Why do so many people think Blizzard is broke?

[spectrefax]

I'm really curious as to why so many people believe Blizzard has ultra-limited resources and is generally cash poor?

I see this all the time in discussions ranging from group content creation (5 mans/raids) to solo content creation (dailies, new zones, etc). People say things like "Well Blizzard could either do this or this and they decided on (blank)."

Blizzard is one of the largest, most profitable gaming companies in the world - Why do people believe that in order to get something, like compelling raid content, that other area's of the game must suffer and do without because blizzard simply doesn't have the resources to work on both aspects of the game at once? I mean this game is grossing well over a billion a year and the limited resource crap still flies as a valid reason for holes in content?

Why????

[Skullslasher]

Maybe they are going broke. Just a thought

[Korru]

They did lay off a few hundred workers last year if I can recall well. :3

[Tomana]

I'm really curious as to why so many people believe Blizzard has ultra-limited resources and is generally cash poor?

Rule #1 of everything related to IT projects: Nine women won't make a baby in one month.
You can't solve stuff on complex projects by just throwing money into it.

Also, because the shareholders of Activision-Blizzard (Vivendi) expect a minimum level of rentability from their investments.

[bionics]

I'm really curious as to why so many people believe Blizzard has ultra-limited resources and is generally cash poor?

I see this all the time in discussions ranging from group content creation (5 mans/raids) to solo content creation (dailies, new zones, etc). People say things like "Well Blizzard could either do this or this and they decided on (blank)."

Blizzard is one of the largest, most profitable gaming companies in the world - Why do people believe that in order to get something, like compelling raid content, that other area's of the game must suffer and do without because blizzard simply doesn't have the resources to work on both aspects of the game at once? I mean this game is grossing well over a billion a year and the limited resource crap still flies as a valid reason for holes in content?

Why????

I don't think that implies that people think that Blizzard is broke; rather, they disagree with the decision that Blizzard made in terms of content creation because either they don't enjoy it or don't think it's tailored enough to them. Instead, I think they see it as a waste of time -- as in, "Blizzard could have done this, but they chose to spend all their time making new dailies instead."

With all the popular buyable mounts, pets, faction transfers, and other in-game items garnered through cash transactions I can't see how anyone would think Blizzard wasn't turning a profit. The only thing that surprised me was how much it costs to keep the servers they have going everyday.

[iamthedevil]

They did lay off a few hundred workers last year if I can recall well. :3

And by doing so they expanded their development team. Hence the reason we are getting faster content.

[spectrefax]

Also, because the shareholders of Activision-Blizzard (Vivendi) expect a minimum level of rentability from their investments.

So, Blizzard operates at the size/scale (or lower) than it's competitors, despite their profitability, and that is the consumers problem? I personally think it's rather laughable that companies 1/5th the size of Blizzard are able to do more than them.

[Tomana]

So, Blizzard operates at the size/scale (or lower) than it's competitors, despite their profitability, and that is the consumers problem? I personally think it's rather laughable that companies 1/5th the size of Blizzard are able to do more than them.

Such as what company?

[Ratyrel]

WoW is art in the widest sense of the word. You may make more "art" by just hiring more people, but whether it would be art you enjoyed is an entirely different matter.

[nadileal]

This is the situation a lot of people wanted to see.

[xenogear3]

Rule #1 of everything related to IT projects: Nine women won't make a baby in one month.
You can't solve stuff on complex projects by just throwing money into it.

No, does it really take 5 years to make Diablo 3 and 2 years to make a Starcraft 2 expansion?

It is more because of miking the cow, instead of eating it.
Releasing too many contents will burn the players out.

[jbombard]

WoW is art in the widest sense of the word. You may make more "art" by just hiring more people, but whether it would be art you enjoyed is an entirely different matter.

WoW is more like a museum. There are all kinds of different art in it, and there is no reason not having enough oil painters should have an effect on the childrens finger painting exhibition.

Back to the OP... It isn't that they are broke it is that they are maximizing profits.

[TEHPALLYTANK]

Money does not solve all problems, despite what some may believe. I think it is rather silly to believe that it is a financial issue when it comes to content being developed by a company such as Blizzard. Why did you make such a sweeping generalization that people who think blizz cannot put out content X and Y at the same time think such is a problem of finance rather than logistics?

[Deleted]

Money does not solve all problems, despite what some may believe. I think it is rather silly to believe that it is a financial issue when it comes to content being developed by a company such as Blizzard. Why did you make such a sweeping generalization that people who think blizz cannot put out content X and Y at the same time think such is a problem of finance rather than logistics?

Lol.

What really annoys me are the fanboys who live in denial.

Right at this very moment Blizzard have another team already working on WoW's next expansion when they could be adding more content to the current one. They did this during Cataclysm as well, and we all know how that turned out.


Blizzard are just being extremely cost efficient. Good for them. Bad for you.

[Victoriaautmors]

Blizzard is a buisiness like any other meaning its main goal is to make money and the rest is just PR crap. Sure its policy is to make top quality products but that doesent mean that they want to spend as little money as possible since the less they spend the more money they make.

Sure it would be nice if Blizzard was some sort of a benevolent holy order on a divine mission to make perfect games and not earn money but sadly that is not the case.

[Goatfish]

Rule #1 of everything related to IT projects: Nine women won't make a baby in one month.
You can't solve stuff on complex projects by just throwing money into it.

Also, because the shareholders of Activision-Blizzard (Vivendi) expect a minimum level of rentability from their investments.

No, but 9 women can make a baby per month.

[spectrefax]

Wow... not in any other market have I seen customers who, judging by their replies and who I assume are not shareholders, actively defending and encouraging a company to short them in order to increase profitability.

[jbombard]

Money does not solve all problems, despite what some may believe. I think it is rather silly to believe that it is a financial issue when it comes to content being developed by a company such as Blizzard. Why did you make such a sweeping generalization that people who think blizz cannot put out content X and Y at the same time think such is a problem of finance rather than logistics?

You hear this argument a lot, and it is used to make it sound like money doesn't solve *any* problems. Money solves a lot of problems, but it does not solve all problems. When we are talking about complex multi-faceted problems, I think saying money couldn't help in any way shape or form is just silly. The game is huge, and I'm sure there are areas where throwing money at it would be enough. There are other areas where bottlenecks would require that other issues not so easily solved with money would need to be addressed also. The key is whether or not they have to desire to spend money and fix bottlenecks.

[RoKPaNda]

Lol.

What really annoys me are the fanboys who live in denial.

Right at this very moment Blizzard have another team already working on WoW's next expansion when they could be adding more content to the current one. They did this during Cataclysm as well, and we all know how that turned out.


Blizzard are just being extremely cost efficient. Good for them. Bad for you.

They did it with the two expansions before that as well and look how those turned out.

[Deleted]

They did it with the two expansions before that as well and look how those turned out.

Cata had half the content compared to Wrath.

If you want to defend Blizzard being cheap, feel free.