…and from the ashes, shall arise a new order. That will shake the very foundations of its player-base.
In all seriousness, the Blizzard that produced Warcraft 3 is dead and gone. The only way that this game could have EVER been released in such a sorry, unfinished, unpolished, downright-awful state is if some Activision suit was like, “Yea, just get it out before the end of the fiscal year. We can fix it later. It’ll be FINE”
Mike Morhaime would have never allowed this debauchery to take place.
I think it’s more an Activision-Wannabe Suit rather than an actual Activision Suit. Activision Publishing, the Activision part of Actinvasion-Buzzard, had little to no actual motive to push Reforged out and it makes little sense for a growth-oriented business to boost the very end of one quarter if there was a (very high) chance it could damage the start of the next (refunds going auto).
Activision Publishing had a pretty solid 2019, all-in-all…especially with their Golden Goose, Call of Duty, with CoD Mobile growing quickly and Modern Warfare (2019) not only being a Launch Success in its Launch Quarter but then a double digits percentage increase on Black Ops 4’s Mictrotransaction sales (on top of raising 1.6 Million Dollars for the Australian Bushfire Relief). Going with this data, launching a buggy release wouldn’t fit Activision’s goals or MO at this stage. Activision got by via taking few risks and playing it safe (Biggest risk was Sekiro, and even that was developed out of house so the risk there was fairly minimal).
Blizzard Entertainment, on the other hand, had a very quiet year with its only success (and launch) being Classic WoW. They hemorrhaged some users following Blitzchung and needed a Win badly…badly enough they might make a short-term focussed decision with no idea on how it would affect their future sales and launches (Like Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2). It was a risky move - the exact kind of risk Activision Publishing would be adverse to.
I don’t like being nasty, but I personally hope that both Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2 completely flop, Brack gets stood down and Blizzard undergoes some internal restructuring to focus on Quality games. It’s not like there’s no money there and you can have it with the Mobile Market.
" Because our main priority is to use the money from all of the pre-orders from reforged to utilize for call of duty development "
I’m a bit curious with the current outbreak, the continuous crackdown on addictive gaming, the legality of loot boxes in question in other countries, and some micro transactions accumulating up to $2,000 $3,000 to gouge.
Reality is their bright money future has been crippled where it might not recover. What do you think these companies do for the next 4 years to compensate?
i agree!!! they RIP my " D.N.Angel[1500] " account on East/Azeroth because the couldn’t fix some problem with update so people can log in on battlenet before reforge was about to came out … now its expired i think but on website its still shows my BloodMage Icon with my 1586 wins / 120 looses with 94% win
What do you have against Call of Duty?
I see four possibilities they have for increased sales:
And if that’s what we’re truly headed for, the gaming industry is going into some dark times. I sincerely hope that recent flops with Fallout 76, Mass Effect: Andromeda (actually a financial success), No Man’s Sky (over time a financial success) and Reforged as some of the more known cases, results in some stagnation of the gaming industry that punishes these half-baked games. While some developers stick to their game and keep on fixing what they can to truly get to the point that the game deserved, we see so many of these half-assed releases. And they mostly get away with it.
I had a much longer reply that I decided to cut down to this: We have allowed these malpractices to exist. I think only we can smother them again, but it will take time.
They have had a number of really cringe-worthy PR failures in recent years:
— “You think you want that, but you don’t.”
— “Don’t you guys have phones?”
— and now the colossal failure that is Warcraft 3 Reforged with it’s 0.5 (0.6) metacritic rating
I, honestly, don’t see how Blizzard will remain profitable going forward. The only way is if Classic WoW subscriber numbers inflate significantly. I’m not even sure if Classic WoW subscriptions are high or whatnot to make it profitable for them at the moment. I, for one, refuse to buy another Blizzard game.
Yeah, Blizzard as a whole really do feel out-of-touch with its community and have said some rather unfortunate things.
They are not the same Blizzard that it was 10 years and that is even different from 10 years before that, and it is really starting to show the cracks.
My favorite is really “You think you want that (WoW Vanilla) but you don’t” - then why have people gone above and beyond to craft their own private servers with WoW Vanilla.
If you really want to get a feel about the community, see what the hell they’re doing. The modding community is part of what made Warcraft 3 a stellar game that is remembered by so many and with such fondness that a 2002 release game was still being played almost 20 years later.
I mean, sure people also play Age of Empire II even until now, but I wager there were more playing WC3 at any subsequent time after its release. A major part of that was the modding community’s fault.
What’s the purpose of this thread? Isn’t this forum about warcraft 3? In general discussion subtitle we read, “Discuss anything related to wacraft3”. Why are you guys debating politics and economy here? Don’t you guys have any politics or economic forums to discuss these stuff?
What? I don’t see anyone talking about Bernie Sanders or Quantitative Easing here. . . .
"I’m a bit curious with the current outbreak, the continuous crackdown on addictive gaming, the legality of loot boxes in question in other countries, and some micro transactions accumulating up to $2,000 $3,000 to gouge.
Reality is their bright money future has been crippled where it might not recover. What do you think these companies do for the next 4 years to compensate?"
1 example. Want more? You just need to read the other replies here.
I see four possibilities they have for increased sales:
Increase game prices (from 60$ AAA titles to 80$). We’re already seeing it in the amount of deluxe and prestige editions for most AAA titles, but the base game might just be upped to this level with or without including the usual deluxe/prestige benefits. Even more DLC chopping board, making sure that every game basically has an increased game price if you want the full experience. Purchasable cosmetics and similar in-game store purchases - basically the mobile gaming experience. Mainly produce cost reduced / lower effort games. Like remasters, re-iterations, (like CoD) or lower graphical / stylized games or any other way to lower costs. Reduce the amount of risky releases that doesn’t already have a fanbase.And if that’s what we’re truly headed for, the gaming industry is going into some dark times. I sincerely hope that recent flops with Fallout 76, Mass Effect: Andromeda (actually a financial success), No Man’s Sky (over time a financial success) and Reforged as some of the more known cases, results in some stagnation of the gaming industry that punishes these half-baked games. While some developers stick to their game and keep on fixing what they can to truly get to the point that the game deserved, we see so many of these half-assed releases. And they mostly get away with it.
I had a much longer reply that I decided to cut down to this: We have allowed these malpractices to exist. I think only we can smother them again, but it will take time.
Another one. Do i have to teach you how to read or to comprehend a text?
These things are directly related to the changing nature of Warcraft 3 and Blizzard Entertainment, though. Especially because Tencent, a giant Chinese company, is directly responsible for helping Activision purchase Blizzard in the first place.
edit: To put it more simply: This thread is about how Blizzard is dead. Part of the death of Blizzard has to do with the changing nature of how gaming companies operate. Given that Blizzard is basically a puppet of Activision, it is worth talking about DLC, microtransactions, and how Blizzard changes its practice due to the fact that Tencent owns a stake in the company and Blizzard needs to kow-tow to sensitive Chinese policies and practices (aka: Blitzchung)
“To put it more simply: This thread is about how Blizzard is dead. Part of the death of Blizzard has to do with the changing nature of how gaming companies operate. Given that Blizzard is basically a puppet of Activision, it is worth talking about DLC, microtransactions, and how Blizzard changes its practice due to the fact that Tencent owns a stake in the company and Blizzard needs to kow-tow to sensitive Chinese policies and practices (aka: Blitzchung)”
How is this related to warcraft 3? Have you comprehended my question? You are debating about companies politics and economy, this has nothing to do with warcraft 3. Again, why are you debating this here? Don’t you have a proper forum to discuss these stuff?
I do. You don’t seem to comprehend the response. It has everything to do with why this game was such an unmitigated disaster.
LOOOL and according to Activision staff, warcraft 3 refunded was already in development 4 years before its publication in the blizzcon 2018, just like what is happening with Diablo 4.
Diablo 4 will be a complete disgust just like wc3 refunded
Of all of Blizzard’s active library Warcraft (non world of) already was the lowest and most unsuccessful (especially in the west). I’m not really sure why people think a niche game with a badly received remaster is going to hurt them. If their success depended on WCIII:R…it wouldn’t have been a side project.
Also don’t understand the desire to keep repeating “dont you have phones” because at the end of the day Diablo Immortal is likely to be one of their most financially successful products, might not make some PC gamers happy…doesn’t change the fact. And the whole sky is falling act because some bad games get published? Go back and look at your NES/Genesis, Playstation, etc. libraries. Bad games get made all the time doesn’t crash an entire market. (And no ET alone did not crash the entire market)
Imo, it’s the aggregate of really bad PR events. . . of which WC3R is only the tip of the iceberg.
— “You think you want that, but you don’t”
— Blitzchung
— “Don’t you guys have phones?”
— This.
It just shows, even to the casual observer, that Blizzard of 2020 is so far out of touch with what their fans ACTUALLY want that it beggars belief.
But it broke Atari Entertainment… and came close to crippling the entire industry by destroying faith in the market.
At the end of the day financial success is “only relevant” to the suits and to the future of the studio. Financial success just means that it paid its investment back. The developers are often more consumed with the artistic success, as games are fundamentally meant as pieces of art, like a book or a painting. The fans/customers are here for the art, plain and simple, not to fill the pockets of the investors. The best situation is when there’s satisfaction on all fronts; the investors, developers, and the customer.
Blizzard in the early days seemed to care more about artistic success rather than financial success. That seems to have changed over the years.
Prioritizing artistic success over financial success is great for the fans, as they get quality and high effort art and at a price point where they are satisfied or feel like they had a good bargain. Some fans are in turn more inclined to throw more funds at such projects, because it seems like a good customer investment. That is also a reason that the deluxe editions exists. Lets be real; you don’t get fair value from those editions in most cases. Customers do it as a means to support more than the “bare minimum” for the game.
I wish Blizzard would change course and lean further toward prioritizing artistic success again. I don’t want cheap games or unrealistic expectations for the price, but more focus on the quality of the product. Proper quality warrants proper pay. Reversely proper pay warrants proper quality. Reforged seems to be wanting on that delivery.