Why did they even have a Blizzcon this year?

[Deleted]

money

/10char

[Restors]

E-Sports are going to drive a Blizzcon every year from now on.

that actually make sense.

[Deleted]

It was all for the money.. Activision Blizzard only care about $$$...

[Vorkreist]

The thing that most will remember about this Blizzcon was the drama around the Diablo announcement.

And frankly, even with that drama, it still feels lackluster.

It will be remembered as the year of "DO YOU GUYS NOT HAVE PHONES?"

[Recom]

This Blizzcon was not done for the West players/fans, it was done for Asia players/fans and for shareholders.

Diablo Immortal is exactly the kind of P2W crap that China craves.
New hots hero, Orphea, is a tasteless generic anime character only created to appeal to the East.
Esport has a strong asian presence so it appeals to them a lot as well.

Time to move on folks, they don't really care about us anymore, we're a side product that they are willing to lose in need be so they can make more $.

[stevenho]

We have what they tell their investors, so unless you're making allegations that they're commiting fraud, we know that Blizzcon isn't run at a profit and is considered a marketing expense.

We do? I looked through their Q4 2017 report and did not find blizzcon mentioned there.
Can you provide the link to Blizzcon 2017 financials?

[Jessicka]

So what did I ‘expect’?

Overwatch, new hero we got. On top of this, some lore progress (Ashe actually gives us a retcon), a comic, a lootbox refresh (I have every grey and blue in the game, and most of everything else, including maxing out half a dozen heroes cosmetics). Maybe a look forward at some more game modes, competitive or otherwise, and details on the delayed social feature.

Diablo, an expansion or new character; maybe the Amazon or something brought in. I genuinely thought they’d shifted to DLC with the Necromancer, but that seems a one off.

StarCraft, something, anything to reinvigorate the franchise. It’s lost and forgotten at this point.

As for WoW I knew it wasn’t a WoW year and that’s fine, we had the detailed Q&A already.

[Deleted]

if it was just to get chris metzen to make an appearance, im all for it (expensive man tho <3 )

[Cosmic Janitor]

It will be remembered as the year of "DO YOU GUYS NOT HAVE PHONES?"

Nah, it will start the proud tradition of asking them in Q&A pannels if this is "an out of seasins april's fool" .

[Lochton]

They've skipped it before when they had nothing, and this year seems like it was one of those years. It's been very content light across all the franchises. No one would blame them if they did - there's enough precedent.

I'm glad I saved my £35 and didn't get a Virtual Ticket, and I genuinely feel sorry for those who spent the money; especially the more hardcore Diablo fans than I. But even as a WoW and Overwatch player, there doesn't seem to be anything major.

Edit: Also forgot they make StarCraft too, I think they forgot that as well.

Because they had news?

The only two things that made BlizzCon shit this year was Diablo Immortal, and the handling of VOD/Streaming.

But all other had news to bring.

[Bhanzai]

Apparently you didn't hear. There is this thing called e-sports and a lot of that was held at this years blizzcon. I know its not your thing, but that is irrelevant.

Also, money? Really? I think people overestimate how much money Blizzard makes from this. From somebody who has put on a couple of small comic book shows, it costs a lot just to do that. I can only imagine the staggering costs of putting on something as massive as Blizzcon. Did they make money? I assume so, but is the money they made worth all of the time and effort it took to run a Blizzcon, that I very much doubt. They would have probably made more money just sitting at home letting the subs and micro transactions roll in.


A lot of you are really entitled. Or clueless. Or both.

[Dekkers]

They had it for Classic WoW. Obviously.
Its going to be huge with a massive, active playerbase.

[crono14]

The ticket prices give me the feeling that the entire event is a huge net profit for Blizzard, so we're likely going to see more of these. Big flashy shows with little to no actual announcements to speak of to generate hype, and then a minor announcement or a teaser for a thing that's going to come in a year or so.

Eh I know some people that work for Blizzard and they have told me many times that Blizzard loses money each Blizzcon. A major reasons it's put on every year is:

1) Investors
2) E-Sports
3) Mike wanted it every year for the fans

They are not making their money back in ticket prices. I can't prove this, but it's what I am told by people I know that work there.

[Raetary]

To announce
Bfa patch 8.1.5 to 8.2.5
The new diablo game
The overwatch short and hero
The hots content
The hearthstone expansion
The wow classic info and the wc3 remaster

[hyphnos]

Because they probably sold enough virtual tickets on the Classic demo alone to equal the revenue of box sales of a lot of smaller games.

Also, because it's a fucking giant commercial and almost every large company in the tech field has some sort of annual hype event to get a bunch of free press about their products.

[Hadriker]

They've skipped it before when they had nothing, and this year seems like it was one of those years. It's been very content light across all the franchises. No one would blame them if they did - there's enough precedent.

I'm glad I saved my £35 and didn't get a Virtual Ticket, and I genuinely feel sorry for those who spent the money; especially the more hardcore Diablo fans than I. But even as a WoW and Overwatch player, there doesn't seem to be anything major.

Edit: Also forgot they make StarCraft too, I think they forgot that as well.

I think E-sports was a big part of it. I doubt they will ever skip it again just due to that reason. I really enjoyed watching the OW World Cup this year.

[Onikaroshi]

Apparently you didn't hear. There is this thing called e-sports and a lot of that was held at this years blizzcon. I know its not your thing, but that is irrelevant.

Also, money? Really? I think people overestimate how much money Blizzard makes from this. From somebody who has put on a couple of small comic book shows, it costs a lot just to do that. I can only imagine the staggering costs of putting on something as massive as Blizzcon. Did they make money? I assume so, but is the money they made worth all of the time and effort it took to run a Blizzcon, that I very much doubt. They would have probably made more money just sitting at home letting the subs and micro transactions roll in.


A lot of you are really entitled. Or clueless. Or both.

They also apparently increased security this year, and that shit is EXPENSIVE (probably why the raise in cost of the VT)

[Onikaroshi]

I think E-sports was a big part of it. I doubt they will ever skip it again just due to that reason. I really enjoyed watching the OW World Cup this year.

I honestly enjoyed the small panels that you really don't get to see without the ticket, because most people don't care, the technical panels are always awesome.

[HuxNeva]

Imagine the forums if they would not have had a Blizzcon this year:

DEAD GAMES!
COWARDS DO NOT EVEN DARE SHOW THEMSELVES!
PROOF THAT WE ARE JUST CA$HCOW$ FOR THEM NOW!
CHEAPSKATES!

- - - Updated - - -

It will be remembered as the year of "DO YOU GUYS NOT HAVE PHONES?"

"Two thumbs should be enough for everybody"

[Lulbalance]

It was all for the money.. Activision Blizzard only care about $$$...

I don't disagree but..irony.