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Kotaku: Blizzard have been told to cut costs and ship more games

Ionic

Ionic

Member
Oct 31, 2017
2,734
Blizzard of all companies is being told they aren't making enough money?
 
carlsojo

carlsojo

Member
Oct 28, 2017
33,756
San Francisco
...Aren't all video game companies trying to ship more games at lower costs?

HotS has never done very well sadly even after they revamped it a while back.
 
Becks'

Becks'

Member
Dec 7, 2017
7,432
Canada
I posted this during the Diablo fiasco but I'll post it again. Steve Jobs might have been a douche but he was right about this.

Blizzard's creative people are gone and now they are replaced by people who only focus on numbers.

 
Mashy

Mashy

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,184
Considering how much WoW BFA is in the shitter too im not surprised. Something is going on at Blizzard and its not good.
 
Armaros

Armaros

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,901
Activision finalizing the ouster of all the old guard and bringing in their accountants to run Blizzard.
 
Ze_Shoopuf

Ze_Shoopuf

Member
Jun 12, 2018
3,932
Activision slowly ruining Blizzard.

Blizzard is making tons of money for them, but i guess it's not enough for Bobby.
 
MrBob

MrBob

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,668
Blizzard was pushing the "More games in development than any other time in history" line at Blizzcon which I found odd. No one loves Blizzard for their quantity output. They love them for the quality and this news seems to reinforce they are ready to sacrifice quality for quantity.
 

Deleted member 46948

Account closed at user request
Banned
Aug 22, 2018
8,852
After what they shipped as BfA and the cluster fuck that was recent Blizzcon, I have low expectations for their future output.
 
Moebius

Moebius

Member
Oct 28, 2017
5,384
What did Blizzard think was going to happen when they merged with Activision? I saw the end coming as soon as this partnership was announced.
 
Scuffed

Scuffed

Member
Oct 28, 2017
10,831
RIP Blizzard. I'm not saying they can't still make good games I just think it's almost impossible to make a game profitable enough for the shareholders who always want increases. They have maximum greed and it's going to make all their games shit.
 
Protome

Protome

Member
Oct 27, 2017
15,677
Gotta admit, this took a lot longer than expected. But it was expected nonetheless.
The Activision merger was only ever a good deal for them in the short term.
 
KarmaCow

KarmaCow

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,154
Time for Activision to burn through all the good will Blizzard has built up and toss the husk aside when they're done.
 
Sargerus

Sargerus

▲ Legend ▲
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
20,830
Isn't HOTS the third best MOBA in terms of popularity right now? Losing only to the juggernauts DOTA 2 and LoL.
 
Moebius

Moebius

Member
Oct 28, 2017
5,384
In all seriousness I wouldn't mind a Lost Vikings 3 in the same spirit as the first two games.
 
Armaros

Armaros

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,901
Will the people saying Morhime stepping down wont change anything come in here to eat their crow?

This is lightning speed for a company with the history and size of Blizzard, Morhime is barely retired this year, and we are already seeing the signs of Activision over Blizzard.
 
Athena

Athena

Member
Dec 10, 2018
49
IIFloodyII said:
Probably just not making enough money to please Acti's unreasonable shareholders.
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I imagine this is it.

Black Ops 4's ridiculous $500M (or so, can't exactly remember) opening week/weekend was, to my knowledge, not nearly enough to satisfy ATVI's shareholders .. despite smashing records. Evidently, they don't just want some of the money. They gotta have all of the money.
 
Vervain

Vervain

Member
Oct 27, 2017
291
I haven't looked at financials, so I'm totally talking out of my arse here, but I assume based on this that the revenue Blizzard have been pulling in towards the Acti-Bliz entity has been dropping recently, without any changes to costs, and the Activision head honchos have potentially become fed up with always bearing the brunt of any restructures or significant firings in the company.

I imagine the real gist behind this is something like revenue from WoW is dropping, there's no real in-game monetisation in Diablo 3 and the re-release/DLC didn't really move the dial, Hearthstone player numbers are dropping as competition grows, StarCraft 2 wasn't as bit of a success as they'd hoped, Heroes of ththe Storm was an outright disaster, and then whatever is happening in Overwatch.

Hopefully we don't see any reductions in quality from this, but I imagine this is part of the reason we're getting Warcraft 3 Reforged and Diablo Immortal.
 
asd202

asd202

Enlightened
Member
Oct 27, 2017
9,542
It has been pretty clear that Activision influence was growing over Blizzard over the years. This year is probably the most noticeable with Morhaime leaving the company.

W3 Reforged for sure will have some microtransactions like skins and stuff. I had hoped they would be in-game but alas in the light of the recent news I'm not hopeful.
 
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KarmaCow

KarmaCow

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,154
Armaros said:
Will the people saying Morhime stepping down wont change anything come in here to eat their crow?

This is lightning speed for a company with the history and size of Blizzard, Morhime is barely retired this year, and we are already seeing the signs of Activision over Blizzard.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Eh this was set in motion a while ago, the devs Schreier talked to about Diablo said as much. The cause and effect is probably reversed here.
 
BabyDontHurtMe

BabyDontHurtMe

Member
Dec 9, 2018
20,966
New Jersey
It's a shame to see this happen to a huge name like Blizzard. This mentality of bigger profits per game is unrealistic and ultimately damaging for the gaming industry and it's a shame more publishers are following the trend. Developers are burnt out, but that doesn't mean fire them and treat them like livestock. Perhaps focus more on creative freedom and what makes developers and fans most happy and excited instead of having game diarrhea. Fuck this new corporate consolidation of the gaming industry. It benefits the few and hurts the many.
 
Berordn

Berordn

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 26, 2017
9,739
NoVA
hurroocane said:
They shipped a terrible wow expansion that was not ready to be shipped so that's not much of a surprise
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This mandate is probably why they were adamant about the release date being so soon when it was clear to just about everyone the systems needed more iteration. The more we hear about the push for more games, the more recent Blizzard announcements have been making sense.
 
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