Hunter C.’s Post

I was hesitant to post this, but I also think it's important to let people know about what has happened to some people working at Blizzard. Amidst all the layoffs our industry has seen in the last 6 months, ABK (Activision Blizzard King) leadership mandated Return-To-Office as the Micro$oft merger was finalizing in summer/fall of 2023. They didn't ever use the term layoff. They instead just mandated that every employee report to either Austin, TX or Irvine, CA, regardless of where they lived when hired, or where they may have moved to during the pandemic while already employed remotely. Employees were allowed to submit requests for Long Term Remote, but these seemed like empty gestures; I have no idea what happened in other departments, but the entire WoW QA org were denied long term remote almost across the board without any stated reason. This is the reason I left my job at Blizzard. Ultimately, if an employee does not RTO after being mandated to do so, they are disciplined up to and including firing. So the only choice people like myself (who cannot afford to move) have is to quit or be fired. In either choice, we get no chance to move laterally within the company. We get no severance. We get no sympathy. Welcome to the "silent" layoffs of Activision Blizzard King Micro$oft.

The thing I keep thinking about with regards to the Blizzard layoffs, is that all the folks left at Blizzard were fighters beyond belief. These are the people who were STRONG enough to stay despite the years of bullshit. Through legal battles, through sexist harassment, awful leadership changes, trials & tribulations that NO employee should have been required to put up with for the sake of making video games. I wasn’t strong enough for it. Mentally, I was beaten down by the media sentiment, by the constant need to fight for what was right. I left after experiencing 5 managers in less than 2 years, after near constant resignations around me left me feeling battered and disappointed when my dream of working at Blizzard was shattered by the reality. But the people who were (and are) still at Blizzard were WARRIORS. They bled blue. They fought until the last moment for the players, for the games, for their fellow employees. They were the special sauce that makes Blizzard great. And for this to happen after these people stuck through it all? It’s unbelievably cruel. These people defended the MS transition, hoping it was their saving grace that would finally turn the tides. They returned to office while still in a pandemic, moving their families across the country to one of the most expensive places on salaries that didn’t come close to being enough. They stuck through it all, only to have their livelihoods severed. It’s devastating. At least we know that right now, there are a ton of incredibly passionate and resilient game developers on the market. Snatch them up.

Return to Office is a terrible practice for many reasons. If you work better in an office environment, that is great. Make that a clearly stated fact about your business and disclose to every applicant. If you allowed employees to move during the pandemic and now want RTO then at the very LEAST you should be providing relocation just as you would if you decided to up and relocate your studio before the pandemic happened. Instead this is some shitty bait and switch behavior geared to avoid basic employer regulations in multiple states through loopholes. It is disgusting especially for companies with C-suites making multi-millions in salaries per year. We know you can afford to treat your employees with basic human decency, but you are actively choosing not to.

This is horrible and should be denounced by the whole industry. But it's been common practice to pull stunts like these to extert control over employees. Countless studios are working in office only despite the fact that we're in the second biggest Covid surge since 2020. Covid has killed and disabled millions of people in less than 5 years and it's an ongoing mass disabling event. Over 4 million people in the US suffer from a form of Long Covid severe enough to prevent them from working. More than 2000 people died last week alone, in 2024. Any planning not taking Covid into consideration is bad planning. People are a finite resource and we need to do everything we can to protect them. If you care about your business and your employees, you'll offer remote positions and protect your workers. Covid is a workers issue and if we want our industry and our peers to thrive, Covid needs to be taken with the seriousness it deserves. I already know this won't be a very popular post since everyone is living in 2019, aka vibes land, but this is important and you should give a shit

Is anyone else currently playing ##warcraftrumble? I've come across something intriguing within the game that has piqued my curiosity, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on it. In this game, the in-game store is accessible right from the beginning, although its offerings are somewhat limited. I've been steadily advancing, and I'm currently at around 15 levels in. What I find particularly clever is the way Blizzard is managing the in-game store. They are gradually introducing "limited-time" purchase options as you progress through the game. It appears they are creating a sense of demand for the store opening it up strategically as you continue to advance, prompting me to consider making purchases. It doesn't come across as forced; instead, it feels like a natural evolution. I can certainly appreciate the ingenuity behind this approach. I'd give it a solid 5 out of 5 and put 5 on it. Have you seen this experience yet? #GamingIndustry #Responsibility #Innovation #Hiring #JobOpportunity #GameIndustry #EntertainmentJobs #Recruitment #NowHiring  #GameDevelopers #CareerOpportunities #GamingCommunity #JobSearch #GameDevJobs #GameJobs #JobPosting  #EntertainmentIndustry  #Recruiting #VideoGameJobs #JobOpening  #GamingProfessionals #JobSeekers #GamingCareers #JobHunt #GameDesigners #EntertainmentCareers #Staffing #GameBusiness #JobAlert #GamingWorld #EntertainmentRecruitment #Employment #GameIndustryInsights #CareerAdvice #PixelatedTalent

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It has been about a week since Blizzard's survival game was canceled, I still have a job although not quite the one I had before. A lot of coworkers and good friends were not so lucky though, if you have any leads on any game-related jobs please reach out and there is a good chance I can recommend someone. I have been building games professionally for around 20 years now and I have been a part of projects being cancelled for a variety of reasons, and seen even more. There is a place for a discussion about the state of the industry and this particular layoff, but I find that the motive for a project getting cancelled does little to change how you feel if you have been working on it. I spent around six years on it, and even in the best of circumstances giving it up was going to be tough. More than anything, I will miss the team we built. We had a good mix of senior and junior workers making sure everyone had something to learn and everyone had something to teach. People were passionate and creative, but also experienced and professional. There was respect and tolerance for differing ideas and differing identities. It made us feel safe and welcome, and made it so when we had to rally, we all rallied together. Like any large enough group of people it was not perfect, but it was the high point in my career. The silver lining for me is that I think I was not the only one who was made better for it, have higher standards for what teams should be like because of it. And I hope my former coworkers can use that to improve the industry at large. Again, lots of people. Talented people, kind people. If you are in need of recommendations, please reach out.

With the recent layoffs at Blizzard, I lost a colleague who is one of the best managers I have ever worked with. I wrote Anna Rasmussen a recommendation that I wanted to share more broadly because I feel like everyone needs to understand that there is a top-tier project manager out there in plain sight: One of Blizzard's core tenants is Lead Responsibly. Anna exemplifies this in all aspects of her work. She managed all of the embedded project managers within the Battle.net group and reported directly to me. Over the course of my seven years at Blizzard, Anna stands out as one of the most influential, highly collaborative, and extremely effective project managers that I have had the opportunity to work alongside. Her project management toolkit is endless. She approaches problem spaces from multiple angles and can zoom in on an obstacle or take a step to see the macro view so she understands how decisions will impact the greater business. Her organization and documentation is next-level, and Anna possesses some of the best communication skills I've ever encountered. Over the course of my years working with her, I truly learned so much from her style of conflict resolution, stakeholder management, and the many soft skills she wields with great efficiency. When Anna defends the team's backlog, it is done in such a delicate fashion that you end up thanking her for telling you "no". One of the reasons that Anna is such a standout stems from how much she cares for and helps her reports. I have seen a lot of managers at Blizzard, and while my colleagues are all quite impressive, Anna is truly a cut above the rest. She leads with empathy but does not shy away from difficult conversations. She is candid and fair in her feedback because she knows that the goal is to learn and grow year over year. Every conversation I have ever had with one of her reports was a glowing review of her leadership and helpfulness. If you haven't already started looking to hire Anna, I'm going to stop right here and plainly state it: HIRE HER! It will be the best hiring decision you've ever made.