Provide_A_Username: Your allegory did not work for me under the reason the shutdowns did not bring anything good, period. Maybe in the future "As long as the individuals survive (!) they can subsequently be reconstituted"? That's a quantum leap worthy of the "conspiracy theory" badge (And insert here my "weakening standards" words, please).
Yes, you and me wish all the best to the fired employees but your words made Microsoft look as the smart guy doing the best move ever and I entirely disagree. I rank it as another classic stupid move as they use to do.
It was the pre-Socratic philosopher,
Heraclitus fl.500BC, who noted that (
πάντα ρει) the world is always changing.
I would add that, assuming something good comes from the wilful destruction of the ex-MS developers, it won't be apparent for some time. (Henry Ford went bankrupt before his successful legacy began and a lot of his innovations were less foresight and more luck with fortuitous unforeseen consequences. As Tolkien-Gandalf said, not even the wisest can see all ends.) Without the loss of Black Isle we would not have Obsidian. (I grant you we cannot know if Black Isle would have made even better games than Obsidian did: that is a counterfactual, a known unknown. Some of my favourite games were made by Black Isle
and Obsidian.)
Think what makes a good developer: artists, technologists, story-tellers, etc. If some aspiring leader were to collect the better individuals with these talents from those recently sacked employees and provide for them to be the best they can be, then there is no reason they cannot create stuff that is better than the sum of their earlier works.
I agree that the Microsoft executives (let's try to focus on the individuals rather than address groups collectively; it is lazy, (intentionally?) distracting, inaccurate and therefore unsuitable for analytic precision) are asshats who have done real damage to the company, the industry and gamers. Damage from which they will almost certainly escape all the consequences. (Hence these decisions, which unfairly crucify the developers, transgress the categorical imperative whilst crapping on multitudes who have no way to vote those ill-deserving egotists out of their wealthy remuneration. Perhaps Nemesis will smack them later: karma comeuppance.)
Provide_A_Username: I can easily find the "Scorched Earth tactics" reference more empathic than yours. How so? It considers all the laid off employees as valuable resources from the beginning ("crown jewels"). And the military aspect doesn't matter to me at all. As you said, we are talking about employees and corporations. We are in the 21st century, we must overcome the traumas and clearly differentiate. Feel free to move to its c[a]using "Scorched-earth policy" if that eases your mind.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorched-earth_defense More empathetic perhaps; that was not my focus.
When a target firm implements this provision, it will make an effort to make itself unattractive to the hostile bidder. For example, a company may agree to liquidate or destroy all valuable assets, also called crown jewels, or schedule debt repayment to be due immediately following a hostile takeover. In some cases, a scorched-earth defense may develop into an extreme anti-takeover defense called a poison pill.
I take your point that the mistreatment of their staff is appalling, wide-ranging, and misguided. (Again.) Microsoft is hardly a takeover target since they are one of the largest corporate behemoths ever and have recently purchased a swag of successful developers (
e.g., Bethesda, Obsidian), so that connotation is less useful.
They are, however, burning other people's livelihoods to burnish their own immediate stock options. (Kant.) In a just world these execrables would be fired. (And billed for the damage wrought.) What they are doing is comparable to taking an axe to the walls of their house for a cool breeze when they might turn down the central heating or, you know, open a window instead. If I may use another conceit, they are wedded to their ideological goal (championing their Game Pass initiative) above all else and hang the consequences (bourne by others, naturally).
TLDR; My comment was an optimistic note suggesting that out of great evil some (great) good may come (hence Schumpeter's gale: creative destruction).
edit: Koine alphabet in linkie
