Activision and Blizzard relationship

Community General Discussion
43

they don’t know how companies work,

This, I believe, is the issue.

Ythisens, I am not saying this is right so bear with me, but the belief is that Activision is well…“pressuring” Blizzard into certain actions. Cutting costs, that kind of thing.

Im not getting into the yea or nay for one reason: I know zero about how it all works so i wont draw conclusions on the basis I dont know enough about it t make what Id call an informed decision.

Fair?

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44

Thank you for being our CM Ythisens, I think you do an amazing job!!

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45

Nice to know all the ruining is done in house.
:slight_smile:

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46

I’m not seeing how giving the official stamp on something is a bad thing. It clarifies things for those that are easily confused by corporate dynamics and provides a Blizzard Approved™ point of reference for discussions on this topic in the future.

47

Because the alternative is that Blizzard themselves are to blame, people don’t want to accept that. Passing the blame onto others gives people hope that Blizzard is still Blizzard at heart.

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48

Activision is the puppeteer pulling the strings and Blizz is the puppet :grinning:

In all seriousness I have no clue on how their relationship works. I would imagine its more then Blizz defenders think but not quite as much as the naysayers think.

49

Well Ythisens already blew this imaginary rule set out of the water with the second post in this thread, so we can stop pretending that we live in that world now. I would be wary of saying that the Blizz tracker is a way saying that it is a Blizzard-approved statement… I would not want to put that pressure on those folks since they would essentially be checking for board approval of every post in fear of losing their jobs.

And I am very glad that the second statement was made - it acknowledges the proverbial elephant in the room. There is no doubt that there are people jumping on the WoW-hating bandwagon that has been growing and buying into the conspiracy theories (this is a USA forum after all - drinking the Kool Aid and making bad choices is our thing).

On the polar opposite side of that group you have the folks blindly defending everything WoW and believing that Blizzard is infallible. If you listened to the devs they would be the first to admit that is not true.

50

Most people do not even bother to realize that Activision Blizzard is not the first parent company that Blizzard has had before.

51

People have to remember that it is Activision Blizzard and not Blizzard Activision .

Also the over all corporate structure all the heads of the various sibling companies (Activision president , Blizzard President , KIng president ect ) all answer to the same person (Former Activision and current Activision-Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick)

BLizzard and Activision may publish their own games but the parent company has final say and can press what ever subsidiary they have under them into what ever direction they chose ,if they feel it will make them a better profit for the company and investors.

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52

They’re PR. They may not have to have VP approval for every single post they make but they definitely have a set of guidelines they have to follow and receive guidance on specific topics as the powers that be deep necessary.

The US is hardly the only nation to makes bad choices. Also, as a fun fact, Jonestown used Flavor-Aid, not Kool Aid.

53

Because some people are mis-informed.
Because some people like to troll and twist the truth.
Because some people believe anything they read from anywhere and pass it on as the truth.

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54

it is interesting that these threads never appeared saying that "vivendi games’ is ruining Blizzard, it’s when the name of the company changed and included the name of a second AAA game company that these threads appeared. Oh and why it’s Acivision Blizzard and not Blizzard Activision ? there is this wonderful thing called the Alphabet™ :stuck_out_tongue:

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55

You forgot to trademark Alphabet - so Google owns your soul and your language now

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56

To be honest I had no clue they weren’t, but I also don’t care much about Activisions relationship with Blizz.

One thing I do know is that Blizz has a lot of disgruntled WoW players right now and need to figure out how to change that. I personally don’t mind BFA but there are quite a few players that aren’t satisfied with it. There are people that I know that have never considered quitting or unsubbing from WoW until now because of their disappointment in BFA.

57

I have no idea what you are talking about.

58

Maybe they tossed a coin? Or used rng which always comes down wrong. :grinning:

59

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphabet_Inc.

60

Corporate naming doesn’t have to follow the alphabet .

First name is usually the primary money partner and the 2nd is usually the jr partner.

Activision is an older company going back to to at least the 1980s

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61

Eh… Even if there is no one directly from Activision standing over Ion and barking orders at him as he tries to keep the B.E.S. WoW from sinking, saying there’s no connection or influence between Activision and Blizzard just… doesn’t hold any water. Unless all references to Destiny are stripped out of the Blizzard Battle Net launcher, unless absolutely no non-Blizzard titles are promoted by Blizzard based products or at Blizzard events, independence just isn’t arguable.

And even if that weren’t the case, so long as Blizzard is the property of Activision (the Holding Company, not the Game’s Publisher, where ever you want to draw that line) outside influence is always going to be a thing.

As long as Activision can swoop in and declare that Blizzard is to produce more games on a shorter timescale for less money because it says so, that’s it. Blizzard has it’s own president in Josh Allen, but he ultimately answeres to Activision-Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick. He’s the single highest authority in all this. Now, that authority generally isn’t going to direct the day to day decisions and workings, but larger, broader questions of direction ultimately can be, and everything flows downwards.

On one hand, Mr. Kotick’s made many statements in interviews that he wants “child” companies to be as independent from external influence as possible. On the other hand, public interviews are exercises in PR, and largely meaningless to the actual inner workings of a company.

.

But, in the end, the question of Activision-Blizzard’s influence on Blizzard Entertainment feels somewhat a moot question. The broader gaming industry and the trends therein shouldn’t really inspire any confidence in anyone paying any attention, and while Activision-Blizzard may feel like a corrupting influence, the truth is, AAA gaming as a whole has been becoming more corporate for years now in all the worst ways.

Take away Activision-Blizzard, and you’d still see Real Money Auction Houses, decreasingly micro microtransactions, and Gambling4Kids Loot Boxes and Blizzard’s name would still be on it all I’m afraid.

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62

Okay, so there seems to be an argument here about whether or not Activision is controlling Blizzard content. I don’t sit in on the managers meetings, but I do know this. ATVI is the stock under which these companies operate, and therefore Activision Blizzard sets the budgets and so forth for each of the segments. So, indeed, Activision Blizzard does have at least some influence over Blizzard Inc., if only over the purse strings.

Here is a listing of the annual reports, read through and tell me where Blizzard sets it’s own budgeting and financial reporting.

(why can’t I post links? ffs)

Well, just put this into google and you can find it yourself: “activision annual report”

EDIT: In other words, is it Blizzard who is responsible for meeting financial metrics for its shareholders, or the company with the ticker symbol ATVI (Activision Blizzard) who is ultimately responsible for these metrics. I’ll give a simple answer. It is the company who reports to the SEC – Activision Blizzard.

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