As per ActiBlizz over the course of their investor meetings since 2016, The Blizzard side of the company alone has reportedly lost more then half of its MAU’s since 2016. Activision has lost 60 million MAU’s. Combined somehow this company has lost EIGHTY MILLION MAU’s in the span of Six years with the vast majority having been lost over the last two years. It absolutely blows me away that this company sees their playerbase literally dive bombing and their first thought is to continue to max greed instead of go for easy PR points which they really need at this point. Id say its WAAAAAAAY more then enough at this point for this company to start realizing it needs to get its head out its rear. Their investors must be fuming watching these numbers
Comms are a big issue, but a BIGGER issue is that the devs themselves just cannot be trusted…Here’s proof…
h ttps://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/05/when-its-done-overwatchs-director-on-the-games-finished-yet-fluid-launch/
A bit of a dog “strategy” tbh. I get the whole secrecy angle, but when you have people legit not even being aware that OW2 is supposed to be dropping in the next month, it’s a bit of a problem. Existing players are already a captive audience, they’re the only ones that are going to stay even remotely up to date with what’s happening. The non-existent advertising is going to hurt them on release as they’ll be almost certainly be losing potential newcomers to the franchise.
Even if news is being held back to make way for streamer content, it’s incredibly strange that we haven’t seen anything yet - even a teaser. Marketing wise they should have started this hype train a week after the last beta ended.
great questions, to which I would add:
- what is the new requirement to access comp mode after the exp level system disappears?
- how is the development of the clan System going?
- how are arcade modes balanced in 5v5?
- Are there more official guides for the workshop instead of a sharing of instructions that has remained a little too amateur in the forum?
- in the past, due to the rare Blizzard server crashes, SR has always been denied reimbursement, accusing the rigidity of the game system. Will this reworking of the system allow for greater responsibility for these incidents such as SR reimbursements?
- With a new blog dedicated to OW2, will there be an update to the biographies of the characters and an official timeline of the events?
- Are there any other “exceptional rules” planned to be suggested exclusively to the OWL so that the community is not exaggeratedly influenced by the Meta of the Show? I don’t know, a “no mirror composition” or something similar?
- Smurfer and Cheater: what was the provision around OW2 to address this problem?
- After Michael Chu leaves, who is our point of reference on the lore? We don’t know who to ask either in the forum or online;
It would be fantastic to have the return of the orange in the forum, I do not think at all that the AMAs are useful and are indeed extremely distracting, confusing and too “limited” as a real attention to the forum. we don’t need Shadow Developers who just tell us “we listened to the community” if we have no idea when they are present in what you write, and people often become pessimistic with this atmosphere.
We recognize we haven’t communicated well, haven’t kept you up to date, and, honestly, we’ve let you down when it comes to delivering Overwatch content. We hear you, and we’re committed to more continual updates on all things Overwatch 2.
Aaron Keller in March 2022, before any kind of announcement about the existence of a beta … but we knew PERFECTLY when OWL 2022 would start. 
preceding the disappointing cancellation of Archives 2022 and proposed recolors as the ending of OW1.
We don’t need a special press release, we need to know that you are not in a bunker and that we have a reliable point of reference on the franchise in this very delicate moment for the coommunity that has remained so far. Because YOUR comminity isn’t the people who will arrive, but also those who are still here and known perfectly what is overwatch… but not anymore. We do not need any of the Blues who update us on how to regularly obtain OWL rewards but as soon as OW2 is mentioned they have the obligation to be silent and answer “Coming Soon”.
I conclude with a request rather than a question. Never say this Made-in-Blizzard phrase again:
“we listened to our community”
the right phrase to have is “we have communicated with you” with tangible evidence of this.
How many time since OW1 did they give us the “oh hum ok we really bad with communication but but but please give us another chance we gonna talk more ! don’t let us down !”
I feel like it’s 4 ou 5 time already, and everytime the same, 1 or 2 little informations “look we do it !” aaaaaaand they are gone !
Well most of the core players know it’s coming next month and two weeks is a lot time to start heavily pushing marketing to those who have no idea. Content creators will also further to that as well. The OW clone Gundam Evolution gets released next week (21st and also not my thing) and you can bet Blizzard will market heavily around that.
The beta’s could essentially be counted as marketing too, the one in April and the recently finished one. In OW1 right now, there is also a giant box that says Overwatch 2 Watchpoint Pack, Buy Now.
I wish they were all talk… that’d imply they were at least talking to us.
Actual Blizzard 101: create a problem, sell the solution
Looks at ow1 tank queue. Yeah they do over time.
But… Aaron K made a sad face and said he failed us and said he didnt uphold overwatch core values and promised to tell us more and communicate regularly with us. You mean to tell me he lied??? !!! I never would have imagined theyd lie to us for the 300th time about communication then disappear into the shadows again… So crazy… Mind blown…
I would recommend staying out of the marketing field 
I’m pumped for it. Its presentation doesn’t look as polished as OW, but it looks like a lot of fun. It seems to be a lot closer to being a ‘team-based arena shooter’ than OW.
I would like to point out Blizzard was likely planning on revealing most or all this information before the launch.
What we have now is a situation where there are leaks and Blizzard has had to release some information about what they were planning to do early as damage control. That’s not a good or bad marketing strategy nor under Blizzard’s control.
As I’ve said in another thread, let’s criticise Blizzard on things they have control over. Let’s evaluate the entire business model they are proposing rather than relying on piecemeal leaks.
I mean, he isn’t wrong that it is a type of marketing, and that it can be VERY effective. It just doesn’t apply here.
But, they seem to have picked up at least something about it, I had to do some reading up on it.
If it is their passion, they should get into it more.
Polish is Blizzards super power. It would be hard to find a company which does it better.
I’m less enamoured with their polish than I used to be. They’ve become lazy in recent years.
I don’t think they.
I think other studios have gotten close to catching up though. They have seen what Blizzard can do, and have been putting in the effort to try to emulate them.
For all I harass Blizzard at what they are bad at (which is comms), there still is no one better at what they are good at.
It is just that the rest of the pack is catching. We will see what happens when Ow2 is out, and 50% of the team is actually doing polish, and content for it.
Once PvE drops and you get 100% of the team on there, they will REALLY show what they can do, and honestly I am looking forward to it.
When 90% of the devs are tied up in another project, it can looks like lazyness from the last 10%, But you know you are comparing them to projects which have 100% of their devs on them.
The fact they can even do what they have is amazing. I can get pretty down about the top leadership of Blizzard, but their dev teams are still amazing.
Sure I think they should have made a new world of warcraft, and taking the battle to FFXIV on graphics and gameplay, but who knows what is going on in the dark rooms of Blizzard?
Their ability to tell us is non existent. If Polish is their super power, comms is their kryptonite.
i actually feel like a fool for believing this before… i decided to trust aaron and he just didn’t follow through…
I know right? I was also super hopeful. 
- It may not even be him behind the lack on Comms.
It is actually hard to know what goes on in development and comms from the outside.
Hell, it is hard to know what is going on in the inside as well if they are like other places I have been working at.
Assuming it’s 90% of the problems also assumes that what they want to say won’t be infinitely worse.
On the flip side, if there’s a power struggle between team 4 and activision higher corporate, letting the playerbase assume the worst and cause a stink might not actually be a problem.
True…
I would almost die from a total lack of surprise if this is happening.
There is always an interesting tension between financial / marketing / business planning and development.
I’ve been in places which it boiled over into walkouts and straight up yelling fights in boardrooms.