“finished Reaper” probably just means they’d finished internal development and were about to go into next phases of early access, stress testing, marketing hype and all that stuff, kind of like D2R is doing now. In the article, the late-2013 - 2014 timeframe is used as context for those 2 paragraphs which include the quote.
Either way, the quote date isn’t that important I suppose because the article states that the 2nd expansion was cancelled late-2013 or early 2014, before the March product launch of ROS. And this was an awful decision because ROS ended up doing extremely well and dominated the 2014 Annual Report and investor news.
What was the second expansion? How good would it have been?
WE’LL NEVER KNOW lol.
But I think it’s pretty certain that bounties would either be a whole 'nother thing or much improved because that was one thing Josh mentioned after leaving - they knew bounties needed work.
We know that it did well now, but it would have been a gamble at the time. RoS easily could have bombed as well.
There’s also the mtx thing. As you pointed out they tried a number of things that didn’t work. Their other games were raking in cash with mtx while nothing they did with Diablo 3 stuck.
We know it was called King in the North and that they took some of the content they had more developed and turned it into a free content patch for Diablo 3, which is where the Ruins of Sescheron and Greyhollow Island come from.
If WoW is any indication they also would have changed a bunch of stuff around, if for no other reason than for the sake of changing a bunch of stuff around.
From another Kotaku article, looks like Devil’s Hand was pretty close:
"In conjunction with Adventure Mode, the Diablo III team had devised a system called Devil’s Hand that would place fifty-two high-powered enemies throughout the game’s world. Players would be able to kill them all for collectible items in hopes of eventually getting all fifty- two. The Diablo III team didn’t have enough time to get Devil’s Hand’s collection system in shape, though, so Mosqueira decided to cut it. “We figured, we have extra time, but we can’t get both of these right,” he said. “And the really important one is Adventure Mode, because that really changes the way people play the game. So we had to put Devil’s Hand off to the side.”
To your original post. You said in 2014 years after it’s release D3 carried financial headlines. RoS was released in 2014. Huge box sales happened that year, and 2013 the game was still new reaching milestones. Outside of the Switch launch and the Nexro pack release, D3 wasn’t going to make any financial impact. The monetization had dried up in 2014 with the closure of the RMAH.
If the game isn’t making money, there’s not much to talk about in thise investor calls. It really is a non story.
It’s wasn’t that they were financially incompetent. There were obviously revenue projections that D3s RMAH didn’t meet. Along with hiw long it took the D3 team to do anything, I’m sure they didn’t have confidence they could rebound quickly with any solid monetization scheme. This is also around the time project Titan was stalling after wasting millions with nothing to show for it.
It makes complete financial sense to move on after getting thier box sales with no other monetization strategy in place. But had they decided to add cosmetic MTX with RoS , we’d probably be looking down the barrel of a third or fourth expansion by now.
Doubtful. Once microtransactions come into play they tend to replace full fledged expansions entirely. Factor in that most microtransaction games become free to play at some point unless there is a truly large dedicated player base like WoW.
Except you have seen it in WoW, and D4 plans to do MTX and expansions. Plenty of MMOs do both. I would say removing expansions for MTX is the exception to the rule.
Would fans buy the second expansion to D3? Sure but sadly that also fell into the same timeline where they realized how successful the D3 MTX shop over at China so the target audience shifted and name of the game changed. On the other hand when you rush the game lore and scenery to get the key characters and villains killed helplessly to envelope it with highly costly animations that took months to finish, it’s no surprise they search for ways to serial product and put something out there.
Along the years their popularity took impacts because we’re talking about a two decade old game that stands on expansion packs to seek wider approach, and a two decade old franchise with a completely new installment and a new expansion pack. I even wrote pages of what another D3 expansion could have been in a google doc and sent it to them. No sign of any action so far besides D2R and news of D4, perhaps it’s best that we give up.
For years, Blizzard haven’t put their best foot out there to create a new Intellectual Property but finally got a wind down of their glory days. Get your phones ready, and if they have any foresight perhaps your VR devices too.
Wow is the exception to every rule. No only did the vast majority of MMOs with microtransactions not have have expansions they were either free to play or became free to play within a few years. Those that survived the first few years that is. It’s extremely unlikely D4 will have full expansions Like D2 and D3. You’re far more likely to see downloadable content like Rise of the Necromancer. Players tend to take a dim view of companies triple dipping into their wallets.
Look the RMAH wasn’t pay to win, there was nothing to win to begin with. You didn’t win anything beating the content faster than the next person. No, special drops were given for having the best gear or anything like that.
Also I highly doubt that more than 30% of the Gold AH used the RMAH. I seen many threads of hate toward the RMAH back then. I doubt that in the entire lifetime of the RMAH that it made more in gross than what WoW pulled in Gross from subs alone let alone any other sales. In order for the RMAH to pull in the dough that would’ve made it a real winner as far as money generators go. You would have to have around 70% of the Gold AH users use the RMAH. Maybe even higher than 70%.
I am sure that the buy to play, plus expansions along with the MTX shop will suffice. Well that is the model that I heard talked about during the Blizzcon that D4 was announced. It could’ve changed since then.
What you don’t like new content added to games. Where it is a one and done sort of deal. Yeah that worked out fine a long time ago. That generation has passed, now days new content needs to be added to games for a long while or players will move on to other new shines due to boredom.
The reason why a player doesn’t find a particular game fun is due to the fact that the developers definition of fun is against what the players definition of fun. They don’t have like minds. Developers get fans that have like minds. Where the fans are having the same fun the devs have playing the same game.
Revenue better be part of the idea, because without it that would mean that D4 would be the last Daiblo game ever. Where the only thing after that is Blizz shutting down. They are not some non profit business where they can have their workers work for free. They are a business that is for profit, so they have to make a profit if you want them to still be around long after D4 launches.
Ubisoft games have MTX, and expansions.
In MMOs you have FF14, ESO with microtransactions and expansions.
That is wrong. It allowed you to do better in the game. That is pay to win. It doesn’t have do be competitive. Most pay to win games are not.
Now, it wasnt Blizzard selling items directly, making it a bit different from normal pay to win games, but they still profited from those sales, and it easily qualifies the game as pay to win.
The vast majority of games released today is one and done sort of deals.
Thankfully.
Sure if we take account for every Chuck in a truck, fly by night MMO.
But all the major ones had or have both. WoW, FF14, ESO, STO, SWToR, Rift, EQ, EQ2. All had traditional expansions then added MTX and continued expansions or had both from the start. Some are F2P and some have a sub, while others have both options.
To your last point, and I agree to a point, but that hasn’t stopped companies from doing it nor has there been any backlash from players who continue to support it.
Who cares if you can do higher content than me just because you shelled out the money to do so. No one cared back then that is what part of pay to win is all about when it comes to gear.
Plus gear never equaled skill. You might’ve bought the best gear for barb. But if you never played Barb I would have more skill than you at doing that.
Great idea but I don’t think it would fly with a lot of players these days. Instant maintenance mode after sale of the game is not a good sign for a lot of players. That is unless you are talking console games.
Beefhammer is just showing you that WoW isn’t the only exception to the rule that you have quoted.
1 - they aren’t in bad shape revenue-wise (CoD and WoW, and to some extent maybe OW made sure of that)
2 - the franchise is in jeopardy due to bad previous release/s
So yes, in terms of Blizz as a company D4 development may be a “money sink” but also an investment… If they treat it as a sink as opposed to investment then yes, but to be frank, one has to also risk to reap the benefits as well… If they don’t risk it and play “safe” and “dictate” everything by revenues then consider this release already a failure…
It’s simple actually, a success of D4 would be a miracle (or at least better treat it like that) as opposed to something taken for granted… Brand “abuse” for bad products doesn’t last long (and rarely pays)
So what is happening. Didnt they make like billions with Overwatch already. Only bad move Blizzard has made from opnion was to make Warcraft Movie as its, it should’ve been kiddy cartoony, they had the opportunity to take a good grip in kids, but instead they wanted to bring the muscular dudes. Girls wasnt even as pretty as they were in Lord of the Ring.
The way I see it Blizzard is in somekind of cross-fire. Arent they even making Diablo Anime TV-show.
What I am talking about is the folly of trying to design it in a way that doesn’t consider the ability to recoup the investment. If they just keep developing games where they don’t intend to make any profit then the devs would have to work for free. Then Blizz would have to hope that players would donate money to them in order to survive.
Also I highly doubt that Blizz would just use funds from other franchises to feed D4. No the suits would say that the sales from the Diablo games that have been made such as future sales of D2R, any new players to D3, Diablo Immortal, and maybe including D3 on consoles along with Nintendo Switch would be what feeds money for D4.
If they intend on any franchise to not make money then in time that franchise won’t get any sequels to the game. Take a look at D3, did it get a second expansion. No, what was probably a second expansion was given to us for free, except the Necro (through pack).
At the same time I am not saying that there is no risk involved. Take a look at D3, the initial devs took chances and didn’t come out with as big of a winner as they had hoped it would be.
I am asking for a balance between the two extremes where it isn’t all safe and sound nor risks that throw caution to the wind.
Risks that would throw caution to the wind would be Blizz trying to please everyone. When the likelihood is that they please no one.