Blizzard/Activision, how far will they fall?

[Bob Gray]

I feel like you're really talking about Blizzard and only including Activision so you can include Destiny as a "flop".

Overwatch has 40 million players. "Only profitable because of micro-transactions". I'm not even sure why that would be a bad thing?

I think you're being a bit hyperbolic. WoW is also still a subscription monster. Of course it doesnt have the same as it did in it's heyday, but the game is like 15 years old now.

Shame about HoTS, but meh. I doubt they're gonna be in trouble anytime soon. If they go under feel free to say "I told you so". But maybe if in ten years they release a couple more of the top selling games of all time youll bump this thread and be all "Welp, guess not"?

 

[KaNesDeath]

I feel like you're really talking about Blizzard and only including Activision so you can include Destiny as a "flop".

Two companies merged ten years ago with Activision titles now actively promoted in Blizzard game launcher of Battle.net. They arent two separate entities.

 

[OverCoronavirus Pressure]

Nothing will ever top Laser Blast

 

[Bob Gray]

Two companies merged ten years ago with Activision titles now actively promoted in Blizzard game launcher of Battle.net. They arent two separate entities.

Then why are you only talking about Blizzard made games, plus 1 game on activisions roster that under performed? If you want to call them one entity, then you have to talk about their entire roster, not just Blizzard. Unless you want to talk specifically about Blizzard, which is what you're obviously trying to do.

 

[Torrid]

Blizzard will probably be fine long term; as much flak as Diablo Immortal catches, it'll probably sell well in China and other mobile heavy markets.

I don't like MOBAs, but my friends that do have always just said that HoTS was just worse than LoL and DOTA; I think a lot of the genre's base felt that way and that wasn't going to change. Destiny 2 is in the situation where their main competition is a Free to Play game in Warframe that's constantly updated and, in my opinion, just much, much more fun. Honestly, they're should just cut off the gangrene digit that is Destiny before it spreads.

Then you have Hearthstone which I'm sure is feeling the pressure from MTG Online - MTG/Wizards of the Coast just have a lot of name value that they bring to the table when it comes to TCGs. I think Hearthstone is great, but it was hard to keep coming back, expansion after expansion when you're not assured the new cards you might need. I've played a lot at different points, but still struggled to break down singles for enough resources to upgrade a deck in the next expansion and will invariably end up spending money. While that's not intrinsically bad, the random nature of packs is really a disincentive, especially for a product that you don't get to physically hold or trade - I think they really need to evolve the system to just charging a flat fee and giving you the entire library of cards (but lets be honest, they're not going to do that).

So, they're in a slump. People are burned out on O/W and their competitors are coming out with promising titles to rival their staples. I don't think the company is going to go shut its doors in the next few years or anything, they're just going to be forced to evolve, which is a good thing.

 

[moonwolf]

blame China.

 

[GearSolidMetal]

Its amazing that in the year of EA's Battlefield 5 and Bethesda's Fallout76, Blizzard/Activision overall fucked up the worst in 2018.

*The worst WoW expansion in its history.
*Destiny 2's DLCs are overpriced and left fans unsatisfied.
*HOTS esport support ending.
*Black Ops 4 sales not meeting expectations.
*Pathetic game announcements - Vanilla WoW and WC3 remaster.
*NO Diablo 4, but a micro-transaction filled mobile 'Diablo Immortal' watered down to be more marketable to kids.

I really wanted a new Starcraft or Warcraft RTS, but nevermind. I have fucks to give but not one is going to any new Blizzard/Activision releases.

 

[SeefourDC]

I’d probably be playing WoW if I could.. but they removed true full screen and have been nothing but silent about it. There’s a long thread about it on their forums too.

It’s 2018 and I’m not playing an old ass game at a suboptimal level. A game I've played since beta and spent plenty of money on.

They shit on my loyalty and all that and now I won’t buy any more of their shit, in any of their games.

Your post is so confusing to me. Why does "true full screen" matter? I actually find this to be one of the most annoying things that gaming ever created. At this point why would anyone play anything in their monitors non-natural display size? If you are playing it like this there is no difference between windowed fullscreen and "true fullscreen"? What are you missing?

 

[SeefourDC]

They pulled the plug on Heroes of the Storm. The "athletes" were all upset as it disrupts their livelihood. I'm kinda siding with Blizzard here.

Those guys deserve to be somewhat mad. At blizzcon which JUST HAPPENED they assured all of them that HOTS was go for full support in 2019. This violates their companies standards.

 

[SeefourDC]

Its amazing that in the year of EA's Battlefield 5 and Bethesda's Fallout76, Blizzard/Activision overall fucked up the worst in 2018.

*The worst WoW expansion in its history.
*Destiny 2's DLCs are overpriced and left fans unsatisfied.
*HOTS esport support ending.
*Black Ops 4 sales not meeting expectations.
*Pathetic game announcements - Vanilla WoW and WC3 remaster.
*NO Diablo 4, but a micro-transaction filled mobile 'Diablo Immortal' watered down to be more marketable to kids.

I really wanted a new Starcraft or Warcraft RTS, but nevermind. I have fucks to give but not one is going to any new Blizzard/Activision releases.

This writing was actually on the wall since 2017 though. Activision had stayed out of blizzards way until then and it only took them a year to get here.

 

[GearSolidMetal]

This writing was actually on the wall since 2017 though. Activision had stayed out of blizzards way until then and it only took them a year to get here.

Someone earlier said Warcraft 3 was the last good game Blizzard released. I respectfully disagree.

Starcraft 2 was awesome and one of my favorite games of all time.

The Zerg and Protoss expansions were very good, but not great, and the story went to shit. But the campaigns and online games are still very fun to play.

I guess it is the absolute last shot in the dark of Blizzard's greatness.

 

[The Clinch]

Your post is so confusing to me. Why does "true full screen" matter? I actually find this to be one of the most annoying things that gaming ever created. At this point why would anyone play anything in their monitors non-natural display size? If you are playing it like this there is no difference between windowed fullscreen and "true fullscreen"? What are you missing?

Windowed fullscreen plays like shit.

https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/battleforfullscreen/

Some info.

That’s great if it doesn’t affect you.

 

[blaseblah]

For 2019 they have three game titles scheduled for release. All three are reskins that will be re-released; Diablo Immortals, Vanilla WoW and Warcraft3.

All of Blizzards income right now is structured around micro-transactions. A harping point on EA from the gaming community is now slowly being applied to Blizzard.

WoW just saw their first big content patch since BfA release. At the same time Blizzard released a new mount to their store for $25.

Isn't this always the case though? They go years without releasing anything new.

 

[SeefourDC]

Someone earlier said Warcraft 3 was the last good game Blizzard released. I respectfully disagree.

Starcraft 2 was awesome and one of my favorite games of all time.

The Zerg and Protoss expansions were very good, but not great, and the story went to shit. But the campaigns and online games are still very fun to play.

I guess it is the absolute last shot in the dark of Blizzard's greatness.

Starcraft 2 is is still the most popular RTS in existence right now so I'd say you have a pretty good argument there.

Also World of Warcraft is still a dominant MMO. The weird thing about WoW is that its kind of been a trend that every other expansion is a success and the in between ones are considered somewhat of a failure. Wrath of the lich king was a god level expansion of a game. Cata was considered a disaster and then MoP was a success, etc.

 

[SeefourDC]

Windowed fullscreen plays like shit.

https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/battleforfullscreen/

Some info.

That’s great if it doesn’t affect you.

So you missed the part in the thread where someone explained that due to changes to windows every game has to be made like this now? Windowed fullscreen has always run fine on everything I've ever owned btw. I've had low end PC's to my current high end PC. It's been my experience that if you can't get it to run well it's usually some settings issue on your end. I'm guessing you are refusing to move on from DX11 for some reason? One thing to look at is make sure your base GPU settings are done right in whatever windows you are using. I know this makes a difference with NVIDIA but I don't know much about Radeon anymore.

 

[jefferz]

Windowed fullscreen plays like shit.

https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/battleforfullscreen/

Some info.

That’s great if it doesn’t affect you.

What's you hardware out of curiosity?

 

[KaNesDeath]

Then why are you only talking about Blizzard made games, plus 1 game on activisions roster that under performed?

Name of the bloody thread has 'Blizzard/Activision' in the title. With me listing the currently game IP's under performing. I dont understand what your issue is here.

 

[KaNesDeath]

Isn't this always the case though? They go years without releasing anything new.

Certain content creators from their Blizzard/Activision sources say theyre massively cutting costs of development and trying to push out games faster now.

 

[Bob Gray]

Name of the bloody thread has 'Blizzard/Activision' in the title. With me listing the currently game IP's under performing. I dont understand what your issue is here.

Well beside the fact that you havent really made a good argument for your point. Saying that Overwatch and Hearthstone are "only profitable due to microtransactions", which is weird since HS is a friggin FTP game and completely relies on microtransactions, plus ignoring the fact that Overwatch has sold a gajillion copies.

Then WoW "bleeding" subscribers is a little odd, since its a 15 year old game, but is still the absolute king of subscription MMOs.

In short, you have a very obvious agenda here, and you always have. It was apparent even when Overwatch was released and you spent your entire time in the OW thread criticizing it despite the fact that you didn't even own the damn game.

In short Im just kinda curious why you have such an obvious beef with Blizzard and always have. Its like one of the developers there fucked your girlfriend or something. You're attempted to put in everything in as slanted a light as you possibly can, while ignoring most of the roster if you want to include activision.

Your argument is terrible, but its also biased as all fuck. And when it comes to Blizzard your agenda has been apparent and honestly a little perplexing. Blizzard consistently puts out games that are both juggernauts on the sales charts, but also earning immense critical praise. HoTS has been their one game that seems to have underperformed. Yet here you are acting like they're one step away from being out of business.

 

[GhostZ06]

Its amazing that in the year of EA's Battlefield 5 and Bethesda's Fallout76, Blizzard/Activision overall fucked up the worst in 2018.

*The worst WoW expansion in its history.
*Destiny 2's DLCs are overpriced and left fans unsatisfied.
*HOTS esport support ending.
*Black Ops 4 sales not meeting expectations.
*Pathetic game announcements - Vanilla WoW and WC3 remaster.
*NO Diablo 4, but a micro-transaction filled mobile 'Diablo Immortal' watered down to be more marketable to kids.

I really wanted a new Starcraft or Warcraft RTS, but nevermind. I have fucks to give but not one is going to any new Blizzard/Activision releases.

or how about they make a new damn IP?

i know sounds shocking, but it might work