VRFocus - ZeniMax Media, owner of legendary videogame developer John Carmack’s former development studio, id Software, has claimed that the ex-employee took virtual reality (VR) technology from the company when he moved to Oculus Rift headset makers Oculus VR. The company is now seeking action, claiming that Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey has been used ZeniMax Media-owned technology to develop the Oculus Rift without permission.
Microsoft is laying off hundreds of employees at Xbox, with 1900 jobs cut across Activision Blizzard, Xbox Game Studios, and ZeniMax Media.
This actually pissed me off. I keep thinking of how Microsoft's PR was claiming that they had gotten the support form several workers unions... Everyone should have seen this coming. Also, people have a baby about Sony laying off 50 people. Those same people will now explain why laying off thousands of people is a good thing.
@Eonjay
Also what's scary is this is on top of the 10 000 layoffs Microsoft announced in January 2023 as well as the additional layoffs they had in June 2023. The instability is palpable!
@Eonjay
Sure, let me help you out, bud. MS is a company. A companies sole purpose is to make $ in exchange for providing a service or goods. MS recently made a huge purchase. In that, they have to A: recoup the outgoing $ they just spent and B: Get rid of overlapping positions. Thats life. Sure it sucks and you hate to see it happen but move along and find another job
@Vengeance
Obviously the separations are a result of the acquisitions but I personally think this is being accelerated by AI.
@InUrFoxHole
What you described is not the purpose of a company, but rather a corporation. The point I was making is that Microsoft was saying this purchase would benefit all involved. People were claiming that the purchase is what the workers needed to create a better work environment. This was all BS.
@Eonjay
Microsoft has created a better workspace by making them work somewhere else. /s
@TiredGamer
A corporation is a specific type of company. And within that you can actually have a non-profit corporation. What makes for profit corporations (and specifically traded for profit corps) unique is that they are companies who exist primarily to maximize the returns for investors. So when InUrFoxHole says this is characteristic of 'companies'.. I am just saying that his statement isn't technically accurate. It doesn't apply to ALL companies in other words.
@Eonjay
I hear ya man. But if you're MS you can't just blurt out... we're gonna make cuts. Again I know it's scrappy and I side with the workers but they had to know this was gonna happen. I can't remember the last purchase where 100% of the workers stayed.
Adults understand this is how acquisitions work. If n4g wasn't mostly children, and worse, fanboy children they'd understand this. When companies acquire another company thousands of jobs often get cut. Adults understand this. Microsoft even talked about creating a large team that could be used throughout the gaming division back when they acquired Bethesda. A team like that eliminates multiple positions from a new company. The people who lost their job will receive 6 months compensation and will most likely be in a new job 3 months in pocketing 3 months or more of pay. Learn how the world works kids. It is crashing down around you.
the woe of day-1 subscription service, for every studio they own they have to either get a proportional number of new subscribers, increase the subscription fee, or just outright cutting jobs to offset additional hiring costs. At least with delayed library like PS Plus you can get release window profit from early buyers.
@Optimus If you think this cost cutting won't trickle down and affect the games they produce ( you know, the stuff you allegedly play as a NON-SHAREHOLDER ) then you are an idiot.
***Are you a gamer or shareholder ***
Ignorance of the industry will only lead us to where they want us, not where we want.
@optimus well I mean it’s simple enough.. additional studios means additional salaries to be paid, but because of day 1 gamepass the game purchases are severely impacted. You need to fill that gap in the normal product cycle somehow..
People always have the option to not support Microsoft.
I didn't buy Starfield even though I was excited for it. I don't buy game pass even though it has games on it I want to play.
People do get to decide where the industry goes, that's why there aren't loot boxes in single player games and kinect got kicked to the curb.
***that's why there aren't loot boxes in single player games and kinect got kicked to the curb. ***
But there are SP games with loot boxes...
Counter argument is that the textbook reason for acquisition is economies of scale. You can make more money by reducing overhead in redundant PR, HR, Legal, etc...
Will be interesting if we get visibility into what types of roles were impacted, that will be more telling I think. I'm not surprised there's post merger layoffs though...
And now we're starting to get that visibility. Physical Xbox games appear to be on the chopping block... This is a big deal if true
https://twitter.com/JezCord...
Physical games in general is going the way of the dodo. Im seeing less and less physical media in stores where they sold movies and music... games was next. Why have a division whose job it is to make something on a disc when discs are going away? PC havent had discs for over a decade... consoles and handhelds are heading the same direction and will take people with them, kicking and screaming, regardless.
I cant really recall when the last time i inserted a disc into any of my systems. I swapped out the lasers in my saturn, dreamcast, and gamecube for ODE. I have a modded og xbox with tons of games ripped to it, same with a PS2 modded with a hdd also with games ripped to it. I use the PS Portal to play 4/5 games and my steam deck to play PS1/NES/SNES/N64/NeoGeo/Genesi s/TG16 as well as Xcloud. Im practically all digital now anyway. Convenience is a hell of a drug, maybe even more addicting than collecting shelf candy was.
PS3 is prob the only one I still use discs for but that will change soon enough.
@darth
Even if that so, why start shifting away from physical in the middle of a console generation?
Beyond the actual impact to those that DO buy physical and happen to have an XSX, bigger deal is the perceived retail presence of the brand compared to it's competition. Xbox would be taking the L in every retail outlet in every country. Kinda a big deal if this is really happening. Obviously we don't know anything concrete yet though
@dumahim... because, by the time the next one starts, people will already be acclimated to it. Sony was already doing their part little by little with the current trend of collector editions not including discs even though they may include steelbook cases. This is their way of saying it is inclusive to those with and without the optical drive on their PS5.
By making them disc neutral will make it easier for people to accept the inevitable change over to no more discs and they will be happy with all the other stuff those editions do come with as a trade off. It starts with the CE but then it will progress into the standard games as well. Getting cases with just a DL code instead of a disc. We already know Nintendo switch games like that.
@crazyCoconuts
Looking at stores in my own area, Xbox doesn't even have a section anywhere near as big as Nintendo or Playstation, it's almost non-existant. I wouldn't be surprised if they had been planning this for a while because that would explain the lack of presence in stores.
@darthv72
I cannot think of any Nintendo Switch case I've picked up that didn't have a physical disc/cartridge in it, that must be an incredibly small number of games, then again, I'm only buying their first party games and exclusives because I can't buy them anywhere else.
Gotta help pay that $375 million in compensation to Bobby Kotick when he left in late December somehow /s
Time sure flies it’s 2027 already?
.
Edit: I guess in Microsoft eyes it’s better to cut them down in batches than 100,000+ on 2027 🤦🏿
...but they ARE profitable. They also don't need X amount of overlapping employees. This is pretty standard stuff with mergers. The employees who are doing the same jobs as others already in the company are the first to go. I had it happen to myself several years ago. I went and got another job.
Chances are these people will be fine and who knows... they may form a new company and get right back to making games, or cleaning toilets, or filing HR paperwork. It all depends on the job they performed before being laid off. Not all of those affected were game developers, many of which just worked for the company doing non developing stuff... keep that in mind.
Activision/Blizzard has 13,000 employees, Bethesda has approx 2300. So 15,300 total... They laid off 1,900. That's almost 12.5% of the total workforce of both Activision and Zenimax/Bethesda combined. More than 1 out of every 10 heads got cut...
^^its over 22,000 employees across the totality of MS/ABK/ZB and losing another 1900 will still leave them with over 20k. And like I said, not all of them are game devs but other overlapping employees. It sux when it happens (I know personally) but it is what it is.
That's still nearly 1 out of every 10 heads (8.6%)... that isn't a small number. It's such a large number, that it is unlikely that they're all just janitors and office workers like you seem to be trying to imply.
The abuse goes on both ends. The answer is that Microsoft offers some tools but tradeoff is that whatever tools are available will reduce need for human labor. This deals with many lives so it’s based on the metric as well as implementation of those metrics, watching those who implement it, to portray an accurate ratio of labor and productivity.
I don’t like corporate greed but being on the workbench I have seen slackers too for whom I just want to work harder and self-initiate.
I know. It's like having the number one selling console by a large margin and laying off people. "Clutching my pearls"
What does profitability have to do with any of this? Out of all the layoffs happening recently. This was the one that was most expected. Layoffs almost always happen after a big acquisition. It's not because of finances. It's because there's a lot of overlap in the job positions.
I was hoping it wouldn't be too bad because they want to keep Activision Blizzard as a separate entity.
But I guess when it's a 70 billion dollar acquisition. There's inevitably going to be a lot more overlap than normal.
Sucks for those that were affected. Hope they land on their feet quickly.
How many years do you think it would take to pay off 70 billion with the salaries of the people who lost their jobs?
And let's not even bring up the fact that Microsoft was getting all these games anyways, so these people lost their jobs for essentially no reason.
@Einhander1972
The layoffs were gonna happen regardless. Have you seen industry news lately? Everyone is having layoffs. They Would it have been as bad as this? Who knows. But they were against unionization while Microsoft supports it and it turns out, None of the Union workers were affected. So I'm gonna say it would have been just as bad if not worse.
Activision Blizzard was on a downwards spiral. In the next few years we'll see if MS can turn it around for them.
Blizzard president Mike Ybarra and Blizzard’s chief designer Allen Adham also departing, according a new report of Tom Warren.
It’s entirely possible. Remember Nokia?
This raises the total Xbox layoffs since ACTI announcement to 11,900.
“Move along, nothing to see here”
@zaanan Nokia is exactly a case where MS spent a substantial amount on an acquisition and then proceeded to pull the plug.
Nah Mike Ybarra only just said in November they would have to drag him out to make him leave, he's in for the long haul...... now 3 months later he has left its fishy
Have to make that 70-80 Billion Dollars worth of acquisitions back. Why so surprised? The writing was always on the wall for everybody to read. Wonder how much of the restructuring is geared towards their third party publishing plans?
Take this with a grain of salt; according to Jez Corden Microsoft has also shut down departments dedicated to bringing Xbox games to physical retail ... which if you've seen the digital-only Xbox console leaks ... well, you can get an idea of where Microsoft is going here.
Things are changing across the board for physical media... Its been declining for movies and music, games were next.
its absolutely horrific for those1900 people.
the 3 trillion dollar company "has to" fire so many people, and for what?. for a "sustainable cost structure"
thats almost 10% of their staff lol
There is no justification for it. They have the money to afford literally anything in the world.
To cancel Blizzard's game six years in development is the twist of the knife when everyone's already down.
For smaller companies that are running with tight costs, layoffs are one thing. What Microsoft did today is a complete other and benefits the big wigs at the expense of everyone else.
Good on Mike Ybarra for leaving. Phil Spencer should follow his example and look at everything that's happened to the developers impacted by his decisions.
Deep sixing an acquisition's game deep into development is the most MS move ever.
They Fable Legends'd themselves again.
They're the WB-cancelling-finished-movies of the gaming industry.
"To cancel Blizzard's game six years in development is the twist of the knife when everyone's already down."
I'm really surprised by that. Spencer doesn't usually cancel anything already in development. Even Redfall, even though the devs wanted them to cancel it. But then again, Redfall. Maybe that game's failure made them change their mind. With it being 6 years deep in dev though it doesn't make sense to cancel it. Pretty stupid decision.
That's what happens when you buy a company that's in the same business as you. There's a lot of people doing the same job, so they're going to save money by getting rid of people that aren't needed anymore.
@dumahim Ive heard that before and worked in a job where they merged with another company let go of their newly acquired staff and expected me to take on a whole host of extra work but I was already at 110 percent capacity and not the only one the outcome was morale dropped to an all time low and good staff left in droves.
I make you right Taco. What this hammers to me is that sustainability issues are due to weak hardware sales and weak gamespass concurrent subs. Something has to give. I definitely see them pivoting to becoming a 3rd party publisher.
The results of industry consolidation, the only people that benefit are CEO's and shareholders... gamers and the workforce gets ****ed
I can see way more cuts in the short term too as parts of what where competing publishers in the industry merge, and lets not forget the introduction of AI, MS is set to be a big pusher of that.
Yeah this is terrible. MS has the money and resources to support that staff. None of these large companies need to do any of these layoffs.
People said this was going to happen after they acquire them but not this many. Makes you think that Sony is doing a better job with not acquiring but just partnering up with studios and funding the games.
Oh it was happening with Sony too... Bungie, Media Molecule, insomniac... all of them lost people after being acquired by Sony. And it will happen again because its inevitable when you bring on another company that has people like you do. No need for multiples of the same job.
Huh? Sony has not only laid off plenty of employees, they've also shut down 1 or 2 of the new studios they just bought.
Morels: Homestead, a relaxing game in which you can create your own unique homestead, is available now for PC VR.
Electronic Arts has confirmed that while F1 23 will support PC VR it will not support PSVR 2 on PlayStation 5.
That's fine. GT7 would overshadow it anyway at it has open wheel and regular cars.
Should have been spending their time updating Squadrons with better resolution, frame rate, haptics, etc as there isn't a game like that on PS VR 2 yet.
But it's EA. They don't think.
A wasted opportunity, but I don't buy EA / Codemasters stuff anyway. Grid Legends just came out on Plus and I haven't touched it. Why would I when I have GT7 and PSVR2?
That's where opportunity presents itself that they could offer something else that other developers haven't offered yet. Yeah. There's No Man's Sky. But a space game with a story would be great. Like the old days with Colony Wars.
Exactly, they could have possibly lured more players just from the inclusion of a vr mode.
I miss Colony wars and G-Police, Low-Fi I hope will scratch that itch when it releases. We also need a vr War/Starhawk game.
Wonder if he did this
https://www.youtube.com/wat...
:)
It's a shame if Carmack did this. But I highly doubt he would have done anything on purpose. He is a genius and given that he was working on the same virtual design at Zenimax and Oculus, ideas will get transferred regardless.
The question is why it took so long for Zenimax to actually claim this.
Doubtful carmack would do this.
I would love to know why people disagree.
Its weird. Cause he might be the author of some of this stuff? He can't just forget it surely.
Pragmatically speaking...if Zenimax *were* to have an equity stake in Oculus then we'd be absolutely certain to see Bethesda Softworks games be well-optimised for the platform.