The project has a release date and generating revenue.
Classic does not.
Iâve been saying since Cata, the best thing that could happen for WoW, is for Activision to divest itself of Blizzard and let someone else buy it, who will return the game to its roots.
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Again, what does this have to do with them saying there is no major releases this year? Because that game IS being released this year.
I think youâre right in that the glory days of MMOs are probably behind the genre unless something major happens. On the bright side, costs for Classic should be pretty low overall, so there really isnât a whole lot of risk here. I would imagine that even a steady playerbase of 100k+ should be a profit.
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I donât think itâs probable that Classic will be cancelled, but I do think it is fair to say thatâŚ
- Activision seems to be calling more of the shots for Blizzard IP than ever before
- Activisionâs prescription for failing to meeting financial projections is to consolidate, refocus resources (people & $$$) to projects that âboost revenueâ
- Activision sees mobile gaming and micro-transactions, and a large growth opportunity in Asian markets as a way to âboost revenueâ
Things Classic WoW is notâŚ
- A major source of revenue for Activison-Blizzard
- A good candidate for a mobile experience
- A good candidate for micro-transactions
- A game that appeals to an untapped demographic of people that are open to being monetized
That doesnât mean it will definitely get cancelledâŚit just means that the chances of it being delivered as promised are lower today than they were before the corrective decisions were made to address the Q4 performance.
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That doesnât make any sense though as of right now. This would have made sense if they JUST announced they were planning on working on classic but not right now. Scrapping a project less than half a year until release, when they have been at least working on and planning it for 2 years would be an astronomically bad decision for revenue.
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Look, yesterday was full of bad news, but to say Classic isnât getting released in 2019 is ridiculous. It just means Activision-Blizzard doesnât consider it a major release.
A Blue could come clarify this for the few people who think otherwise, but the one Blue who actually posted here just got laid off. So now people will just make up whatever crap pops in their head and that foul stench will linger in the forums forever.
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Are there any blues left?
It just depends on what that sunk cost is, and how much left is required to get you to release. Also, if the projected cost to run and maintain over 5 years doesnât meet economic muster vs what you expect to make, it could be the right decision is to cut bait and put that money in other places you think youâll get a higher return.
That doesnât necessarily mean they nix the project all together, but could instead find other ways to charge for the game.
This is all IF there has been an internal change in the company that would change their decision making on what gets funded, and what doesnât.
Well these resources are coming from within as well and piggy back off of BFA at this point.
They really need to consider the future of WoW and arguably it is major.
Sadly BFA has been troubled foll8wing release.
As Mogar indicated the elements of classic are not the revenue generation the corp is looking for.
Further if the resources of classic hinder the performance of BFA that is something they will need to think about in trying to push classic sooner than later.
Blizzard was on a high at the end of October and making the announcement in November.
A lot has happened since.
Their stock is 50% lower and still declining. Bungie left. They have various big name law firms putting together a class action law suit for shareholders/investors. The project low revenue/profits for 2019
I think they have much bigger fish to fry this year. Just saying.
Its a sad day for blizzard employees and players as a result if their corporate greed.
The cost of maintaining a server such as this is extremely minuscule, thatâs the only reason why your sub has stayed the same for the last 15 years. They arenât ran off of physical servers anymore that require a lot of upkeep and they will be put on the same system that modern WoW has. The potential to give them basically free sub money for a community that is specifically asking for no maintenance in terms of new content and such is a win win for a company there is nothing to lose outside of paying your devs to actually make the game itself. Scrapping it now would make less than no sense.
Great post Karencro. Well written and well reasoned.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.businessinsider.com/blizzard-layoffs-2019-2
Statements from J Allen Brack. Suggests resources from projects not meeting their targets will be de-prioritized.
Business insider article.
Hopefully classic is meeting the targets/expectations.
Quick everyone jump on some alts and get the hype train rollin again. Dust off those alt Twitter and reddit accounts too.
There was nothing I saw there that even remotely suggested any of that at all. It suggested the exact opposite. Quote the part that made you think it suggested what you said.
Why dont you read the article. Its near the bottom. I am not here to support your literacy comprehension.
Having little to no run & maintain cost certainly helps the profitability equation. Iâll take your word on the cost partâŚbut my experience with large corps is that their spend on overhead is larger than with smaller organizations.
The other question mark I have is on the revenue side. Since they are lumping in Classic with the âRetailâ subâŚwhat would be the incremental profits?
How many folks that would play Classic are already subscribed to the current version of the game? Would there be lost revenue from those players switching to a version of WoW that doesnât benefit from micro-transactions?
If you are going to make claims about an article without providing the context then yes, that is your job to show where you got that idea.
"To fund this investment, we are de-prioritizing initiatives that are not meeting our expectations "
Let me provide some context to people before we try to twist words here.
As a result, weâre taking important steps to reinforce our foundation for future growth. Weâre increasing our investment in game development across our biggest franchises, mobile and geographic expansion, as well as in adjacent opportunities with demonstrated potential, like esports and advertising.
Over the course of 2019, we plan to increase the number of developers working on our key franchises by approximately 20%, ultimately allowing us to put even more content into the hands of existing and new fans around the world.
To fund this investment, we are de-prioritizing initiatives that are not meeting our expectations and reducing certain non-development administrative expenses across the company. We are also bringing together our regional sales, partnerships, and sponsorships capabilities enabling us to better leverage our talent, expertise and scale.
Our top priority is to continue making great games, and entertainment experiences. Itâs critical that we prioritize product development and grow the capacity of the teams doing this work to best serve our player community. We also need to evolve operationally to provide the best support for new and existing products. As a result, weâve made the decision to change parts of the organization, which Iâll share more about in a separate email later today.
Unfortunately, these changes come with a harder reality. Over the last few years, many of our non-development teams expanded to support various needs. Currently, staffing levels on some teams are out of proportion with our current release slate. This means we need to scale down some areas of our organization. Iâm sorry to share that we will be parting ways with some of our colleagues in the U.S. today. In our regional offices, we anticipate similar evaluations, subject to local requirements.
Context is important friends.
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