BFA Launch (August 14, 2018)
Now (April, 20, 2019)
Classic Launch (July, 16, 2019) (Theorized)
11 months from the launch of BFA to the launch of Classic. A year that will undoubtedly go down as the worst in gaming history.
BFA launched, and within 2 months people were leaving in droves because of all the problems BFA had.
Azerite armor didn’t work, Island expeditions were terrible, there was no real reason to raid (tier sets gone), and Warfronts handed out loot that made content irrelevant.
Call of Duty Black Ops 4: Release with no microtransactions, get all the good reviews and then BAM! Raiding people’s wallets to sate Activision’s eternal greed.
Shame what the gaming industry has devolved into.
But of course, ‘what goes around, comes around’, and Activision got exactly what they deserved in the coming months.
Blizzcon 2018. Absolutely the worst Blizzcon there has ever been. The Diablo Immortal backlash started off with the Diablo community’s anger at the neglect their franchise had suffered, but then quickly turned into a wider gamer rebellion against this “Mobile is the future” attitude that many companies had.
Mobile games are cheap cash grabs that are designed for the shareholder and not the gamer.
Blizzard’s reaction only angered gamers even further:
“Do you guys not have phones?” - Firstly, I play on PC because I don’t want to squint at a tiny screen while I am bombarded with ridiculous microtransactions.
“We have moved all our best developers to mobile” - Which explains why BFA is so bad.
Fallout 76 came out November, 14, 2018. The game was broken, unfinished, and had micro transactions up the wazoo.
Then there was the canvas bag controversy. Then the Nuka cola controversy, then all the other controversies that just kept piling up.
Apex Legends released February, 4, 2019. After the gaming disasters in 2018, gamers were greeted by yet ANOTHER Battle royale game.
Now people said that it was a good game. But it’s Battle Royale, a genre that really needs to die so the gaming industry can actually innovate and not copy paste what everyone else is doing.
First it was League of Legends “Moba” games that were the rage, then all the Overwatch clones, now Battle royale is the new kid in town.
Fun fact, Apex legends is actually dying now, and Fortnite is back on top.
Bungie Leaves Activision January, 10, 2019, taking Destiny with them.
If only Blizzard could do that.
Activision-Blizzard layoffs. “Record profits”, executives like Denis Durkin getting a 15 million dollar golden handshake, Bobby Kotick annual salary around 30 million dollars, making them the highest ‘overpaid’ executives in America.
Then they fire 800 employees. Plus Activision-Blizzard stock tanked last year, and their shareholders were suing them.
Activision finally did it, they took over Blizzard and started rearranging the furniture.
Absolutely disgusting, no wonder Mike Morhaime left.
Anthem released February 22, 2019. Anthem is the final evolutionary stage of what the AAA-gaming industry has been slowly devolving into.
Unfinished game, rushed out to rake in cash, microtransactions, DLC, season pass, game looks pretty, but is hollow. Slap that EA logo on it. $80 pls.
And it killed people’s PS4’s.
The “Lull” period. (March 2019 - )
Around March things started to die down, and we went from face palming ourselves at the incompetent greed of these companies to a more optimistic feel.
Hytale was releasing updates, but no release date in sight.
Halo was coming to PC, everyone was very excited, but no concrete release date was given.
Classic Wow Blue posts started to come out more regularly, everyone was excited, but again. No beta, no release date. Just rumors and hearsay.
That’s why I call this the “Lull” period. We went through the “Gaming Crash of 2018-2019” if people want to call it that, and now we are looking to new releases to “cleanse the palate” of bad games.
The problem is, we are in a “Star Citizen” dilemma. What we want we’re not getting, and what we’re getting, we don’t want.
It’s all good and well that Hytale, Halo, and Classic are coming…but there’s nothing for us right NOW.
So we end up just waiting.
I think the release of Classic Wow will mark the end of the “Worst year in gaming history”. Apart from Classic re-energizing the playerbase in a way BFA couldn’t, it will also re-invigorate the gaming industry as a whole.
If a subscription-based game with no micro transactions can succeed, will companies start to shift their priorities; and focus on making good quality games, instead of developing new and ridiculous ways of ripping people off?
But also if a game from 2004 can work in 2019, will companies start to look at older games and why they worked. Imagine if the next wow expansion brings back the old talent system. Or maybe even gets rid of cross-realm, LFR, and LFD.
Overall, I’m optimistic for the future, but if the AAA-gaming industry wants to survive, they have got to start fixing their franchises, and not milk them in the ground.
Edit: I forgot to mention the Epic store strongarming gamers into using their terrible store. (Metro Exodus, Borderlands 3, Outer Worlds, etc…)