"You get what you pay for" - Asmongold provides his take on Blizzard Entertainment losing numerous employees

In a recent livestream on his “zackrawrr” Twitch channel, Zack “Asmongold” brought up an interesting topic of discussion when he addressed Blizzard Entertainment reportedly losing many of its employees. This comes hot on the heels of Dragonflight, arguably Blizzard’s best expansion for World of Warcraft yet. Excitement for the upcoming Diablo 4 is also simmering.

The co-founder of OTK reacted to a meme about Blizzard losing employees and then further discussed the situation. While the company has recently released some incredible content, Asmongold suggested that it may be better for these talented people to work at other companies, like Riot Games or Square Enix. He didn’t hold back and said:

“Blizzard doesn’t pay for s**t. Blizzard doesn’t pay a lot of money, and guess what happens? Well, you get what you pay for.”

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Blizzard reportedly losing numerous employees, Asmongold gives his thoughts

The discussion began on Asmongold’s “zackrawrr” stream with a meme about “Blizzard’s 2023 playbook," which showcases the company making its best expansion since Legion, forcing everyone to return to the office, and then losing all employees. After displaying the meme on his stream, Zack remembered the context and pulled up a thread in the World of Warcraft subreddit.

“Oh yeah! Let me show you guys this! There was a really big tweet that happened.”

(Clip begins at 5:18:30)

According to a Warcraft producer at Blizzard, the company is losing so many employees that the teams are needing “crisis maps” to determine what they can and cannot ship. They even have a literal schedule to strike things out as people hand in their notices.

In a thread on Twitter, the developer stated that someone in power doesn’t listen to the game directors, which has created this problem. They just want to create brilliant games but can’t do so if Blizzard gets rid of everyone who can make it happen.

Reacting to the same, Asmongold referred to Bobby Kotick, the CEO of Activision Blizzard, and said:

“So yeah, we’re not the rats in Bobby’s maze, it’s the employees. Here’s the thing is that Riot got rid of a lot of their work from home staff. I think you have to return to office at Riot, too.”

However, even Riot Games is bringing people back into the office, but the producers of League of Legends aren’t seeing a mass exodus from the company. Asmongold addressed what could potentially be the distinguishing factor:

“If you work at Riot, you don’t have people on Twitter asking you how much br*ast milk you drank today, or you don’t have people asking you when the next time an executive is going to get f**king harassed, or get arrested for something stupid.”

This was in reference to the many accusations levied at Blizzard executives over the past few years. Asmongold’s point was that these things aren’t happening at other companies, or at least, not to the same degree as they are at Blizzard.

“Basically, what I’m saying is it looks a lot better to work for a place like Riot or Square Enix than Blizzard. And this is compounded by the fact that it’s very well known that even people who hardly know anything about this stuff that Blizzard doesn’t pay for s**t. Blizzard doesn’t pay a lot of money, and guess what happens? Well, you get what you pay for.”

The streamer said it was disappointing to see this happen and pointed out that the quality of Blizzard’s content could suffer due to the great deal of stress and anxiety among team members. To conclude, he said that he hoped for the situation to improve at the company.

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YouTube comments section responds to Asmongold’s thoughts

There wasn't a lot of surprise or shock in the comments section of this streamer's clip. (Image via Asmongold Clips/YouTube)

Many commenters on YouTube weren’t especially shocked about Blizzard continuing to treat its employees poorly. This is certainly not the first time the company has been in the news for something incredibly negative. However, Blizzard's games are still played by many.

If game developers get mistreated or underpaid, they have plenty of options in the modern market. (Image via YouTube)

Some commenters pointed out that you simply cannot treat employees poorly anymore. Game developers will simply find another company that needs their services.

One person remarked that it’s shocking what some people would accept at the workplace, highlighting the assaults at Blizzard in the past. However, some called the developers lazy because they wanted to work from home.

Others were simply delighted to see what these game developers could do at other companies (Image via YouTube)

Not everyone in Asmongold's comment section was convinced that people are leaving simply to avoid “returning to the office." Going back to the office just because of a lease, when the work can be done from home, seemed wasteful to some. Some commenters were just glad that talented game developers are going to other companies to produce “better games” in the future.

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Unfortunately, it seems that Activision Blizzard remains in the news for something negative, despite releasing a very popular and critically acclaimed expansion for World of Warcraft.