Activision Blizzard Q4 2022 Earnings Results

Originally Posted by Nephod

How do they know? Did they ask us at some point?

Psst... they're talking about their own workforce.

Originally Posted by Relapses

Psst... they're talking about their own workforce.

I take the L on not getting that part, but that begs another question: do they ask their employees about what they identify as? Isn't that 100% personal info and not something a company should/would stick their noses into?

Originally Posted by Lolites

thats kinda moot as before there were quite a few half year mounts...

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that people spent more time and money than before, in a jist

Aight let me rephrase it, there was a free murloc mount with a purchase of a year sub. People like murlocs, especially older fans of the game. And honestly, pretty much every single 6month mount sucks ass besides the dread wake mount.

Originally Posted by Nephod

I take the L on not getting that part, but that begs another question: do they ask their employees about what they identify as? Isn't that 100% personal info and not something a company should/would stick their noses into?

Employees are not forced into disclosing what they identify as. When a company asks what gender/religion/orientation you are there is always a "I prefer not to say" option.

That being said, it can often work in the employees favour to submit what they identify as. A lot of companies are eager to hire/promote from marginalised groups since it helps to boost their ESG scores, which in turn often makes financing more accessible. That's why they mention it on earnings calls like this.

Originally Posted by Nyel

Ouch, Dragonflight sales must be truly terrible if they don't disclose real numbers. They released them for each and every expansion except Dragonflight. That's very telling.

Or, and hear me out, they are not "truly terrible" and they didn't disclose them because they, as shown in the report, didn't break Shadowlands record making numbers.

Each expansion prior to Dragonflight broke the expansion prior to it's record, and therefore they announced a new record had been made.

If anything this report and lack of numbers posted shows how people hated Shadowlands and decided to quit.

Originally Posted by qwerty123456

You do realize if we use your logic then the Dragonflight Retention being higher relies on the Shadowlands numbers right? If the pandemic made people join then leave then the retention rate is massively lower for Shadowlands than it normally is for an expansion making the Dragonflight had better utterly meaningless.



Retention has relevance to players. If you gotta constantly gear up new tanks for your guild or can't find enough high level players to pug something after the first month then you are likely going to set up your playtime based around that. If most people quit arena after 4 weeks into a season then you might want to get your wins in those first 4 weeks so you aren't only competing against good players later on. If only bad players wait till the last minute to get their games in then maybe you wanna only play area in the last couple weeks to make it easier on yourself. ETc....

So when the game was popular and had higher ratings the people who left did so cause they moved on and not because the game sucked? Color me amazed . And again you don't have to tell Blizzard why you quit so how can he know exactly why people quit?

EXACTLY!

This metric system never been a real indication. It's a meaningless discussion and always been.

In the same time - its' free PR for Blizzard(bad sales numbers are better than no sales numbers) - maybe that's why they are so chill, instead of shutting down the crazy speculations(it really frustrates me, that they don't have public stance).

I think people should log on the game and enjoy thier time. Numbers are for Blizzard and Bobby K - not the players.

Originally Posted by Hambo94

Outside of people who are whales and buy into these free cosmetic based games, WoW is pretty much the most expensive game out there. Who would pay for it if they dont think its that good.

Really not if you count how many hours of content you have. If you buy a game for 60€ that has 20h of gameplay that's 3€/hour. You can sink that into WoW every week easily and never run out of content to do. So that 180€/year if you count buying the expansion that same year (which you don't every other year) gets you 52*20=1040h of gameplay if you play 20 hours every week. That's like 17 cents an hour.

Originally Posted by Relapses

I think it's more fair to say that the people who quit in Shadowlands quit because they moved on with their lives and fewer people were enticed by Dragonflight. I know this is surprising, but sometimes people quit playing games for reasons that aren't because they hate them.

Both can be true. Your point is true for all expansions, though, as it is completely detached from WoW itself. Shadowlands did not see more people "moving on with their lives" due to life circumstances than other other expansion, so it's a pretty moot point to make. All I have is anecdotal evidence, but I certainly have more anecdotes of people I know quitting WoW during BfA and SL than any other period. More telling is that they unfortunately did not return to check out the new stuff, regardless of whether or not they might like it. Shadowlands burnt that bridge for so many people that otherwise habitually scope out every new expansion.

Originally Posted by Hambo94

I mean compared to basically any other game it is. Its irrelivant if its a large amount of money in the grand scheme of things. Living in Europe is expensive as hell atm let alone if you have a family and mortgage, and many of them just dont want to be paying $200 for something they dont think is very good lol.

They can go out and pay under £40 for a ton of AAA games that they think are better.

Just because you dont think 50€ +12/a month is a lot of money for a video game product, dosent mean that you are correct and that everyone else has to see it the same way.

Outside of people who are whales and buy into these free cosmetic based games, WoW is pretty much the most expensive game out there. Who would pay for it if they dont think its that good.

Eg. Id have bought DF if it was just a one time £50 purchase, and then I have access, but im not paying £50 + £12 right now, im just not willing to start shelling out for a game that im not sure I feel is worth it.

You don't compare apples to apples.

WoW had this pricing model for 18 years. They won't and they shouldn't change it. The entire product is build around this, with the entire infrastructure based on it(including the wages of people). The whole brickhouse will fall apart and you would had to pay differently. That would change the entire game and the appeal for the players.

It's like saying Netflix shouln't charge anything. Just because you can watch it for free somewhere illegal.

Originally Posted by HansOlo

You don't compare apples to apples.

WoW had this pricing model for 18 years. They won't and they shouldn't change it. The entire product is build around this, with the entire infrastructure based on it(including the wages of people). The whole brickhouse will fall apart and you would had to pay differently. That would change the entire game and the appeal for the players.

It's like saying Netflix shouln't charge anything. Just because you can watch it for free somewhere illegal.

To be fair, I don't think Hambo was saying that the whole subscription model should be changed. He was just stating an economic fact. Paying $50 for a game is cheaper than paying $50 + a $12 monthly subscription. A lot of people are struggling to make ends meet and budgets for non-essentials are shrinking. In times like these, the upfront cost to play is going to be the deciding factor for a lot of players. Not to mention that when you stop paying for the subscription, your access to the game is revoked, your $50 investment is gone unless you pay up for another subscription.

Compare that to a $50 game that you pay for once and you then own in perpetuity, you can play as much or as little as you want, whenever you want, no further investment required. People on a tight budget will obviously choose the latter.

Originally Posted by Lathspell

Really not if you count how many hours of content you have. If you buy a game for 60€ that has 20h of gameplay that's 3€/hour. You can sink that into WoW every week easily and never run out of content to do. So that 180€/year if you count buying the expansion that same year (which you don't every other year) gets you 52*20=1040h of gameplay if you play 20 hours every week. That's like 17 cents an hour.

Yeah I mean you arent wrong there, all games are actually incredibly affordable activities if you factor in the hours spent, but to be fair, my point is kinda more that if you arent actually playing WoW that much because you dont find the content particularly fun, I think we've all played a patch or xpac where you barely ever want to log in because theres nothing to do, or the only things to do are 'mandatory' and not actually fun, thats very different to for example loading up the Witcher 3 and progressing through the story or something, where every hour played is something you genuinely enjoyed.

I think a lot of people quit for that reason, that the majority of the content they feel is not fun and worth their time, and you're paying $400 per xpac, so you have to be able to say that you're actually going to play it a lot.

Otherwise, other games are significantly cheaper per hour.

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Originally Posted by HansOlo

You don't compare apples to apples.

WoW had this pricing model for 18 years. They won't and they shouldn't change it. The entire product is build around this, with the entire infrastructure based on it(including the wages of people). The whole brickhouse will fall apart and you would had to pay differently. That would change the entire game and the appeal for the players.

It's like saying Netflix shouln't charge anything. Just because you can watch it for free somewhere illegal.

Huh???????????????????????

Think you've misread mate, Im not saying they should or shouldnt change this, or that the infrastructure isnt built around it, im simply saying that a lot of people are willing to pay 12 a month if they feel the expansion is really fun, like the original trilogy was considered, but people are not going to pay 12 a month for an expansion they feel sucks, like BfA/SL were broadly viewed.

Not really sure what you're trying to say, because im not saying what you're talking about. If you're referring to me mentioning id buy DF if it was a one time purchase, I was talking more about just the value proposition it has to me. Id be willing to pay 50 for a game that I might not play that much, but im not willing to pay 400 per expansion unless I feel its really good.

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Originally Posted by peepeepoopants

To be fair, I don't think Hambo was saying that the whole subscription model should be changed. He was just stating an economic fact. Paying $50 for a game is cheaper than paying $50 + a $12 a monthly subscription. A lot of people are struggling to make ends meet and budgets for non-essentials are shrinking. In times like these, the upfront cost to play is going to be the deciding factor for a lot of players. Not to mention that when you stop paying for the subscription, your access to the game is revoked, your $50 investment is gone unless you pay up for another subscription.

Compare that to a $50 game that you pay for once and you then own in perpetuity, you can play as much or as little as you want, whenever you want, no further investment required. People on a tight budget will obviously choose the latter.

Exactly, glad you saw what I was saying.

Originally Posted by heltvild

sales at the start was bad because of horrible shadowlands, but feedback is positive and the retention rate is better than previous expansions

This.
Might be the beginning of a more healthy approach to WoW, moving away from "Wow and disappoint!" to "Oh wow this is genuinely nice!".

The hype-animals won't be happy with it i suppose, but they're not exactly good for much.

I identify as two-spirited.

My pronouns are he/she/they/it

Hurry up and hire me fast before someone else does! 200k a year, i make a very good covfefe!

Originally Posted by Cavox

What does this even mean? Besides being corpo speech of course.

It means they had more people playing right after the expansion released than they did one year earlier. It might sound impressive to the naive.

Originally Posted by Huntermyth

'' Activision Blizzard increased representation for those who identify as women or non-binary to 26% globally, as of the end of November, versus 24% a year earlier ''

why is this relevant in any way ? why would i care what gender is the game developer / producer ? can anyone enlighten a foreigner ?

Have you been living under a rock? After the whole shit with Blizzard and their whole (and ongoing) abuse scandles, this whole statement is to say to shareholders, 'hey look despite being really shitty to minorities and women in our company we are trying to make good with them by continuing to hire them' its not so much for you as it is for investors and shareholders. These investors calls are not supposed to be for you at all, people just happen to be curious because its out there for us.

"Early Dragonflight sales have not reached the level of the prior expansion"

No surprises, they did a discount offer already about a month after release. Was pretty self evident sales weren't running as well as desired.

Ok has anyone commented about our fellow Chinese players? You really dont think they are all farmers. There are players there like us who struggle to play WoW and can't. They almost lost their players/accounts.. Blizzard said "we try to blablabla" but think about if that happened in a country in EU or whole USA or Canada whatever. IT is terrible and a huge sign they fuckers in blizzard high up or well the managers of all this dont give shit for the customers.

This is terrible and more terrible is that noone cares. Because it didnt happen to you, it doesnt mean it wont.

Or they fixed it and i read old news?

Originally Posted by Nephod

I take the L on not getting that part, but that begs another question: do they ask their employees about what they identify as? Isn't that 100% personal info and not something a company should/would stick their noses into?

I work for a large public company, and they send out annual voluntary anonymous surveys as well as allow you to voluntarily indicate your various identifiers in your official company profile. Makes me uncomfortable giving my employer any more than the bare minimum info about myself, but frankly it seems like officially identifying as a minority offers some level of protection from layoffs. Employer also basically offers a cash bonus if you give them your health screening info, which I've never done because it super weirds me out.

"but community feedback on the title has been positive"

Where? Not here for sure, and not on the official forums. Twitter maybe? Or IG? Just curious where I can read the positive remarks

Originally Posted by Kiwijello

"but community feedback on the title has been positive"

Where? Not here for sure, and not on the official forums. Twitter maybe? Or IG? Just curious where I can read the positive remarks

I mean on the official forums and twitter. People are complaining about down time but only the smallest of minorities have been complaining about the content and most of their threads are just people telling them to sod off.