Activision Earnings Call, Hearthstone Pop-Up Book, Mobile Titles for Blizzard IPs

WoW Classic Demo Extended to Monday

Pre-Release Is Back for Rastakhan’s Rumble - And Rowdier Than Ever!

AMA Starting, Orphea PTR Datamining, InvenGlobal Interviews

Activision Blizzard Q3 2018 Earnings Call
Activision Blizzard has their earnings call today.

  • Activision Blizzard had 345 million Monthly Active Users in the quarter.
  • Blizzard had 37 million MAU in the quarter. (Identical to last quarter)
  • World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth set a new day-one franchise record with more than 3.4 million units sold-through.
  • World of Warcraft engagement grew strongly quarter-over-quarter. The expansion saw strong participation in value-added services.
  • Next year will be World of Warcraft's 15th anniversary, with events both in and out of the game.
  • Hearthstone recently surpassed the 100 million life-to-date registered player milestone
  • Players spent a record 52 minutes per day in Activision, Blizzard, and King games in the quarter.
  • Viewership of Activision Blizzard games was up substantially this quarter, and in the month of October, Activision Blizzard had seven of the top 20 most viewed games on the industry’s largest streaming platform
  • BlizzCon drew over 40,000 fans in person with millions more livestreaming from around the world
  • Overwatch League continues to build on the success of its inaugural season with the announcement of the sale of another six teams in September, again at a substantially higher valuation than the team prices in the first season.
  • The total Overwatch League roster is now at 20 teams, with nine teams outside the U.S
  • Many top mobile games are based on IP originally created for console and PC, so the company is investing in mobile releases for Activision and Blizzard fanchises
  • Fan reaction was muted, but fan's reactions at BlizzCon confirmed Diablo Immortal will be well received by players around the world.
  • When the time is right, the team will reveal other Diablo projects in the works.
  • There are a lot of players that are eager for more Diablo content on PC and console, that came through clearly from BlizzCon.
  • Launching Diablo Immortal is only the beginning, there will be updates.
  • The team is only going to release when Diablo Immortal meets the community's high standards.
  • Taking a game to mobile with Blizzard quality standards can open Blizzard franchises to a new audience, especially in China where Blizzard is a strong brand.
  • It's important that Diablo Immortal is an excellent experience when released.


The Hearthstone Pop-Up Book Available on Amazon
The Hearthstone Pop-Up Book is now available for purchase on Amazon! This is a charming story told with the game's signature wit and whimsy, fully illustrated with center pops.




Developers Working on Mobile Titles Across All Blizzard IPs
In a recent press conference for Diablo: Immortal at Blizzcon, executive producer Allen Adham stated that mobile games for other Blizzard IPs are currently in development. Here is a recap of the specifics from the press conference. Wyatt Cheng is also part of the press conference.


  • Many of Blizzard's best developers are now working on new mobile titles across all of Blizzard's IPs.
  • Some of them are with external partners, like Diablo: Immortal; but many of them are being developed internally only, and they'll have information to share on those in the future.
  • Blizzard's approach to mobile gaming comes from many people over the last few years shifting away from playing primarily on desktop to playing many hours on mobile.
  • Allen says that they have more new products in development today at Blizzard than they've ever had before and the future is very bright.
  • Diablo: Immortal is being designed with the intent that people of all ages can play it, and will not be a mature rated game.
  • This is an opportunity to introduce Diablo to a much wider audience around the world.
  • NetEase has been a partner of Blizzard for awhile and this partnership happened organically. There are developers here and in China working on this title.
  • Diablo: Immortal being mobile was decided because the fidelity of mobile phones is getting to the level of being almost equivalent to PCs.
  • Wyatt says that most of the criticism comes from being skeptical of the game, but many who have played it on the show floor started skeptical but thought it was awesome.
  • Blizzard is always trying to innovate and this is just one of the ways they are experimenting with new genres.
  • They do emphasize that they are working on multiple Diablo projects and the hard-core PC fans should take note of this.


WoW Subreddit Developer Interview
The WoW subreddit also interviewed Ion Hazzikostas during Blizzcon.

  • Story
    • The major story arc for an expansion is planned out months to years in advance.
    • The Alliance will learn of Saurfang's escape from a Horde hero in their midst and try to understand how a prisoner escaped from under their nose.
    • There's more to creating a story than just listening to the community's perspective. Stories must have highs and lows then invoke different emotional responses from many different people in order to be meaningful and that means sometimes having frustrating moments which may be upsetting to some fans.
    • There has to be a balance between highs and lows in a story.
    • The PTR is when they’re more likely to take feedback from confused players and change things. Ultimately they feel that they need to trust creative impulses within the team and be story-focused, but they do listen to feedback.
  • Warfronts
    • The team admits that lack of clarification for how Warfronts cycle was not done well this caused a lot of confusion that can be addressed with better communication by Blizzard.
    • Warfront cycles were created to give more content that ebbs and flows based on player activities.
    • The new Warfront will have a rotating set of actual daily turn in quests while the contribution window is open. Different materials will be needed everyday rather than 13 things for you to do on day 1 and then zero for the rest of it.
    • The team wants to focus on smaller chunks of world content available more often over larger chunks that are only available every couple of weeks so that there feels like there is more to do.
  • Azerite Armor
    • With Azerite Armor, they hoped to have a system where players are always building toward a more interesting upgrade - making new decisions on a regular basis, but they some of these iterations in Battle for Azeroth haven't translated as well as they had hoped.
    • Having one spec trait to choose from and one generic trait was a major folly of the system upfront and they hope that the new second outer ring will address this by having several choices tailored to your spec to choose from right away.
    • The hope is that adding an additional ring of traits will lessen the sense that there’s only one Azerite piece that you have to have for a given situation. The new currency system for targeting specific high-iLevel Azerite pieces should also help with that.
    • They are still listening, still open to making changes as needed and hope that players trust that they care deeply about the matter and aren’t ignoring feedback because they think everything is fine.
  • World Quests
    • They admit that world quests have a lot of repetition and are looking for ways to address this, but the system as a whole is a much better one than past expansions where you only visited specific hubs in the world for daily quests after leveling to cap.
    • They’d like to make world quests more varied and engaging than just “find the closest rare elites and kill them” to complete an emissary.
    • Incursions are essentially world quests but are way more story driven and meaningful because they incorporate the war.
  • Professions
    • The team believes that the quest system for professions in Legion was too heavy based on feedback.
    • Later patches plan to add small quest content that tries to give importance to the professions that you have chosen.
  • Legendaries
    • The devs are open to having legendary items where it makes sense.
    • They want to avoid past experiences of having players get lucky and being 20% stronger than anyone else because of it, guilds having bad luck and getting no legendary drops, or stacking players because they have legendaries.
  • Guilds
    • A lot can be done for the improvement both on the recruitment side and from a player looking to find a guild. That is something they're working on and will have some improvements to roll out later on in Battle for Azeroth.
    • They want to make sure guild identity matters, but past iterations of buffs and level systems caused newer guilds to struggle to keep up, which limits the diversity of options.
  • Crucible of Storms
    • There will be a quest chain for both Horde and Alliance to explain the events leading to the raid. It will differ slightly based on faction.
  • Sanguicells
    • Enchanters will have new recipes that will actually convert Sanguicell into Expulsom for personal use.
    • A universal cooking recipe will allow you to use Sanguicell in place of rare fish for the highest level of raid feasts.
  • Emissary Rewards
    • The team switched from random rewards to specific ones so that players could decide if they wanted to do the cache for the day.
    • The rewards were recently increased to make it more worthwhile to players to complete emissaries.
    • In retrospect, Paragon reputation should have been in Battle for Azeroth since launch to keep world quests and reputation more relevant.
This article was originally published in forum thread: Activision Earnings Call, Hearthstone Pop-Up Book, Mobile Titles for Blizzard IPs started by chaud View original post
Published on 2018-11-08 09:14 PM
359 Comments
Comments 357 Comments
  1. mmoc20a281d1e5's Avatar
    +1 on many comments here. Not spending another bean on Blizzard games especially after reading this earnings call nonsense. They have lost a massive amount of subs and ultimately money over these decisions and PR bungles but if you take what they are saying at face value they simply do not care. They stand to make an absolute killing if D:Imm is even half as popular as the big mobile games of which some have reportedly earned up to $1.5m a day.
  1. mmoca2a0f519db's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by The Stormbringer View Post
    OMEGALUL

    They're not serious, right? The difference between a tiny phone screen and your PC monitor is massive.
    You realise some phones have spec equivilent to an I3 or I5 right?
  1. Evilmoo's Avatar
    Fan reaction was muted, but fan's reactions at BlizzCon confirmed Diablo Immortal will be well received by players around the world.
    Haha, what?
  1. Oblider's Avatar
    Can someone explain me all the data they gave to us in a non-biased way ? Even a tl;dr could help.
  1. Delaios's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by yesmilord View Post
    So the Weakauras twitter was mostly right, 3.2 million subs at the start so then the other part is also must be true, that it dropped to 1.7m.
    I'm proud to be among the 100 million HS players, although I played like 3 matches in my entire life and deleted it shortly after (same with HotS, also not a sub to Bfa anymore either)
    Fan reaction was muted but it was s success! Just like in a dictatorship.
    Did enough matches to get the Hearthsteed and uninstalled it afterwards.
  1. Evilmoo's Avatar
    Can someone explain me all the data they gave to us in a non-biased way ? Even a tl;dr could help.
    tl;dr we are counting irrelevant and obscure stats that are easily manipulated to create a semblance of positive PR and avoid a potential shitstorm from the customers.
  1. Kolvarg's Avatar
    There's so much salt in this thread I just got hypertension from reading it.
  1. Lurker1's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by yesmilord View Post
    So the Weakauras twitter was mostly right, 3.2 million subs at the start so then the other part is also must be true, that it dropped to 1.7m.
    I'm proud to be among the 100 million HS players, although I played like 3 matches in my entire life and deleted it shortly after (same with HotS, also not a sub to Bfa anymore either)
    Fan reaction was muted but it was s success! Just like in a dictatorship.
    Fake data is never right if it didn't came from blizzard then it's bollocks.
  1. mmocc297b43607's Avatar
    Mike Morhaine jumped ship at the perfect moment. With him gone, the Blizzard we know finally is gone too. WoW in maintenance mode, Diablo in mobile cash grab mode, nothing new on the horizion. Activision is milking the cow to death. It's over for Blizzard.
  1. mmoc79972df15a's Avatar
    Can't wait to learn about the events in Stormwind, the alliance capital city, from a Horde character. Likely even the one that escaped while also still not having a clue who those trolls were. The fidelity of mobile titles is also really good if you just look at the trailers of games. Too bad those games can't keep up and won't for a long time.

    Quote Originally Posted by Ultraxion View Post
    Dude, who the fuck plays mobile games regularly in the west?

    What, are we talking little kids who don't have a PC nor a console? Are talking about the times we get explosive diarheea and sit an hour on the toilet with nothing to do?

    I'm a huge gaming nerd and single, and between workplace and my own gaming PC, I literally don't have opportunity or reason to play on my mobile. Can't see how someone else that is busier than me, would.
    Kids while going to/from school, students in lectures, people in doctor waiting rooms, people that shun the "complexity" of computers ... there are lot of opportunities and reason to play on your mobile that just don't suite you. Which is fine, it's indeed a big market as you're reaching a lot of people that don't play on a PC or console. The barrier to entry is low because you get the game the same way you did get your cooking recipes. Whenever that's the demographic that's going to be attracted by DI is another story.

    Quote Originally Posted by tankbug View Post
    You know what the problem with your console and PC is? They are expensive, stationary and take up space. People need and want phones, and use them for everything, so they already have a "free" console built in already. The "home computer" is a thing of the past, except for a the gaming enthusiast, and that's why it's important to get good gaming onto the mobile devices.

    I can sit on the toilet with my phone for 10-15 minutes easily, having a nice, relaxing shit, reading something on my phone or playing on my Switch.
    So why are you not playing on your phone? In addition how many power banks are you carrying around to get enough runtime if you actually play 3D titles on your phone? The downside to phones is that they run on battery and higher end graphics require more power which lessens the runtime of a phone. As it's used for more than just gaming that also means people have to compromise on what they want to do and how much of their "energy budget" can be "wasted" on gaming.
  1. Lollis's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Ltdash View Post
    You realise some phones have spec equivilent to an I3 or I5 right?
    Top spec mobile cpus are pushing 2.8 to 3ghz. PCs are pushing past the 3.6+ range, seems similar but cpus are not just about clock speeds.

    Critically:

    The top spec mobile gpus are below 1000 gflops on around 700 mhz clocks.
    A standard GTX 1080 is just short of 9000 gflops on 1500 mhz clock.

    They are not comparable.
  1. Vilendor's Avatar
    I have to puke from people still defending this company. But at least as Blizzard keep stabbing them in the back and they run out of valid excuses their comments are turning into the funniest moronic shit i have ever seen in my life.
  1. apelsinjuice's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by tankbug View Post



    You know what the problem with your console and PC is? They are expensive, stationary and take up space. People need and want phones, and use them for everything, so they already have a "free" console built in already. The "home computer" is a thing of the past, except for a the gaming enthusiast, and that's why it's important to get good gaming onto the mobile devices.
    Consoles is not expensive compared to phones, ps4 cost like 300-400 and will last you for 5+ years of generation or so, meanwhile you buy the newest iphone or samsung or 900 dollars each year
  1. mmoceadec9b64f's Avatar
    Cant wait to install diablo on my oneplus 6t and you haters? go to hell cya!
  1. wishy's Avatar
    "Wyatt says that most of the criticism comes from being skeptical of the game, but many who have played it on the show floor started skeptical but thought it was awesome."
    That's a plain lie, many people who played it, including myself, didn't liked it al all... As a matter of fact, they started optimistic, but once they played, they really disliked it... screen too small, controls too clunky, no controller support, poor quality,.... mobile gaming sucks... PERIOD
  1. Daedius's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Vilendor View Post
    I have to puke from people still defending this company. But at least as Blizzard keep stabbing them in the back and they run out of valid excuses their comments are turning into the funniest moronic shit i have ever seen in my life.
    Prior to Legion I was one of those defenders of Blizzard... since then I became absolutely appalled with the direction Blizzard was heading, and this last Blizzcon and earnings call just shows everyone clearly what they became.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by apelsinjuice View Post
    Consoles is not expensive compared to phones, ps4 cost like 300-400 and will last you for 5+ years of generation or so, meanwhile you buy the newest iphone or samsung or 900 dollars each year
    Not to mention the updates that intentionally slow it done to encourage buying a new one, to which Apple and Samsung have been caught doing.
  1. Nargrom's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Mercadi View Post
    My guess is that the target audience gets their information about company's well-being from reports like these.
    But i mean you'd have to be blind to ignore the mayhem caused by blizzcon news. Basic google search exposes all the lies
  1. mmoc1e91e35c21's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Daedius View Post
    They're shitting on their long time fans for a new, albeit bigger, audience [China+]... all the while blatantly lying to their shareholders with a straight face that is beyond nauseating.
    they are company that runs on money, what do you expect? only cater to a niece group instead of expanding because a few people will whine when they don't get the diablo news they got? we waited 11 years between d2 and d3, you can afford to wait a bit more.
  1. meroko's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Skulltaker View Post
    And once I have expulsom with my enchanter, I do what with that, exactly?
    Make follower equipment. They sell for A BUNCH and are not restricted to a profession. Disenchanting Rod actually gives a lot of mats, and you can get Veiled Crystals in quantities back, sometimes. I got x20 once.
  1. Exeris's Avatar
    There are a lot of players that are eager for more Diablo content on PC and console, that came through clearly from BlizzCon.
    I hope so.
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