Why would it be delayed? From a management perspective, a project takes a certain number of man hours to complete(The cost to complete the project is a fixed cost). Reducing the number of people working on it would not save them any money unless those people are not able to contribute their time to it fully. (Yes you can optimize it to take less man hours, but that generally helps the project get done faster!)
Reducing the classic team would neither help nor hinder them unless they needed to put some resources into other projects.
Also delaying classic would harm their reputation, a bit, and they really don’t need that right now as it’s already taken a hit recently (the whole Diablo Immortal thing). Really it’s in their best interests to follow through on what they said they would do…
Classic is an extension of WoW, so it’s not considered a major release. Especially since it’s an older game, it’s not gonna blow up outside of our little community. They know that.
Besides, they already confirmed it for summer 2019.
Why are we talking about Classic and “profitable” in the same sentence? They’re giving it away and picking up the subs isn’t pure profit because there’s expenses involved in running the thing.
Classic has never been a product that will garner major profits.
I’ll preface by saying I couldn’t be bothered to read the article / quote…
If the context is a shareholder earnings call it is entirely likely the guy was talking about fy 2019 not the calendar year anyway. For most U.S corporations that would mean Jan thru June as fy 2020 starts in July. The most recent information we have pertaining to Classic’s release was “Summer 2019” which runs Jun-Sep…
Ythisens may or may not have known that he was going to be laid off, but if you believe that he posted the above on a whim, without approval from his boss and development, and they knew it was going to be cancelled, is ludicrous.
They’ve been sinking money into developing Classic for awhile now. They’re going to want a return on their investment. If Activision-Blizzard is looking to cut these so-called 'losses", I honestly believe it would come after its release, not before.
All of us on the forums licking their chops about bringing Classic back are but a small minority of vocal proponents.
It’s my understanding that there was 800,000 signatures, petitioning to bring vanilla back. Did you guys sign it? I didn’t, along with how many others?
The hype has went from real to palpable. They’re not going to just leave money on the table.
Here is how I see it. Everyone, whether they admit it or not, is apprehensive about the recent moves at Activision and Blizzard. There is a camp who is willingto admit that and evaluate the facts that are available even if it could possibly point toward “big trouble in little china” for classic. (I just wanted to work that John Carpenter reference in there.)
Then there is a second camp, comprised of militant no-changers as faras I can tell, who rage at anything that could possibly be interpreted as a threat to classic. You see them here in this thread, making posts that read like they actually work at blizzard and they know things for sure. If not that, then they make arguments that just look so sad- like they are running fast from the possibility that classic may be having problems- while furiously trying to silence reasonable forum discourse.
NOT a very attractive look, even considering the blanket of anonymity given here…
The subscription cost will cover more than just the cost to maintain classic(servers/GMs/bugfixes/etc). There will be a profit margin in it, otherwise Blizzard won’t do it. The main hope is that the profit they gain from that considerably outweighs the development costs. The subscription cost is the profit.
Heck a lot of people thought we’d get a smaller sub fee due to Blizzard not really needing to do much work on it once it’s released(no new content beyond Naxx).
The layoffs set everyone into an uproar, I get that. It would absolutely suck if they pulled the plug, but after listening to the call, and myself being part of organizations that went through layoffs, shake-ups and restructuring, I didn’t hear anything that would suggest Classic is in jeopardy.
I’m trying to keep it real in a positive way. Frankly, I believe that Classic is a low cost, low risk project that could net them so good money. This product is heavily desired because it honestly bares hardly any resemblance to its modern predecessor, and I believe it to be superior to its competitors.
Really trying hard to find a shred of logic in here.
McRibs are not a fad because people stopped buying them, they simply stop producing them after a certain period of time. Likewise people didn’t leave vanilla, vanilla left them.
But Activision had a recordyear making 80 some cents per share. And still culled 800 employees from blizzard. They are looking to mobile games and Asia for profits per that call. They aren’t looking for small strokes but big ones that maximize money in. Even if classic is still on track I expect that it will be tuned to become a profit center with all that comes with it.
I’m all for discussing the facts, but the truth is, we don’t have much information to go on. Thus discussions like this generally just run around various “what ifs” instead of actual discussion of facts. Which in my mind doesn’t help.
What exactly is it that we know?
Blizzard laid off a bunch of employees(~800), mainly in the non-game development areas (source: _https://kotaku.com/activision-blizzard-begins-massive-layoffs-1832571288)
Blizzard announced in a stock holder meeting that there are no major releases planned for 2019. (source: _https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/02/amid-layoffs-blizzard-wont-release-a-major-new-game-in-2019/)
It’s already been discussed at length that WoW classic is not likely to be considered a “Major release”, and thus why it wasn’t mentioned. Which leaves us with the 800 mostly non-development staff members being laid off. Definitely not good news, but it’s not much to go on with a company the size of Blizzard.
Sure, there is merit in the “Hope for the best, expect the worst” mindset, but we’re really grasping for straws at this point.
This is a concern I share. But let’s assume that it can stand on its own with little to no changes outside what we already know. I think it could be a mistake to risk compromising Classic to make a few extra bucks, and doing it without alienating a chunk of your fanbase.
If they go back on their word, I will not buy anymore Blizzard titles going forth. This isn’t me being petty. They hooked me back and I love them again. I hope they don’t disappoint.
I hope that is the case, and my suspicions are wrong.
What gives me pause though is that IF Classic is a low cost, low risk effort that will be a net gain for the company…then why not mention it at the earnings meeting?
It could have been a great way to hedge the news of “expected losses after rollout of BfA”, by saying they were looking to offset declining subscription numbers by bundling WoW Classic and releasing in 2019.