What happened that Blizzard became so out of touch with their playerbase?

[petrusdavi]

Out of touch? I'll tell you why they are out of touch with some of you, in my opinion. Most of the playerbase that went to Blizzcon is comprised of old-school gamers. The new generation of players out there is different, they aren't hardcore console buying people, and the tendency is for the mobile market to increase even more. Consoles and PC will still have their place, but Blizzard needs to adapt. What do we keep seeing on this forum? People that played wow for ages, many on burnout from it, and it won't matter what they create or attempt, it's never going to please those players (just look at the Vanilla threads, some people are actually wanting for them to not shard it so they have to compete with thousands more for the same 1-2 mobs and one of them wanted the server's instability to be there, lol. It just illustrates that it's impossible to please them). They need to see they are stuck in the past. I'm not saying Blizzard doesn't make mistakes, that's not it. But c'mon guys, why would they announce the new Diablo game on a small God-knows-where convention? Blizzcon is a place that's supposed to be ours, where they can come and say "hey guys, these are our plans, we want you, our most ancient and loyal players, to get the first peek at it. Let's enjoy it together, even if you aren't going to play it". It's alright to criticize, nobody forbids you from it, but to bash the company? That's completely disproportionate. They aren't asking for your permission to do it (after all, it's not like they are developing it for you, the player that thinks that Blizzard is "failling"). The new players out there that they are trying to catch are much more volatile and don't come to this forum to whine about mobiles, but instead are playing and doing other stuff now while you live in the past. It's really sad to read some topics and see the same people complaining about the every single thing, while the guys that try to be positive get bashed or called a "blind loyalist". Let's try to cheer for Blizzard, guys. It has been delivering good games over so many years for us. If you grew tired of it, just go on and move on to different things.

[davesurfer]

All of blizzard aside from the HOTS and maybe starcraft teams are out of touch. they have been for a very long time.

The new overwatch Character looked pretty cool

[Nyel]

I know the video's about Diablo, but the Warcraft team is just out of touch. We just get death by a thousand cuts instead of World of Warcraft: Immortal.

The video perfectly describes EVERY Blizzard game honestly. It's not just about Diablo, WoW, SC and others are in the same dire state.

For me Blizzard at the moment lacks one crucial thing: soul. Okay, heart and soul. I don't feel their passion and engagement anymore. Everything just feels like routine (in a bad way) and this is definitely nothing Blizzard should stick to. I want the great developers back they once were.

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Lol, Nyel is so desperate to find something to whine about WoW right now, that he took Diablo stuff, put it in WoW general forum and pretend it somehow applies to everything.

Everybody with functioning brain cells sees the issues of BfA, I don't need to make up other topics and try to "look for" problems when they're in game almost everywhere. So thanks for spitting that hate again because how dares somebody criticizing WoW or Blizzard for being blatantly bad at the moment.

[neocount]

Why? Simple - lots of money in mobile gaming. Desktop gaming is going the way of the dinosaurs. Sad, but there it is.

I keep seeing this, and I think statistics support the idea that mobile gaming is popular given how many people have games on their phones. What this does not address, however, is technical capability and quality. At least right now, cell phones cannot compete with the graphics and rendering power of modern desktop computers. I can't speak for all gamers here, but mobile games feel like a step back - and while they may be pushing the limits of what a cellphone game can do, it's not as impressive as when something like Red Dead Redemption 2 is released.

[Nyel]

I keep seeing this, and I think statistics support the idea that mobile gaming is popular given how many people have games on their phones. What this does not address, however, is technical capability and quality. At least right now, cell phones cannot compete with the graphics and rendering power of modern desktop computers. I can't speak for all gamers here, but mobile games feel like a step back - and while they may be pushing the limits of what a cellphone game can do, it's not as impressive as when something like Red Dead Redemption 2 is released.

I totally agree that mobile games are a gigantic market. No doubt about that. But you just can't reduce one of your biggest IP to a mobile game when the franchise already has been in a very bad state. And then you build up some hype and all of that stuff because you, as a huge developer, committed yourself to a f* mobile game? It's just hilarious and totally out of touch.

[Mixxy]

You know what's extra baffling?

This exact same thing happened just earlier this very same year with the new Command and Conquer game announcement. The one that turned out to be a mobile spinoff. Did Blizzard just not see how that went?

"There's no way we could've seen this coming!" It literally already happened once before. Fucking hell.

[fengosa]

I think there's a case to be made that the player base are the ones loosing touch. Every 13 year old with a cell phone is a potential new Diablo player.

[RuneDK]

Activision happened....

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I think there's a case to be made that the player base are the ones loosing touch. Every 13 year old with a cell phone is a potential new Diablo player.

The problem is they hyped everyone up saying that we have numerous Diablo projects in the works and we'll release information later this year(assumed Blizzcon by pretty much everyone) a few months ago. Then the highlight of this Blizzcon is a Diablo mobile game.....that sounds pretty out of touch with your current fanbase...nobody would complain if they announced this and D4 at the same time with a short video of D4(doesn't even need to have gameplay just a teaser trailer).

[RoKPaNda]

We got old. They cater to the younger generation now.

[Cathululock]

Gosh, people are so entitled.

I don't think that word means what you think it means.

Discussing the fact that a game company is out of touch with it's fans is not entitlement. Entitlement would be if he felt it was too expensive or he needed it for free. Frankly, I usually disagree with Gehco on . . . everything . . . but this travesty is making strange bed fellows.

[Deleted]

We got old. They cater to the younger generation now.

But the younger generation isnt playing mobile games either, they are playing lol and fortnite. They are catering the chinese and indian market, wich in itself is completly fine, but announcing to your western pc-gamer audience that your doing that is ...unfortunate to say the least.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

I don't think they have any contrasting voices on the dev team mostly. Not Yesmen persay, just nobody in there saying "maybe the players wouldn't like this."

[Coombs]

Take video games out of the equation, take quality out, and lets just ask a numbers question. If you could invest 300 million dollars for 1 billion dollars, or if you could invest 50 million and make 2 billion what would you do?

That's what gaming has turned into, and as sour as I am about it I can't blame them. Cut me a check for 10 million dollars and I'll manipulate, stand on stage and take the ire of fans, and do whatever it takes to make a cheap but commercially successful product. That is the price of my soul, and that has happened to game designers. Do you think any of the people who started Blizzard thought they would be wealthy enough to retire at 40, and live well on top of that? Gaming going mainstream was the worst thing to happen to the genre of entertainment. There is absolutely no reason to make a detailed game with a 150% return on investment when you can make Hearthstone on mobile, press cruise control, and make 1000% return on investment.

The only hope anyone has is for that mother fucker who won 1 billion dollars a week ago is a gamer and decides to make an epic as fuck game without having to listen to any investors.

[Niwes]

Take video games out of the equation, take quality out, and lets just ask a numbers question. If you could invest 300 million dollars for 1 billion dollars, or if you could invest 50 million and make 2 billion what would you do?

That's what gaming has turned into, and as sour as I am about it I can't blame them. Cut me a check for 10 million dollars and I'll manipulate, stand on stage and take the ire of fans, and do whatever it takes to make a cheap but commercially successful product. That is the price of my soul, and that has happened to game designers. Do you think any of the people who started Blizzard thought they would be wealthy enough to retire at 40, and live well on top of that? Gaming going mainstream was the worst thing to happen to the genre of entertainment. There is absolutely no reason to make a detailed game with a 150% return on investment when you can make Hearthstone on mobile, press cruise control, and make 1000% return on investment.

The only hope anyone has is for that mother fucker who won 1 billion dollars a week ago is a gamer and decides to make an epic as fuck game without having to listen to any investors.

this is as real and true as a good fuck. sad but true, agree to 101%. exactly this is reality.

[oldgeezer]

I keep seeing this, and I think statistics support the idea that mobile gaming is popular given how many people have games on their phones. What this does not address, however, is technical capability and quality. At least right now, cell phones cannot compete with the graphics and rendering power of modern desktop computers. I can't speak for all gamers here, but mobile games feel like a step back - and while they may be pushing the limits of what a cellphone game can do, it's not as impressive as when something like Red Dead Redemption 2 is released.

I agree that desktop systems have the potential to surpass mobile devices, and certainly the dedicated PC gamer rig leaves the competition in the dust. But most people -i.e. the sort of people who don't hang out on this forum - have mediocre computers and rather better phones/tablets (often very much so if they have a recent iOS device). That's a great market to tap into. I also very much doubt that Blizzard are abandoning Diablo on the desktop. We've just got to be patient.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Take video games out of the equation, take quality out, and lets just ask a numbers question. If you could invest 300 million dollars for 1 billion dollars, or if you could invest 50 million and make 2 billion what would you do?

That's what gaming has turned into, and as sour as I am about it I can't blame them. Cut me a check for 10 million dollars and I'll manipulate, stand on stage and take the ire of fans, and do whatever it takes to make a cheap but commercially successful product. That is the price of my soul, and that has happened to game designers. Do you think any of the people who started Blizzard thought they would be wealthy enough to retire at 40, and live well on top of that? Gaming going mainstream was the worst thing to happen to the genre of entertainment. There is absolutely no reason to make a detailed game with a 150% return on investment when you can make Hearthstone on mobile, press cruise control, and make 1000% return on investment.

The only hope anyone has is for that mother fucker who won 1 billion dollars a week ago is a gamer and decides to make an epic as fuck game without having to listen to any investors.

Business is about money. It's the cold fact you learn in any Business 101-level class. Spend the least, get the most.

Who is Blizzard to say no to a Chinese company coming up and saying "We want to reskin our mobile game using Diablo, and release it in the West. We'll do all the hard development and cut you a portion of the profits?"





On a tangentially-related note, gaming has developed a wonderful little Catch 22 regarding the negative criticism they get, too. Namely, they set themselves up in a situation where players negative feedback can be safely ignored, because in the end they still get their money.

Let's step outside Blizzard for a moment and talk about Rockstar Games. Terrible company, has been for years. Turned GTA Online into a microtransaction-inflated hell for new players, let's cheaters blow people up from miles away and rain money upon their corpse, and bans users who have video proof they did nothing and threatens legal action if they try to get their account unbanned (had a friend who suffered that one). They crunch their employees to hell and back, too. Everyone said "If you want Rockstar to change, don't buy RDR2." What did everyone do? They all went out and bought RDR2 and made it a hit, justifying the way Rockstar behaves.

It's the "EA Loophole" as I call it. Because EA is famous for pulling off one of the most brazen forms of this. They overwork and overpromise for their subsidiary studios, inserting every little money drain they can think of, and the players know it. BUT, they also know what EA does with games that flop, even if it's not due to the game or the creators but due to EA's own policies. A studio flops once, EA shutters the place and puts their IPs on ice, sometimes for good. So what do people do? They go out and buy the EA games and pay the nickle and dimes so their beloved IP can live another day.

Now taking this back to WoW, Blizzard does the same exact thing. Except instead of putting the gun to Team 2's head, they're putting it to your's. See all these situations have one thing in common, "if you don't like it, just don't buy it." But in WoW there's this thing called the Official Forums, which are the primary (and in most cases only) way to provide feedback. If you want to provide feedback and improve the game, you have to stay subbed, which means their profits stay up, their sub numbers rise, and the dev team says "See? People must love what we're doing!" But if you "execute the hostage" and cancel your sub, now you can't provide feedback. So they see the sub number go down, but don't see the feedback on what's wrong, and say "Well it must just be the natural ebb and flow of sub numbers."

[Deleted]

Blizzcon's tagline is "Welcome Home" (as seen on screen just before the opening ceremony)

NOT "Welcome, newblood"

They can take their phones and stick them right well up in there.

[Deleted]

Maybe this happened?

"What happens when a company has the monopoly of the market" by Steve Jobs

[Nyel]

Honestly, look at Diablo 3 Switch port. That's absolutely amazing "mobile Diablo" done right. It's just the best version of the game and you can play it anywhere.

A "cellphone" Diablo will always be a watered down, poorer version of the original product. Will it make money? Sure. But it will greatly damage the IP because of Blizzard's sheer ignorance.

[Hawthorne Wipes]

Thing is, you got a crowd of people who are fans of one of your oldest games, which has been receiving lackluster (if any) news and progress for years, only to told them that their game has become the Blizzard's next attempt into the mobile industry.
Of course they are pissed, specially when that game will not have PC support.
Blizz needed one of their games to be the "mobile game" and Diablo was the sacrifice. The problem is not the game itself, but rather the fact that Diablo fans have been waiting so fking long for something, be it Diablo II remastered, Diablo IV.. whatever, and what they got is a chinese mobile game reskin.