(弱弱的編譯 建議看原文 少數部份為了閱讀通暢加入了點內容)
With Activision's Influence Growing, Blizzard Is Cutting Costs
作者: Jason Schreier
原文: https://bit.ly/2rS7ysQ
Blizzard has spent the year taking big measures to cut costs as it prepares
for a lean 2019. Those measures, as conveyed by people who work or have
worked for the iconic studio, include employee buyouts in which workers are
offered money to leave, a broadening of the finance department, and the
limitation of budgets for any team at the company that isn't directly making
video games.
暴雪正準備透過資遣員工、擴大財務部、限縮非開發部門的預算來實現樽節計畫.
Much of Blizzard's cost-cutting has gone unreported until recently, but it's
been a consistent theme throughout 2018 at the Irvine, California-based
studio behind mega-hits like Overwatch and World of Warcraft. One Blizzard
program, for example, is called Career Crossroads. It offers healthy
severance packages to people who voluntarily take buyouts and choose to leave
the company. At first, Career Crossroads was designed for veteran customer
service representatives who had been at Blizzard for more than five years,
but this year, it opened up to QA and IT, according to one person familiar
with the program. Blizzard has also lowered the number of years required to
take a buyout, opening up Career Crossroads to even more employees, likely in
hopes of increasing those numbers.
其中一個計畫(Career Crossroads),提供優渥的條件讓五年以上工作經驗的資深客服
自願離職,但今年開放QA及IT部門申請,且下修年資以適用更多員工.
"Over the course of the last year, Blizzard has been trying very
actively to find creative ways to cut costs that won’t draw negative
press attention," said a former employee.
一個前員工說:過去一年,暴雪的創意都用在想辦法如何costdown又不被罵了
When asked for comment, Blizzard declined to address other items in this
report but did send over a statement about Career Crossroads:
" We have had a completely voluntary and long-standing program in various
locations around the world that gives eligible staff the option to make
the most of incentives while proactively pursuing other career
opportunities. No one is required or encouraged to participate in the
program, but for those who do, we work hard to make it generous. We’ve
been offering it for many years—initially to some of our customer service
teams, and we expanded it for a short period of time to a few other
departments recently, given that it has proven to be a good way to help
people who have been thinking about a career change or going back to school
to get a head start on that path if that's what they want to do. While fewer
than 10 people in the departments we recently expanded the program to have
taken advantage of it, the general idea is that in addition to providing
them with that opportunity, it also helps us give more advancement
opportunities to other employees on the team when possible. "
被問到這項計畫的時候,暴雪提出了解釋:
這項計畫已經持續多年,那些想離開的老員工可以透過這項計畫,領取優渥的報酬以
以答謝他們多年的努力,然後尋找人生的新方向.而這項計畫廣受好評,所以我們擴大了
適用範圍.
At the same time, Blizzard is actively hiring for its game development teams,
as it continues to work on new games in franchises like Diablo and Overwatch.
There’s no way to know what the results of this cost-cutting might look like
in the coming years, but it’s clear that the direction from the top is to
release more games, which could ultimately benefit fans of Blizzard. The big
question, as expressed by those who work and have worked at the company, is
what kind of impact these cultural shifts will have on one of the most
legendary studios in gaming, one that is regularly ranked among the best
video game companies to work. And what kind of impact will it have on
Blizzard's games?
在此同時,暴雪也在為了像是Diablo/OW那樣的新遊戲拓展開發團隊.
雖說無法預期這些樽節措施未來會造就怎樣的結果,但很顯然暴雪正在發展更多的遊戲,
最終總是玩家受益.
但對於暴雪員工或關注其文化的玩家來說,不免擔心這些措施會對暴雪文化產生如何的
影響? 甚至,對遊戲本身會不會帶來衝擊?
Last month, a Kotaku investigation revealed that Blizzard's staff have been
told to reduce expenses while at the same time produce more games. There are
likely several reasons for this shift in priorities, including a lack of
consistent output, a weak year for Activision-Blizzard overall, and
Activision's increasing influence on Blizzard, which has traditionally
been an autonomous company but has been overseen by Activision's CEO,
Bobby Kotick, since the two companies merged in 2008. That influence has
grown this year in many ways both blatant and subtle.
就在上個月,暴雪員工被告知要減少開支,並且要提高產能.這可能是因為動視暴雪表現
太過疲軟的原因.在以前暴雪可維持獨立運作,但隨著動視CEO的監督之下,動視對暴雪的
影響越來越大.尤以今年為甚.
For November's report, we talked to 11 current and former Blizzard
employees. Since then, we've heard from even more current and former
Blizzard staff about the company’s cost-cutting measures and how they've
materialized. The Career Crossroads program is one example. Another,
according to three Blizzard staff who all left recently, is a power shift
that has seen the finance department cultivate influence that it had never
had in the past.
在11月的調查中我們訪問了11個現任及前任的暴雪員工,從那時就聽到許多樽節措施.
包括上面說的Career Crossroads自願離職計畫.而根據最近離開的三位前員工說,財務
部門獲得前所未有的影響力.
“Finance in general in Blizzard has been one of these invisible functions
that's there, but doesn't have a say,” said one veteran employee who left
recently and asked not to be named because they were not authorized to talk
to press. "Now they're suddenly in meetings."
一個未授權的前員工說:以往財務部門沒有話語權,直至今日.
Said a second, who also asked not to be named: “A lot of decisions now are
being driven by business folks, marketing and finance folks. There’s a real
struggle now between developers and the business people… Strategic decisions
are being driven by the finance group.”
These decisions could range from major (Which technology should we use for
this new incubation project?) to minor (How much do we spend on BlizzCon
goodie boxes this year?). It’s a major cultural shift, one driven by top
executives at the company including Armin Zerza, who was chief financial
officer (CFO) at the studio before he became chief operating officer (COO) in
late 2017. Under Zerza, Blizzard has brought in a number of business-minded
employees both from Activision and the consulting company McKinsey, many of
whom might have different priorities than longtime Blizzard staff or those
with development backgrounds.
另一個不具名的人士指出:現在許多決策都是由商務/行銷/財務部門來決定的,開發部門
無權置喙,這導致開發部門與上述的業務部門產生了衝突.
而這些影響的決策之廣,上至"決定使用何種開發技術",下至"BlizzCon禮包的成本多少",
無一不包.之所以會產生這些衝突,主要是高層引入了以財務導向的員工.這些人與傳統暴
雪員工只專注遊戲的目標不同,而是以營利為導向.
Earlier this year, new Blizzard CFO Amrita Ahuja, who also came over from
Activision, told employees during an all-hands meeting that it was time to
start reining in their spending. That was a common theme at many of Blizzard’
s departments this year, according to those who were there. “That speech
from Amrita about cutting costs, that wasn’t a one time thing,” said one
person who worked on a non-development team. “We were told to cut costs on a
monthly basis.”
就在今年稍早時,新任暴雪CFO在一次大型員工會議中告訴大家:看好暴雪的荷包.而且這不
是他第一次這麼說.於是這成了暴雪各部門的主要課題.
一個非開發部門的員工說:我們被要求逐月減少支出.
So far, the cost-cutting has mostly taken place in non-gaming departments,
with one big exception. Last week, Blizzard announced plans to reduce the
staff of Heroes of the Storm and eliminate its esports program. It was a
surprising move to those who made their careers off Heroes, but among
Blizzard games, this was the weakest link—Heroes of the Storm had always
struggled to find as much financial success as Blizzard's other big hits.
到目前為止,只有非遊戲部門才實施樽節計畫,只有一個例外.
上週暴雪宣布減少暴雪英霸的人力支出,並取消電競計畫.這震驚了那些以此遊戲為生
的人們.在暴雪遊戲中,暴雪英霸雖然一直是小眾遊戲,但也在努力尋找成功的契機.
There have been other big moves as well. Today, the British website Eurogamer
reported that over 100 people have accepted buyouts at Blizzard's customer
service office in Cork, Ireland.
And among Blizzard staff and close observers, rumors have circulated about
potential layoffs in the new year. The game development teams are seen as safe
—the mandate is to make more games, after all—but those at other
departments are worried about what might be coming when 2019 arrives.
最新的樽節措施是:位於愛爾蘭的歐洲分部,有超過100名的客服人員接受了自願離職計畫.
另有傳言指出2019年會有裁員計畫,可能只有開發部門不受影響,畢竟這會影響到新遊戲的
進度.至於其他部門就沒這麼好運了,大家都擔心會發生不好的事.
To look at Activision and Blizzard is to see two companies that, for over a
decade, have followed connected but very different models. Under Bobby
Kotick, Activision has found success through annual releases of games like
Call of Duty and, until recently, Skylanders. Meanwhile, under co-founder and
longtime CEO Mike Morhaime, Blizzard has marched at its own pace, sticking
with old games for the long haul and releasing new ones whenever the company
felt like they were ready. Blizzard has gone years without releasing a brand
new game, while Activision hasn't let a fall go by without a new Call of
Duty since 2004.
回顧動視及暴雪這兩家公司的文化截然不同,動視不斷推出新的Call of Duty系列遊戲,
但暴雪以自己的步調,專注在舊有的遊戲上,遲遲未發表新的遊戲.至於新作何時推出呢?
暴雪的回答是:"準備好了才會發表".
這在動視是不可能發生的:動視自2014以來,每年都會發表一款Call of Duty系列作.
Now, Morhaime is gone, and Activision appears to have more influence on
Blizzard than it ever has. Will Blizzard’s games-as-a-service,
release-it-when-it's-ready approach to development survive these new
changes? It might take years before we know the answers, but some Blizzard
employees—and many fans—are concerned about what they might be. The
influences of a major corporation can be subtle and sometimes impossible to
discern.
“Blizzard is a special place,” said one former employee.
“A lot of people are worried about the future of Blizzard—if the Activision
method seeps in more, what that’s going to become.”
在Mike Morhaime離開以後,動視對暴雪的影響更甚以往.暴雪的遊戲現在多以線上服務
的方式存在,所以"準備好了才會發表"這種開發模式,是否會因為動視的態度而產生了
變化?這可能要經過許多年的觀察才能得知.
但對暴雪員工和粉絲來說卻非常擔心動視主導暴雪的一切,畢竟你無法預測動視的下一步.
"暴雪對大家來說代表許多意義,所以許多人都擔心它的未來,尤其是被動視掐住的暴雪"
一個前員工這麼說.
(完)
延伸閱讀:超過100位暴雪員工接受自願買斷離職，官方稱既有服務不受影響
https://bit.ly/2rSTLSZ