Activision/Blizzard have been facing more troubles recently thanks to the majority of their games losing the ability to be played in China finally taking effect and a major member of management deciding to leave following a baffling employee productivity review change.
For the China situation it’s clear that there was some kind of controversy going down between Activision/Blizzard and their partner company that assisted them with publishing in China, NetEase with even the president of the company expressing sadness that “jerks” can cause issues for gamers on this massive scale. Activision/Blizzard has stated they are looking for another company to partner with to bring their games back to China but it’s unlikely this will be happening anytime soon.
On the more local end Brian Birmingham, lead on the World of Warcraft Classic project team, publicly stated that he was leaving the company after being told by higher ups that he would be forced to partake in an employee evaluation policy. This policy that him and other managers had been skirting around for the past wee while essentially forced them to evaluate the performance of each of their employees and specifically had them ‘bump down’ several in order to force them to work better. As pointed out by Brian however this not only fostered hostility in the workplace but by making everything a competition for best employee it stifled creativity and ensured that you could never really foster true friendship in your team, especially considering that if you were one of the unlucky few who were given lower scores to meet a quota then your future career and advancement prospects could be stifled. Brian decided to resign based on this but not before Activision/Blizzard decided to fire him instead.
So once again this company can’t catch a break. Let’s hope things get better for the employees still stuck under the corporate thumb and for old Blizzard fans in China to get back the games they spent so much of their time and money on over the years. That’s all for now, and as always. It’s not just a game, It’s a Life.