Has Blizzard's over-diversification permanently damaged WoW?

[rda]

Laughably naive. Blizzard themselves talked about their need to diversify and open new franchises years ago, in their yearly corporate reports. Almost all of their income came from WoW, and while that's great while the game is growing, they saw it was shrinking over time, and put plans in motion to expand their product line.

You really have no idea what you're talking about, do you? Did Ford get as massive as they are, selling ONE brand of car? Or General Motors? Or RCA? Or Sony? Or Samsung? Gee, what's the one thing large, successful companies have in common? Oh, yeah - multiple product lines. SOME outliers can sell one product for decades and still profit (I can't think of any at the moment, but I'm sure there are some), but any successful company expands many times over their history.

I guess you must be in middle school, or something, to not know how companies work. Do you think they have a finite amount of devs, so if they start a new game, they steal devs from WoW? You must, after the hopelessly naive statement you made before.

I will note that nothing above contradicts what I said - if they kept everything on WoW, it is entirely possible they'd have made more.

Yes, almost all companies try to diversify, sure. Quite a lot (most) of such attempts to diversify are very ineffective and quite a lot end up being a waste of time.

I am saying this has happened here with Blizzard - their attempts to diversify from WoW into other games are questionable, it is completely unclear whether they were worth it. The biggest issue is that I think these attempts had an adverse effect on their flagship product = WoW, which even today is the product that largely finances all these experiments.

"SOME outliers can sell one product for decades and still profit (I can't think of any at the moment, but I'm sure there are some)" --- if you want companies that largely failed to diversify, there is no shortage of them. There's Google, for example. 90% of their business remains tied to a single product. They have been trying to diversify for something like 8 years already, keep failing.

I suggest you temper your tone, your reply was neither very logical nor knowledgeable.

[turboether]

When you have an mmo-size team dissolve and two large scale teams downsized to live teams you have a lot of workforce with no work to do. Their strategy seems to shuffle people between the small game and remaster teams and keeping the art teams busy with merchandise and consumer outreach while they plan their next large scale production. Everyone left over they add to the WoW pot, which is probably overly healthy at this point in terms of team size.

[Seefer]

lol, and you believe that? They sure had a lot of content for WoD

#1 when I said they have enough content I meant they have enough lore

#2 there was plenty of content in WoD just because you didn't like it doesn't mean it wasn't there, like how I think the first hour of Batman vs Superman was boring as hell others thought it was the best comic movie ever.

[Pann]

But that shows them having 2015 as a very profitable year and one of their best

That is not what you originally claimed.

[Deleted]

#2 there was plenty of content in WoD

Nothing you say can be taken seriously after that. lol

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This is really, and I mean really naive to think that Blizzard is done with WoW, and that they will let it die. Ahah. They'll keep running it forever, expanding the store and always finding ways for it to be profitable. A game in the World Video Game Hall of Fame is not meant to die like this, Blizzard is too smart to leave money to players.

They keep milking it to the bitter end, of course. I never said anything else.
But they won't invest or innovate when it comes to WoW. They do that with their other titles.

[Deleted]

#2 there was plenty of content in WoD just because you didn't like it doesn't mean it wasn't there, like how I think the first hour of Batman vs Superman was boring as hell others thought it was the best comic movie ever.

No

There really wasnt much content in WoD... it has nothing to do with if people enjoyed the WoD content or not.

Outside of raiding there was VERY LITTLE to do. Their flagship for the expansion was Garrisons... and the less said about that the better.

[Seefer]

Nothing you say can be taken seriously after that. lol.

So besides scenarios (which Blizz said were not popular) and an endless line of dailies (which people bitched about in MoP and no it was not just because of the gating, a big complaint was too many and too little time).........what was lacking in WoD that was in other expansions? 2 or 3 new 5 mans just to be ignored when you got the gear?

[spurx]

So besides scenarios (which Blizz said were not popular) and an endless line of dailies (which people bitched about in MoP and no it was not just because of the gating, a big complaint was too many and too little time).........what was lacking in WoD that was in other expansions? 2 or 3 new 5 mans just to be ignored when you got the gear?

The 12+ month content drought for starters. Not to mention WoD included content that is -almost- universally hated in the form of Garrisons. WoD also continued with traditions that ultimately lowered the quality of the game in the first place; dailies and LFR

[Seefer]

The 12+ month content drought for starters. Not to mention WoD included content that is -almost- universally hated in the form of Garrisons. WoD also continued with traditions that ultimately lowered the quality of the game in the first place; dailies and LFR

You trying to tell me there hasn't been that long of content drought before? LMAO WOTLK had an 11 month drought!.........and if they didn't have dailies or LFR do you know how many people would bitch and moan? (Personally I hate LFR btw)

[spurx]

You trying to tell me there hasn't been that long of content drought before? LMAO.........and if they didn't have dailies or LFR do you know how many people would bitch and moan? (Personally I hate LFR btw)

If there's one single thing Blizzard needs to do to get back on the right track with WoW, it's to completely stop listening to anyone bitching and moaning.

[Seefer]

If there's one single thing Blizzard needs to do to get back on the right track with WoW, it's to completely stop listening to anyone bitching and moaning.

I agree 100% but sadly they won't, they lost their direction the minute they stopped making THEIR game and started listening to everyone who bitches and moans (minority)

[A Dark Knight]

new books ----> end of wow

[Seefer]

new books ----> end of wow

I like their books *shrug*

[Wildtree]

With Blizzard we have them actively pulling away from their biggest product and the largest source of revenue. This is unheard of in truly successful companies. You just don't do this.

You mean, like VW and it's Beetle?
You know they too, at some point, reacted to the market and stopped making them, because the market changed and Beetles weren't profitable anymore.
So much to unheard of.
Point and fact, companies drop their flagships all the time, if said ship declines enough in revenue..

[HordeFanboy]

Yeah blizz have killed wow since mop

[Celarent]

Remember that no CEO or board of directors grades business on a curve. Even if WoW makes more money than the next MMO, if it's not meeting goals, it's not acceptable.

I think WoW is less profitable thanks to poor direction (Cataclysm, going where devs wanted to go in spite of player expectations) and poor management (inefficient, insular production resulting in brand disasters like WoD's 6.1). Losing steam only exposes WoW's age, which must have political ramifications for the career-minded in Irvine. In that context, it's to Blizzard's credit that the portfolio's larger.

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and an endless line of dailies (which people bitched about in MoP and no it was not just because of the gating, a big complaint was too many and too little time)

Complaining doesn't equal not playing, necessarily. Sub levels were stable throughout Mists. Plus, the daily issue was only with pre-T14, and was soon fixed. What followed was not one, not two, but three areas filled with activities. Add factions with relevant rewards and fun quests, plus medium-term goals with dungeons from Day One, instead of patch x.3, and we're head and shoulders above WoD.

[Seefer]

Remember that no CEO or board of directors grades business on a curve. Even if WoW makes more money than the next MMO, if it's not meeting goals, it's not acceptable.

I think WoW is less profitable thanks to poor direction (Cataclysm, going where devs wanted to go in spite of player expectations) and poor management (inefficient, insular production resulting in brand disasters like WoD's 6.1). Losing steam only exposes WoW's age, which must have political ramifications for the career-minded in Irvine. In that context, it's to Blizzard's credit that the portfolio's larger.

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Complaining doesn't equal not playing, necessarily. Sub levels were stable throughout Mists. Plus, the daily issue was only with pre-T14, and was soon fixed. What followed was not one, not two, but three areas filled with activities. Add factions with relevant rewards and fun quests, plus medium-term goals with dungeons from Day One, instead of patch x.3, and we're head and shoulders above WoD.

People were still complaining there were too many dailies, and if people are complaining it means they aren't enjoying it........I complain when I have to see my doctor, I do it but I hate it and dailies are just a means to get something they DO want even if they hate doing it.

[BiggestNoob]

You mean, like VW and it's Beetle?
You know they too, at some point, reacted to the market and stopped making them, because the market changed and Beetles weren't profitable anymore.
So much to unheard of.
Point and fact, companies drop their flagships all the time, if said ship declines enough in revenue..

Just an FYI, they still make the Beetle, and the appropriate analogy is cars. Their product is cars, they make cars. It's the same market, if they discontinue a model it's not like Blizzard discontinuing WoW because the markets of their games are vastly different, just like the markets for washing machines and cars is vastly different.

2016 models: http://www.vw.com/models/beetle/

[spurx]

People were still complaining there were too many dailies, and if people are complaining it means they aren't enjoying it........I complain when I have to see my doctor, I do it but I hate it and dailies are just a means to get something they DO want even if they hate doing it.

Dailies were introduced to supplement content. At one point, Blizzard saw the success of dailies, got lazy and made dailies primary content. It was at this point dailies became bad for the health of the game.

[Bosen]

Permanently, no. Blizzard's focus on other things has hurt it,though.