You needn’t worry, it won’t help. They are absolutely a standard shareholder and executive communication tool. Traditionally they were announced ahead of weak earnings to soften the blow to investors with the promise of savings. Then geniuses thought, why not both, and started announcing them with good earnings too. Who doesn’t like to juice the stock a bit as an exec when your compensation is largely in grants and/or vesting options in that same stock?

Major layoffs are done now to hit targets every quarter if needed until morale improves stock price targets are hit or exec’s jobs are safe for another quarter of obscene wealth redistribution.

This is not limited to gaming, or even tech, it’s just catching the employees and the economy by surprise here given how well many of these companies are doing when there is no clear reason other than obvious, unfettered greed.