New Activision/Blizzard's financial tactics?

[Primohastat]

It seems that a well doing company Activision/Blizzard reported pretty big income loss in the last quarter.

http://www.statista.com/statistics/2...me-by-quarter/

With all the financial tricks they did back in 2009-2012 to lower company value and then buy back shares from Vivendi, do you think it is possible that they plan to make another stock stunt? Or maybe they found a way to pull some "Hollywood accounting" style actions to hide their income and let some employees go?

I mean you can have a bad quarter, but this spike looks too damn fishy

[Lochton]

Well, the dip could be a ripple from said time, as well as a ripple from the King purchase? They basically reported 585 mill loss in a same quarter where they reported a 2 billion gain.

[pateuvasiliu]

Overwatch was a boom and then it started to die down, Heroes of the Storm is dying, Starcraft/Diablo are basically dead franchises and WoW is so low on subs they won't tell us the numbers and they're relaunching Vanilla to get them back.

It's pretty obvious they're not doing as well as they were years ago.

[Evangeliste]

Overwatch was a boom and then it started to die down, Heroes of the Storm is dying, Starcraft/Diablo are basically dead franchises and WoW is so low on subs they won't tell us the numbers and they're relaunching Vanilla to get them back.

It's pretty obvious they're not doing as well as they were years ago.

Because years ago a global recession forced millions to stay indoors and why the gaming industry literally fucking boomed it balls off. I dunno if you were old enough to feel those effects especially with money, jobs and how 18-24 globally were screwed out of wages the most. The perfect audience to literally eat up all these games, consoles and silly purchases of entertainment. With shit like Netflix and more, no wonder people are elbowing the lifestyle. I personally, grew up on gaming but sometimes I really just wanna sit down and live in the real world. It's not uncommon either.

Blizzard are still making billions profit from all these apparently dying games and the losses are probably from the amount of investing they are doing to make more games. Blizzard posted for jobs for Diablo not long ago. A new expansion is coming out in WoW. New heroes in Heroes of the Storm. It's all gotta be speculated to be accumulated. Ok? You can't make new stuff, employ people and shit without spending. If they were that broke and in arrears or worrying the fuck out, they wouldn't be making new games, posting for jobs and like. They'd be selling assets but the fact is, they're cleaning out old employees who take too much money and replacing them with 3 lower people. More work. Or mixing it up because shit is getting stale and want to make more money with fresh ideas.

Even then, if you've not noticed, the entirety of the gaming industry is changing... Every factor is coming into play, like potential new gambling laws to fuck up gaming industry profits as clearly they are making way too much it's concerning. From people wanting to spend money elsewhere, the gaming industry on both sides getting way expensive, interest waning and so on. It happens. Like everything.

I doubt Blizzard are going to go anywhere soon. They make far too much profit to even consider crying over it. Fuck it could even be them trying to be dodgy fucks and keep more money by claiming losses. It's not the first and won't be the last either.

[Uurdz]

It seems that a well doing company Activision/Blizzard reported pretty big income loss in the last quarter.

http://www.statista.com/statistics/2...me-by-quarter/

With all the financial tricks they did back in 2009-2012 to lower company value and then buy back shares from Vivendi, do you think it is possible that they plan to make another stock stunt? Or maybe they found a way to pull some "Hollywood accounting" style actions to hide their income and let some employees go?

I mean you can have a bad quarter, but this spike looks too damn fishy

This spike is almost certainly going to be financial 'trickery'

[pateuvasiliu]

Because years ago a global recession forced millions to stay indoors and why the gaming industry literally fucking boomed it balls off. I dunno if you were old enough to feel those effects especially with money, jobs and how 18-24 globally were screwed out of wages the most. The perfect audience to literally eat up all these games, consoles and silly purchases of entertainment. With shit like Netflix and more, no wonder people are elbowing the lifestyle. I personally, grew up on gaming but sometimes I really just wanna sit down and live in the real world. It's not uncommon either.

Blizzard are still making billions profit from all these apparently dying games and the losses are probably from the amount of investing they are doing to make more games. Blzizard posted for jobs for Diablo not long ago. A new expansion is coming out in WoW. New heroes in Heroes of the Storm. It's all gotta be speculated to be accumulated. Ok?

Even then, if you've not noticed, the entirety of the gaming industry is changing... Every factor is coming into play, like potential new gambling laws to fuck up gaming industry profits as clearly they are making way too much it's concerning. From people wanting to spend money elsewhere, the gaming industry on both sides getting way expensive, interest waning and so on. It happens. Like everything.

I doubt Blizzard are going to go anywhere soon. They make far too much profit to even consider crying over it. Fuck it could even be them trying to be dodgy fucks and keep more money by claiming losses. It's not the first and won't be the last either.

Gaming has never been more expensive and even during the economic crisis it was still an expensive hobby.

Lol had no money to go out? A walk in the park, a sport, playing music, watching TV/movies, photography, video/image editing all of those are hobbies that are far cheaper than gaming.

Of course they put out new expansions for WoW and heroes for HOTS, they still want money out of them. Doesn't change the fact that they're making far less.

[Evangeliste]

Gaming has never been more expensive and even during the economic crisis it was still an expensive hobby.

Lol had no money to go out? A walk in the park, a sport, playing music, watching TV/movies, photography, video/image editing all of those are hobbies that are far cheaper than gaming.

Of course they put out new expansions for WoW and heroes for HOTS, they still want money out of them. Doesn't change the fact that they're making far less.

During the economic crisis.. 12 million people subbed to World of Warcraft. For like fuck all money you had hours upon hours of gameplay. That was a common thing. Back then also consoles and games weren't as expensive too - you look at what money was given say in benefits here, it's not changed much in between 7 years. They money slowly going up and what you're saying is evident you've really not noticed that in 2010 a PS3 was like there. An offical controller for it was here £40. In 2017 with PS4 it costs £52. Its the same damn thing really. Let's not be picky here.

And yes when you're unemployed and no money and need to do shit... Now evaluate what you just said. Yeah, not everyone has those same interests to go out and walk in the park. Let's be realistic here. In winter are you going to go randomly for a walk? Not everywhere is sunny and awesome weather? As for watching TV. You need to pay for a license here to broadcast live TV, if not you have to pay for connection to channels, if not then internet, if not own said movies because you can't stream or download. Also where do they get these programs? Buy them? Download them using the pc they bought, the internet they pay for?
It sounds like you live with your parents who pay for it instead. Some people actually don't live with parents and pay shit for themselves. Not everyone has things given to them wholly. There's 100 of families if not more who have much different values and quality, quantity to pay for things. There's a lot of factors but you clearly miss the fact that... shit costs money. In a global recession every penny was precious and not spent randomly. Min/maxing irl yo.

See a pattern?

You should really check those figures then claiming they "make less money". It's a typical thing to say "OH MY GOD, I knew it, they're failing!" Yet been trading for 25+ years.

[Manabomb]

Because years ago a global recession forced millions to stay indoors and why the gaming industry literally fucking boomed it balls off. I dunno if you were old enough to feel those effects especially with money, jobs and how 18-24 globally were screwed out of wages the most. The perfect audience to literally eat up all these games, consoles and silly purchases of entertainment. With shit like Netflix and more, no wonder people are elbowing the lifestyle. I personally, grew up on gaming but sometimes I really just wanna sit down and live in the real world. It's not uncommon either.

Blizzard are still making billions profit from all these apparently dying games and the losses are probably from the amount of investing they are doing to make more games. Blzizard posted for jobs for Diablo not long ago. A new expansion is coming out in WoW. New heroes in Heroes of the Storm. It's all gotta be speculated to be accumulated. Ok?

Even then, if you've not noticed, the entirety of the gaming industry is changing... Every factor is coming into play, like potential new gambling laws to fuck up gaming industry profits as clearly they are making way too much it's concerning. From people wanting to spend money elsewhere, the gaming industry on both sides getting way expensive, interest waning and so on. It happens. Like everything.

I doubt Blizzard are going to go anywhere soon. They make far too much profit to even consider crying over it. Fuck it could even be them trying to be dodgy fucks and keep more money by claiming losses. It's not the first and won't be the last either.

Their profits are from whales and consumers unable to rate a quality product. If you look anywhere else in AAA gaming you see the same artistic pinings as post-post modern art: Where games that are hardly games are becoming insanely popular because of their novelty and how outside the norm they are.

AAA gaming has become formulaic. Their citations of college psych papers and the need to make games feel "rewarding" while attaching a dollar amount to that grind is absolutely unforgivable. They've become an institution that fundamentally cares more about marketing their product to as many faces as possible than actually fine tuning that product into something acceptable to the average video game consumer willing to discern quality.

When the whales finally figure out that what they are paying for is not quality, but in fact quantity. When those that were never affected by that recession realize their money isn't being well spent, they will change just like the rest of us had to.

[pateuvasiliu]

Their profits are from whales and consumers unable to rate a quality product. If you look anywhere else in AAA gaming you see the same artistic pinings as post-post modern art: Where games that are hardly games are becoming insanely popular because of their novelty and how outside the norm they are.

AAA gaming has become formulaic. Their citations of college psych papers and the need to make games feel "rewarding" while attaching a dollar amount to that grind is absolutely unforgivable. They've become an institution that fundamentally cares more about marketing their product to as many faces as possible than actually fine tuning that product into something acceptable to the average video game consumer willing to discern quality.

When the whales finally figure out that what they are paying for is not quality, but in fact quantity. When those that were never affected by that recession realize their money isn't being well spent, they will change just like the rest of us had to.

This applies to any business and you're naive as fuck if you think Blizzard did better games 10 years ago out of the kindness of their heart.

Vanilla-Wotlk WoW was great because they had to establish themselves as the dominant force in the genre. If WoW was crap from the start ( like it is today ) it wouldn't have taken off and become to giant it still is today. I mean, it's the only MMO that never took off subs and it still has millions playing.

- - - Updated - - -

Lots of subjective conjecture here

Just common sense, if their subs were doing good they wouldn't have stopped announcing them.

Playing cross realm also shows they're doing back. Back in the day you didn't need to merge servers, because the servers were full and you could always find people to party with.

[Manabomb]

This applies to any business and you're naive as fuck if you think Blizzard did better games 10 years ago out of the kindness of their heart.

Vanilla-Wotlk WoW was great because they had to establish themselves as the dominant force in the genre. If WoW was crap from the start ( like it is today ) it wouldn't have taken off and become to giant it still is today. I mean, it's the only MMO that never took off subs and it still has millions playing.

Vanilla WoW was a shitty game, though. Quality-wise it was the buggiest, worst launch of any game Blizzard has had. The only reason it became super popular is because they marketed it well enough.

And that's my point. Sitting there and acting like video game companies can do whatever they want because quality is 'subjective' is asinine as fuck. If they can put a dollar amount to any grind, I will put a dollar amount to the dog shit they publish and it certainly isn't 15$/month and 50$ biannually.

Learn to fucking discern quality and come back to me about the economic process and how people do shit 'from the good of their heart'. No, people do shit to be the best. Blizzard should start acting like it.

[Evangeliste]

Their profits are from whales and consumers unable to rate a quality product. If you look anywhere else in AAA gaming you see the same artistic pinings as post-post modern art: Where games that are hardly games are becoming insanely popular because of their novelty and how outside the norm they are.

AAA gaming has become formulaic. Their citations of college psych papers and the need to make games feel "rewarding" while attaching a dollar amount to that grind is absolutely unforgivable. They've become an institution that fundamentally cares more about marketing their product to as many faces as possible than actually fine tuning that product into something acceptable to the average video game consumer willing to discern quality.

When the whales finally figure out that what they are paying for is not quality, but in fact quantity. When those that were never affected by that recession realize their money isn't being well spent, they will change just like the rest of us had to.

This to me speaks how much the industry has changed or to a degree, or being such shames bastards to say "hey! we got your money for nothing really". I think honestly people are starting to get wise at least to some of these companies (ahem... EA to which I am slightly glad Microsoft want to buy them out...) and their wise-crack games they think they're making. Just some of the other companies whop actually put in time and effort which to most people's opinion, Blizzard is one who does apparently fuck all yet magically, the assets they do make in their games are viewed as pretentious bullshit. I personally, at least respect their input and time which will be an unpopular opinion but I studied game design, it's not exactly wonderful place to be and why I boycotted the industry myself to work in. But it's much better than some.

I mean you can see from these remasters to which I am shamelessly apart of the screaming crowd when I saw Spyro remaster on it's way shows that really people want value for money. Or at least be told a story that they can be a part of. But I mean I'd rather buy £30 for like 3 games I spent £75 on at the time and enjoy some quality shit of progression then say... I dunno, couldn't give an example of quality dung.

[Manabomb]

This to me speaks how much the industry has changed or to a degree, or being such shames bastards to say "hey! we got your money for nothing really". I think honestly people are starting to get wise at least to some of these companies (ahem... EA to which I am slightly glad Microsoft want to buy them out...) and their wise-crack games they think they're making. Just some of the other companies whop actually put in time and effort which to most people's opinion, Blizzard is one who does apparently fuck all yet magically, the assets they do make in their games are viewed as pretentious bullshit.

I mean you can see from these remasters to which I am shamelessly apart of the screaming crowd when I saw Spyro remaster on it's way shows that really people want value for money. Or at least be told a story that they can be a part of. But I mean I'd rather buy £30 for like 3 games I spent £75 on at the time and enjoy some quality shit of progression then say... I dunno, couldn't give an example of quality dung.

And that's exactly my point. I have Squenix fanbois regurgitating FF7 remake like its a gift from god and I'm sitting here like "It's the same exact game you played years ago. Great. You're getting charged 50$ box price. You're an idiot."

You want to see quality dung? It's the dung that dung beetles get to attract mates. Always go to the experts first.

[Evangeliste]

And that's exactly my point. I have Squenix fanbois regurgitating FF7 remake like its a gift from god and I'm sitting here like "It's the same exact game you played years ago. Great. You're getting charged 50$ box price. You're an idiot."

See, I am one of those fanboys. Shamelessly but for me, I see it as a like an opportunity to give the game a real platform and justification as it was really limited with the console it showed on at the time and technology too considering later FF games did show off a lot. I mean PS1 was like fucking hell, such a cockblock for a game of that size and limitations would be there as much as say putting I dunno, <input an awesome game> on like a gameboy.

I mean I'm not a full retard and buy the special edition stuff, that I've never bought into at all and know that is just simply money making.

EDIT: The only thing I will say is, the hype for FF7 really shows that people want story and actually lots of hours gameplay that simply isn't rinse and repeat to extent the game like nowadays with OMG IT'S A NEW DIFFICULTY, to play the entire game again. Which really sucks.
I hope in a way it's a lesson learned that really people want their money worthwhile spent on progression than repetitive crap to an extent.

[Manabomb]

See, I am one of those fanboys. Shamelessly but for me, I see it as a like an opportunity to give the game a real platform and justification as it was really limited with the console it showed on at the time and technology too considering later FF games did show off a lot. I mean PS1 was like fucking hell, such a cockblock for a game of that size and limitations would be there as much as say putting I dunno, <input an awesome game> on like a gameboy.

I mean I'm not a full retard and buy the special edition stuff, that I've never bought into at all and know that is just simply money making.

EDIT: The only thing I will say is, the hype for FF7 really shows that people want story and actually lots of hours gameplay that simply isn't rinse and repeat to extent the game like nowadays with OMG IT'S A NEW DIFFICULTY, to play the entire game again. Which really sucks.
I hope in a way it's a lesson learned that really people want their money worthwhile spent on progression than repetitive crap to an extent.

Oh I fully well and agree with you that the dopamine addict focus on video gaming needs to die, because all it focuses on is the short term addiction psychology they got papers on. It doesn't factor in dopamine resistance or player psych retention. You could say that once a player becomes aware that they are within a skinner's box scenario, it fundamentally changes the intended psychology of the game.

There is a need for a quality -experience-. It's not necessarily story, it isn't necessarily gameplay. It's a combination of everything that makes the game: Something some AAA developers have forgotten behind mindlessly expanding their art department and claiming everything they shit out of Blender needs to have a dollar amount put to it.

That is sort of the problem with capitalism in general. It doesn't breed the best: It allows the loudest mediocre to flourish.

[pateuvasiliu]

Vanilla WoW was a shitty game, though. Quality-wise it was the buggiest, worst launch of any game Blizzard has had. The only reason it became super popular is because they marketed it well enough.

And that's my point. Sitting there and acting like video game companies can do whatever they want because quality is 'subjective' is asinine as fuck. If they can put a dollar amount to any grind, I will put a dollar amount to the dog shit they publish and it certainly isn't 15$/month and 50$ biannually.

Learn to fucking discern quality and come back to me about the economic process and how people do shit 'from the good of their heart'. No, people do shit to be the best. Blizzard should start acting like it.

Vanilla WoW was one of the best games ever made. You're entitled to your wrong opinion.

[Manabomb]

Vanilla WoW was one of the best games ever made. You're entitled to your wrong opinion.

Ahh so you're one of those guys.

Friend, buddy, pal. Vanilla WoW was shit, it only ever got 3 million subs before TBC launch and even then WoW didn't pick up until WoW:China launched. That's where TBC got its 7 million sub rush if you actually pay attention to history.

Keep being delusional about the history of this game, though. I love being told something is great when it was objectively a steaming pile of horse dung a beetle wouldn't use to attract the same sex hardly worth the code it was written in.

Also the epic one liner not responding to any of my other points seemingly looking to bait me into a subjective battle over the quality of Vanilla:
NOICE B8 M8

[Evangeliste]

Oh I fully well and agree with you that the dopamine addict focus on video gaming needs to die, because all it focuses on is the short term addiction psychology they got papers on. It doesn't factor in dopamine resistance or player psych retention. You could say that once a player becomes aware that they are within a skinner's box scenario, it fundamentally changes the intended psychology of the game.

There is a need for a quality -experience-. It's not necessarily story, it isn't necessarily gameplay. It's a combination of everything that makes the game: Something some AAA developers have forgotten behind mindlessly expanding their art department and claiming everything they shit out of Blender needs to have a dollar amount put to it.

That is sort of the problem with capitalism in general. It doesn't breed the best: It allows the mediocre to flourish.

I think the problem is partly, they prey on people that actually have no experience or idea on the world in a sense that they haven't matured, ignorant and so on which sounds so condescending but I mean it that the world hasn't given them shit to make them go "what the fuck am I doing?!". Or at least part of them go... Well, I'd rather eat for 3 weeks then buy this game.

Also on graphics, fuck that's a notion I've held onto with the whole graphics being the major pull to games and why in a way I applaud Blizzard for sticking to this whole cartoon-y, whatever style but updated it. I mean tons of MMO's with realistic animation, artwork, models and so just shows how unrealistic it is for both parties that it's a useless endeavour. It's actually generally why I avoid games that literally market their "awesome graphics" because I know it's basically crap. I've boycotted a fair, few games because of it really and though they may be masterpieces, I just check them out on Youtube or someshit and get it that way.
I think it also helps that I make art for a living, I know when shit is being shamelessly produced, or at least you can see there is virtually no soul in it or if there is, it's drained to shit when it comes to the actual 3D bastion and shoved into marketing.

But I agree, it should be a combination and before, with shitty graphics, it was all about gameplay and seeing Crash remake, my god, I think how the FUCK did I manage to complete these games in my delicate youth? Though I admit it was the black dot for a shadow tha helped and with the new version, it went and my way to do it went !

[pateuvasiliu]

Ahh so you're one of those guys.

Friend, buddy, pal. Vanilla WoW was shit, it only ever got 3 million subs before TBC launch and even then WoW didn't pick up until WoW:China launched. That's where TBC got its 7 million sub rush if you actually pay attention to history.

Keep being delusional about the history of this game, though. I love being told something is great when it was objectively a steaming pile of horse dung a beetle wouldn't use to attract the same sex hardly worth the code it was written in.

Lol, Vanilla WoW had 7.5 M subs.

Your opinion isn't only wrong, it's also uneducated.

it was objectively a steaming pile of horse dung

Over 10 million people and plenty game critics would disagree with you.

[Evangeliste]

Lol, Vanilla WoW had 7.5 M subs.

Your opinion isn't only wrong, it's also uneducated.

Yes, but is that because of TBC announcement?

This is sourced from the site you're typing on:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6F6ZZdFhUw
The announcement was made in 2005. And I am betting from then on out, people were gaining more momentum. Notice a pattern? Toward the end of every expansion and those hyped for, get more subs and it spikes.

[pateuvasiliu]

Yes, but is that because of TBC announcement?

This is sourced from the site you're typing on:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6F6ZZdFhUw
The announcement was made in 2005. And I am betting from then on out, people were gaining more momentum. Notice a pattern? Toward the end of every expansion and those hyped for, get more subs and it spikes.

Or, you know, because the game was getting better.

He is factually wrong, whereas what we are debating here are subjective ideas.