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You love to see it!

The cover art is a picture of the cover art.

Now i Want to try xbox

In other news, Activision announces the opening of a new office in Bangalore.

annnnddd they're fired.

I find it poetic that the studio name is Proletariat.

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Xbox has nothing to do with it. Microsoft doesn’t own them yet. They don’t deserve any credit for this lol.

Not an ass guy, sorry.

Free to steal then

Let’s see how much game prices go up…

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Article mentions this is the third one to go this route. Anyone know what happened at the Wisconsin or Albany arms?

Why do stores do this? Like, stores where you can’t trade in used to have their own corporate covers with the games cover shrunk down or surrounded by Walmart, Target, etc. designs.

Didn't even know they had an office in Boston.

Last I heard they were skirting around laws by making them employees report all their work and firing the ‘low performers’ or something like that - basically just slowly ridding the company of union employees under the guise of performance reviews.

This is my best recollection of a tweet from a employee months back. Not 100% sure the details, could be confusing it with another company’s bullshit but know they were getting unusually strict to have a reason to fire that wasnt union related.

and that might make microsoft stop trying to buy activision

Raven software (the Wisconsin one) won their bid back in September I believe it was.

Good. Activision needs to go down.

Y'all love to imagine things that don't happen lol

They help their companies make billions It should be more equitable and not just for the company executives

What.. do you think that they won't do the needful?

Good. Everyone should unionize. Unions keep the power to the worker.

i see you are very steeped in the art of bs talking points from Faux News etc.

Microsoft doesn’t own them yet. The unionization was planned before Microsoft got involved.

The cover is IP so they can't just print it, it needs to be meaningfully modified into a clear fair-use reference.

No they don’t. They put the power in the Union. You’re just a cog in another companies wheel

Even if the prices went up, I still one hundred percent will happily pay that just so I know that these people have fair wages, and are not being abused.

Lol what? What about the game right next to it, or any games sold in the last 30 years?

If the disc is sold or returned without the case they do that.

real quick can you tell me the job title of the person you got that line from

Yeah, but specifically stores where you can’t do trade-ins do this. And when I worked at one of these stores you couldn’t return a disc without a case that has a barcode.

Full support.

Quick, publish some more articles about layoffs. /s

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Imagine being this brainwashed.

It was his store manager at the McDonald’s.

Lick that boot, millionaire-to-be!

Body Odor 3?

Already a millionaire 😂

edit: for the uneducated. House + 401k + pension puts me in the millions. I can’t believe how dumb people are to think being a millionaire means you have access to millions of dollars to spend freely

Imagine being dumb enough voluntarily pay another company to manage you for your employer to also manage you.

Chief executive officer. I got it from myself.

They have to kindly do the needful, obviously.

In merchandising, that is done for high theft items or when there isn’t shelf space for the entire product (product is stored where cashier grabs it).

For video games, I assumed it was done when there is so much stock it couldn’t fit or for high theft games. I don’t quite know so Best Buy employee, where you at?

r/Bestbuy WE WANT ANSWERS

Checked your posts. This millionaire is stressing over a $150 emergency fee to get their water heater repaired…. Goodbye, troll.

Edit for your edit: you’re willfully misrepresenting yourself. Before you deleted all of your posts, you were asking for advice as a first time homebuyer and using your VA loan. You likely do not have a lot of equity in your home, so using your home to support your self-proclaimed millionaire status is misleading. Again, you’ve been posting in DIY for advice to avoid a $150 fee on a hot water heater repair. You’re a troll making up bullshit and trying to backpedal to save face. Plain and simple.

Your arguments are very misleading. Unions provide some major advantages over not having one. I'm guessing your a business owner who pays shit, and poor benefits. Who fears the union. As you provide the corporate boot licking arguments that are pure fiction.

Unions will provide you with better pay, better benefits and a better work life.

Ahh the I got mine fuck everyone else argument.

Ok so explain car prices ? Why have they always gone up after a union contract is ratified?

Is it BS though? Weren’t PS4 games $60, and PS5 $70? It’s already happened.

Go on strike let us know how much that union is going to pay you to picket? It’s Pennie’s compared to actual pay. You have no power.

Source? Car prices have been rising year after year for almost all cars, regardless of contract negotiations. I also think it's hilarious that you think union shops have a substantial effect on automotive prices.

I doubt it. It's only 57 employees. Not earth shattering at all.

>and are being abused

WTF man?

Edit: Make a joke pointing out other people's mistakes and get down voted 😕

The price increase has as much to do with unionizing as it has with the amount of donkeys in your nearest stable. Nothing.

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Earlier this year Microsoft actually said they wouldnt union-bust. I’m not usually the one to take a corporation’s PR speak at face value but employers really dont come out and say they won’t fight you on it, except here lol.

https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2022/06/02/employee-organizing-engagement-labor-economy/

you mean like how they went up from 60 to 70 a few years ago for no reason? boy wouldn’t that suck. you guys are such fucking idiots i don’t understand how you put on your own shirts without choking yourself out

Illegal retaliation at worst, violation of the WARN Act at the least. The game industry tends to make significantly less than "normal" software engineering positions, but you can still bet that people making $60-80k can take legal action better than fast food workers or whatever. Many of them may even have legal insurance or lawyers on retainer.

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the tech community has been fighting tooth and nail to prevent unions from entering their little walled garden. microsoft won't welcome one in.

Not for long

In my experience the problem with creative industries, is that it really is a miracle to get the perfect property and all the perfect employees to make a successful product. So maybe a killer studio with the best talent and experience could unionize and survive but otherwise the publishers might as well just shut it down and start somewhere else, every time.

microsoft says one thing publicly and privately does another. the tech community has spent billions fighting off unions for the shitty work conditions they subject their employees to. microsoft will not invite one in to screw them.

Solidarity forever!

You're probably right.

--

And revert with updation

oh yeah silicon valley is literally doing everything in it's power to stop tech employee's from unionizing they throw the doors open and let one in.

Below it reads “game can be purchased at the register”. It’s just a sign, not the game.

Unions were great when people were sleeping under their machines and getting paid 20 cents a day. Now, the idea of a union representing a bunch of blue haired video game developers is ridiculous. That being said, it will be awesome when they get their 45 paid sick days! Unions love getting their workers an insane amount of paid sick days so they can boast about how much they do for their employees 😂

They went from 60 to 70 dollars because the cost of AAA game production has essentially doubled since the Xbox 360/ PS3 days. The most expensive games to make these days require millions of copies sold at full price just to break even.

I am guessing it's pretty rare, but he could have just had bad experience with a union. I work for a municipal utility/ISP and am covered under the local IBEW because of that. While I am still pro-union and pro-worker, and I realize my situation is sort of unique, I will give a few of the "meh's" about it from my angle.

• Over the last 15 years we have an average of 2.1% yearly wage increase, and that's with the last 3 years each being 3%. From what I see online that is below average.

• It is very hard to get rid of someone that is bad at their job. We had a tech banned from many of our larger customers locations(including other state owned businesses!), taken to court because of the quality of his work, and generally just gave a shit about nothing. The union made it such a pain to demote or fire him that the company basically gave up. It took a giant toll on the morale of the entire place.

• Our benefits are not great, but not horrible. Oddly enough even the other city employees that aren't part of the union have better. Our health insurance premiums went up 15% this year, which they squeezed in just after saying how amazingly lucky we are for getting a 3% raise.

Easiest round of layoffs

Nasty crunch time in order to hit deadlines is, from everything I've read about the video games industry, extremely common.

Well that's not gonna help COD MWII. Unions do nothing but bring companies down.

They'll just move to a right to work state. Unions do nothing but take dues and make companies go across the pond

For the same.

Yo i saw that water heater post. Coulda sucked it up and had it fixed by now.

Unions need to lobby for tariffs against countries with lower labor costs if they will ever have any real power in this country ever again

>Unions do nothing but take dues

Except. Yknow, in places where companies can't just go elsewhere to work.

Tech company? Sure. Some sort of skilled labor company? That's hard rooted in said state? Not so much

>What about the game right next to it

"what about the game right next to it that's clearly in its original packaging?"

Best Buy can't just print the cover art lol

Ah, another CEO who thinks their job is important.

We should definitely just take your word for it, no really guys.

Then your not a blue collar man and should shut the fuck up

And the company makes even less. That's kind of the point, you big thicky boeboe.

At least I know the difference between your and you’re.

"Workers with union representation enjoy a significant pay premium compared to non-union workers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports non-union workers earn just 83 percent of what unionized workers earn ($975/week vs. $1,169/week). When more workers have unions, wages rise for union and non-union workers."

You're a ghoul. Be quiet.

And the revenue stream has increased ten fold.

The poor, multi-billion dollar video game companies are doing just fine, take a peak at their last 20 quarterly reports.

How's the boot taste?

Oh my lord, larping as a millionaire is a different kind of just absolute subservient behavior. Holy shit, straighten your spine.

Show your support and buy games made by Activision.

If you don't like a company don't support them.

This is true, but consider that this is only possible because major publishers mostly green-light projects with well established IP or games with additional funding streams like microtransactions. Studios that don’t make a large enough profit often get restructured to work on more profitable games.

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I hope you too can one day see the advantage of organized workers that fight for better working conditions/pay.

Fuck yeah man.

Unions need to be applauded and I respect any group of workers willing to go through the process.

Oh never mind just saw your history… I guess it’s either this or yelling at clouds with you old man.

Okay?

What the hell does that have to do with anything? Loads of Indie games make hefty profits because they aren't budgeted like a bloated, sprawling beached whales desperately trying to cling to life. If AAA companies can't make money ethically, then I say that means the Free Market dictates that they fail and make room for someone less out of touch with reality.

You think the mobs gonna come back too?

I can’t even understand what you’re saying. It’s all just jumble.

If you want to talk free market, consider that there hasn’t been a visible dip in sales among games that raised their prices to $70.

Not every field should unionize.

Example: Shitty teachers can’t be fired anymore. Instead they just move them to the next school.

Another Example: Shitty Refs can’t be fired, instead they just put them in the games that don’t matter as much.

This won’t really matter as long as the current board is still in charge. This is why we need Microsoft to acquire them.

I know people aren’t a fan of huge companies buying big companies, especially this sub, and I agree with you guys but after looking into this deal, it needs to go through for the workers.

Maybe they can bring back original rebirth

This is huge. From what I can tell, this is the first AAA Union that includes devs (designers, artists, animators, and engineers) not just QA.

The reason that’s important is devs have way more bargaining power than QA does, especially considering the massive dev shortage going on right now.

Unions would ruin my work place. Fuck over young people who work hard for advancement, allow shitty workers to stay in place, the company would start to take advantage to force lower pay due to deal laws, I wouldn't be able to negotiate my own pay, and benefits would likely drop as administration is handed over to a larger union that promises better benefits but really just takes the cheapest deal. That ontop of union dues.

Unions are not always great.

It can be a good or bad thing so fingers crossed huh!

???

The first comment I replied to was trying to explain the price increase of games away by stating that the cost of game production had increased. I told you that that couldn't be the real reason because their profits have increased even more than their costs.

Now you seem to not understand how I could possibly think the 70 dollar price was just simple capitalist greed and nothing more.

Breaking: Microsoft backs out of Activision deal

Unions are run by humans, which are elected to their position. So yeah, like any social construct run by humans, it can either good or bad. On the whole though, most industries/states that have heavy unionization have significantly better "real wage" income and healthcare benefits.

Businesses exist to create profit, with labor costs being the highest cost for businesses in pretty much any industry. A business wouldn't spend millions of dollars to fight a unionization effort if it wasn't going to lose them profit over having to pay higher wages or better benefits.

They should announce a vow to no longer make shitty games, there up there with EA.

You’re confusing two different values for being the same: one is the profits of a publisher and the other is the profits of a development team within a publisher.

Yeah Activision is making record profits off the back of Call of Duty, Diablo Immortal, Candy Crush, etc., but Crash 4 seemingly didn’t meet sales expectations so Toys for Bob was restructured to support Call of Duty development for a while and are now making a GaaS Crash game. If the game rakes in $10 more per game, Activision would be more inclined to let them keep making single player games.

I think it’s laughable that you don’t think that they do.

Source?

You don’t think they have people to bring in and do the work? It’s called contingency planning. All companies have it that are involved with unions.

In my view, this is honestly one of the better arguments for Microsoft acquiring Activision. MS has already agreed with the CWA to remain neutral in any unionization effort after acquiring Activision. I should be clear that this is a legal agreement.

This is significant since whenever a company interferes with unionization, like Activision did, the dispute goes to the NLRB which can drag on for months. MS would effectively grant their game developers freedom to unionize.

This is significant for the union movement, especially when compared to other large corporations. But this is even bigger for the gaming industry as unions there are are virtually non-existent. And I would think this would go a long way at preventing development crunch, or rushing games in general.

Okay okay. Ex Best Buy employee here. Cold War on the left is a print off utilized to represent that the game is available for purchase but not the actual game in the case. This is done for high theft items. Take that to the checkout, they grab you the actual game. The reason it’s in a security case is because you can’t just easily place a piece of printed cardboard into the same kinda slot as an actual video game, so this helps it sit in the pockets. Now, as far as why this particular Best Buy has the actual Vanguard copies out and not Cold War…shrugs. It’s 100% at the discretion of the store for specific games whether they put the actual game out or not. This could just be an line level employee not stocking properly or adjusting to what their actual high theft games are. This has 0 to do with it being open games.

Funny how people down vote just because their one sided view is challenged. If I still worked at McDonald's, I'd love a union. When I was working in the pharmacy at Kroger, I'd of loved a union. I don't. I work in manufacturing, and unless I'm working for a big 3 automotive union, then all it would do is fuck me and my fellow coworkers over. And even now, I still wouldnt be able to get a job at those places because first you have to work 5 years as a temp being underpaid and dealing with union workers shit for that entire time plus some extra before you actually get hired in. People really only consider the benefits for their industry, not others.

They were actually the makers of Spellbreak, but when the game failed I think they just sold to Blizzard earlier this year.

In the non union shop I work in we are above average across the industry in everything but life insurance, which we are average in. Locally, we are guaranteed to earn 5% more than any competitor. Why do people think unions are the best thing to exist? In the industry I work for, they only allow for all the shit I talked about, plus added distress from the actual hiring process and keeping your spot thereafter.

I did not say unions aren't great for some, but most certainly, as the comment I replied to was saying, they are not needed nor wanted in every workplace.

NAFTA was the knife in the heart for the unions.

The pros outweight the negatives

"You like apples? How about these apples?"

Raven Software? You mean the ones who made Fable? Didn’t know that was owned by Activision /:

Yes.

One, single entity controls the profits of the teams working under them. The context clues in the previous sentence should lead you to the answer.

If the publishers are doing well, the studios who make the games that are their sole source of revenue should be doing equally well.

No, I don't.

Especially at a skilled job.

Fable is owned by Microsoft but was made by Lionhead, which is now shuttered. Raven Software is a Call of Duty studio (that prior to that did a lot of licensed games)

I remember Raven for Heretic and Hexen, some of the first games that licensed the Doom engine. Love their old stuff, but it’s a shame they got shoved into the COD meat grinder.

Edit: put “licensed” in the wrong place. Heretic and Hexen were not licensed titles.

Unions ruined my previous workplace. We used to get bonuses depending on performance. I'm on a 6 figure job and I'd get an extra $30-$40k per year with the bonus, which was great.

Then the union movement started at work, employees voted to unionize and the unions negotiated with management for some crappy % salary increase, year on year but in return bonuses were removed and it also reduced promotions.

I ended up leaving because I was making less than I was pre-unionization. Idiots who were bad employees couldn't get fired because the union protected them and they kept getting shifted from team to team because no manager wanted them on their team. People would magically start taking sick days on very important days in our year when we needed the most people at work, again management couldn't touch them because they were protected. Productive workers like me were given more and more work because the bad employees did less and less, so I was having to pick up the additional work, which would have been fine with me, except bonuses had been removed and promotions were gone. So there was no point for me to put in the effort I used to and I'd be better off slacking off like the rest of the idiots, put in minimal effort and just take that 3% pay rise year on year.

Unionizing just totally ruined the culture of the workplace. It turned into a shithole daycare centre for adults rather than a productive workplace.

Odd I was in a union for 13.5 years and they had contingency plans each year for each job type that was up for negotiations. You don’t think the people they are using are “skilled” enough? They have already replaced McDonald’s workers with kiosks, and the employees that are preparing the food STILL mess it up. Vehicles that are produced by union workers mess up, some are recalled , some fail inspection because that “ skilled” worker didn’t do something right. So just how skilled does someone need to be?

I’ve seen some of the shittiest work ethic people get defended by the Union , and still got to keep their job. So does that job require a “skilled” worker?

This is libertarian fan fic

Good for them

> No they don’t. They put the power in the Union. You’re just a cog in another companies wheel

You sure don't appear to know the difference between "company's" and "companies" lol, Mr. "I promise I'm totes important on the internet"

Even the QA tester in can make over 100k a year with intro roles at 70k... so yea; They're doing alright on that end.

It seems like they want to 'be heard' more and 'have a seat at the table' with management more than anything related to pay or abuse of any kind, which is just as understandable IMO.

>We want management to respect our ideas and our commitment to improving our company and our industry. A union gives us a seat at the table and will help us create the conditions that will allow us to build careers here and not hop from job to job hoping that things will be better at the next place. Nothing will get better unless we work together to make it better.”

- CWA Union website post 12/27/2022

software industry*

Though TBH I'm sure it happens in many other, if not all other industries as well. The frequency in which it happens however, would vary quite a bit.

Thanks for the negative karma guys! Truly means a lot. How dare someone have a counter argument.

And the office is closed... Hopefully not

Horses are cool and they say neigh. What can't we be more horsey?

I think this is some copy pasta as well. Definitely seen some variation of this in EVERY union post that goes big.

Well it’s a pretty fresh account so yeah, hardly authentic.

They also did the X-Men Legends games, and the first Marvel: Ultimate Alliance game.

You're confusing competency with skill and in so doing, confusing the issue.

Unions are no more evil nor repugnant than corporations. If we are to have one, we should have the other.

Not copy pasta at all, it happened to me.

It's probably a familiar story because it's not unusual for something like that to happen.

I mean you can look at my post history to see if I'm some sort of troll, which I'm clearly not.

Don't get why people dismiss others experiences for no reason.

because you're not allowed to run counter to the groupthink opinion

and most redditors have never been "high performers" ever, except maybe when they were in a grade school "gifted" class and got a gold star accompanied by a free lunch room pass for an extra ice cream for reading "The Phantom Tollbooth" the fastest.

The down votes are flowing but in reality unions can be terrible for a workforce if managed incorrectly. They are sadly extremely important though. Where I work there are two unions for different groups. Both are absolutely hemorrhaging employees because they have terrible managers that only received their positions because of nepotism. I have spoken to 20 or so people who left the union to come over to the non union side because it was so bad.

Ah yes something that goes against my view point. Must be fake.

>The down votes are flowing but in reality unions can be terrible for a workforce if managed incorrectly. They are sadly extremely important though.

That's fine, but I was just speaking about my specific workplace though. Wasn't commenting on all workplaces in the economy.

Unions might be great for some businesses, but for my previous workplace, it was terrible and I, and other employees who were really damn good at their jobs all left over the next few years.

>Both are absolutely hemorrhaging employees because they have terrible managers that only received their positions because of nepotism.

That'll never work. If you're employing people based on things other than experience, education, talent and fit for the work culture, it's likely not going to work out. Nobody wants to work for a business run by nepotism. Great way to lose talent. I don't know if nepotism is more prevalent in strongly unionized workplaces, but even without the union, they're going to crumble given enough time.

Yeah to exclusive work on wow I’m psure

Sounds like the union fucked up their negotiations/were strong armed by the company. Hardly a common occurrence with good unions, and definitely not "working as intended" as you seem to be implying here.

Unionisation almost always results in higher pay and greater benefits and protections. They are, by definition, for labour. There are countless studies, cases, economists, etc. that back this up, and at this point it's common knowledge.

Unionise. If you don't, you lack the bargaining power as individuals, in a system where the owner-class already restricts that power.

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Heretic and Hexen are both amazing titles. I've always felt like way too many people slept on those games back in the 90s. I think that most gamers I knew didn't get around to them til Hexen was ported to the N64, but all of the console ports were hot garbage. I played the hell out of both of them on my PC when they were first released.

Like you're mom's ass

I’d fire them all

My 11 year old wants more than anything to be a video game programmer and stuff like this kills me. The kid is BRILLIANT to the point where we can't take him to coding camps and events locally because his skill level put him in the class with the high school kids and he is no where near emotionally mature enough for that (did I mention he was a programmer?)

I just really hope the union thing catches on by the time he is ready to start looking for a job because I've worked with people who worked at big studios and none of them have good things to say about their time there.

And in other news the activision Boston studio will be closing its doors this spring

I work in games. Ive avoided specific companies and had a great career so far. For the last maybe 15 years the games industry has pushed against crunch and bro culture. The places that are famous for crunch are even relaxing because devs realized they have high paying options that don’t require it.

There are a number of big name studios that operate with compassion, at least toward their employees. (Did you know that EA is actually not a horrible place to work? Ive never worked there but have worked with plenty of people who have in the socal office) theres an insane amount of small to medium sized studios that are amazing places to work though.

Your son, with a little luck at the start and practice will make 6 figures easily as a programmer early in his career. Engineers make a lot and are always needed. The biggest hurdle is breaking into the industry.

The industry is changing for the better. I wouldn’t worry too much. Hopefully unions will come back in all industries - but so far for me Ive managed to do very well even with out them (but would join one in a heartbeat).

action bronson

> My 11 year old wants more than anything to be a video game programmer and stuff like this kills me.

bruh, tell him sure you can do that just got to learn C++.

Then eventually he'll turn 20 and be like "oh wait these normal tech companies offer 4x the pay and equity, lol fuck video games".

Video games outside of indie startups or companies like Epic (who make engines) dont offer the same pay. Mainly because they cant because revenue is so hit or miss and overhead costs are higher.

> union thing catches

ehhh unless our laws change to more nordic style union laws where unions are less rent seeking and more okay with efficiency improvements.....i'd say nah to a US styled union.

Good screw Activision… I hope EA is next

Solid response, and I get it. I have family in unionized and non-unionized shops. And yes, you are correct, they are not for everyone and not the right answer for every situation. I don't like the fact that you were downvoted for a completely reasonable response, and I'm sorry that you were.

But keep in mind, there are benefits to a union that benefit the industry/area as a whole.

For example, say a shop in Michigan pays $25/hr for an apprentice, with benefits, and around $35/hr for a journeyman of 5 years. Because of that, other shops competing for that same labor have to adjust compensation to compete. They can't pay $20/hr and have shitty raises if the unionized shop is hiring, since it will just snipe all of their workers. So even if you are not directly in a unionized location, if your INDUSTRY is heavily unionized (working trades, auto, etc.) it tends to benefit everyone within the industry. Also, because you can get compensated fairly well in trades, other industries in the area have to raise wages to compete for the same labor pool. You can see this really recently with the pandemic, since most businesses had to raise wages in order to get people to come work for them (they were competing with the governments unemployment of around $15/hr). Another great example was South Dakota during the shale boom, where places like McDonalds had to offer $15-$17 an hour for entry level workers in boom towns where the average was $7.25 elsewhere.

Pretty much all of my friends and colleagues who are not a fan of unions still deeply appreciate the protections to workers that they themselves have benefited from. Very few advocate for things like free labor movement so that any company can hire someone from anywhere, like South America, and move them here and pay them significantly lower wages. Very few advocate for child labor, which would again reduce wages. Very few advocate for companies being able to ship entire plants abroad, which crazy, reduces wages. Most people I've talked to are not pro-business or pro-free market when it stops benefiting them.