New Activision/Blizzard's financial tactics?

[Nellise]

Activision-Blizzard is doing better than expected: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/08/acti...s-q4-2017.html

The 4th quarter loss as someone else noted is because of the changes to the tax law, has nothing to do with how well the company is actually doing. From their 4th quarter press release:

For the year ended December 31, 2017, Activision Blizzard recognized approximately $1.04 per share in incremental GAAP expense due to the impact of significant discrete tax‐related items, primarily related to the impact of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act enacted in December 2017. GAAP earnings per diluted share were $0.36, which would have been a record $1.39 when adjusted to exclude significant discrete tax‐related items...

[McFuu]

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.

Gaming has never been cheaper...
You should have tried the 90s when the Panasonic CDi was $1500 equivalent to today, I bought Golden Eye for $90 from ToysRUs because popular games price gouged.
Now statistically gaming is the cheapest thing you can do, consoles cost fuckall in today's market, and games are $60 still. The economic crisis massively pushed gaming, it's by far the cheapest media format behind Radio and Basic Cable.

[pateuvasiliu]

Gaming has never been cheaper...
You should have tried the 90s when the Panasonic CDi was $1500 equivalent to today, I bought Golden Eye for $90 from ToysRUs because popular games price gouged.
Now statistically gaming is the cheapest thing you can do, consoles cost fuckall in today's market, and games are $60 still. The economic crisis massively pushed gaming, it's by far the cheapest media format behind Radio and Basic Cable.

A PS4 pro is ~500$ in our shops. I assure you you can find far cheaper hobbies.

And that's without the 60$ games and the TV. ( and you'll want a good TV )

[Queen of Hamsters]

Isn't cutting into profits some quarters something that all companies do when they expand their business/invests?

So an A/B source is good enough for you to claim that "doing as well as they were years ago.", but the SAME source is not good enough to prove you wrong, got you.

Why is it so hard for people to accept that WoW is doing fine, despite them not liking the game anymore? The world doesn't revolve around you, you know? A lot of projecting going on.

We need not worry, Classic WoW (released with critical bug fixes and integrated to current systems) will save us all, and it'll save WoW's status as a billion-dollar revenue franchise too!!!!!!11111

[McFuu]

A PS4 pro is ~500$ in our shops. I assure you you can find far cheaper hobbies.

And that's without the 60$ games and the TV. ( and you'll want a good TV )

But you don't need a good TV, and you don't need a PS4 pro, you can get a used PS4 for like $150, and a $40 used game for a new title that came out a month ago, or just play old titles that are $5. You don't even need a PS4, you can get a PS3, or a PS2, etc... And one game provides potentially 100s of hours of game play for a whole family if necessary.

It's not as if this is a revolutionary idea, a quick google search will bring back tons of hits of the strength of the games industry through the recession. Many articles refer to video-games as recession proof, much like booze and gambling. Articles refer to it as high value for time vs money invested.

Could you buy shovels and dig holes instead, sure that would be cheaper, this isn't to say there aren't "cheaper" hobbies.

[Brubear]

Yeah because the game became more mainstream.

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On December 20, 2017, it was confirmed that the game had generated over $1 billion in revenue, making it the highest-grossing console game of the year in North America.[45] As of January 1st, 2018, Call of Duty: WWII reached 20.7 million players over all platforms, 12.1 million players on PlayStation 4, 7.8 million players on Xbox One, and 825,000 players on Steam.[46]


20+ mil players vs WoW's sub 5?

So bad.

Dude, you need to take a basic accounting and basic stats course. I'm going to highlight some things from your post.

CoD: WWII total: 20.7 mil
WoW total: Sure, we'll go with your guess of around 5 mil.

Now, here's the problem with your numbers. WoW is a PC-only game. So,
CoD:WWII PC-only: 825,000
WoW PC-only: around 5 million.

Do you see the problem with the point you were trying to make using the numbers you did?

It's like saying the entire lineup of Toyota trucks, cars, and SUVs are more popular than the Honda Civic. Of course a companies entire lineup of cars is likely more popular than one single type of car that another company produces, if it weren't then it would mean the other company is either a highly exclusive car manufacturer or going out of business. You're comparing something that is available on 1 platform to something that is available on 3 different platforms (and isn't even close to being as popular on the same platform as the thing you're comparing it to).

[Skroe]

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.

Things were clearly getting bad when they created the MAU work-of-fiction number.

[LMuhlen]

Dude, you need to take a basic accounting and basic stats course. I'm going to highlight some things from your post.

CoD: WWII total: 20.7 mil
WoW total: Sure, we'll go with your guess of around 5 mil.

Now, here's the problem with your numbers. WoW is a PC-only game. So,
CoD:WWII PC-only: 825,000
WoW PC-only: around 5 million.

Do you see the problem with the point you were trying to make using the numbers you did?

It's like saying the entire lineup of Toyota trucks, cars, and SUVs are more popular than the Honda Civic. Of course a companies entire lineup of cars is likely more popular than one single type of car that another company produces, if it weren't then it would mean the other company is either a highly exclusive car manufacturer or going out of business. You're comparing something that is available on 1 platform to something that is available on 3 different platforms (and isn't even close to being as popular on the same platform as the thing you're comparing it to).

Your analogy would make more sense if you picked a brand that only has 1 line of cars. WoW is PC only, so it is in that regard a weaker game. If you are considering the importance to a company between two lines of games, the one with more revenue, which is probably the one with more clients, which is probably the one spread over more plataforms, is more important. We aren't talking about which PC game is stronger. Do you prefer having Honda Civic profits or the entire lineup of Toyota?

[tankbug]

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.

Gaming has never been cheaper, you mean? It ranges from free, like mobile games for a phone you need anyway, to spend a fortune on expensive PC hardware, games and micro-transactions. When I was a kid, you had to buy a computer or dedicated gaming console, and the games were the same price as they are today, so if you account for inflation, they were really expensive.

[Daedius]

Make things an absolute tedium, and consider it player retention while the ignorant mass don't cope on they're being played for idiots all the while remaining foolishly faithful.

[pateuvasiliu]

Gaming has never been cheaper, you mean? It ranges from free, like mobile games for a phone you need anyway, to spend a fortune on expensive PC hardware, games and micro-transactions. When I was a kid, you had to buy a computer or dedicated gaming console, and the games were the same price as they are today, so if you account for inflation, they were really expensive.

Mobile games aren't gaming.

[ManiaCCC]

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

Just check their job posting for once and maybe you will understand where the loss is coming from.

They are heavily investing into multiple games. They have several new games in production for all platforms including mobile phones. They are working AT LEAST on two bigger projects (new Diablo game and some FPS game) and multiple expansions for existing one. Also, it seems they created new RTS team ...or at least Team from RTS veterans..so finger crossed for Warcraft 4 :P . This seems to be a first time in blizzard history, when they decided "let's go really wide this time".

[tankbug]

Make things an absolute tedium, and consider it player retention while the ignorant mass don't cope on they're being played for idiots all the while remaining foolishly faithful.

You think people are bored as hell, but keep playing so they don't have to betray Blizzard? I cannot say I agree with your conclusion.

[pateuvasiliu]

Dude, you need to take a basic accounting and basic stats course. I'm going to highlight some things from your post.

CoD: WWII total: 20.7 mil
WoW total: Sure, we'll go with your guess of around 5 mil.

Now, here's the problem with your numbers. WoW is a PC-only game. So,
CoD:WWII PC-only: 825,000
WoW PC-only: around 5 million.

Do you see the problem with the point you were trying to make using the numbers you did?

It's like saying the entire lineup of Toyota trucks, cars, and SUVs are more popular than the Honda Civic. Of course a companies entire lineup of cars is likely more popular than one single type of car that another company produces, if it weren't then it would mean the other company is either a highly exclusive car manufacturer or going out of business. You're comparing something that is available on 1 platform to something that is available on 3 different platforms (and isn't even close to being as popular on the same platform as the thing you're comparing it to).

What's your point? I was making a point that linking Activision-Blizzard's revenue isn't proof of WoW doing well because WoW isn't the only product they have.

[tankbug]

Mobile games aren't gaming.

Sure they are. They are very popular too, and it's a huge industry.
At any rate, you can play really good, cheap games on a very moderate pc.

[Niwes]

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. exactly.

[Logwyn]

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.

You also could play it on a toaster. My friends and I were going to get back into an MMO. The two choices at the time were WOW and Everquest 2. Most of us couldn't meet the minium requirements to play Everquest 2 at the time but could for WOW. So wow it was for us.

[SirBeef]

Blizzard is losing their epic touch sadly.
There is 0 Blizzard games that can make me feel hyped to log in anymore.
They ruined them all :/

I'm quite the opposite. I find their games more fun than ever. HotS 2.0 brought in a needed freshness to it and the more recent changes were much needed IMO. WoW has never been better in terms of being fun and respecting my time. D3, while in a lull now while the next game is being developed, brought me more fun than the the first two entries ever did. HS is still fun, I love the dungeon run idea, hope the expand upon that big time. OW is pretty fun even if it takes forever to find matches for competitive.

[Niwes]

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.

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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.

ofc you ate right here, with first part. and you already show your own counter argument as false. as you say: if wow was crap (like its today) they never had reached the point, where they could start selling shit as gold. but the reason why this is so, is exactly the reason what kills them slowly over years. ppl are not to stupid to realize, that their money is more invested in good marketing than in quality and in a good game. and then they stop buying. simple as that. the only thing is, it takes some time. its the same, as not buying wow classic if marketing had been good but game had been shit. and thats what manabomb said.

or in short: the only thing blizz will be killed of, is their own greed. by driving the „invest lowest money/effort possible, while making most possible profit.“ route harder and harder.

[Aggrophobic]

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.

The digital entertainment industry is still doing great though.
People having "nothing better to do" hardly explains Blizzards success with WoW.