The compensation that any member of the Parasite Class gets for “failing upward” is absolutely mind-blowing. Just for one in my career I would like to be rewarded for gross incompetence.
There is already a delay between console and pc releases.. add a second delay after pc release to include in game pass..
People that really want to play the game will buy it either on console or on pc to play it early.. People that would not buy it could pay for game pass to get it later...
Or is it only a team when it comes to success, when it's about failure, it's just pointing finger at one specific person?
On the other hand, it makes perfect sense to strike over pay/conditions or in solidarity with workers elsewhere.
I’ve worked at a company where customer service costs were higher than the contribution margin. The solution from leadership was to turn off the phones. If they can’t call in, then no one needs to be paid to answer calls.
I asked the VP how customers who need help now (appointments were involved) could get help? Well they could email in and wait for a response.
Shockingly, customer lifetime value dropped like a rock. So their solution was to lock every new customer into a hidden subscription plan that had a cancellation fee of 2-4x of one appointment. Then they had to walk that back when they had too many chargebacks.
The company was later bought out. Only people in the earliest of rounds made money from their equity. The CEO went on to be the CEO of the acquiring company.
The people deciding on the decision were will insulated from dealing with the consequences of that decision.
2018: https://www.cnet.com/tech/tech-industry/microsoft-employees-...
2019: https://www.wired.com/story/microsoft-employees-protest-trea...
2020: https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-employees-messages...
2021: https://gameworldobserver.com/2021/04/06/microsoft-employees...
2022: (Well, I couldn't find anything here on the first 2-3 pages, Blizzard acquisition hides everything else)
2023: https://www.techradar.com/pro/microsoft-workers-protest-land...
2024: https://www.moneycontrol.com/technology/microsoft-fires-empl...
2025: https://apnews.com/article/microsoft-ai-protest-israel-gaza-...
etc.
One thing that's missing: a single whisper about "hey guys, maybe trashing the xbox/windows/clippy business is not a wise thing to do, it's not too late to change course tho".
There are companies where employees have no effective voice. Maybe Microsoft is such a company, I don't know, I've never worked there. But their employees do make their voice heard by others, if no one else - just not on every topic that matters. And that's my point.
