Should Netmarble be allowed to squeeze Kabam like that? Should we (community) do something about it?

All in the title.
We complain everyday about "Kabam this" or "Kabam that" but in reality, are not they doing what they can with what they are dealing with? Granted some moves are not really pro-player (potion deal for saga incursions, looking at you) but eventually we all love the game and the people making it. You cannot have one without the other imo.
So, seeing Jax like that telling the news about Miike and Rob and all the others "unknown" to us made me realize that we (community) should be doing something about it to show Netmarble that they cannot mess with our game like that to make even more profit. Before you say anything, yes I know, they bought Kabam for some good money and they want their investment back and this is normal, this is economy. But there are ways to do it, not like that.
If they continue to squeeze the company like that with layoffs eventually the game will hurt and we will not enjoy it as much.
What do you think?

Comments

Tempest_024

Who said they were laid off? I wouldn’t jump to conclusions. You may be right, but there could be something else going on.

ahmynuts

Who said they were laid off? I wouldn’t jump to conclusions. You may be right, but there could be something else going on.

It's just the vibe being put off from the employees combined with the way miike was speaking about the future etc etc. It all makes it seem very sudden and very whiplashing to people over at kabam and to the mcoc community

BringPopcorn

Only fix available is to make F2P watch ads...

iDestroyerZ

Who said they were laid off? I wouldn’t jump to conclusions. You may be right, but there could be something else going on.
It's just the vibe being put off from the employees combined with the way miike was speaking about the future etc etc. It all makes it seem very sudden and very whiplashing to people over at kabam and to the mcoc community

I agree, judging by the emotional reaction of Jax on the livestream, it seems he got caught off guard

Joker1976

Well it’s no secret that mobile games have been in a downturn.
There hay day was during Covid,..but now there is inflation,..and loss of interest etc.
It’s also no secret that to purchase something worthwhile in a mobile video game costs quite a few dollars.
The fact that even a premium value bundle loses value rather quickly makes one think twice.
“Let’s see,..it’s taking the fam out to the movies with all the fixings or,..this bundle that will not give me close to the same enjoyment.
Sorry,..just being honest,..but i guess you could guess what my choice is going to be.

winterthur

Do you have funds to acquire Netmarble?

1199345

I literally just searched "Kabam layoffs" on Twitter/X and this popped up:

It's a list of gaming companies who let people go in 2024 so far...

BringPopcorn

It's all f2p players fault, the ones that come in here complaining about BG matchmaking and so on wearing the f2p cape so proudly.

ahmynuts

Well it’s no secret that mobile games have been in a downturn.
There hay day was during Covid,..but now there is inflation,..and loss of interest etc.
It’s also no secret that to purchase something worthwhile in a mobile video game costs quite a few dollars.
The fact that even a premium value bundle loses value rather quickly makes one think twice.
“Let’s see,..it’s taking the fam out to the movies with all the fixings or,..this bundle that will not give me close to the same enjoyment.
Sorry,..just being honest,..but i guess you could guess what my choice is going to be.

The bundle because you get robbed far less than going out to the movies

BringPopcorn

Well it’s no secret that mobile games have been in a downturn.
There hay day was during Covid,..but now there is inflation,..and loss of interest etc.
It’s also no secret that to purchase something worthwhile in a mobile video game costs quite a few dollars.
The fact that even a premium value bundle loses value rather quickly makes one think twice.
“Let’s see,..it’s taking the fam out to the movies with all the fixings or,..this bundle that will not give me close to the same enjoyment.
Sorry,..just being honest,..but i guess you could guess what my choice is going to be.

True story, I went to the movies during Memorial weekend, it was dead...

BeastDad

made me realize that we (community) should be doing something about it to show Netmarble that they cannot mess with our game like that to make even more profit.

I actually laughed out loud at this part, kudos.

BringPopcorn

made me realize that we (community) should be doing something about it to show Netmarble that they cannot mess with our game like that to make even more profit.
I actually laughed out loud at this part, kudos.

Yeah let's boycott as a community, sure its going to be great for budget cuts 🤣

klobberintyme

All in the title.
We complain everyday about "Kabam this" or "Kabam that" but in reality, are not they doing what they can with what they are dealing with? Granted some moves are not really pro-player (potion deal for saga incursions, looking at you) but eventually we all love the game and the people making it. You cannot have one without the other imo.
So, seeing Jax like that telling the news about Miike and Rob and all the others "unknown" to us made me realize that we (community) should be doing something about it to show Netmarble that they cannot mess with our game like that to make even more profit. Before you say anything, yes I know, they bought Kabam for some good money and they want their investment back and this is normal, this is economy. But there are ways to do it, not like that.
If they continue to squeeze the company like that with layoffs eventually the game will hurt and we will not enjoy it as much.
What do you think?

Stuff you may not be aware of in the real world:

1) Kabam has 3 games. They had a fourth on the way ( King Arthur: Legends Rise), but it looks like Netmarble has assumed that branding. This is a thing, in that Kabam developed it but now it's seemingly out of their portfolio. That's not great.
2) of the 3 remaining Kabam branded games, only 1 ha(s) a dedicated user forum and relatively robust social community platform, and that was largely grandfathered in. Every Chief of Beancounting worth their salt will ask Does this function add to our profitability or our overhead? (The best part is beancounters are all overhead.) This is also where we give Jax all the credit in the world for not immediately saying F this I'm not doing 3 jobs for 1 salary.
3) I've believed for a while Netmarble would be better off selling Kabam at some point, in that on paper MCOC grosses are still noteworthy, and no one's buying Kabam without it. When you're cutting costs, absconding with its one new offering and no longer posting non-MCOC job openings, the next few months will be very interesting.

Which is to say, not fun for Jax or whoever sticks around, but fascinating to see where Kabam ends up.

Kabam Crashed

We all appreciate the sentiment but it's just a challenging time to work in games, or really tech in general. The best thing you can do to support the game team is just to keep playing our game, even when we make mistakes. The more players we have, the more we get to build to try to make them happy.

Joker1976

Well it’s no secret that mobile games have been in a downturn.
There hay day was during Covid,..but now there is inflation,..and loss of interest etc.
It’s also no secret that to purchase something worthwhile in a mobile video game costs quite a few dollars.
The fact that even a premium value bundle loses value rather quickly makes one think twice.
“Let’s see,..it’s taking the fam out to the movies with all the fixings or,..this bundle that will not give me close to the same enjoyment.
Sorry,..just being honest,..but i guess you could guess what my choice is going to be.
True story, I went to the movies during Memorial weekend, it was dead...

Yeah i get that,..I recently went with my kid to the new Garfield movie…it was also dead.
Sunday matinee ,…that’s okay.
Movie wasn’t that great,..but my kid loved it.
Makes all the difference of where you put your dollars.
Are you getting where i’m coming from now?

Mdowney80

I literally just searched "Kabam layoffs" on Twitter/X and this popped up:

It's a list of gaming companies who let people go in 2024 so far...

I asked that guy if he had anything official. He hasn’t replied yet.

Feeney234

All in the title.
We complain everyday about "Kabam this" or "Kabam that" but in reality, are not they doing what they can with what they are dealing with? Granted some moves are not really pro-player (potion deal for saga incursions, looking at you) but eventually we all love the game and the people making it. You cannot have one without the other imo.
So, seeing Jax like that telling the news about Miike and Rob and all the others "unknown" to us made me realize that we (community) should be doing something about it to show Netmarble that they cannot mess with our game like that to make even more profit. Before you say anything, yes I know, they bought Kabam for some good money and they want their investment back and this is normal, this is economy. But there are ways to do it, not like that.
If they continue to squeeze the company like that with layoffs eventually the game will hurt and we will not enjoy it as much.
What do you think?

Mannnnn shush before they shut the game down completely 😂😂

captain_rogers

Y'all ger the existing ones kicked out as well.

PT_99

July-4th deals will be of banger value. 🤧

DNA3000

All in the title.
We complain everyday about "Kabam this" or "Kabam that" but in reality, are not they doing what they can with what they are dealing with? Granted some moves are not really pro-player (potion deal for saga incursions, looking at you) but eventually we all love the game and the people making it. You cannot have one without the other imo.
So, seeing Jax like that telling the news about Miike and Rob and all the others "unknown" to us made me realize that we (community) should be doing something about it to show Netmarble that they cannot mess with our game like that to make even more profit. Before you say anything, yes I know, they bought Kabam for some good money and they want their investment back and this is normal, this is economy. But there are ways to do it, not like that.
If they continue to squeeze the company like that with layoffs eventually the game will hurt and we will not enjoy it as much.
What do you think?

I've been playing online games (games as a service commercial games) since 2003. The reality of the games industry is that this kind of thing is part of the deal. I've seen every kind of way for a developer I knew to be shown the exit, some more awful than others. I have guesses as to which one this was, but I'm not going to speculate publicly. The bottom line is that however much we might love this game, this is not our game, and more importantly this is not our studio. It is one thing to advocate for a champion buff or a reward change, and another thing entirely to get involved in human resources decisions. There is literally nothing you can do that will make things anything but worse.

We have a relationship with the developers of the game, however rocky it might be at times. We're connected by their desire to make a good game and our desire to play a good game. That relationship allows for some give and take when it comes to discussing and even advocating for changes to the game. Dialog is possible. We have no such leverage or relationship with the people who are making these kinds of decisions.

To put it bluntly, you can try to make a statement that "you can't do this." One of two things will happen. One: most likely they will ignore you completely. i doubt they have any idea any of these discussions are even happening.

Two: they just might decide to prove you wrong.

Asmondena

I have been playing and spend since 2017 and what has kept me returning is the community.
MCOC is not a mobile game, it’s online social interaction masquerading as a mobile fight game. Alliance, YouTube and this forum is why the game has lasted as long as it has.
The Kabam Xs are also part of the community so Netmarble needs to be careful.

mgj0630

TL;DR Layoffs are a harsh reality of life.

It sucks when the human factor comes in, but the harsh reality of business is that they exist with one sole purpose, and that is to make money.

Year over year, the goal is always to make more than the prior year, and inevitably, you wind up with one of two ways to increase profit margins:

1) Increase the cost of goods
2) Reduce overhead

Increasing the cost of goods, comes at the risk of losing sales. You make more per transaction, but you likely reduce the number of transactions, so odds are, you probably just break even with that route.

That leaves the other option of reducing overhead, which often times, this one in particular it seems, was realized through a reduction in force (the CEO term for layoffs).

They will strive to find a balance where the income generated by the game stays consistent with as few employees as possible. When they tilt too far in the layoffs and income dips, that's when they may increase the work force with goal of bringing income back up.

The one thing that certainly won't help is a boycott of some sort. Reduced income only leads to even more layoffs. So if you enjoy playing the game, just keep doing what you've been doing, and have a bit of sympathy for the fact that right now the developers are being forced to do the same as before, but with less support.

OldManHop

My interpretation is... we don't know the whole story and we'd likely do more harm than good by trying to make a stink. Let's just see how the rest of the year goes.

Herbal_Taxman

Only fix available is to make F2P watch ads...

Best me to it. Time to put in some work, you bunch of ftp deadbeats.

EgyptOverseer

https://9gag.com/gag/a9yLD2m

This may explain part of the problem.

Joker1976

Only fix available is to make F2P watch ads...
Best me to it. Time to put in some work, you bunch of ftp deadbeats.

Lol,..sorry all of us “ftp deadbeats” just may be on a budget.
But if i had an extra grand every month, or had a full time job and still lived in my parents basement,..i would love to be able to help out.
…But that isn’t the case.

Chobbly

TL;DR Layoffs are a harsh reality of life.

It sucks when the human factor comes in, but the harsh reality of business is that they exist with one sole purpose, and that is to make money.

Year over year, the goal is always to make more than the prior year, and inevitably, you wind up with one of two ways to increase profit margins:

1) Increase the cost of goods
2) Reduce overhead

Increasing the cost of goods, comes at the risk of losing sales. You make more per transaction, but you likely reduce the number of transactions, so odds are, you probably just break even with that route.

That leaves the other option of reducing overhead, which often times, this one in particular it seems, was realized through a reduction in force (the CEO term for layoffs).

They will strive to find a balance where the income generated by the game stays consistent with as few employees as possible. When they tilt too far in the layoffs and income dips, that's when they may increase the work force with goal of bringing income back up.

The one thing that certainly won't help is a boycott of some sort. Reduced income only leads to even more layoffs. So if you enjoy playing the game, just keep doing what you've been doing, and have a bit of sympathy for the fact that right now the developers are being forced to do the same as before, but with less support.

There's a lot of truth in this. The best thing to do as has been said already is to keep playing. There's also an element in any company whenever someone new comes in, CEO or Department Lead, whatever for them to be seen 'adding value'. I've lost count of the number of times I've seen senior personnel come into a business and make random changes just so they are seen to be making changes.

It's sad to see people go; I've been at firms where there have been rounds of layoffs. One time I was on the wrong side, a couple of times on the other. Neither side is somewhere that you'd choose to be for different reasons.

Darkraw346

I didn't watch the stream... can anyone fill me in? What's going on?

Fryday

Hi @DNA3000 ,

I do agreed with you the between the players and MCOC developer team, there is a dialogue, fore and back on how a certain could be fine tune for the benefits of the developers, the players (community) and the games.

While at time it can be a challenging one, where the 2 views doesn't meet, but overall I would say it is a healthy one which enables the game to grow and last this long.

However, in my opinion there is another a relationship between Netmarble and the players, a business one, company and customers, therefore I think it is also important to have some kind of dialogue between two parties, because like we have seen from history, as soon as a company stop listening to their customers the deterioration of the company begin.

I'm not saying the community "boycott" this or "demand" that, but at the same time like you say, Netmarble most likely doesn't even know these conversations the community is having regarding the affect on the action Netmarble "may" have taken.

Would it not be health if there a way for the community to express the value of this space, the MCOC forum, livestream, other social media platforms as well as the team behind it. Because these things are also extremely important for the growth and longevity if the game, which in directly link the the company Netmarble profit.

By investing into Kabam MCOC, including the community management side, Netmarble profit margin might (I assume) be slightly less (every slight), but it would ensure long-term profit, which would be health for the company.

Could a survey or some other methods be an effective way to present this to Netmarble.

Bulmkt

Only fix available is to make F2P watch ads...

That would end this game very quickly…