Considering Blizzard’s operating costs relative to other companies as well as the large portfolio of online games they support, I’m inclined to believe my statement is likely correct. I usually refrain from making statements without irrefutable evidence but hey, once every thousand posts is about 1/100th the amount the average poster here makes.
This legal document shows the number of staff in Irvine for each of the departments listed:
I knew you’d comeback with a snarky remark, that’s your goal here, not the truth. That’s not the only statement, perhaps you should waste your own time going through the investor reports if you actually care about fact checking yourself.
Trained QA work is actually not just fun and easy gameplay. It is tedious and requires following strict testing routines, data reporting, trouble shooting, etc.
No no no no. Players should NEVER have power over other players like that - for Blizz the CS folks handle not just in-game issues, but account issues, billing issues, etc. No volunteer should ever have access to customer data.
Further, it is illegal in California to have people do for free, what you pay others to do. That was put in place to curb abuse of unpaid interns, but it applies to volunteers doing CS jobs too.
CS has NEVER been allowed to give game hints though - so third party websites fill that in for free and nice folks in game do offer help to others. I think they are going to have a new Mentor program of some sort next expansion? I have not looked into it. The idea is people just help others learn the ins and outs of the game - stuff CS never is supposed to do.
The big issue with Blizz and salaries is the location of HQ. Irvine California is one of the most expensive places to live in the US. Further, traffic is so bad that you are forced to live closer to HQ OR deal with 4 hours in the car each day. Picking up Blizzard and moving the whole darn thing to somewhere with a normal cost of living would go SO FAR in fixing things. Raising salaries would be good too, of course, but the cost of living just goes up in CA right along with it so that extra money still flies right back out the door
For the year ended December 31, 2018, our top three franchises—Call of Duty, Candy Crush, and World of Warcraft—collectively accounted for 58% of our net revenues. For the years ended December 31, 2017 and 2016, our top four franchises—Call of Duty, Candy Crush, World of Warcraft, and Overwatch—collectively accounted for 66% and 69% of our net revenues, respectively. No other franchise comprised 10% or more of our net revenues in the respective periods discussed above
Looking at rents and what’s for sale within a few miles of the Blizzard campus, you’d need to gross $75-$80k to avoid spending more than 30% of your pre-tax gross on bare-minimum housing.
None of which compares to the higher base salaries of the engineers and developers. I’m merely giving one reason out of many as to why the lower wage workers are paid what they are paid. All of that tedious work is still entry-level work.
Again, just stating a reason as to why I believe Blizzard pays them what they do. Because this work would be done for free by players if the law allowed them to, I can see why they would pay minimum wage or just above it. I’m sure they at least still get work benefits i.e. medical/dental/vision.
I live in Los Angeles County, one of the suburbs that border Orange County, so I’m very familiar with the costs of living around here. I have worked in Orange and LA counties all my life, and while everyone would love a raise, myself included. I also live within my means, so while my wife and I work in Anaheim and other surrounding cities, we live in the burbs of LA county.
Lots of that CS work can be done remotely, and does not require a body in their HQ to do it. I don’t know how Blizzard employs those CS workers, but if they did work at their HQ, and only getting paid barely above minimum wage, they should be commuting from more affordable cities that surround the area. My wife and I do it every day. Even living as “far” away as the border cities of Orange/LA counties and commuting to Irvine is VERY easily done. You can’t blame Blizzard for the cost of living in CA. That’s a whole other topic that is being debated to this day in this far left leaning state…
All that said I understand what you’re saying, and it’s not really fair. Life never is
Look, I’ve countered your false information enough for one day. You’ve made so many incorrect statements, I think it’s time for you to do some self-introspection.
What point are you even trying to make? You’re just quoting things and saying word but you’re not even make a point about anything.
What are you saying here? You just conveniently leave out an entire year? For what reason?
It’s so weird to try and have a discussion with you because you think posting some out of context quote speaks for you then you add some nonsense like it’s a revelation.
You’re not trying to have a discussion with me, we both know what you’re doing. I made you mad one day, can’t remember why and you follow me around trying to have “gotcha” moments with me.
You’ve made half a dozen incorrect statements in this thread alone, I’m not falling for the bait anymore.
Okay, take your ball and go home then without ever even playing the game.
I don’t get mad dealing with people like you, it’s like dealing with a toddler, you don’t get mad when they do something stupid you just try and educate them because they don’t know better.
The only incorrect statements so far, or at least logically dishonest were when you confused Revenue Growth vs Revenue then declared that a victory and the statement where you just leave out an entire year of financial data just because you wanted too.
Going against the commonly believed false narratives on this forum is not trolling. There’s a reason the Blues have been going around making posts and posters disappear the last couple days.
The majority of people posting on this forum in particular do not post in good faith.
Yes. Like your complete dishonesty with everything you’ve posted in this thread.
You post a .jpg link to MMO-Champion and I post the actual financial release report and you think I’m dishonest?
The report, by the way, is only 21 pages, mostly financial charts, so not even hard to read and would have taken you less time to read the 6 relevant pages to actually educate yourself.
Net Revenue Q1:
Activision - $184 M
Blizzard - $197 M
King: $156 M
Net Revenue by Platform:
Console: $594 M
PC: $498 M
Mobile: $570 M
Other $126 M
There is no breakdown by product available to the public at this time but here is what information you can extract from that.
Blizzard had a Net Revenue of $197M. Blizzard has multiple products but WoW is only available on PC. 197M of Blizzards Net Revenue is split across all platforms but again, we don’t have the exact breakdown.
WoW Net Revenue = Blizzard Net Revenue - (total_revenue_on_all_other_blizzard_platforms + total_revenue_of_all_non-wow-PC-games).
Now you start to get the idea of when I say “Wow isn’t Blizzard’s cash cow anymore” exactly what I mean.
It’s not opinion, it’s just simple, very very simple math.
The reason is that blizzard has always been extremely petty in dealing with anything that doesn’t outright praise them. The track record on that is miles long just like your track record of posting out of context cherry picked excerpts to make your daddy blizz happy.
Didn’t you just make a post discussing the disciplinary action you very lucky enough to have appealed? Are you really going to continue to test the waters?
I’ve been critical of Blizzard on many things, if you want I can link a few of those posts (I don’t think you care, doesn’t suit your false narrative about me.)
Most of the CS team (GMs) are in Austin, Texas so the cost of living for them is much better.
The whole work remote thing - tricky when it comes to keeping corporate tools and customer data secure. That is why Blizzard has never let CS or Devs work from home before. They wanted everyone physically at work, behind the Blizz firewall, on Blizz computers that were constantly monitored, etc. It allowed for very secure access to customer data and ensured their own tools could not be subverted and used. It means those working from home now have much more limited tools than if they were at work. Not sure how they are handling security right now, but I know they are not doing voice or live chat services like they do at the monitored worksite. They are only doing written tickets.
The cost of living out there is seriously one of the big reasons I never applied to Blizzard. I own my own 3 bedroom home, with a bit of land, 1.5 car garage, etc. I pay less in mortgage, taxes, and insurance than I would for a studio apartment out there I don’t want to start over and lose everything.
I am hoping that one of the good things that comes out of this pandemic is that Blizz sorts out a secure way for staff who want to work remotely to be able to. It would allow them to live somewhere cheaper, save commuting costs, etc.
