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[Draugoth]

​

• Devs got a stunning 0% of profit-sharing bonuses this month
• No more PvE
• But there's optimism for the game's competitive future

Overwatch in trouble​

This week, video-game titan Blizzard Entertainment changed the business model for the shooter Overwatch 2, decoupling the game’s heroes from the paid battle pass. The seemingly drastic move led players and observers to ask: Is Overwatch 2 a failure?

Twice a year, employees at Blizzard receive bonus checks based on the financial success of their products. Each employee is given a target number and informed that they will receive a percentage contingent upon the company hitting its profit goals for the year.

These profit-sharing bonuses are an important part of Blizzard’s compensation packages. For decades, prospective employees have been told that while the company does not pay base salaries as high as nearby competitors such as Riot Games, they make up for it through profit-sharing from lucrative hits like World of Warcraft.

Bonuses at Blizzard usually arrive in two chunks: one in August, for the first half of the year, and one in March, for the second half of the previous year.

In August 2023, Overwatch 2 team members were told that based on the game’s poor financial performance in the first half of the year, they shouldn’t have received anything, according to people familiar with what happened who asked not to be named discussing nonpublic information, but that the company would cover some of their bonuses to make up for the shortfall. Then, earlier this month, the company informed developers that they would receive a stunning 0% of their bonus targets.

Failing to get any profit-sharing bonus is rare at Blizzard and is the result of a major policy change that was enacted in 2023. Previously, employees would receive bonuses based on the overall performance of the company. But last summer, the payouts became tied to the performance of each specific franchise. Since their titles were more successful in 2023, teams on games such as Diablo and World of Warcraft received bonuses this month, but the Overwatch developers weren’t so lucky.

 

[Omnipunctual Godot]

I wonder if this is a case of choking the plant and then blaming it for shriveling.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

To be fair, how many work at companies that even given profit sharing bonuses?

Annual bonus yes, but a profit sharing bonus is a different kind of bonus (unless at Activision it's one and the same). At my company we get both kinds of bonuses which are totally different in pay out, structure, and timing. The normal annual bonus for me is much higher pay and earlier in the new year. The profit sharing bonus is smaller and comes out 1-2 months later.

 

[ProtoByte]

 

[Holammer]

With Helldiver's recent success, it must sting extra hard that they shit canned the PVE Stuff.
Tried OW2 when it released on Steam and all the new characters & balance changes made it incomprehensible. PVE might have hooked me instead.

 

[sankt-Antonio]

Wait, they get monthly bonus payments if a game performs well? But isn't it generally the case that bonuses are payed out after a certain threshold is met, at least its like that at my company (only once a year ) .

 

[Gaiff]

Those Bungie and Activision Blizzard acquisitions paying dividendes.

 

[SEGAvangelist]

Great news. Developers of lame games shouldn't be rewarded.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Wait, they get monthly bonus payments if a game performs well? But isn't it generally the case that bonuses are payed out after a certain threshold is met, at least its like that at my company (only once a year ) .

Snippet in the OP post says they get paid bonuses twice a year based on hitting targets.

Activision also changed the bonus structure to me more team based than holistic company based. So Overwatch team bonuses depend on hitting their targets, and Diablo team has their targets.

Every company is different. I've always worked at company with overall company + regional performance + personal evaluation. Makes sense since I'm in finance and arent pigeon holed to a specific team as I look at everything. But every department is similar too.

But I know people who worked at companies that are more department based. Their bonus depends on their performance and team performance like the Walmart team's bonus is based on their sales and profits, and the Loblaw's team gets a totally different bonus. But then at my old company, it's was holistic based on the overall company metrics. Makes no difference if someone was on a kick ass team or a one going down the tubes. Same bonus %.

So looks like Activision chooses the department by department (or product line by product line) structure.

 

[Bridges]

Wait, they get monthly bonus payments if a game performs well? But isn't it generally the case that bonuses are payed out after a certain threshold is met, at least its like that at my company (only once a year ) .

There's is twice a year based on financial performance for each half of the year. 1st half bonus in March, second half bonus the next August.

The writing suggests that Blizzard pays below their competitors but profit sharing significantly makes up for it.

Sucks for the people getting less money than they anticipated, but somethings gotta change with the OW2 team. I am one of the (seemingly) few here who love OW2, it was my most played game last year. But the monetization is abysmal and without the PvE content it's a huge head-scratcher why it even exists. I'd rather pay for $40 worth of loot boxes than for a single skin just because it looks like a Diablo character. Fortnite has the whole industry fucked up thinking more than a few people will pay those prices for anything outside of the Fortnite ecosystem.

 

[Saber]

Couldn't care less about them receiving money over this. Now can't wait to media go all "poor developers" drama mode.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

To be fair, how many work at companies that even given profit sharing bonuses?

Annual bonus yes, but a profit sharing bonus is a different kind of bonus (unless at Activision it's one and the same). At my company we get both kinds of bonuses which are totally different in pay out, structure, and timing. The normal annual bonus for me is much higher pay and earlier in the new year. The profit sharing bonus is smaller and comes out 1-2 months later.

Why are you getting annual bonus if you also get a profit sharing bonus? A company in trouble should not pay a bonus.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

The writing suggests that Blizzard pays below their competitors but profit sharing significantly makes up for it.

And now it doesn’t.

 

[Fake]

Hope all those GaaS fall.

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

Probably some tantrums happening at the adult daycare today.

Spoiler

j/k they’re all “working” from home

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Couldn't care less about them receiving money over this. Now can't wait to media go all "poor developers" drama mode.

Yup. It'll come.

Welcome to the real world gaming employees. First, not everyone even gets a bonus, and certainly not twice a year pay outs. I know people who have got 0% bonus too if the company misses their numbers.

Why are you getting annual bonus if you also get a profit sharing bonus? A company in trouble should not pay a bonus.

My company pays both. Only company I've worked at that does this. The profit sharing bonus isnt big though. Around a steady 5% every year which isnt even cashable into your bank account. It is put into a retirement account index fund.

 

[Caffeine]

competitive future ? didnt they just axe overwatch league 2 months ago ?

 

[Griffon]

The game is in its sun-setting phase.

Heroes now being free means they're gonna slow down the content-making until they can stop altogether.
After that it'll be indefinite maintenance-mode.

 

[Salty Popsicle]

Those Bungie and Activision Blizzard acquisitions paying dividendes.

I don't know if you read the article correctly, but the Blizzard profit-sharing structure mentioned here had been in place for many years before the merger with MS. The only thing that changed was that teams are now being judged by the performance of games they directly worked on instead of the performance of the company as a whole, which to me makes complete sense.

 

[Nankatsu]

That's what happens when you go the woke route.

 

[Salty Popsicle]

And now it doesn’t.

They should make a good game again and get the bonuses they want.

 

[NickFire]

I feel bad for anyone reliant on bonuses who didn't see the lack of one coming. Especially for the people who are good at their jobs but hamstrung by less talented co-workers, poor supervisor / management / HR decisions, or company monetization requirements.

But I do think the policy of tying bonuses to the results of specific projects can benefit gaming consumers in the end. Whether that actually pans out is TBD.

As an aside, I am wondering if this is a clever way by a massive corporation to get employees on board with working harder (like occasional crunch) and moving away from stuff that will turn off parts of the known audience.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

Hope all those GaaS fall.

 

[rubenburgt]

In other news, water is wet.

This game has always been a mess, but it became a way bigger mess when they "released" overwatch 2.

It sucks for those Devs, but what do you expect when you work for Activision Blizzard?

 

[Hudo]

Please just fucking stop with Overwatch already. I bet Blizzard already recuperated most of the losses they've made scrapping Project Titan. Now free yourselves from this shitshow and make something new and cool. Or how about unfucking WarCraft 3 and making a proper remake, for a start?

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Incentivizing employees based on performance? This is genocide.

 

[Ogbert]

Schreier is such a fucking weasel.

Profit sharing is not a de facto right. It is an excellent benefit reserved for great performance.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

In other news, water is wet.

This game has always been a mess, but it became a way bigger mess when they "released" overwatch 2.

Always important to note: A hyper, hyper successful "mess". Not many games have generated more $ over the last 10 years.

 

[DonF]

bro I stopped playing cause the game got lame, got back to it and they changed mcrees name cause of some pervert...wtf... and all the new heroes feel like out of place..im out again.

 

[Joshmyersbv]

They need to add another gay character to the roster. That should help them get their next bonus.

 

[Caffeine]

Turn the game off and relaunch overwatch 1 lol.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Overwatch is kinda shit compared to every other hero shooter out there and it has the worst community because all the wokies who demand every character be gay and trans have made it their home. Which is good for other hero shooters because if all the purple insane forum players are on Overwatch, the other games can benefit from only normal people in their communities playing.

 

[balls of snow]

I play daily and they deserve all that shit coming their way. Ms about to clean house.

 

[SJRB]

Why would you get a bonus if the game you made is a disaster?

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

That's what happens when you focus on genitals over gameplay.

 

[AJUMP23]

I worked at a company that did profit sharing annually Not quarterly.

normally management is incentivized with profit sharing not the rank and file.

 

[nikos]

Shame because it's been the best competitive shooter for a while.

Couldn't care less about PvE shit. Imagine having to level each hero and having skill trees. Perhaps in a separate mode but Competitive is more important. The PvE stuff they did add is fun.

 

[Thanati]

To be fair, it’s not the devs fault but the execs and producers. They’re the ones forcing the designers and such.

 

[hemo memo]

So this dude is basically a dev’s complaints line now.

 

[lh032]

"But there's optimism for the game's competitive future"

 

[kiphalfton]

Schreier is such a fucking weasel.

Profit sharing is not a de facto right. It is an excellent benefit reserved for great performance.

Yeah... isn't that how profit sharing typically works.

I'm getting sick of these stupid articles about devs, and alluding to how hard they have it.

Cry me a fucking river.

 

[MayauMiao]

If the devs are upset for not getting any profit, they can always go outside of their office, out in the field, and do the scream in unison.

 

[Nydius]

I know I'm a broken record and wrote almost this exact same comment recently but I haven't seen a property squandered so badly in such a short amount of time as this one. The game went from smash hit industry leader to complete mess by 2020 and has never recovered. I was sick of their slapdash balancing by late 2019 and was pretty much over playing it.

With Helldiver's recent success, it must sting extra hard that they shit canned the PVE Stuff.
Tried OW2 when it released on Steam and all the new characters & balance changes made it incomprehensible. PVE might have hooked me instead.

PVE, at least what they initially announced in their damage-control OW2 original announcement, would have 100% brought me back to the game. Even if I never touched PVP again, I would have played the hell out of the PVE mode they initially announced. The moment they came out and said their PVE plans were dead except for some crappy events, any interest I had in ever returning to the game evaporated.

 

[bbeach123]

Good .

I dont understand the mindset of western devs , you make a game that make money by people buying skins/outfit for characters .

And then you design characters that noone want to look at .

How does that even work ?

 

[EviLore]

Profit sharing requires profit, stunning game journalists

 

[March Climber]

This might explain their recent video/update:



Cliff notes:

• All future Heroes will be immediately unlocked when they launch and will no longer need to be unlocked through the Battle Pass(past heroes retroactively unlocked too)
• Players can now unlock Mythic Skins(including past Mythic skins they might have missed in previous seasons)
• Updates to old legacy maps for 5v5
• New maps every quarter
• New Clash game mode

I completely abandoned and uninstalled the game, but from time to time I'll look at their updates on youtube and reddit to see if they're attempting to turn the ship around, even if a little.

 

[IAmRei]

Blizzard is having hard time, no?
Their recent games are kind of flop in feedback. Diablo and overwatch is somewhat having backlash

 

[*Nightwing]

Good

People associated with producing trash should be ashamed, not compensated

 

[tommycronin]

Imagine having to sit there and write an article about an 8 year old game dead game at this point that it's not doing too good by listening to the little rats scurrying to you crying because they didn't get a bonus for their shit performance.

 

[AREYOUOKAY?]

FUCK THE COMPETITIVE