BFA is making lots of money

Community General Discussion
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And it’s not even Sunday.

I mean, I enjoy it myself. It is a financial success. Those two things being said, even the devs think some things need to be improved and changed. Hence the heart/azurite gear overhaul slated for 8.2.

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Done, however that is an outside company and does not necessarily represent actual profit on the title. I would estimate, that BFA made a lot of money through initial sales of the expansion - however the cost to develop such a title is enormous. So while that made them some money I’m sure, I’m not sure it made them buckets. I would think their main source of profit would be ongoing subscriptions.

And those numbers I doubt Blizz would ever release. I’m sure it has made some money but if it was as amazing as some people say (not you mind you) then they would not have cut as many jobs. That’s telling in itself.

:cookie:

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23

The vast majority of BfA sales were made before the expansion was even released. .BfA selling well only means Legion was a success. If they released a new expansion today how well do you think it would sell? That would be a more accurate indication on whether or not BfA was a success. Personally I don’t think it’d sell so well.

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Tbf if they released bfa after just 7.1 it probably wouldn’t have sold well either.

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Remember that this is the same company that called Black Ops 4 a failure after it made half a billion dollars in its first 3 days.

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Kind of like all the whining and complaining ones and the ones that just say “Blizzard sucks. WoW sucks., BfA sucks.” yet I don’t see you posting this in those threads.

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this data is for january 2019, where it showed up as one of the highest grossing games source: https : / /www.superdataresearch.com/worldwide-digital-games-market/

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I’ll be honest I never thought I would hear those words coming from anybody especially an Orc.

Good day to you Sir and thank you.

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Because BFA is lackluster. And it is. BFA has more systematic problems, and openly combative systems to the player than anything else. But those threads are offering criticisms and trying to help the game by pointing out areas that need to be fixed. Not by telling people to just go play a different game altogether due to some blind loyalty to Blizzard which would actually hurt Blizz due to a loss in money.

Saying: “Blizz. BFA has problems. Here’s what I think is wrong. Here’s what I think could help. Here’s what I think you should ditch.” is a hell of a lot more helpful than “Go play another game scrub”.

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31

After watching 800 Actiblizzians get canned this month, being a “success” doesn’t seem to be quite good enough.

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32

I’m too old to get invested into something else :stuck_out_tongue:

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  1. This lists games I never even heard of and also lists WoW as “World of Warcraft West” lol. idk maybe it’s trustworthy…maybe not.
  2. That list doesn’t provide context. What if in January 2018 WoW brought in 500 million dollars. Now in January 2019 it brings in 250 million. It may stil lbe on that list but is that successful? Sure it’s making money, but for how long in that scenario? This list doesn’t provide that information which is required to make a determination of it being “successful” or not.
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34

Gross income does not equal profit though.

:cookie:

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35

That’s a low effort post.

Just because people bought it doesn’t mean it’s a success. The real money that Blizzard makes is by keeping people subscribed. That is what determines if it is a success or not.

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36

Just as well none of these armchair CEOs actually hold any positions then :stuck_out_tongue:

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explain 800+ layoffs and lets talk again at next years earnings statement.

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Corporations do this all the time. Just Google layoffs and you’ll see endless pages of companies doing this.

If you think this is the end of it you’re wrong.

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39

Of course WoW is still making money, this game isn’t a charity.

However, one needs to pay attention to how it’s making money; the cash shop. I can’t remember the exact source, as it was many years ago, Blizzard said that despite losing half their subs, MTX’s have kept profit stable.

The issue here is that WoW isn’t exactly raking in new players, and as such their MTX are doomed to shrink overtime. Every expansion fewer and fewer return, as regardless of game quality, we are an aging fandom.

Now, when it comes to subscribers, I would solidly put WoW at 4 Million right now. I get this number through the investor reports;

IIRC (on mobile, I don’t have them available right now) back in Q2 2018 Blizzard announces that during Content Drought Legion subscribers had surpassed WoD at a similar time. WoD bottoming at around 3 million (to our knowledge) would imply that Legion bottomed out at a slightly higher number, 4 million.

Then Q3 announced that Blizzard MAU’s had fallen in key IPs such as OW and Hearthstone, but WoW kept numbers stable. I guessed here that WoW brought in 2 million, totaling at 6 at BFA launch, but IIRC there was no telling how truly far OW and HS fell…until Q4 where Blizzard dropped 2 million MAU’s but OW and HS were said to have stabilized and WoW was explicitly called out for the drop…6-2=4, so we are back to square one.

Legion ended with 4 mil, bumped to 6 mil, and has fallen back to 4 mil. Blizzard’s WoW profits are bolstered by MTX, but investors care about MAUs. As MAUs shrink, the MTX pool shrinks, and the current gaming bubble comes that much closer to popping.

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I mean at no other time in history has there been so many ways that Blizzard tries to extract money from its current player base outside of the subscription model.

Its not enough that a game is profitable but it has to continue to grow profit forever according to idiotic investors. This is how you end up with BFA, an expansion setup to extract money from players.

  • There have never been more cosmetic items in the store.
  • There have never been cosmetic items “retired” from the store which artificially inflates demand before they “disappear” most likely to be released again when wow needs a revenue boost.
  • Marketing gimmicks to get people to purchase cosmetic items and link them to extended subscriptions
  • Devaluing gold further driving people to purchase Tokens

If I was an accountant I would say that BFA has been a resounding success as a business. As a game I would call it a stunning failure.

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