[Kotaku] With Activision's Influence Growing, Blizzard Is Cutting Costs

Tbm24 · Dec 21, 2018

Jest said:
The thing about Blizzard is that thus far it's creative output has largely been hits, with the only outright dud being Heroes of the Storm. And even that isn't a bad or poorly made game. It just came into being way too late.

Titan was spun into the massively successful Overwatch. Diablo 4 could be getting retooled or it could've just been a decision not to showcase it *this* early. While I haven't read enough about the decision to pull the D4 trailer to have an inkling about what that was really about, spinning Titan off into Overwatch was absolutely the best decision possible as the liklihood that Titan would release and see success anywhere near the level of WoW without having to cannibalize WoW's userbase was pretty much zero. So it seems that it's less likely that there's mismanagement but that instead Blizzard has been inching closer and closer to the auteur development nature of Valve without having the the financial security that Valve has through it's service as a PC storefront.

Overwatch may have been born from remnant of Titan, but that doesn't mean Blizzard didn't lose a metric ton of money on that failed project. They mismanaged it and suffered for it, Overwatch success aside. Blizzard needs to become more efficient if they want to last long. Scrapping projects after years of work isn't sustainable.

Pata Hikari · Dec 21, 2018

Qwark said:
Blizzard is still profitable, right? Just not nearly as profitable as Activision wants them to be?

Yup basically Blizzard is going to be killed because they only made a hojillion dollars instead of 2 hojillion dollars.

Plywood · Dec 21, 2018

Explains why the Overwatch servers are being held together by duct tape and lootbox purchases after this Winter update.

Kirblar · Dec 21, 2018

Qwark said:
Blizzard is still profitable, right? Just not nearly as profitable as Activision wants them to be?

Same problem as with Vivendi, they have to carry the less profitable parts of activision.

gig · Dec 21, 2018

Plywood said:
Explains why the Overwatch servers are being held together by duct tape and lootbox purchases after this Winter update.

what does this even mean

PrimeBeef · Dec 21, 2018

Kirblar said:
Mismanagement was cancelling XP2 before seeing how ROS did.

I've heard their pay is below where it should be because they've been banking on the Blizz name.

Sounds like the University of Michigan., outside if professors and athletic coaches, people usually get paid significantly less than others in similar markets due to the privilege of working for U of M.

If anything they should have got a team to work on an expansion even if it were slow and coming out in 2019 after they saw the success of RoS while creating D4.

cartoon_soldier · Dec 21, 2018

Just have to look at BFA to know this.

Launched, not received well.

Gave a free mount for 6 month subscription.

Launched 8.1 but gated aspects of it. Incidentally the gating opens just around the 30-day period where people coming back to play 8.1 would have their monthly sub expire.

Nintendo · Dec 21, 2018

monketron said:
It's heartbreaking to watch your favourite developer who's given you so much joy, since your childhood, slowly fall apart before you.

They aren't falling apart. Calm down.

monmagman · Dec 21, 2018

Scuffed said:
The thing is that I think Activision taking over is like the blind leading the lame. I don't think Activision is particularly creative tbh so they can manage costs but where are the exciting ideas going to come from? It is true that many of the AAA companies have taken a stock hit and I think there is a reason for that. Most of their games are derivative and boring imo.

Yea,that's right...............if you value profits over artistic integrity then creativity will suffer.

Fishtank · Dec 21, 2018

I really hope EA doesn't buy them up.

ianpm31 · Dec 21, 2018

It's going to get worse as the wow shield is dwindling and Activision wants to please their shareholders

Pata Hikari · Dec 21, 2018

Scuffed said:
It is true that many of the AAA companies have taken a stock hit and I think there is a reason for that. Most of their games are derivative and boring imo.

The Stock hit doesn't have anything to do with the games themselves. It's because the AAA publishers are hitting a wall in how much money they can get from people. And since Shareholders demand that companies grow endlessly to shovel more cash every year down a gaping maw the moment that they didn't earn more than last year the shareholders started dumping stock.

SephiZack · Dec 21, 2018

Burt said:
What happened in September?

Pretty much the entire market is going down, it's not limited to Activision Blizzard or gaming companies

Yukinari · Dec 21, 2018

Is this an out of season april fools joke?

SneakersSO · Dec 21, 2018

Kirblar said:
Same problem as with Vivendi, they have to carry the less profitable parts of activision.

Or how EA Sports is basically carrying EA on their own at the moment. If you think EA's market value has tanked already, the removal of even one of their Ultimate Team revenue streams would put EA in a position I don't think anyone realizes they could be capable of being.

Ryaaan14 · Dec 21, 2018

As far as WoW goes, they're gonna lose cash. WoW players aren't gonna play ball w more shit like we've had in BFA

Syf · Dec 21, 2018

Qwark said:
Blizzard is still profitable, right? Just not nearly as profitable as Activision wants them to be?

Absolutely yes, they've been doing well. You can check that in their earnings reports, which separates the segments of the company. But Activision needs to please shareholders after Destiny 2 Forsaken and CoD were (relatively speaking) disappointments, so here we are. Very sad to see.

Plywood · Dec 21, 2018

Gig said:
what does this even mean

I mean the game feels broken after this last update and the servers have been very spotty(seems to vary though, some say fine, others reporting extreme lag), but the functionality for purchasing lootboxes is in no way impacted and so the OW team isn't springing to fix the problem because it doesn't affect their bottom line.

Dark Ninja · Dec 21, 2018

Eh this is not entirely bad to have someone knocking at the door, asking what the hell is happening with all the funds and nothing is coming out. I think they are pleased with Overwatch success, their work on the OWL because that is something that can help all their games and would have been stopped long ago if it was failing. Activision division IS doing good right now so its hard to argue about their output.

-Black Ops IIII
-Crash
-Spyro
-Sekiro

Lozjam · Dec 21, 2018

Tbm24 said:
Overwatch may have been born from remnant of Titan, but that doesn't mean Blizzard didn't lose a metric ton of money on that failed project. They mismanaged it and suffered for it, Overwatch success aside. Blizzard needs to become more efficient if they want to last long. Scrapping projects after years of work isn't sustainable.

That's really what makes great studios though. Scrapping projects that don't work, is what keeps quality extremely high. And, it is sustainable to a huge degree.

If you ever own any artistic medium, or do anything else, it's actually part of the process. Sometimes things don't turn out well, and it's better to revitalize a project into something new or make something different. This gives your artists more experience, and in turn makes better games.

Nintendo EAD, Square Enix, Capcom, Naughty Dog, Retro Studios, Rockstar, and even more publishers have literal graveyards of cancelled games(Nintendo in particular has a ton of these). It's how you weed out bad ideas, revitalize new ones, and create quality games. It's perfectly sustainable and it creates better games. And that's why the studios that we know today, are ones with a massive catologue of failed prototypes, cancelled games, and old ideas.

Now, if every game was cancelled, that would be concerning. However, since Blizzard is keeping development with its product that are still very successful. Well.... I mean, they are doing what they doing. Asking a studio to just "push out more games" will just increase crunch, make your games of lower quality, and potentially decrease sales.

FLEABttn · Dec 21, 2018

Blizzard wasted like a decade on Titan, failed to capitalize on DotA despite it being literally in their own game, embarrassed themselves with the Diablo 3 fiasco (which led RoS to sell less than half what Diablo 3 did in the first week), all while generally sitting on their IPs and not making games with them and getting out-Blizzarded in the FPS genre. Let's not act like everything has been fantastic in Blizzard land for the last 10+ years.

Scuffed · Dec 21, 2018

Pata Hikari said:
The Stock hit doesn't have anything to do with the games themselves. It's because the AAA publishers are hitting a wall in how much money they can get from people. And since Shareholders demand that companies grow endlessly to shovel more cash every year down a gaping maw the moment that they didn't earn more than last year the shareholders started dumping stock.

It's obviously a number of reasons but the quality of the games is of course the leading factor. Great games that people fall in love with make publishers extremely rich. If the games aren't loved it has a cascading effect. Pretty much every single game on the Battle.net launcher is hurting right now.

The only one that looks to be maintaining itself is Hearthstone and even they are doing strange things like nerfs just 2 weeks after the expansion because no cards form the expansion were being used in any of the top decks(not even a joke.) So even in HS things are off. Similarly EA games are also circling the drain. Fifa is doing great but the non sports titles are just not interesting to gamers atm. So to say it "doesn't have anything to do with the games." is not accurate.

I understand what you mean about the profits never being enough for shareholders and that is true and will ultimately destroy these publishers but when you look at the communities for these games across the board they are not happy and if the people playing it aren't happy then no one new will bother playing.

Tbm24 · Dec 21, 2018

Lozjam said:
That's really what makes great studios though. Scrapping projects that don't work, is what keeps quality extremely high. And, it is sustainable to a huge degree.

If you ever own any artistic medium, or do anything else, it's actually part of the process. Sometimes things don't turn out well, and it's better to revitalize a project into something new or make something different. This gives your artists more experience, and in turn makes better games.

Nintendo EAD, Square Enix, Capcom, Naughty Dog, Retro Studios, Rockstar, and even more publishers have literal graveyards of cancelled games(Nintendo in particular has a ton of these). It's how you weed out bad ideas, revitalize new ones, and create quality games. It's perfectly sustainable and it creates better games. And that's why the studios that we know today, are ones with a massive catologue of failed prototypes, cancelled games, and old ideas.

Now, if every game was cancelled, that would be concerning. However, since Blizzard is keeping development with its product that are still very successful. Well.... I mean, they are doing what they doing. Asking a studio to just "push out more games" will just increase crunch, make your games of lower quality, and potentially decrease sales.

Not sure how you reconcile that kind of creative process with the ever increasing budgets of games year per year. Either way, it could still use managing to a level Blizzard themselves have shown they can't accomplish. D3 came out over 6 years ago and we're gonna be coming on 7 soon. Fact that we have no D4 currently is mismanagement even if you'll chalk it up to the creative process.

Fart Master · Dec 21, 2018

Phantom Thief said:
I was quoting Star Wars lol

Yeah I know but you know this place

Lozjam · Dec 21, 2018

Tbm24 said:
Not sure how you reconcile that kind of creative process with the ever increasing budgets of games year per year. Either way, it could still use managing to a level Blizzard themselves have shown they can't accomplish. D3 came out over 6 years ago and we're gonna be coming on 7 soon. Fact that we have no D4 currently is mismanagement even if you'll chalk it up to the creative process.

Nintendo does it no problem.
Naughty Dog does it no problem.
SIE does it no problems.
Square also does it no problem.
Hell even Ubisoft does it no problem as well.

Imagine a world, where of instead of Bethesda releasing Fallout 76, they instead went, "hmmmm, people are not going to like this. Let's can it". Yes, they won't be releasing a game they worked on for years, and they won't get a product out. But, they wouldn't enrage their fan base, they wouldn't disappoint their investors with pitiful sales, they wouldn't be trashed on by games media. Not only that, but they could have taken the idea of Fallout 76, and in a couple more years given it a go. Perhaps even with a new IP as well.

It's better that Diablo 4 wouldn't have come out, then if it was a pure dumpster fire. It's way better for the fans, for the company, and for the developers that it either doesn't release at all, or is given the proper time it needs.

And you are pretending like Blizzard isn't releasing any games at all. Which is untrue. Blizzard has been making a ton of money, because they used to care about quality and nothing else. "More frequent" pushed out releases will inevitably come out to a "Fallout 76" situation.

Zem · Dec 21, 2018

Diablo 4 is going to be a trainwreck. I wouldn't even be surprised if we never see it.

TheUnseenTheUnheard · Dec 21, 2018

If it works, break it.

ElBoxy · Dec 21, 2018

Lozjam said:
Nintendo does it no problem.
Naughty Dog does it no problem.
SIE does it no problems.
Square also does it no problem.
Hell even Ubisoft does it no problem as well.

Imagine a world, where of instead of Bethesda releasing Fallout 76, they instead went, "hmmmm, people are not going to like this. Let's can it". Yes, they won't be releasing a game they worked on for years, and they won't get a product out. But, they wouldn't enrage their fan base, they wouldn't disappoint their investors with pitiful sales, they wouldn't be trashed on by games media. Not only that, but they could have taken the idea of Fallout 76, and in a couple more years given it a go. Perhaps even with a new IP as well.

It's better that Diablo 4 wouldn't have come out, then if it was a pure dumpster fire. It's way better for the fans, for the company, and for the developers that it either doesn't release at all, or is given the proper time it needs.

And you are pretending like Blizzard isn't releasing any games at all. Which is untrue. Blizzard has been making a ton of money, because they used to care about quality and nothing else. "More frequent" pushed out releases will inevitably come out to a "Fallout 76" situation.

If the current games Blizzard has out now isn't satisfying players then maybe those need more attention than another expensive project. And cancellations for as much as they can do good can also backfire for a studio. Microsoft sure as hell doesn't need another major cancelled project under their name.

shintoki · Dec 21, 2018

Hate to say it, but it was bound to happen at some point. Blizzard got really big in the late 00s. They don't have a replacement for WoW, simple as that. Titan was supposed to be the replacement, it was mismanaged. They are left holding their junk now.

Smash Kirby · Dec 21, 2018

From working in IT AND being around people who do. IT is often seen as a money pit that gives no noticeable gains to a company for a corporation. Often when a company cuts, the IT department is one of the first things to get diced up.

MattEnth · Dec 21, 2018

shintoki said:
They don't have a replacement for WoW, simple as that. Titan was supposed to be the replacement, it was mismanaged. They are left holding their junk now.

This.

Blizzard owns its fate. It doesn't require Activision execs, investors, or elite consultants to see that they've got some serious challenges.

WoW has seriously declined.
Overwatch does not monetize well.
Diablo 3, StarCraft 2, and Heroes of the Storm all have dwindling populations and don't really monetize.

Hearthstone might be carrying the company, and at this point, it's a huge company. Blizzard has over 5,000 employees across the globe, half of which are in Irvine, CA. Contrast that with DICE, which has less than 1000 and releases games nearly annually.

As a huge Blizzard fan myself, I want more games.

Icemonk191 · Dec 21, 2018

Interficium said:
ERA saying that AAA devs need to "cut the bloat out of game budgets" but then turning around and saying "<publisher> is dead" when news comes out of cost-cutting will always be hilarious to me.

Gamers not understanding how business work?!? I'm shocked! Shocked I tell you!

data west · Dec 21, 2018

Nintendo said:
They aren't falling apart. Calm down.

The biggest and most diehard WoW streamer and the biggest Overwatch streamer have both released videos this year about how sorry the game is.
HOTS got the axe.
Hearthstone's latest expansion has been completely underwhelming and is losing traffic to other card games

They are absolutely falling apart. I've never seen them in such an overall poor state. And I've been playing their stuff since Orcs & Humans.

yuraya · Dec 21, 2018

MattEnth said:
This.

Blizzard owns its fate. It doesn't require Activision execs, investors, or elite consultants to see that they've got some serious challenges.

WoW has seriously declined.

Overwatch does not monetize well.

Diablo 3, StarCraft 2, and Heroes of the Storm all have dwindling populations and don't really monetize.

Hearthstone might be carrying the company, and at this point, it's a huge company. Blizzard has over 5,000 employees across the globe, half of which are in Irvine, CA. Contrast that with DICE, which has less than 1000 and releases games nearly annually.

As a huge Blizzard fan myself, I want more games.

They will make Overwatch F2P soon I think. Giving that game an extra 4-5 years of life like Valve did with TF2.

The F2P model will provide more monetization.

MattEnth · Dec 21, 2018

yuraya said:
They will make Overwatch F2P soon I think. Giving that game an extra 4-5 years of life like Valve did with TF2.

The F2P model will provide more monetization.

I don't think so.

TF2 and Overwatch are a bit different in key ways. Back when TF2 went free-to-play, the game was much less competitive and much more "for fun, PUB style" games for a large number of players. That let them do two things:

It enabled Valve to sell gameplay.
It enabled Valve to let cosmetics stand out more.

Valve also did things that Blizzard just won't do. For example, most of TF2's levels are made by fans. Most of TF2's cosmetics are made by fans, too.

Lordciego · Dec 21, 2018

When they merged with activision.....

mas8705 · Dec 21, 2018

While Blizzard might not have made the best choices previously, I feel like Activision certainly isn't helping. I'm still under the impression the Activision put Blizzard up to doing the Diablo on iOS and building it up as the "Be All End All!" announcement we were hoping for when it was far from it.

I do feel concern about Blizzard's future and hopefully these cut costs will mean they get back on track, but I can't say there is a high vote of confidence there.

oneils · Dec 21, 2018

Burt said:
What happened in September?

the fed raised its rate to its highest level in a decade, i think. many stocks were hit.

ShinUltramanJ · Dec 21, 2018

data west said:
Hearthstone's latest expansion has been completely underwhelming and is losing traffic to other card games.

I'd say the current expansion is much better than Boomsday.

mutantmagnet · Dec 21, 2018

This is better than the Papa EA way.

Instead of firing people wholesale they will buy you out to leave. Let's see what happens 2 months after the recession hits.

dmr87 · Dec 21, 2018

Some shocking news right there.

Spedfrom · Dec 21, 2018

Ironically, at this point in time Blizzard is in much more danger because of Activision than BioWare is with EA.

Deleted member 5535 · Dec 21, 2018

MillionIII said:
You can if you're rockstar or cd projekt or square enix

.... In what world Square Enix deliver games only in 5 years? They have games released every year and are one of the publishers with more games each year.

hephaestus · Dec 21, 2018

mas8705 said:
While Blizzard might not have made the best choices previously, I feel like Activision certainly isn't helping. I'm still under the impression the Activision put Blizzard up to doing the Diablo on iOS and building it up as the "Be All End All!" announcement we were hoping for when it was far from it.

I do feel concern about Blizzard's future and hopefully these cut costs will mean they get back on track, but I can't say there is a high vote of confidence there.

I honestly dont think Activision had to put them up to it, in several interviews blizzard stated that Pokemon Go was everyone favorite game, and the developers were playing it all the time. I truley believe blizzards current crop of developers really believe that Diablo on Mobile is what everyone wanted.

Instro · Dec 21, 2018

saci said:
Blizzard's golden years was when they'd take years and years to release a title. They'd take a lot of time, but were always great games(Yes, even Diablo 3 with all its problems was a good game). Blizzard shouldn't need to become a yearly publisher.

When was this...? Blizzard's golden era began with the release of Warcraft and ended with the release of WoW. During that time they released games yearly, created all of their top IPs, and iterated on said IPs with expansions and sequels. Since then they've been a mess, rebooting and cancelling projects constantly, and their software pipeline has slowed to a crawl. Said delays have not produced better software either, as Diablo 3 and StarCraft 2 plainly showed.

Quite frankly, hearing the business side was not heavily involved until recently, and that the dev teams were acting under their own discretion, explains a lot of the problems that Blizzard has had over the years. They've been managing themselves like a small 90s dev house rather than the large studio that they are.

MillionIII · Dec 21, 2018

Nemesis162 said:
.... In what world Square Enix deliver games only in 5 years? They have games released every year and are one of the publishers with more games each year.

It was more of a comment about their development time for the big ips since they are pretty similar to blizzard in that regard

skeezx · Dec 21, 2018

the gravy train doesn't last forever. where will overwatch and WoW be 5 years from now?

perhaps blizzard has it all figured out and the evil overlords are swooping in but i'd do the same thing in activision's place

Chindogg · Dec 21, 2018

cw_sasuke said:
Overreaction as usual - Blizzard isnt diying but they have to adapt to the current climate.
You cant be part of the biggest publisher in Gaming and only deliver every 5 years - thats just how it is.

Rockstar does that on the regular.

BuckRogers · Dec 21, 2018

The career crossroads program sounds really weird to me. After you've been there for five years, they say they'll pay you to leave?

It's a nice perk, I guess, but it seems like a weird message to send.

Lowrys · Dec 21, 2018

This feels like Ouroborous. In foolishly chasing ever more profit, they'll lose key staff and eat themselves.

[Kotaku] With Activision's Influence Growing, Blizzard Is Cutting Costs

Does not approve of this tag

Prophet of Regret

Prophet of Regret

Does not approve of this tag

One Winged Slayer

Prophet of Truth

One Winged Slayer

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account

One Winged Slayer

User requested account closure