In which case I hope he'll accept my apology if he feels I was yelling at him... I didn't mean to come off that way...

It's just, too many of us have taken body blows in this economy these past few years and i get a little sensitive to it.

I agree, I just like to clarify is all. :)

Was I talking about the wageslaves that work in payroll? No. But it's a lot more in the company than just Bobby. There are a whole load of people at Activision who are directly responsible for the loss of hundreds of jobs in the games sector and often simpy for personal gain in the form of bonuses. Red Octaine are a great example with Guitar Hero, they made Activision billions of dollars in revenue but as we know game deveopment is not a highly paid job. Those people had to work for long hours and punishing deadlines to meet Activision's demands for that franchise and then one day Activision realized they had milked the franchise as far as it would go. How did Activision reward all that loyal work and those billions of dollars? With P45's.

One less developer making games and more people unemployed for no reason other than corporate greed. Watch what happens to Treyarch when the Call of Duty bubble bursts and Activision move on to the latest franchise they can milk. It should be noted that in 2010 when Activision closed Red Octaine and Bizarre Creations Robert Kotick earned $15million dollars in bonuses.

HoneyBakedHam is right. Wishing for the downfall of a corporation that, compared to the other corporations out there is more in the slightly naughty than downright evil camp, is a petty thing to do.
However the video game world turns out, there will always be games to play that you will find interesting even if they are just small independent titles, big productions or one of the many old games. Even if you wouldn't find any interesting games to play perhaps you instead would do something else with your free time that you would find more rewarding. If you think about it, what you have in short supply is time not good games.

If you look out from your privileged life, you will see that your problems are small and insignificant. If you want to rage against something, there are many things much more worthy to rage about than games.

One thing to worry about is gamer monopolies on the mainstream if the companies fold or get merged too much and we end up with a gaming equivalent of M$ or even worse.

Yes it could happen as a result of a publisher owning a dominant distribution platform but I don't think it is very likely as it is very easy to compete in this business. I think it would be much harder for some company to do a Microsoft in the video gaming world than for Microsoft to do it in the PC world.
Even if someone did, say Steam-Nintendosoft, they wouldn't last that long. All empires fall, and in the world of electronic entertainment they fall much sooner. There will always (as long as we live in a free and capitalistic world) be independent alternatives too.

Yes, I'm crazy late in replying because I have been busy elsewhere. I don't need the last word though I see how it could look that way.

What I want to challenge is the idea that companies somehow like laying off employees or shuttering studios. They don't. I have never once seen anyone at Activision or any other large publisher take glee in a business decision that ended with people losing jobs. It might be easy or romantic to believe that there's someone there twirling their moustache, but as others have noted, it's just not that way. And I don't see you providing any evidence that it is, for that matter. That might be because it does not exist.

IW has a lawsuit pending so I'm not commenting on that situation, other than to note that a lot of people stayed (a majority, in fact) and those people are making MW3 along with new people who joined up since.

Bizarre was, to me, a terrible shame, because I was a big fan of the studio's work, and one of the most vocal proponents of Blur you'll probably ever meet -- but if you look at how it actually went down, you will find interviews of employees saying they were glad Activision explored lots of options and helped them with placement. Gareth Wilson had some particularly insightful comments. And it should be noted that while the studio closed, it was up for sale and nobody bought it -- however, those people got snatched up by other dev houses or made their own. They're talented people and I wish the studio was still around with them in it, but they're not out on the street. I am watching studios like Hogrocket and Lucid to see what they come up with, and of course Gareth is over at Sumo.

And the only person saying Singularity was "Raven's last chance" is you. Yeah, they wish Singularity had done better, but you make it sound like they are on thin ice and doomed or something, which again, is not something I've seen. The layoffs that affected Raven also affected every other studio, as well as corporate. You probably don't realize how many people from Activision HQ were let go around the same time. It was quite brutal.

If you disagree with what the CEO has done or said, so be it -- as long as you truly understand what was done or said. Like, if you're going to be angry, I can respect that, but be informed about why you are angry. Specifically, check the research into some of the famous quotes that may not be what you think they are. I think people like having a villain, and Bobby fits that bill because of some of his statements and business decisions.

I think a lot of all this is how you choose to see it, and how your personal biases color events. I choose to not believe that most companies are evil simply because I disagree with some of their decisions. I choose not to come up with my own reasons for why things happen, then blame other people for those fictional reasons. I play the games that make me happy and I encourage other people to check out what I dig if I feel strongly about it. I don't waste my time telling people why their choices suck in comparison, and I don't feel like I'm a freedom fighter against a fantasy oppressive gaming regime that does not exist.

I recommend you support the folks who make the games you like and remember there are humans behind every game on the market.