for the worst. Read as: layoffs. These people did not choose to work for Microsoft, they got acquired when Microsoft lied to the FTC and now that the FTC is run by the Microsoft-funded "MAGA" they have no prospect of salvation. So they unionised. This was reported hours ago:
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Overwatch dev team forms union with Blizzard – CWA
Over 200 members of Blizzard Team 4, which is the Overwatch 2 dev group, have unionized with CWA recognition.
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Blizzard’s Overwatch 2 development team has unionised
The nearly 200 developers behind Overwatch 2 at Blizzard Entertainment have unionised. This is the second Blizzard team to unionise in the last year, after over 500 World of Warcraft developers formed the studio’s largest union in last July.
The developers have joined the Communications Workers of America (CWA) union, the largest media and comms labour union in the United States, with approximately 700,000 members nationwide. In a press release, CWA said, “the Overwatch Gamemakers Guild-CWA (OWGG-CWA) is a wall-to-wall unit that includes game developers across all disciplines, including design, production, engineering, art, sound, and quality assurance”.
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Almost 200 members of Blizzard's Overwatch 2 team have unionized: "The biggest issue was the layoffs at the beginning of 2024"
Most of the Overwatch 2 development team has formed the second wall-to-wall union under Blizzard since the World of Warcraft team voted to organize in July 2024.
Per Kotaku, almost 200 Overwatch 2 developers — pretty much everyone who isn't a supervisor or part of the management team — have joined the Communications Workers of America (CWA) as Overwatch Gamemakers Guild-CWA.
"Game developers behind Activision Blizzard's hit franchise Overwatch have joined the Communications Workers of America (CWA), becoming the latest group of video game workers at Microsoft-owned studios to form a wall-to-wall union," the CWA said in a press release. "A neutral arbitrator confirmed today that an overwhelming majority of workers have either signed a union authorization card or indicated that they wanted union representation via an online portal."
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Blizzard's Overwatch Team Just Unionized: 'What I Want To Protect Most Here Is The People'
The Overwatch 2 team at Blizzard has unionized. That includes nearly 200 developers across disciplines ranging from art and testing to engineering and design. Basically anyone who doesn’t have someone else reporting to them. It’s the second wall-to-wall union at the storied game maker since the World of Warcraft team unionized last July.
Many of them will probably lose their job soon. If they resort to collective bargaining or if they all resign at once, that might actually be chaotic to Microsoft. █
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* More to note regarding tariffs and XBox, as it seems the gaming unit is rapidly collapsing. "Those tariff price hikes are catastrophic to something like Xbox," Ryan explained in IRC. "It's something people don't even need. They're not even just limiting these $200 and $250 price hikes to the damn console. But to plastic discs with games, or downloaded games with DRM that don't get manufactured and imported on discs at all. It costs Microsoft less than ever to distribute games. They just make you download it into a console which has no other purpose than DRM which now costs $250 more in one go than it did before. And so they raise the price on games by something like $10-$20 each too? To compensate for the $0 it costs to put them on media, pay retailers, etc. Right. They don't even pay that anymore so they could lower prices if they wanted to on the games and still come out level. So where's the justification for $80 games if you're not even burning the discs in Mexico and putting them on a truck and selling them at a store? There's no costs at all. No tariffs. It's greedflation. I categorically refuse to buy something that has no other purpose than to download software that I pay that much for, then prevent me from putting it on another computer. I got burned pretty badly on the Xbox 360 with all the red rings of death until Microsoft replaced like 8 of them, I think under warranty. Then the replacement died too a few weeks later. Then I could never keep it running long enough to win a game so I sold it on Craigslist. Then Microsoft kept charging my credit card for Xbox live and wouldn't even cancel it until I managed somehow to talk to the VP of Xbox. I'm done. I think I ended up replacing it with a Playstation 2 Slimline I got at a huge discount because the console was on its way out of the stores. I started picking up PS2 games because there were plenty of used games coming up in secondary markets. So I just went to PS2. The graphics weren't as good but the consoles didn't break. You can't even buy used games for half price (or less) with the new Xbox consoles. So there's no getting out of this with your teeth if you commit to Microsoft. I think they don't have disc drives anymore or at least some(?) don't. So whoever buys a game loses all $80. They don't even get trade-in value or anything. The Xbox division is going to go to ****ing ugly in a way they can't even hide. The cost alone is going to be a major turnoff in a recessionary economy."