Activision Blizzard Q4 2015 Earnings

Originally Posted by Ol Scratch

40 million registered players! WOW-O-WOW-O-WOW! THAT'S AMAZING AND MEANS SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!

lickspittle fanboi, thanks for sharing your view and advancing the discussion to new planes.

I expect most of their monthly active users to be hearthstone and maybe hots, dunno how d2 is doing nowadays, and if starcraft/overwatch beta are included.

We saw an immense drop from 10mil to 5.5 mil within two quartals. While it is common to decelerate (in this case it'd be unable to keep up that loss, or there wouldn't be any players left by now) after a while, I'd rather expect numbers to have gone 5.5 => 4 => 5.5 and we're roughly at where we were at the last announcement.

It's really just a gut feeling, but If you think about it; why would WoW see rising sucscription numbers after the first 2 quarters when at that time we found out we'd be stuck with the new content for an entire year? That's why I expect numbers dropping further after that, with some people returning with the legion hype.

Dont forget WoW tokens, which likely are included in subscription numbers. If one buys tokens from ingame gold and saves the sub fee, can you really consider him in a count with actively paying customers?

Blizz did increase their playerbase overall. That's why they post their results.
Blizz did have huge amounts of wow players in the past. That's why they posted their results.
Blizz stopped having huge amounts of wow players. They lost a lot of subs. They stopped showing results.
It's easy, really. If you as a new potential player got a look of their dropping sub numbers, you'd think: Okaaayyy, looks like the game's time is over, going for something else instead.
It's bad advertising. You only show the good of a product, not the bad.

Now ask yourself: Even with them saying they wont show wow sub numbers anymore, do you really think blizz would stick to not showing them if they managed to raise them back up again?
It'd be good advertising, wouldn't it? "Look, we've hit a rough spot, but we pulled it up again WITH EFFORT! The game's great again, all of you, come back and see for yourself!".
The reason why they can say they wont post their numbers anymore is simple (NO EFFORT!):
-They know perfectly well that there is nothing in WoD with even remotely the power to lift sub numbers.
-They haven't planned anything for the entire year
-They botched lore with a half-assed alternative time line theme, garrosh/ner'zhul/kargath dieing derpy deaths considering the hipe-videos showing their lore, Grommash suddenly being the good guy in a more than stupid ~plot twist~, changing from the one big villain that they had carry the x-pack turn into a random npc, not mentioning their derpy reason for the invasion in the first place.
-They more or less ignored pvp content
-They gave us a boring garisson instead of epic Karabor/Bladespire Citadel
-They made follower missions a boring mainte-annoyance and, evaluating it's non-immersive "success", decided to copy-paste it for the shipyard (where you can insta-pop ships, but not decide what kind of crew you want on it (after being able to choose the race of your garisson guards ).
-Apexis crystals...
-Half assed reputations...

A big part of the game for me atm is doing old content tbh. I haven't raided much for a while, and haven't done much pvp at all this x-pack.

Guess why.

Originally Posted by Omanley1

Dont forget WoW tokens, which likely are included in subscription numbers. If one buys tokens from ingame gold and saves the sub fee, can you really consider him in a count with actively paying customers?

...

The reason why they can say they wont post their numbers anymore is simple (NO EFFORT!):

Hi,

Tokens are not included in Subscription numbers. That is most likely the driver for no longer reporting subscription counts; ergo, Subscription numbers are an outdated metric when you have Tokens. Investors, market researchers and (I would assume) anyone looking at this objectively would feel no problem with the decision to not publish Subscription numbers because Tokens = higher Revenue than traditional subscription cost.

Also, Blizzard have dealt a huge blow to the biggest Bot (no need to name names) whilst providing in game gold to its player base. All good business.

Subscription numbers are an outdated metric, and Blizzard are in better control of the in game economy than ever; Blizzard are in a strong position right now.

Originally Posted by Sil

WoW will die, sooner or later and they need to cover the loss of income from WoW with other games. Something they've been working on for years and it's starting to show now. They had all their eggs in 1 basket when they launched WoW, it was do or die for Blizzard. That's no longer the case and they want to prevent this from happening again. Everyone knows WoW will die, the question is just when.

What do you mean "die"? All servers shut down and Blizzard closing shop on it? I sincerely doubt this will happen for many years, they can either go F2P or even sustain WoW with less quality and amount content for less than 1 million subscribers. Stop using so terminal and definitive. games die when they stop being funded, and warcraft universe is a huge investment for Blizzard to let it "die".

Originally Posted by risingforce

Hi,

Tokens are not included in Subscription numbers.

Yes they are. Where did you get the incorrect impression that they aren't?

Originally Posted by DAV_76

Just give us the figures, Blizzard. Unacceptable way of doing business, if you ask me.

And yet Square Enix of FFXIV ARR/HS do not publish their sub numbers officially and no on gives them grief but then again they don't have it in for them like folks do for Blizzard..

Originally Posted by Tezha

Indeed true! We just move on to better games, true gamers indeed are true gamers who want to have fun.


Blizzard fanatics are truly as naive as the haters...

And yet, here we all still are.
Complaining for 5 years straight about how we will stop and this game will die.

After 11 years WoW is still the most renown and probably most played MMO around, even with only having half the subscribers it had at WoD launch.
And for the large majority there isn't another MMO that tends to tick the checkboxes that this game does.

Originally Posted by risingforce

Hi,

Tokens are not included in Subscription numbers. That is most likely the driver for no longer reporting subscription counts; ergo, Subscription numbers are an outdated metric when you have Tokens. Investors, market researchers and (I would assume) anyone looking at this objectively would feel no problem with the decision to not publish Subscription numbers because Tokens = higher Revenue than traditional subscription cost.

Also, Blizzard have dealt a huge blow to the biggest Bot (no need to name names) whilst providing in game gold to its player base. All good business.

Subscription numbers are an outdated metric, and Blizzard are in better control of the in game economy than ever; Blizzard are in a strong position right now.

Except that they DO count as subs. Here's your proof; https://twitter.com/blizzardwatch/st...56727574827008

They didn't count in Q1 because they literally released at the end of Q1. They counted from Q2, when they were active subs, onward. They are 100% active subs that count as active subs.

The single, only drive for not reporting sub numbers is they were an easy metric for the health of the game, and they were plummeting.

Blizzard has completely shifted their focus to their stock holders now though, and the sub number losses don't mean shit to them as long as Blizzard keeps churning out profits. Even in that instance though, they're just not holding a candle to where they were last year, having seen Q4 results almost 15% lower than last years Q4. Overall, Activision Blizzard saw some increase in GAAP income, but also a loss in Non-GAAP income.

The WoW of old is dead and gone, and now even the WoW of today is on it's way out. I sincerely believe that Blizzard should start to shift their focus away from WoW and hopefully, finally, let the aging beast die a proper death. On the other hand, I don't see them actually doing that, instead going to milk it for every last drop it has to offer.

Originally Posted by Nythiz

And yet, here we all still are.
Complaining for 5 years straight about how we will stop and this game will die.

After 11 years WoW is still the most renown and probably most played MMO around, even with only having half the subscribers it had at WoD launch.
And for the large majority there isn't another MMO that tends to tick the checkboxes that this game does.

WoW isnt most played mmo. It is biggest sub based MMO but there are far bigger mmos with far bigger playerbases.

And everyone managed to miss that bit where they said they were close to completing their King Digital acquisition thereby bringing in 500 million users per month and bringing predicted revenues up to $6.25 billion in revenue and operating income up to $2.0 billion

That's more Users than World of Warcraft ever had :P

- - - Updated - - -

Blizzard made an over $1.7 million contribution to Make A Wish

The benefits of reading a full transcript vs relying only on investor releases for info.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/3890...pt?part=single

We're going to stop reporting sub numbers because they don't represent the health of our games correctly.

...

HEY GUYS, LOOK AT THESE NUMBERS

40 MILLION REGISTERED USERS IN HEARTHSTONE, WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT???

DAMN, AREN'T WE FUCKING GOOD

Originally Posted by Gdcotton

Oh shut the hell up with your negativity. I still see my medium pop realm at about the same as always. They also HAVE to meet the deadline for September due to pre-purchasing. Learn some facts before you start talking crap about them at least man... Gosh.

They don't have to do fucking shit. They can delay release all they fucking want. YOU should do research before posting and making yourself look foolish. They would legally have to permit refunds from people asking for them. That's it.

- - - Updated - - -

Originally Posted by nmityosaurus

it's STILL the top MMO in terms of active subscribers.

Prove it. Spoilers* You can't.

Originally Posted by risingforce

Hi,

Tokens are not included in Subscription numbers. That is most likely the driver for no longer reporting subscription counts; ergo, Subscription numbers are an outdated metric when you have Tokens. Investors, market researchers and (I would assume) anyone looking at this objectively would feel no problem with the decision to not publish Subscription numbers because Tokens = higher Revenue than traditional subscription cost.

Also, Blizzard have dealt a huge blow to the biggest Bot (no need to name names) whilst providing in game gold to its player base. All good business.

Subscription numbers are an outdated metric, and Blizzard are in better control of the in game economy than ever; Blizzard are in a strong position right now.

Yes, they are included in active subscription numbers - you have to have an active subscription to use them.

Originally Posted by bluspacecow

And everyone managed to miss that bit where they said they were close to completing their King Digital acquisition thereby bringing in 500 million users per month and bringing predicted revenues up to $6.25 billion in revenue and operating income up to $2.0 billion

Whoops re-reading my sources.

It's 500 million users across Activision , Blizzard and King Digital. Sorry guys .

Full quote :

"Bobby Kotick, Chief Executive Officer of Activision Blizzard, said, “With our expected closing of the acquisition of King Digital later this month, we will have the largest game network in the world, with over 500 million users playing our games every month.A Our entertainment franchises, including Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and soon Candy Crush, will reach people on mobile, console and desktop devices in almost every country in the world. This gives us the opportunity to engage our global audiences and create revenue streams from content and services. Our esports initiatives, enhanced by our recent acquisition of Major League Gaming, allow us to reward our players around the world for their dedication and investment in our games. We expect to generate approximately $6.25 billion in revenues and over $2.0 billion of operating income in 2016 and we will have over 9,000 of the most talented people making, marketing and selling great games around the world.”"

Originally Posted by risingforce

Hi,

Tokens are not included in Subscription numbers. That is most likely the driver for no longer reporting subscription counts; ergo, Subscription numbers are an outdated metric when you have Tokens. Investors, market researchers and (I would assume) anyone looking at this objectively would feel no problem with the decision to not publish Subscription numbers because Tokens = higher Revenue than traditional subscription cost.

Also, Blizzard have dealt a huge blow to the biggest Bot (no need to name names) whilst providing in game gold to its player base. All good business.

Subscription numbers are an outdated metric, and Blizzard are in better control of the in game economy than ever; Blizzard are in a strong position right now.

I have not a single doubt that blizz are in a strong position right now.
I also have not a single doubt that this is now entirely buisness for them, no passion left, just milking cash primarily, disregarding quality ( you know, the one thing they wrote big on their 25y anniversary report headline? ).
As far as WoW goes, blizz used to be high on quality. Well, they have stopped on that long ago. The sharp moment that stopped was wotlk -> cata. The lore prepared for us was leftovers from WCIII up to that point, and then they stopped preparing us properly of what's to come, why stuff is happening as it does etc etc. They cleverly bought themselves time with the ending of WCII frozen throne by putting arthas into cryo sleep, but rushed to the big confrontation within the second x-pack. After that, half assed lore.
Deathwing was a known name before cata, but mainly by WCII players. We at least had Onyxia/Nefarian as previous bosses to involve us a little more with relating to DW. Still, it was a drop. Also, the start of ingame shop.
MoP had amazing lore in itself, but was disconnected from the rest of the world, made up on the spot, and started in it's entirety from the decision to capitalize from an april's fool. Also, the start of lfr to trivialize raid progress more in favor of casuals.
Nothing what's worth having is easy to get. Ingame mounts count to that as well as free loot.
WoD decended even more in that drop. They basically hyped everyone up with videos and outland nostalgia, and then dropped all those hopes and expectations with a severe lack of giving a fuck. Cash in on all the sold copies of the x-pack and the first months of high subscriptions, that's it. Introduce more cash dumps when numbers drop to compensate. The blight of this era: Wow tokens.

Oh, I dont doubt for a second that blizz will continue to rake in the profit, on our cost as well as on the game qualities'.

They should just make the game f2p.
I wont complain about an x-pack that costs me once, and lasts a couple of months. It is a better investment than buying a shooter and be done after a couple of days, after finishing it.
But I do mind paying sub fees for continued effort on blizz's part which just doesn't happen after the release.

Dropping sub fees would no doubt bring a lot of people to the game. It would raise up the quality of the game, as a mmorpg without the "masses" is just an morpg, and not what people came for.
Look at hearthstone if you doubt the power of f2p.
Do you think it'd have 40m players if it weren't f2p? There's bound to be lots of people spending money on cards, but none actually has to. If it turned sub fee, I dont doubt a 75%+ loss of playerbase.

God I love Jaylock, he's a super trolling hero

So great not getting a sub count anymore , got so tired it being spamming across the Internet every time it went up and down.

So many people on these forums are just ill informed cry babies.

I just checked my guild and see we have a decline of over 8 raiders, we did replace the missing but those 8 raiders are no longer playing, which means we have a decline of about 40%

Originally Posted by Sil

WoW will die, sooner or later and they need to cover the loss of income from WoW with other games. Something they've been working on for years and it's starting to show now. They had all their eggs in 1 basket when they launched WoW, it was do or die for Blizzard. That's no longer the case and they want to prevent this from happening again. Everyone knows WoW will die, the question is just when.

Everquest is still going (a game which never reached the success of WoW) yet "clever" people talk about the "death" of World of Warcraft. Haha!