Activision is the most cancerous corporate entity I’ve seen.
Electronic Arts say Hi. .
I am pretty sure Konami and Ubisoft can give them both a run for their money too.
Konami no longer really make games unless it's Pro Evo and Ubisoft are a company that like Activision and EA milked franchises to death but in recent years have turned things around to be one of the better AAA studios and provide long lasting support to their games.
Activision has said that both Overwatch and Hearthstone are losing players.
Hearthstone has been around for what? 5 years? That's a long time for a game and of course its popularity has peaked. It's no longer has that new shiny feel, imitators have come out to dilute the market, and just game exhaustion mean this game HAS to be on the decline in player usage. Same thing for Overwatch, I'm sure (though I don't play it).
The bigger question for HS is whether it is still profitable. I'm guessing it is, since I can't imagine it requiring the overheard that other products require. Smaller team, simpler game, etc. But who knows, maybe a graphic artist or some PR person will get fired. After the Brode exodus, I can't image a big hit on the team.
Activision is the most cancerous corporate entity I’ve seen. Like even big cigarette companies at least deliver an overpriced product that people “like.” Activisions business model seems to be ruining everyone’s favorite franchises while making consumers pay more for the dwindling quality. First bungie now blizzard, who are they going to screw over next? Bethesda?
Pretty sure Bethesda managed to screw themself over with Fallout 76 - Should have done what Obsidian is doing with Outer Worlds (Looking forward to that game).
I've written several times how I'm an Activision investor, and the past four or five months have cut the value of that investment in half.
Well, I am not, but I feel sorry for both of us.
Having watched Blizzard develop over the past 25 years, the inescapable conclusion is that Activision has insisted on some changes in the financial side of the company. I try to remind myself that Overwatch, Hearthstone, and Heroes of the Storm may have never come to be in the first place without the merger, but we've certainly played a price for it recently.
And I think the price was too high. And I can certainly imagine a time without Overwatch, HS and HotS, where Blizzard is doing fine just on it's own, making money mostly of WoW subscriptions, if they can keep the game fresh ofc. So, Activision didn't do anything good to Blizzard, did it?
I still have high hopes for Blizzard. They have entertained and enriched me (literally and otherwise) my entire life, and I'm not ready to call it quits quite yet.
Same here. But they need to pick up their game and get that quality control to the previous high standards. Nobody wants a new game released every year or even 3x a year, c'mon. Soon™ used to mean something back in da days, when there were no meme's and troll-kids.
Having said that, I respect the notion that you don't want to reward bad behavior with your money. That's absolutely correct, and the world would be a far better place if people were more responsible consumers as a whole. But, you have to accept both sides of that equation.
Someone in this thread scoffed at the notion of spending money on the "free to play" game, but that's a willfully childish way to look at this. Free to play pricing models don't suggest the company is making the game out of boredom and altruism. If Hearthstone doesn't make money, Hearthstone will cease to exist, and THAT is a great reason to spend money on the game if you are a fan.
Blizzard games are not "free to play" games and I accept and respect that. But what I can't accept is the continuosly growing greediness from the financial department.
Again, back in the days, you buy a game, you play the game, as much as you want, done. You don't have to pay more. That's how it used to be. That's how Blizz began and became what they "were" - with games like Starcraft, Diablo and Warcraft. You pay for them once, you keep playing them forever. With WoW and it's subscriptions I can again understand the situation. They need to pay a lot of people just to keep the game "alive" - support team, development team, new stuff to do in the "world" all the time, events and many more.
But with Overwatch, HS and HotS - it's not like that. It's as if they made those game so they can "milk" basically everyone with the "harmless" microtransactions (MTX). And it's keep getting worse. How long until the first HS expansion? Dunno, didn't play back then, but a long time. Adventures, which you could get unlocked with gold, if you are patient enough, or if you are not - for a small amount of cash (around 20-30). And what about now? Big Expansions 3x a year, with more than half of the cards just utterly trash. Almost every expansion includes an alternate hero portrait now. Some heroes have like 3-4 now. Why? So, the people keep spending more and more cash per minute.
All of which ignores the publicly-disclosed fact that Hearthstone is doing very well. Hearthstone is one of the largest ongoing sources of revenue for Blizzard, and it grew significantly in 2018. So, though Blizzard has made several horrendous missteps with other IPs, Hearthstone is doing quite well. Hopefully, it will stay that way.
I agree on that totally, but in order to stay that way, Blizz should invest more in their quality control department and not in the salary and the bonus to the salary of their CFO.
This whole Activision-Blizzard BS saddens me deeply and I hate how the first company can take control and ruin the second one. I would really like to see Blizzard do, what the creators of Destiny did, and try to "free themselves" from the chains of Activision, take their games back to their roots and start creating for the players and not for the share-holders.
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“If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.” ― George Bernard Shaw
EU Legend: S52 (ZooHeal Lock); S76 (Highlander Hunter);
But with Overwatch, HS and HotS - it's not like that. It's as if they made those game so they can "milk" basically everyone with the "harmless" microtransactions (MTX). And it's keep getting worse. How long until the first HS expansion? Dunno, didn't play back then, but a long time. Adventures, which you could get unlocked with gold, if you are patient enough, or if you are not - for a small amount of cash (around 20-30). And what about now? Big Expansions 3x a year, with more than half of the cards just utterly trash. Almost every expansion includes an alternate hero portrait now. Some heroes have like 3-4 now. Why? So, the people keep spending more and more cash per minute.
The first expansion came in fall of 2014 (note that the official release was Spring 2014). Summer 2014 was the first adventure.
I don't get the whole 'adventures was so good' feeling. Yes, it was fine for folks who were already well established and could easily save for the wings as they opened. But I REMEMBER when people joined after LoE and didn't have anything open, then wanted to go make ANY deck to play with. I remember looking at every deck list worth its salt that didn't have 5000 legendaries in it for a deck a person could make 2 or so weeks after joining and could not find one.
Do you realize that, at the time, it took 2 weeks to save up for 1 wing of an adventure? Quests gave less cash and they didn't run double gold events back then so 750 gold took 2 weeks of saving.
Did you know that, at the time of LoE, EVERY SINGLE deck above tier 4 required at least one card on a 3rd or higher wing of an adventure? Secret Paladin needed 5 wings for Avenge. Tempo Mage needed 3 wings of BRM. Anything hunter needed 4 wings of Naxx. Warlock needed 4 wings of Naxx and 2 wings of BRM. THEN if you were aggro and not Warlock/Hunter you needd 3 wings of LoE. ANYTHING warrior needed 4 wings of Naxx.
That's JUST for 2-4 key cards locked in adventures. That's 1 1/2 to 2 months (3 for Warlock) of not opening a SINGLE PACK, not running a SINGLE arena run, literally doing nothing but hoarding cash with whatever cards you already have for MONTHS, just to get Avenge, or Mad Scientist, or Imp Gang Boss, or Finley. JUST THAT. Yes, getting Avenge mean s you get all of the Naxx cards, but that's still 2.5 MONTHS of doing NOTHING else to get them.
AFTER THAT. *AFTER THAT* you get to open packs and find the other 28 cards you need.
In contrast, if you want Baku, you can get it with dust while opening other packs, collecting and using the cards you get from there while dusting other cards. You get to actually build your collection while gathering the dust you need for the card you want. It still sucks but better than just waiting 2 weeks before you get anything.
Adventures were easy for established players. But established F2P players can open 60-90 packs every expansion RIGHT NOW without spending a dime. Adventures and expansions are pretty easy to handle nowadays once you've got your swing.
For new players, Adventures were the PITS. Many dont know it because they either were around when they opened, or came after most of them rotated out.
Having watched new players for years have to deal with them before the rotations, I REALLY don't get the rose tinted nostalgia for them. I'd take a ton more Boomsday expansions over the broken OPness of Naxx, the worthlessness of BRM, and the monstrosity of One NIght. I'll gladly throw LoE in the fires as well. Finley is NOT a good card and "coin flip I win/you lose" Reno were not good card designs. They just were great compared to the utter trash of the first expansion cards.
All of which ignores the publicly-disclosed fact that Hearthstone is doing very well. Hearthstone is one of the largest ongoing sources of revenue for Blizzard, and it grew significantly in 2018. So, though Blizzard has made several horrendous missteps with other IPs, Hearthstone is doing quite well. Hopefully, it will stay that way.
.
IIRC, Hearthstone is actually down in sales as is Overwatch.
Yes, its' like saying "oh no, I got a 99% on my test instead of a 105%" but, to abuse the analogy, investors are that parent that beats their child for getting one question wrong. Activision-Blizzard MUST always do better than last year or it'll be seen as a failure to investors. Blizzard 's WoW, SC, and Diablo lines are long in the tooth, HotS is weak enough to require dumping, and Overwatch/Hearthstone aren't making as much as last year.
To you or me, all of those titles are making money and stable and things are doing great. To Investors, who parent company Acti-Bliz has to listen to, the company is failing and must recover or it's curtains. These are the same types of investors that deemed overall economic wage increases as a NEGATIVE last year as it suggested competition in getting labor and, thus, the costs cutting into profits.
The one benefit we can hope for is that card games are pretty much built to match profit maximizing with entertainment. Making the expansions more desirable maximizes sales while prevents a stale meta and increases hype (we WANT expansions that change the meta and have lots of usable cards...right?) You can give lots of incentives and benefits to the free players without affecting your bottom line since the whales will still whale even with an extra free legendary.
The point, and the hope, is that Acti-Bliz sees Hearthstone as already in 'cash cow' territory and focuses more on the other properties.
Though given that the company is in panic mode, I'm not sure we can rule anything out.
sidenote: whoever decided to name the parent company "Activision-Blizzard" when they had two separate sub-companies under it, one names Activision and the other named Blizzard, needs to be fed to a pack of whelps.
I've written several times how I'm an Activision investor, and the past four or five months have cut the value of that investment in half.
Having watched Blizzard develop over the past 25 years, the inescapable conclusion is that Activision has insisted on some changes in the financial side of the company. I try to remind myself that Overwatch, Hearthstone, and Heroes of the Storm may have never come to be in the first place without the merger, but we've certainly played a price for it recently.
I still have high hopes for Blizzard. They have entertained and enriched me (literally and otherwise) my entire life, and I'm not ready to call it quits quite yet.
Having said that, I respect the notion that you don't want to reward bad behavior with your money. That's absolutely correct, and the world would be a far better place if people were more responsible consumers as a whole. But, you have to accept both sides of that equation.
Someone in this thread scoffed at the notion of spending money on the "free to play" game, but that's a willfully childish way to look at this. Free to play pricing models don't suggest the company is making the game out of boredom and altruism. If Hearthstone doesn't make money, Hearthstone will cease to exist, and THAT is a great reason to spend money on the game if you are a fan.
All of which ignores the publicly-disclosed fact that Hearthstone is doing very well. Hearthstone is one of the largest ongoing sources of revenue for Blizzard, and it grew significantly in 2018. So, though Blizzard has made several horrendous missteps with other IPs, Hearthstone is doing quite well. Hopefully, it will stay that way.
The past year I've been hearing countless times about the video game bubble.
I am here to talk to you about a company that desperately needs your help. Everyday, Activision bosses must go without the top tier premium luxury planes, cars and homes, and slightly lower their expectations to a fraction lower standard of such key everyday life items.
Please give $150 a month, or whatever you can to this needy cause.
I am here to talk to you about a company that's desperately needs your help. Everyday, Activision bosses must go without the top tier premium luxury planes, cars and homes, and slightly lower their expectations to a fraction lower standard of such key everyday life items.
Please give $150 a month, or whatever you can to this needy cause.
And thank you.
I know that if you're in a dead end job this is funny to you but they are bosses, they got to where they are because of their hard work, they deserve luxury as much as you deserve your salary.
Don't worry about these people. Working at Blizzard is a golden ticket on your CV when applying to another game studio. They will soon find new jobs.
As of last Blizzcon I too am an Activison investor. I've invested in it not because I have high hopes for the company lol but because the stock that is now cheaper than ever will skyrocket the moment D4 is announcement, at which moment I'll be selling it because, knowing how Blizzard has been handling their games in the recent history, it will only go downwards from that point on.
I am here to talk to you about a company that's desperately needs your help. Everyday, Activision bosses must go without the top tier premium luxury planes, cars and homes, and slightly lower their expectations to a fraction lower standard of such key everyday life items.
Please give $150 a month, or whatever you can to this needy cause.
And thank you.
I know that if you're in a dead end job this is funny to you but they are bosses, they got to where they are because of their hard work, they deserve luxury as much as you deserve your salary.
Don't worry about these people. Working at Blizzard is a golden ticket on your CV when applying to another game studio. They will soon find new jobs.
As of last Blizzcon I too am an Activison investor. I've invested in it not because I have high hopes for the company lol but because the stock that is now cheaper than ever will skyrocket the moment D4 is announcement, at which moment I'll be selling it because, knowing how Blizzard has been handling their games in the recent history, it will only go downwards from that point on.
I think the problem here is yes bosses should be well paid, but its one thing to be well paid, and another to be filthy rich while letting your company suffer because of you. Yes, other people will take on these employees, but they will need to move, their kids change schools, leave behind family, friends, this is not a matter that can be be simply set down to "they'll soon find new jobs."
I am here to talk to you about a company that's desperately needs your help. Everyday, Activision bosses must go without the top tier premium luxury planes, cars and homes, and slightly lower their expectations to a fraction lower standard of such key everyday life items.
Please give $150 a month, or whatever you can to this needy cause.
And thank you.
I know that if you're in a dead end job this is funny to you but they are bosses, they got to where they are because of their hard work, they deserve luxury as much as you deserve your salary.
Don't worry about these people. Working at Blizzard is a golden ticket on your CV when applying to another game studio. They will soon find new jobs.
As of last Blizzcon I too am an Activison investor. I've invested in it not because I have high hopes for the company lol but because the stock that is now cheaper than ever will skyrocket the moment D4 is announcement, at which moment I'll be selling it because, knowing how Blizzard has been handling their games in the recent history, it will only go downwards from that point on.
I think the problem here is yes bosses should be well paid, but its one thing to be well paid, and another to be filthy rich while letting your company suffer because of you. Yes, other people will take on these employees, but they will need to move, their kids change schools, leave behind family, friends, this is not a matter that can be be simply set down to "they'll soon find new jobs."
It is the natural order of things. The food chain of business. Bosses have earned the right to be filthy rich.
Yes, they shouldn't let their company suffer but in a case such a this, when we're talking about a company that exists in a union with another one, it is questionable how much power does the CEO of Blizzard have in this manner. If anything, form all that we know, it is because of Activision that the stock is down, not Blizzard, but Activision seems to hold more power now. The firings will reportedly not target any game dev, only teams such as marketing and support so the company isn't losing that much. Besides, if your union company has more power, your owner company to be exact, there ain't much a CEO can do anymore.
You don't recall correctly. Maybe they missed a projection of rate of increase, but the real dollars are up from last year. At least as far through as the Boomsday launch, I'm not sure if they've dropped 4th Quarter numbers yet.
I agree, though, that companies who are concerned about growth have a tendency to make very stupid decisions with cash cow properties.
And "bubble" is not a correct term for this situation. The money that has been lost was due to several discreet and unforeseeable (to the outside investor) mistakes, the most notable of which is the horrible decision to play up the implication that Diablo 4 was being released, only to pitch the mobile game. I could have been taking crystal meth at the wheel; I'd have still never seen that coming.
Anyway, I bought in when the shares were $10, so I'm still up 410%. It's just that at the beginning of the year, it was over 800%.
Helpful Clarification on Forbidden Topics for Hearthstone Forums:
Enjoying Americans winning in the Olympics is forbidden because it is political. A 14 plus page discussion of state-sponsored lawsuits against a multi-national corporation based on harassment, discrimination, and wrongful death allegations is apparently not political enough to raise an issue.
It's funny, considering the low amount of effort put into Hearthstone versus the huge revenue it brings in, this game has to print money as it currently stands. And yet Activi$ion's influence will try and milk this poor indie company right into the ground. Thanks, late-stage capitalism.
I know that if you're in a dead end job this is funny to you but they are bosses, they got to where they are because of their hard work, they deserve luxury as much as you deserve your salary.
It is the natural order of things. The food chain of business. Bosses have earned the right to be filthy rich.
"Because of their hard work"??? "Bosses have earned the right to be filthy rich"??? Is this... Is this a f...king joke??? Are you... Are you serious, bro? How dare you to make such claims without leaving room for doubt? Do you live in a bubble, on a perfect world, or what?
How do you know many of this guys aren't in such positions because they are "friends" with some other person with a similar or better job at Blizzard? Because that is how things usually work in real life, dude. I can't believe I have to explain this... It's not hard work, it's not dedication and your abilities aren't either what will usually make you succed, especially in a company of dubious seriousness like Activision Blizzard. Do you know what will make you succed a lot? It is the desire for more and more power of others. Many people out there want their "friends" in a company just to be more powerful themselves, to have eyes where they usually didn't have, and be more influential. They don't do it for charity or friendship, they do it only for themselves.
Of course, I'm not saying this things happen in every company out there, but it does happen in a notorious amount. The truth is we will probably never really know if this happens (or has happened) at Blizzard, but we aren't sure of the contrary neither, so please, next time, do not take something like that for granted.
I know that if you're in a dead end job this is funny to you but they are bosses, they got to where they are because of their hard work, they deserve luxury as much as you deserve your salary.
It is the natural order of things. The food chain of business. Bosses have earned the right to be filthy rich.
"Because of their hard work"??? "Bosses have earned the right to be filthy rich"??? Is this... Is this a f...king joke??? Are you... Are you serious, bro? How dare you to make such claims without leaving room for doubt? Do you live in a bubble, on a perfect world, or what?
How do you know many of this guys aren't in such positions because they are "friends" with some other person with a similar or better job at Blizzard? Because that is how things usually work in real life, dude. I can't believe I have to explain this... It's not hard work, it's not dedication and your abilities aren't either what will usually make you succed, especially in a company of dubious seriousness like Activision Blizzard. Do you know what will make you succed a lot? It is the desire for more and more power of others. Many people out there want their "friends" in a company just to be more powerful themselves, to have eyes where they usually didn't have, and be more influential. They don't do it for charity or friendship, they do it only for themselves.
Of course, I'm not saying this things happen in every company out there, but it does happen in a notorious amount. The truth is we will probably never really know if this happens (or has happened) at Blizzard, but we aren't sure of the contrary neither, so please, next time, do not take something like that for granted.
You get ''high positions'' via networking and being friends with the higher ups. You don't get the CEO position that way, don't be fucking delusional. CEO is usually obtainable only by those who have formed the company in the first place, with one of them being the CEO and the other(s) being co-founders. CEO mantle is then passed onto those co-founders once CEO retires (in most cases). You won't get to be the boss via connections unless it happens that your father is the CEO or something like that.
I forget what the psychs call it, but there's a specific effect where people see another person in a position which suggests that person is more accomplished or successful, and the brain reflexively searches for reasons the person is NOT, in fact, better suited than themselves. The phenomenon that leads people to conclude CEOs got there by nepotism is ironically the same one that has people spamming comments about how the game is pure RNG and tournament winners and high players are only where they are because of luck or playing "bullshit" decks.
Just sit back, grab some popcorn, and enjoy the show.
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Helpful Clarification on Forbidden Topics for Hearthstone Forums:
Enjoying Americans winning in the Olympics is forbidden because it is political. A 14 plus page discussion of state-sponsored lawsuits against a multi-national corporation based on harassment, discrimination, and wrongful death allegations is apparently not political enough to raise an issue.
I know that if you're in a dead end job this is funny to you but they are bosses, they got to where they are because of their hard work, they deserve luxury as much as you deserve your salary.
It is the natural order of things. The food chain of business. Bosses have earned the right to be filthy rich.
"Because of their hard work"??? "Bosses have earned the right to be filthy rich"??? Is this... Is this a f...king joke??? Are you... Are you serious, bro? How dare you to make such claims without leaving room for doubt? Do you live in a bubble, on a perfect world, or what?
How do you know many of this guys aren't in such positions because they are "friends" with some other person with a similar or better job at Blizzard? Because that is how things usually work in real life, dude. I can't believe I have to explain this... It's not hard work, it's not dedication and your abilities aren't either what will usually make you succed, especially in a company of dubious seriousness like Activision Blizzard. Do you know what will make you succed a lot? It is the desire for more and more power of others. Many people out there want their "friends" in a company just to be more powerful themselves, to have eyes where they usually didn't have, and be more influential. They don't do it for charity or friendship, they do it only for themselves.
Of course, I'm not saying this things happen in every company out there, but it does happen in a notorious amount. The truth is we will probably never really know if this happens (or has happened) at Blizzard, but we aren't sure of the contrary neither, so please, next time, do not take something like that for granted.
You get ''high positions'' via networking and being friends with the higher ups. You don't get the CEO position that way, don't be fucking delusional. CEO is usually obtainable only by those who have formed the company in the first place, with one of them being the CEO and the other(s) being co-founders. CEO mantle is then passed onto those co-founders once CEO retires (in most cases). You won't get to be the boss via connections unless it happens that your father is the CEO or something like that.
First, I was talking in general. And second, what you said is not true. A CEO can be a founder of a company or not. One that is not is in a notable lower position than the founders of the company and/or the shareholders. Such kind of CEO, in a company, is totally replaceable like any other worker. Just because they could have some notable experience for the position doesn't mean in any way that they always deserve the money they earn, doesn't mean in any way that they are not "best friends" with some founder. ;)
Konami no longer really make games unless it's Pro Evo and Ubisoft are a company that like Activision and EA milked franchises to death but in recent years have turned things around to be one of the better AAA studios and provide long lasting support to their games.
Hearthstone has been around for what? 5 years? That's a long time for a game and of course its popularity has peaked. It's no longer has that new shiny feel, imitators have come out to dilute the market, and just game exhaustion mean this game HAS to be on the decline in player usage. Same thing for Overwatch, I'm sure (though I don't play it).
The bigger question for HS is whether it is still profitable. I'm guessing it is, since I can't imagine it requiring the overheard that other products require. Smaller team, simpler game, etc. But who knows, maybe a graphic artist or some PR person will get fired. After the Brode exodus, I can't image a big hit on the team.
Pretty sure Bethesda managed to screw themself over with Fallout 76 - Should have done what Obsidian is doing with Outer Worlds (Looking forward to that game).
Well, I am not, but I feel sorry for both of us.
And I think the price was too high. And I can certainly imagine a time without Overwatch, HS and HotS, where Blizzard is doing fine just on it's own, making money mostly of WoW subscriptions, if they can keep the game fresh ofc. So, Activision didn't do anything good to Blizzard, did it?
Same here. But they need to pick up their game and get that quality control to the previous high standards. Nobody wants a new game released every year or even 3x a year, c'mon. Soon™ used to mean something back in da days, when there were no meme's and troll-kids.
Blizzard games are not "free to play" games and I accept and respect that. But what I can't accept is the continuosly growing greediness from the financial department.
Again, back in the days, you buy a game, you play the game, as much as you want, done. You don't have to pay more. That's how it used to be. That's how Blizz began and became what they "were" - with games like Starcraft, Diablo and Warcraft. You pay for them once, you keep playing them forever. With WoW and it's subscriptions I can again understand the situation. They need to pay a lot of people just to keep the game "alive" - support team, development team, new stuff to do in the "world" all the time, events and many more.
But with Overwatch, HS and HotS - it's not like that. It's as if they made those game so they can "milk" basically everyone with the "harmless" microtransactions (MTX). And it's keep getting worse. How long until the first HS expansion? Dunno, didn't play back then, but a long time. Adventures, which you could get unlocked with gold, if you are patient enough, or if you are not - for a small amount of cash (around 20-30). And what about now? Big Expansions 3x a year, with more than half of the cards just utterly trash. Almost every expansion includes an alternate hero portrait now. Some heroes have like 3-4 now. Why? So, the people keep spending more and more cash per minute.
I agree on that totally, but in order to stay that way, Blizz should invest more in their quality control department and not in the salary and the bonus to the salary of their CFO.
This whole Activision-Blizzard BS saddens me deeply and I hate how the first company can take control and ruin the second one. I would really like to see Blizzard do, what the creators of Destiny did, and try to "free themselves" from the chains of Activision, take their games back to their roots and start creating for the players and not for the share-holders.
“If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.” ― George Bernard Shaw
EU Legend: S52 (ZooHeal Lock); S76 (Highlander Hunter);
Honestly, Ubi has a pretty decent track record when it comes to supporting their games in the long run. See The Division (1) and Rainbow Six: Seige.
Learn to code.
Wait a minute...
The first expansion came in fall of 2014 (note that the official release was Spring 2014). Summer 2014 was the first adventure.
I don't get the whole 'adventures was so good' feeling. Yes, it was fine for folks who were already well established and could easily save for the wings as they opened. But I REMEMBER when people joined after LoE and didn't have anything open, then wanted to go make ANY deck to play with. I remember looking at every deck list worth its salt that didn't have 5000 legendaries in it for a deck a person could make 2 or so weeks after joining and could not find one.
Do you realize that, at the time, it took 2 weeks to save up for 1 wing of an adventure? Quests gave less cash and they didn't run double gold events back then so 750 gold took 2 weeks of saving.
Did you know that, at the time of LoE, EVERY SINGLE deck above tier 4 required at least one card on a 3rd or higher wing of an adventure? Secret Paladin needed 5 wings for Avenge. Tempo Mage needed 3 wings of BRM. Anything hunter needed 4 wings of Naxx. Warlock needed 4 wings of Naxx and 2 wings of BRM. THEN if you were aggro and not Warlock/Hunter you needd 3 wings of LoE. ANYTHING warrior needed 4 wings of Naxx.
That's JUST for 2-4 key cards locked in adventures. That's 1 1/2 to 2 months (3 for Warlock) of not opening a SINGLE PACK, not running a SINGLE arena run, literally doing nothing but hoarding cash with whatever cards you already have for MONTHS, just to get Avenge, or Mad Scientist, or Imp Gang Boss, or Finley. JUST THAT. Yes, getting Avenge mean s you get all of the Naxx cards, but that's still 2.5 MONTHS of doing NOTHING else to get them.
AFTER THAT. *AFTER THAT* you get to open packs and find the other 28 cards you need.
In contrast, if you want Baku, you can get it with dust while opening other packs, collecting and using the cards you get from there while dusting other cards. You get to actually build your collection while gathering the dust you need for the card you want. It still sucks but better than just waiting 2 weeks before you get anything.
Adventures were easy for established players. But established F2P players can open 60-90 packs every expansion RIGHT NOW without spending a dime. Adventures and expansions are pretty easy to handle nowadays once you've got your swing.
For new players, Adventures were the PITS. Many dont know it because they either were around when they opened, or came after most of them rotated out.
Having watched new players for years have to deal with them before the rotations, I REALLY don't get the rose tinted nostalgia for them. I'd take a ton more Boomsday expansions over the broken OPness of Naxx, the worthlessness of BRM, and the monstrosity of One NIght. I'll gladly throw LoE in the fires as well. Finley is NOT a good card and "coin flip I win/you lose" Reno were not good card designs. They just were great compared to the utter trash of the first expansion cards.
IIRC, Hearthstone is actually down in sales as is Overwatch.
Yes, its' like saying "oh no, I got a 99% on my test instead of a 105%" but, to abuse the analogy, investors are that parent that beats their child for getting one question wrong. Activision-Blizzard MUST always do better than last year or it'll be seen as a failure to investors. Blizzard 's WoW, SC, and Diablo lines are long in the tooth, HotS is weak enough to require dumping, and Overwatch/Hearthstone aren't making as much as last year.
To you or me, all of those titles are making money and stable and things are doing great. To Investors, who parent company Acti-Bliz has to listen to, the company is failing and must recover or it's curtains. These are the same types of investors that deemed overall economic wage increases as a NEGATIVE last year as it suggested competition in getting labor and, thus, the costs cutting into profits.
The one benefit we can hope for is that card games are pretty much built to match profit maximizing with entertainment. Making the expansions more desirable maximizes sales while prevents a stale meta and increases hype (we WANT expansions that change the meta and have lots of usable cards...right?) You can give lots of incentives and benefits to the free players without affecting your bottom line since the whales will still whale even with an extra free legendary.
The point, and the hope, is that Acti-Bliz sees Hearthstone as already in 'cash cow' territory and focuses more on the other properties.
Though given that the company is in panic mode, I'm not sure we can rule anything out.
sidenote: whoever decided to name the parent company "Activision-Blizzard" when they had two separate sub-companies under it, one names Activision and the other named Blizzard, needs to be fed to a pack of whelps.
One does not simply walk into Mordor,
unless they want to be the best they can be.
The past year I've been hearing countless times about the video game bubble.
Seems you've been asleep at the wheel, my friend.
Hello.
I am here to talk to you about a company that desperately needs your help. Everyday, Activision bosses must go without the top tier premium luxury planes, cars and homes, and slightly lower their expectations to a fraction lower standard of such key everyday life items.
Please give $150 a month, or whatever you can to this needy cause.
And thank you.
.
I know that if you're in a dead end job this is funny to you but they are bosses, they got to where they are because of their hard work, they deserve luxury as much as you deserve your salary.
Don't worry about these people. Working at Blizzard is a golden ticket on your CV when applying to another game studio. They will soon find new jobs.
rotation comes 2 months earlier than expected Kappa
I think the problem here is yes bosses should be well paid, but its one thing to be well paid, and another to be filthy rich while letting your company suffer because of you. Yes, other people will take on these employees, but they will need to move, their kids change schools, leave behind family, friends, this is not a matter that can be be simply set down to "they'll soon find new jobs."
It is the natural order of things. The food chain of business. Bosses have earned the right to be filthy rich.
Yes, they shouldn't let their company suffer but in a case such a this, when we're talking about a company that exists in a union with another one, it is questionable how much power does the CEO of Blizzard have in this manner. If anything, form all that we know, it is because of Activision that the stock is down, not Blizzard, but Activision seems to hold more power now. The firings will reportedly not target any game dev, only teams such as marketing and support so the company isn't losing that much. Besides, if your union company has more power, your owner company to be exact, there ain't much a CEO can do anymore.
You don't recall correctly. Maybe they missed a projection of rate of increase, but the real dollars are up from last year. At least as far through as the Boomsday launch, I'm not sure if they've dropped 4th Quarter numbers yet.
I agree, though, that companies who are concerned about growth have a tendency to make very stupid decisions with cash cow properties.
And "bubble" is not a correct term for this situation. The money that has been lost was due to several discreet and unforeseeable (to the outside investor) mistakes, the most notable of which is the horrible decision to play up the implication that Diablo 4 was being released, only to pitch the mobile game. I could have been taking crystal meth at the wheel; I'd have still never seen that coming.
Anyway, I bought in when the shares were $10, so I'm still up 410%. It's just that at the beginning of the year, it was over 800%.
Helpful Clarification on Forbidden Topics for Hearthstone Forums:
Enjoying Americans winning in the Olympics is forbidden because it is political. A 14 plus page discussion of state-sponsored lawsuits against a multi-national corporation based on harassment, discrimination, and wrongful death allegations is apparently not political enough to raise an issue.
It's funny, considering the low amount of effort put into Hearthstone versus the huge revenue it brings in, this game has to print money as it currently stands. And yet Activi$ion's influence will try and milk this poor indie company right into the ground. Thanks, late-stage capitalism.
or remove Activision from the game and keep Blizzard in Standard?
"Because of their hard work"??? "Bosses have earned the right to be filthy rich"??? Is this... Is this a f...king joke??? Are you... Are you serious, bro? How dare you to make such claims without leaving room for doubt? Do you live in a bubble, on a perfect world, or what?
How do you know many of this guys aren't in such positions because they are "friends" with some other person with a similar or better job at Blizzard? Because that is how things usually work in real life, dude. I can't believe I have to explain this... It's not hard work, it's not dedication and your abilities aren't either what will usually make you succed, especially in a company of dubious seriousness like Activision Blizzard. Do you know what will make you succed a lot? It is the desire for more and more power of others. Many people out there want their "friends" in a company just to be more powerful themselves, to have eyes where they usually didn't have, and be more influential. They don't do it for charity or friendship, they do it only for themselves.
Of course, I'm not saying this things happen in every company out there, but it does happen in a notorious amount. The truth is we will probably never really know if this happens (or has happened) at Blizzard, but we aren't sure of the contrary neither, so please, next time, do not take something like that for granted.
You get ''high positions'' via networking and being friends with the higher ups. You don't get the CEO position that way, don't be fucking delusional. CEO is usually obtainable only by those who have formed the company in the first place, with one of them being the CEO and the other(s) being co-founders. CEO mantle is then passed onto those co-founders once CEO retires (in most cases). You won't get to be the boss via connections unless it happens that your father is the CEO or something like that.
@Eternal
I forget what the psychs call it, but there's a specific effect where people see another person in a position which suggests that person is more accomplished or successful, and the brain reflexively searches for reasons the person is NOT, in fact, better suited than themselves. The phenomenon that leads people to conclude CEOs got there by nepotism is ironically the same one that has people spamming comments about how the game is pure RNG and tournament winners and high players are only where they are because of luck or playing "bullshit" decks.
Just sit back, grab some popcorn, and enjoy the show.
Helpful Clarification on Forbidden Topics for Hearthstone Forums:
Enjoying Americans winning in the Olympics is forbidden because it is political. A 14 plus page discussion of state-sponsored lawsuits against a multi-national corporation based on harassment, discrimination, and wrongful death allegations is apparently not political enough to raise an issue.
First, I was talking in general. And second, what you said is not true. A CEO can be a founder of a company or not. One that is not is in a notable lower position than the founders of the company and/or the shareholders. Such kind of CEO, in a company, is totally replaceable like any other worker. Just because they could have some notable experience for the position doesn't mean in any way that they always deserve the money they earn, doesn't mean in any way that they are not "best friends" with some founder. ;)