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Activision Blizzard Earnings Call
Activision Blizzard has their quarterly earnings call today, with the report being inadvertently posted early.

  • Activision Blizzard had 374 million Monthly Active Users in the quarter. This is down from 385 million last quarter.
  • Blizzard had 38 million MAUs, down from 40 million last quarter.
  • World of Warcraft over-performed versus the prior expansion at this point in time, with higher engagement sequentially and strong community participation with in-game purchases.
  • Preorders for the upcoming expansion, Battle for Azeroth, are ahead of plan.
  • Overwatch continues to add new players, and engagement remains strong, with the most recent seasonal event, Retribution, having a higher participation rate than any prior event
  • The Overwatch League launched its inaugural regular season in January and continues to have strong viewership globally, reaching millions each week, with the playoffs still to come this summer.
  • Overwatch League has led to increased engagement for the franchise overall, with combined hours spent playing and watching Overwatch increasing sequentially.


Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Mage Tower Appearances
If that's true, then, given that you believe there's still plenty of time to get the Mage Tower appearances, how do you feel about the amount of time players have left to obtain the Prestige skins?
Prestige artifact appearances aren't going away and will still be obtainable.

The only appearances that will be no longer obtainable after Legion ends will be the Mage Tower appearances and the three other skins within that row, since you need the first appearance to unlock the other three, and the +15 appearance. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Warrior (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator / Artifact Calculator / PvP Talent Calculator)
Protection Warrior Numerical Analysis
Disclaimer: this is sort of analysis is necessarily rough--beyond these basic estimates, talents and many other things will affect mitigation and overall tank performance in any given context.

Disclaimer 2: I didn't review your calculations or assumptions, but the approach seems reasonable.

Even based on your own conclusions, you're greatly downplaying the Warrior's mitigation advantage in your example. "Only 6.64%" is a very large difference when the Druid is only taking 33.57% of incoming damage in the first place. The Warrior (who's taking 26.93% of incoming damage) is taking 19.8% less damage than a Druid. 19.8% is a very large mitigation advantage--it amounts to a 25% increase in effective health, which is very close to the 29% higher health the Druid has in your example. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Blue Tweets
It's been a while since we caught up on Tweets, be sure to read the Prestige level merge info in the PvP section!
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Classes
Death Knight (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator / Artifact Calculator / PvP Talent Calculator)
Can we get some clarification on the inner workings of Bone Shield on BFA Beta? Stacks seem to drop much quicker in multi-target situations than on Live. Has the type of things that remove stacks been changed, or the internal CD reduced/removed?
In the Battle for Azeroth Beta, Bone Shield still has a 2-second internal cooldown on losing stacks. If you spot a bug, please try to give us as much detail as possible. Thank you!

Shaman (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator / Artifact Calculator / PvP Talent Calculator)
Can you explain what's the interaction between Downpour and Deluge in Battle for Azeroth for Restoration Shamans? (If there is interaction, if not, it's like losing a talent?)
As of the next build of the Battle for Azeroth Beta, this should no longer be an issue, since Downpour no longer replaces Healing Rain. (WarcraftDevs)

PvP
If prestige is going account wide, does that mean artifacts appearances or color variations are unlocked in all characters once BfA begins?
Yes, if you unlock an appearance that requires an account-wide Prestige level, all of your characters will get that appearance. (WarcraftDevs)
In Battle for Azeroth, all of your Prestige levels are going to merge. So if you have three characters who reached Prestige 4 in Legion, your account will be set to Prestige 12 in Battle for Azeroth. (WarcraftDevs)

Professions
In BfA will we have to relearn crafts from previous expansions?
In Battle for Azeroth, any crafts you’ve learned in the past will still be there and not need to be re-learned, with the exception of First Aid. Tailoring and Alchemy crafts, bandages, and anti-venoms that used to be in First Aid will have to be re-learned. (WarcraftDevs)

PvE
Uldir only has 8 raid bosses? In the past we had NH, TOV and EN for Legion, TOES, HOF and MSV for MoP, TOTF, BOT and BWD for Cata, as you can see so far it's very concerning you'll be going down the WoD route with less raids.
Highmaul had 7 bosses; Nightmare had 7. Uldir has 8. Much of Nighthold was in data at Legion launch, but it didn't open until months later so it doesn't really offer a true parallel. I will say that we're pretty happy with the quantity of raid content that Legion offered. (WatcherDev)

"With the Azerite system, you're not going to see the big inflated numbers we had in Legion" -WatcherDev That's weird, I don't remember checking out MMO-Champ and seeing scientific notation.
You're looking at datamined internal tables out of context. The current plan is for you to be collecting 3-digit quantities of Artifact Power and working towards 4-digit and 5-digit goals pretty much all expansion long. (WatcherDev)

Testing shows “Vectis” raid test this week, but there is currently no such boss in journal, npcs, anywhere really. it doesn’t exist. Not even in todays build that got reverted. Is this a boss rename? If so, what boss?
Vectis is the boss formerly known as “Blood of G’huun”. Other references will be updated in a future build of the Battle for Azeroth Beta. (WarcraftDevs)

Island Expeditions
How bout the ai? They're kinda dumb and squishy. Mobs too, but that was expected. I want the ai to make me go " oh no they didnt!" instead of " they're dead."
On Normal, that's kind of expected, on H/M it should be scarier! (Muffinus)

And the much-promised account-wide unlock/level your alts on islands as well (and please let us know how it feels to level, the xp probably isn't great atm but we'll fix it). (Muffinus)
wait, WHAT?????
Do unlock quest at 115 on one character -> islands for all your 110-120 doods. (Muffinus)

Curious if you are discussing player behavior like we saw in Ashran where Alliance would control the road while Horde farmed the perimeter. Also I see the goal is to get 6000, what will the losing team get.
The overall amount of stuff is limited and doesn't respawn, so we haven't really seen this. You're forced to clash eventually! Losing team still gets Artifact Power based on how much they collected, we don't want it to feel really bad to lose. (Muffinus)

Pet Battles
Will scaled enemy pets have access to all their skills? Will there be an incentive to use max level pets for WQ's if it turns out to be easier to do the quests with level 1 teams?
They don't have all of their skills, but do have buffed stats, so it may be more difficult to fight them at low level (but worth the XP). (Muffinus)

Misc
Is Moonrest Shore still in Val'sharah? I think it might have been there at launch and replaced with Verdant Cliffs (falcosaur area), but there doesn't seem to be any information anywhere about it.
Moonrest Shore was an early name for Moonrest. The thinking was that you could see the shore from there. But you can't, really, because the trees block your view of the shore. Which is fine. They're lovely trees. Very restful. (WarcraftDevs)

Maybe I am one of the very few players that is a sucker for stats, but you still haven't added Seething Shore to the PvP/Battleground statistics list. At least the win/loss ratio would be nice, maybe even captured Azerite.
This was a bug that we're working to fix in Battle for Azeroth.Thank you. (WarcraftDevs)

Warcraft 3 - Patch 1.29.2
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Hail Warchiefs, Liches, Commanders, and Keepers,

1.29.2 is ready for work.

Specific Changes & Improvements
  • Ladder reset

Bug Fixes
  • Standard/Quick Play maps no longer disappear when patching from 1.28.5 enGB to 1.29.1 enUS
  • Plugged the leak allowing Frozen balance into the Chaos bucket
  • The team game you attempted to join has been found; Arranged Teams working as intended
  • Polish language characters render as Polish again
  • The text cursor reprises its role as conjurer of text
  • Map download progress % over Battle.net has returned
  • /ping command calls forth your need for speed
  • Floating text offset corrected in widescreen
  • Fog and visibility modifiers affect player 13+
  • Visual building upgrades appear for players 13+
  • Unit glow for player 12 is muck colored again
  • Quest logs update via scrolling
  • (2)FloodPlains_LV – Removed water clipping in several locations
  • (8)Ferelas_LV – Reduced aggro range for expansion creeps
  • (8)Twilight Ruins_LV – Level 1 permanent items replaced with tomes in Goblin Laboratories
  • Minimap dead zones in World Editor resurrected
  • Moving special effects using the new natives updates their internal position
  • BlzSetUnitAbilityManaCost no longer affects all units with the chosen ability
  • SetUnitAbilityCooldown no longer affects all units with the chosen ability
  • BlzSetUnitName updates GetUnitName
  • Max clan members and players in channels can actually reach 255…

Known Issues
  • Joining a custom game on Mac will result in a crash
  • SetItemName affects all items of a chosen type
  • Holding left mouse button causes keyboard events to not be registered
  • Cursor does not match the mouse position when resolution is taller than wider
  • In 24 player games, AI buildings may become stuck in construction
  • Automated tournament map pool updates will be available Soon™

Dark Legacy Comics #630
DLC #630 has been released.

This article was originally published in forum thread: Activision Earnings Call, Blue Posts, Blue Tweets, WC3 Patch 1.29.2, DLC #630 started by chaud View original post
Comments 92 Comments
  1. DesoPL's Avatar
    Yes of course, let's talk about Overwatch because everyone still gives a damn fuck about this shit...
  1. Alveia's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by DesoPL View Post
    Yes of course, let's talk about Overwatch because everyone still gives a damn fuck about this shit...
    My friends and I enjoy it quite a bit.
  1. Shedim's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by DesoPL View Post
    Yes of course, let's talk about Overwatch because everyone still gives a damn fuck about this shit...
    Do the people like you who shit on Overwatch share a smelly basement together where you just wait for a post about Overwatch? It's such a cliche at this point. Also, what's up with "still gives a damn fuck about this shit"? Did you just discover curse words?
  1. morpen's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by DesoPL View Post
    Yes of course, let's talk about Overwatch because everyone still gives a damn fuck about this shit...
    Yes, yes we do. Millions of people actually
  1. korijenkins's Avatar
    Earnings calls should always be taken with a grain of salt. I've never seen one that was negative in an honest way. Always putting a cheery outlook on a declining company.
  1. Frolk's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by DesoPL View Post
    Yes of course, let's talk about Overwatch because everyone still gives a damn fuck about this shit...
    Seems it still cool to hate on popular things.
  1. Ehrenpanzer's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by korijenkins View Post
    Earnings calls should always be taken with a grain of salt. I've never seen one that was negative in an honest way. Always putting a cheery outlook on a declining company.
    It would be a refreshing change to see a company post honest, detailed reports. Instead of using a few select outstanding selling products to pretend the entire company is healthy. For example, I'd like to see the MAU year over year on D3 or WoW, Im betting you'd see a steep downcurve with a massive upcurve on something like Overwatch and Hearthstone
  1. McNeil's Avatar
    Still the only thing they can reveal for WoW is that Legion is performing better than WoD did. Why not compare it to an expansion that they actually put some effort into it?
  1. Blayze's Avatar
    Not exactly difficult to overperform against an expansion they abandoned before it even released.
  1. Eggroll's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by zomgzerg View Post
    new blizzard CFO transitioning from Activision, oh boy
    Wut? Did they say it in the stream?
  1. Ariktu's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by McNeil View Post
    Still the only thing they can reveal for WoW is that Legion is performing better than WoD did. Why not compare it to an expansion that they actually put some effort into it?
    WE only know that people spent more money in the store and the people who kept playing played more time in the game than they did in the last expansion which is not surprising since Legion was much more grindy. My gut feeling is subs are still down or they would have mentioned retention of players being better.
  1. Pickynerd's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by zomgzerg View Post
    new blizzard CFO transitioning from Activision, oh boy
    What?

  1. Velerios's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by DesoPL View Post
    Yes of course, let's talk about Overwatch because everyone still gives a damn fuck about this shit...
    This is a panel for Shareholders, not players. It's about money and naturally they talk about this, since blizzard invested so much money on the overwatch-league. So yes, they need positive news about it.

    The Decline of Subs is more of an warning sign.

    Legion is overperforming, but this is in comparsion to WoD; not really hard to fullify.

    BfA sales are beyond expectations, but we don't know what the expectations are (probably set really low, because it's better to say it's overperforming rather than underperforming).
    Also we knew that for cosmeticals people are very likely to spend money. But it does not tell how good the next expansion will be and how big the sub-numbers are.

    And right now we can't say how it's performance will be because of the error on the stock market; dow jones released the earning call ahead of time accidently, resulting in a 3% jump and 5% fall. There might be consequences for this error.

    Currently the stock is performing well, but not without risk. But the prognosis is still buy, even through the market isn't performing as well right now.
  1. oathy's Avatar
    and no matter how they pad around it
    fortnite is stealing all the headlines. Its even stolen the mantle WOW used to have about kids being mindless zombies on it.
    On UK TV/Media they are obsessed with it.

    BFA needs to take WOW to the next level of its journey only time will tell but right at this moment
    its got turkey worthy of Bernard Mathews written all over it
  1. Queen of Hamsters's Avatar
    And all those Blizzard haters whom are secretly high end Wall street stock brokers come crawling out...

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by oathy View Post
    and no matter how they pad around it
    fortnite is stealing all the headlines. Its even stolen the mantle WOW used to have about kids being mindless zombies on it.
    On UK TV/Media they are obsessed with it.
    Are you delusional for fun, or have you made it into a full-time occupation?

    Plenty of games have "stolen the mantle" when it comes to what kids play, LoL being one such game. The medium age of WoW players was always adults, even when the game was new.

    If you're going to doomspeak, at least do so by comparing WoW to that amazing new MMORPG that's stealing all of the headlines and putting WoW out of business... oh wait...

    I think Blizzard will be fine if they keep catering WoW towards MMORPG-players rather than attempting to draw peeps from MOBAs or Survival games...
  1. RobertoCarlos's Avatar
    "Preorders for the upcoming expansion, Battle for Azeroth, are ahead of plan."

    Looks like allied races were a "success"

    WoW community is so gross.....
  1. oathy's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by SensationalBanana View Post
    And all those Blizzard haters whom are secretly high end Wall street stock brokers come crawling out...

    - - - Updated - - -



    Are you delusional for fun, or have you made it into a full-time occupation?

    Plenty of games have "stolen the mantle" when it comes to what kids play, LoL being one such game. The medium age of WoW players was always adults, even when the game was new.

    If you're going to doomspeak, at least do so by comparing WoW to that amazing new MMORPG that's stealing all of the headlines and putting WoW out of business... oh wait...

    I think Blizzard will be fine if they keep catering WoW towards MMORPG-players rather than attempting to draw peeps from MOBAs or Survival games...
    This was a blizzard earning call. And seeing Overwatch is a direct competitor to fortnite (which is getting all the media attention)
    said in the 1st post only time will tell, but the last time an expansion was surrounded by so much negativity we all know how
    that turned out.

    they stopped giving out wow subscriber numbers because the community and various sites
    kept saying Wow was dead.

    but given they announced

    Activision Blizzard had 374 million Monthly Active Users in the quarter. This is down from 385 million last quarter
    down 11 million active users in a Quarter and im a doomsayer..
  1. Queen of Hamsters's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by oathy View Post
    This was a blizzard earning call. And seeing Overwatch is a direct competitor to fortnite (which is getting all the media attention)
    said in the 1st post only time will tell, but the last time an expansion was surrounded by so much negativity we all know how
    that turned out.

    We all know why they stopped giving out wow subscriber numbers because the community and various sites
    kept saying Wow was dead.

    but given they announced

    Activision Blizzard had 374 million Monthly Active Users in the quarter. This is down from 385 million last quarter
    down 11 million active users in a Quarter and im a doomsayer..
    If you think that it'll never turn in the opposite direction, then yes? I guess so?

    Same as how X people pretend that WoD's downward curve wasn't remedied by the release of a new expansion which literally did the exact opposite of WoD throughout its lifetime.
    Don't you worry, I'm sure they'll grow their MAU again with the release of various content for their games.
  1. aeuhe4yxzhds's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by RobertoCarlos View Post
    "Preorders for the upcoming expansion, Battle for Azeroth, are ahead of plan."

    Looks like allied races were a "success"

    WoW community is so gross.....
    Blizzard is so gross for trying to milk people
  1. KyleEverett's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by oathy View Post
    This was a blizzard earning call. And seeing Overwatch is a direct competitor to fortnite (which is getting all the media attention)
    said in the 1st post only time will tell, but the last time an expansion was surrounded by so much negativity we all know how
    that turned out.

    they stopped giving out wow subscriber numbers because the community and various sites
    kept saying Wow was dead.

    but given they announced

    Activision Blizzard had 374 million Monthly Active Users in the quarter. This is down from 385 million last quarter
    down 11 million active users in a Quarter and im a doomsayer..
    I'm willing to bet a bunch of those are disappointed Destiny 2 players.

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