Employees of the Gaming Industry want to fire a CEO
Re: Employees of the Gaming Industry want to fire a CEO
Good. It's refreshing to see some unionization of the industry. It's been in dire need of it for a very long time and while this is a systemic problem that can only be solved by addressing the underlying corporate mentality, this is a great first step. Plus, Kotick is one of the more deserving recipients of action.
Re: Employees of the Gaming Industry want to fire a CEO
It's still a bit of a pipe dream for a CEO (besides the notable exception of one of Nintendo's CEO's Satoru Iwata) to take actual responsibility for their company's success.
It's been said over and over again that the work environment that Activision fosters is abusive and exploitative, which is quite typical for a company that size. And of course, when it doesn't "perform to expectations" it means they have to cut back costs - and they go for the employees first, every time. If not, they'll go for employee benefits. Activision has always been the anathema to the way Blizzard operates, which is one of the studios they absorbed about a decade ago. This is all due to a business model that is completely untenable - every success absolutely *MUST* be met with a stronger success the same quarter next year - failure to do so is a failure of the company as a whole, and causes shareholders to sell their stock. It's completely unsustainable - because an unusually high performance one year simply means you will crash the next year unless you can recreate AND exceed it - and good fucking luck with that.
Still, Kotick *can* be forcefully removed if there is enough backlash. It's ultimately up to the company's board and shareholders and if they start to feel like his presence is costing them more money than they are making they can vote to remove him.
It's been said over and over again that the work environment that Activision fosters is abusive and exploitative, which is quite typical for a company that size. And of course, when it doesn't "perform to expectations" it means they have to cut back costs - and they go for the employees first, every time. If not, they'll go for employee benefits. Activision has always been the anathema to the way Blizzard operates, which is one of the studios they absorbed about a decade ago. This is all due to a business model that is completely untenable - every success absolutely *MUST* be met with a stronger success the same quarter next year - failure to do so is a failure of the company as a whole, and causes shareholders to sell their stock. It's completely unsustainable - because an unusually high performance one year simply means you will crash the next year unless you can recreate AND exceed it - and good fucking luck with that.
Still, Kotick *can* be forcefully removed if there is enough backlash. It's ultimately up to the company's board and shareholders and if they start to feel like his presence is costing them more money than they are making they can vote to remove him.
Re: Employees of the Gaming Industry want to fire a CEO
Symbolic at best, but it's heartening to see that a AAA publisher's employees are finally getting sick of its shit. Long may this downward spiral continue.
#PartyLikeIts1983
#PartyLikeIts1983
Re: Employees of the Gaming Industry want to fire a CEO
They have my full slacktivist support!
(sillyness aside it's promising news, hopefully it catches on across the industry)
(sillyness aside it's promising news, hopefully it catches on across the industry)
