Blizzard Entertainment

2019eventclassic

Blizzard Entertainment is the Irvine, California video game publisher behind Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo whose name became a running gamer-culture punchline after parent Activision Blizzard announced 775 layoffs on the same day it reported record 2018 revenue in February 2019.

gamingwarcraft memesbackfire memes2019 memescorporate villain memes

Overview

Blizzard Entertainment is a video game developer and publisher headquartered in Irvine, California, known for the Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo franchises3. Online, the studio's name is tied to a specific gamer-culture flashpoint: the February 2019 layoff announcement from parent Activision Blizzard1.

The cuts were reported alongside record 2018 revenue of $7.5 billion, up from $7.02 billion the year before, which turned "record profits, mass layoffs" into the shorthand framing across gaming Twitter, Reddit, and YouTube reaction channels1. CEO Bobby Kotick's face was pasted onto image macros and became the visual center of the backlash4.

How It Spread

On the day of the announcement, Kotaku editor Jason Schreier tweeted that "Blizzard employees are crying and hugging in the parking lot," a line that ricocheted across gaming Twitter and set the emotional register for the story5.

The next day, Redditor StaurtGT posted "Activision-Blizzard's Management = SCUM" to /r/gaming with a captioned image of Bobby Kotick pointing at the record-earnings contradiction; the thread pulled in more than 96,600 points and around 4,700 comments in 24 hours4. That post pushed the layoff story from gaming press into general Reddit meme circulation and pinned Kotick as the face of the backlash.

YouTube commentators kept the story running through the week, with TheQuartering and Boogie2988 both publishing reaction videos on the layoffs3. Coverage kept looping back to the split between Activision's $2.38 billion quarterly revenue and the severance package that folded job placement, health coverage and profit-sharing bonuses together for the cut staff2.

How to Use This Meme

The Blizzard Entertainment layoff meme is typically invoked whenever a large game publisher announces mass job cuts after reporting strong earnings. Common conventions include pairing a Bobby Kotick photo with a caption that quotes the record-revenue figure, or replying to any corporate earnings-plus-layoffs headline with "crying and hugging in the parking lot" as a callback to Jason Schreier's 2019 tweet5.

Frequently Asked Questions

Blizzard Entertainment

2019eventclassic

Blizzard Entertainment is the Irvine, California video game publisher behind Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo whose name became a running gamer-culture punchline after parent Activision Blizzard announced 775 layoffs on the same day it reported record 2018 revenue in February 2019.

gaming warcraft memes backfire memes 2019 memes corporate villain memes

Overview

Blizzard Entertainment is a video game developer and publisher headquartered in Irvine, California, known for the Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo franchises3. Online, the studio's name is tied to a specific gamer-culture flashpoint: the February 2019 layoff announcement from parent Activision Blizzard1.

The cuts were reported alongside record 2018 revenue of $7.5 billion, up from $7.02 billion the year before, which turned "record profits, mass layoffs" into the shorthand framing across gaming Twitter, Reddit, and YouTube reaction channels1. CEO Bobby Kotick's face was pasted onto image macros and became the visual center of the backlash4.

How It Spread

On the day of the announcement, Kotaku editor Jason Schreier tweeted that "Blizzard employees are crying and hugging in the parking lot," a line that ricocheted across gaming Twitter and set the emotional register for the story5.

The next day, Redditor StaurtGT posted "Activision-Blizzard's Management = SCUM" to /r/gaming with a captioned image of Bobby Kotick pointing at the record-earnings contradiction; the thread pulled in more than 96,600 points and around 4,700 comments in 24 hours4. That post pushed the layoff story from gaming press into general Reddit meme circulation and pinned Kotick as the face of the backlash.

YouTube commentators kept the story running through the week, with TheQuartering and Boogie2988 both publishing reaction videos on the layoffs3. Coverage kept looping back to the split between Activision's $2.38 billion quarterly revenue and the severance package that folded job placement, health coverage and profit-sharing bonuses together for the cut staff2.

How to Use This Meme

The Blizzard Entertainment layoff meme is typically invoked whenever a large game publisher announces mass job cuts after reporting strong earnings. Common conventions include pairing a Bobby Kotick photo with a caption that quotes the record-revenue figure, or replying to any corporate earnings-plus-layoffs headline with "crying and hugging in the parking lot" as a callback to Jason Schreier's 2019 tweet5.

Frequently Asked Questions