EA and WOTC have successful online games and Activision-Blizzard is failing hardcore.
- Thread starter Mist
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What's happening? Acti-Blizz is making record profits is what's happening. The things we want out of them are not what they're focused on.
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Zindan
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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There biggest announcment in the past 3-4 was taking Diablo to mobile, pretty much says what is wrong with Blizzard. Yet it will make billions for Activision.
Araxen
Golden Baronet of the Realm
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It doesn't help that it takes Blizzard 10 years to release a game. I'm sure that is part of what Activision is trying to breed out of Blizzard. The snail pace at which Blizzard moves is truly unacceptable while other studios take a fraction of the time and pump just as good content.
TJT
Mr. Poopybutthole
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Blizzard needs something to get with the times. Their development cycle has always been absolutely glacial. So glacial that they've missed entire console generations they were targetting (Ghost). Now, there's a lot of truth to the mantra of, "when it's ready." But they are in competition with other companies today that are able to hit, "when it's ready" within very reasonable time frames.
Such as Fortnite, hate it all you want. Epic is the standard that game developers should be meeting. Blizzard fucks up their cash cows like Hearthstone with absurd idiotic glacial development decisions. When they are on platforms that are designed for rapid implementations.
Fortnite remains the King pulling in $3 billion fucking dollars in profit for 2018 alone because of this. Changing shit on the fly, listening to their customers, adding new shit, balancing quickly, implementing radical new concepts (live concerts in game, tha fuq?), you name it. You put in something that turned out bad? So what take that shit out and try something else! This is something that Blizzard has shown time and time again they will NEVER do. Just look at that track record. Real Money AH in D3 took them years to resolve... by removing it. Problem cards in Hearthstone they waited years to fix, if at all. Tons of changes to WoW they sat on for years until their competitors implemented them to great success. THEN they put them in.
If you want to survive you need to be more like that and a lot less like Blizzard and game developers of old where its all, "hmm okay we'll sit back for 6 months to a year before we do anything rash like make a change to the game." Even if said game desperately needs it. Remember Overwatch itself was an afterthought after Blizzard spent untold millions of dollars developing all of those high quality assets that they had no use for as they tanked various projects like Titan. They're a terrible company in this way.
Such as Fortnite, hate it all you want. Epic is the standard that game developers should be meeting. Blizzard fucks up their cash cows like Hearthstone with absurd idiotic glacial development decisions. When they are on platforms that are designed for rapid implementations.
Fortnite remains the King pulling in $3 billion fucking dollars in profit for 2018 alone because of this. Changing shit on the fly, listening to their customers, adding new shit, balancing quickly, implementing radical new concepts (live concerts in game, tha fuq?), you name it. You put in something that turned out bad? So what take that shit out and try something else! This is something that Blizzard has shown time and time again they will NEVER do. Just look at that track record. Real Money AH in D3 took them years to resolve... by removing it. Problem cards in Hearthstone they waited years to fix, if at all. Tons of changes to WoW they sat on for years until their competitors implemented them to great success. THEN they put them in.
If you want to survive you need to be more like that and a lot less like Blizzard and game developers of old where its all, "hmm okay we'll sit back for 6 months to a year before we do anything rash like make a change to the game." Even if said game desperately needs it. Remember Overwatch itself was an afterthought after Blizzard spent untold millions of dollars developing all of those high quality assets that they had no use for as they tanked various projects like Titan. They're a terrible company in this way.
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In 2018 Blizzard didn't meet Activision's expectations and Activision-Blizzard shit on their customers' expectations. Blizzcon was a trainwreck.
They have a couple of franchises left which they haven't completely fucked up, but given their recent track record, it is likely only a matter of time.
If this trend continues there won't be a Blizzard brand in 2024, I think it will get canned sooner though. CoD is an Activision game and both Overwatch and Heartstone have lost significant ground, so what is the purpose of keeping the Blizzard name around after those decline? SCIII in 2025?
They have a couple of franchises left which they haven't completely fucked up, but given their recent track record, it is likely only a matter of time.
If this trend continues there won't be a Blizzard brand in 2024, I think it will get canned sooner though. CoD is an Activision game and both Overwatch and Heartstone have lost significant ground, so what is the purpose of keeping the Blizzard name around after those decline? SCIII in 2025?
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Blazin
Creative Title
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I listened to their investor conference call and I would not expect anything from them in 2019, as they are calling it a rebuilding year.
I do believe they plan to have some content in 2020. They project no growth in 2019, kind of amazing how little they have done for years as a $30b company.
I do believe they plan to have some content in 2020. They project no growth in 2019, kind of amazing how little they have done for years as a $30b company.
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Namon
Blackwing Lair Raider
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See this has been Blizzard's problem since forever. The difference is, the game they FINALLY came out with was very well received. Personally I never saw why their games ever took that long. Not arguing they weren't good, but they never seemed to have the complexity to justify the 2-3x longer to develop times either. Now that WoW is no longer producing copious amounts of fuck you money and most everyone from the early days have left and the people remaining just don't have the same level of chops but still insist on taking 2-4x longer, it's showing.
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Cybsled
Avatar of War Slayer
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I think this season of Overwatch League will be very telling. They were pulling in really solid numbers last year, but there has been a really long hiatus since the end of season 1. If the next comp season flops viewer wise, then that will kill future buy-in for team slots and their business model will be finished.
Valderen
Space Pirate
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I'm a huge fan of OWL, I love the format that mirrors real sport leagues rather than isolated tournaments.
That said, OWL will suffer from Blizzard glacial pace of development. The game is stale for too long periods of time. Dive dominating for over a year, then GOATS for 6 months+ and still pretty dominant.
Most of the star streamers are barely playing the game anymore, Seagull, xQc, Calvin, etc barely play now and that mostly due to the game being too stagnant for long period of time.
Apex Legends if they manage to keep the momentum by having constant updates like Fortnite will steal a lot of OWL viewers. Even though I don't play the game, I enjoy watching it, never like watching BR games, but Apex is fun to watch.
I agree that this year will be very important for OWL. This is the last year of the 90M deal with Twitch for streaming rights. Next year they'll have to renegotiate streaming rights so a good or bad year will be crucial for that next contract.
As much as I want it to succeed, I have a bad feeling about it.
That said, OWL will suffer from Blizzard glacial pace of development. The game is stale for too long periods of time. Dive dominating for over a year, then GOATS for 6 months+ and still pretty dominant.
Most of the star streamers are barely playing the game anymore, Seagull, xQc, Calvin, etc barely play now and that mostly due to the game being too stagnant for long period of time.
Apex Legends if they manage to keep the momentum by having constant updates like Fortnite will steal a lot of OWL viewers. Even though I don't play the game, I enjoy watching it, never like watching BR games, but Apex is fun to watch.
I agree that this year will be very important for OWL. This is the last year of the 90M deal with Twitch for streaming rights. Next year they'll have to renegotiate streaming rights so a good or bad year will be crucial for that next contract.
As much as I want it to succeed, I have a bad feeling about it.
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I'm sure your hopes and dreams will outweigh bobby 'never played a game' koticks "I WANT MORE REVENUE, RMT THAT SHIT UP" directions.
If SCIII launched tomorrow, it would be a mobile game where you pay 5$^ to build a barracks, so its better this way.
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That is solely based on CoD, which has already been taken over by the BR games. It is an Activision game.
What blizzard games have generated positive revenue?
1/5 isn't going to sustain the brand name and its incompetent employees.
Activision already chlorine gassed the blizzard folks, causing the big blizzard names to leave. It is just a matter of time before they completely remove the blizzard name, because that name has zero value these days.
What blizzard games have generated positive revenue?
1/5 isn't going to sustain the brand name and its incompetent employees.
Activision already chlorine gassed the blizzard folks, causing the big blizzard names to leave. It is just a matter of time before they completely remove the blizzard name, because that name has zero value these days.