Nancyboy

I feel like I'm watching a community being collectively deflowered.

This is all spin. If Phil didn't know what was going on and that this would happen, he's astoundingly thick. He knew - you don't get to that level in business without being one of the players. MS has always been like this, as has every large corporation as long as they've existed. And you'll all forget in six months.

Corporate-speak nonsense. Shareholder payouts, nothing more. Short-term satisfaction based on stock value perception, which will necessitate further firings to keep up the facade, and sacrifice long-term health. But, just like the mortgage meltdown that taxpayers paid for, a few make gobs of money and piss on the workers who got them there. It’s how business is done now.

This was as predictable as rain in the Northwest. All the cheering on of a monstrous (in both senses) corporation spending tens of billions to acquire Activision/Blizz in order to fire people and make MS shareholders happy made me sick. And the meaningless “I hope they land on their feet” from the cheerleaders. Grow up. Corporate culture, just another manifestation of human nature, never changes. Naiveté is not an attractive character trait.

@ozkrmz Hallelujah, yes.

Wait a minute… I thought they killed Kenny.

Absolutely on script. Everyone here cheered this merger on, gloated over Sony, and now give the rote nonsense “This was inevitable hope for the best for those impacted.” My god, jump up and down for a soulless corporation and carry their water no matter what. Revolting, really. Now watch the march to more layoffs, increased digital distribution, online rental programs, and price increases with lower overhead. They must have all the money. And you eat it up.

Great game, I'm just not smart enough to finish it. I should try again, could use some self-inflicted personal humiliation.

And so it begins.

@Sifi That’s not a net gain of 7,000 jobs. Between the two, it’s a net loss of 10,000 jobs. And that’s assuming MS doesn’t fire a mess of former ABK staff. Which they will.

Other companies treat their workers like disposable commodities, fired to maintain the fantasy of necessary perpetual growth, so it’s okay when MS does it? Sony charges more for less, so it’s okay when MS does it? This reasoning always baffles me. Companies treat the people who got them there like chaff, so that egregious abuse is acceptable because “everybody does it”? Keeping in mind that, when the world economy hobbled along under COVID, corporations posted record profits. As inflation rages, corporations post record profits. And fire tens of thousands of people.

I wonder how the more than 10,000 human beings Microsoft laid off this year feel about karma. This in a year when they could afford to buy out a competitor for more than $69,000,000,000.00.

“Organizational and workforce adjustments are a necessary and regular part of managing our business,” the [Microsoft] spokesperson said in an email. “We will continue to prioritize and invest in strategic growth areas for our future and in support of our customers and partners.”

Layoffs are growth to them only insofar as shareholders and executives make ever-increasing profits. Firing people equals growth to them.

Looking forward to MS charging more for GamePass and offering fewer games, and MS fans defending it to the hilt.

@taternuggets I could use two.

@themightyant Tell the truth. I don’t understand the shortsightedness people are gleefully embracing. Well, I understand it, but it still frustrates me.

And all this whining about this taking so long. Nobody strong-armed you into reading the articles. Since when does a behemoth of a company deserve to do what it wants without scrutiny? The process is in place to protect consumers, not the MS shareholders. At least, that’s what should be happening. A fairy story, I guess.

Run your company like a bull in a china shop. Treat your customers with condescension and contempt. Put out inferior games and services. Acquire studios and run them into the ground. Throw tens of billions at another corrupt company to compensate. Skirt the spirit of anti-trust because regulators can be bought. Watch the fans, whom you openly care nothing for, fawn over you while the economy becomes increasingly bifurcated. Sure, a win for everyone.

I’m baffled by the stunning amount of naiveté on display. Microsoft is a behemoth with a checkered history to say the least, and any notion that they intend to act in consumers’ interest is pretty d*mn misguided. We’ll see how this plays in five to ten years, just like it has for the past thirty. When someone tells you who they are, believe them.

What’s that? Corporate bonuses and increased shareholder payouts? Say it isn’t so.

Microsoft hasn’t changed.

I’ve been tempted by the Series X, but as a company, I don’t trust MS as far as I could throw Master Chief. Their history of contempt for their customer base and for consumer protection laws left a real bad taste in my mouth.

Corporations are consolidating far too much power. Bad scene.

@hypnotoad Fern Bear Baby?

@SecretAgentCat Thank you.

@norwichred I guess looking before whining might be an option.

This needs a trackball/dial controller. I just can’t enjoy Breakout, Centipede, Tempest, et al with a thumbstick. And by “can’t enjoy” I mean I suck at them.

Good Batman reference.

Adventure on the Atari 2600, I believe. The rest weren’t completion type games.

I don’t know why I haven’t played this yet. It’s right up my alley. So to speak.

God, corporate speak is insufferable.

@Kooky_Daisuke That’s fair. I never play F2P, so I’m pretty unfamiliar with the landscape.

Huh. I just learned that my login crosses sister-sites.

Not a fan of in-game ads, but free to play is a bit different. Can’t complain too much there. Stay out of my paid-for games, though.

Not exactly a hard hitting opinion.