Why did they even have a Blizzcon this year?

[Molis]

How dare a company try to make money!

[Onikaroshi]

I don't disagree but..irony.

They're going to drop in the short term, it's the long term that investors look at.

[Danvash]

Well, Ana, Brigitte, Orisa, Doomfist and Wrecking Ball were all announced outside of Blizzcon. That's more than Sombra, Moira and Ashe who were.

A whole WoW expansion was announced outside of Blizzcon, think it was Cataclysm, or might have been MoP; hard to remember so far back. I mean, there's your flagship not needing a Blizzcon, kinda tempers the point about other franchises. Reaper of Souls was also outside of Blizzcon.

Legion was the only expansion first announced outside of Blizzcon.

[Spotnick]

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.

You guys are funny.. I have high doubts Blizzcon is even profitable, this is a huge marketing event where people are actually paying for advertisement on products, but you have to consider the venue, the payroll, the goodies, the bands, and everything they have to pay, this is probably breaking even at best because the goal here is not to make money but to sell the brand, and it's a gigantic pr stunt.

This dates from 2009, but it gives you an idea..

http://www.mtv.com/news/2459899/bliz...-for-blizzard/

And from 2011

https://www.fastcompany.com/1789731/...gh-huge-events

[Beerbill Society]

-New Overwatch Character
-New Hearthstone expansion
-Talking about new WoW content patch featuring new races, character model updates, and new raid tiers
-New HotS content
-New Diablo game (regardless of whether you liked it or not)
-Warcraft 3 remastered
-New cinematics for every one of those franchises

That get released almost every 3 months now.
That get released almost every 6 months now.
WoW content patch that is sitting on PTR and is so old right now that players know more about it than the devs.
Do anyone really care about HotS?
New Diablo cashgrab game that nobody asked for
The only good thing they had to show and is basically a remaster, just go to E3 or any other convention to show it.
Cinematics that are released frequently and are expected from Blizzard at this point.

They didn't need a Blizzcon just a forum post, but they can't make money of it, can they?

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Legion was the only expansion first announced outside of Blizzcon.

Pandaria was too, they didn't made a Blizzcon that year.

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I don't disagree but..irony.

I hope charging those tickets for Blizzcon are worth it, because for me looks like a bad deal.

[lummiuster]

-New Overwatch Character
-New Hearthstone expansion
-Talking about new WoW content patch featuring new races, character model updates, and new raid tiers
-New HotS content
-New Diablo game (regardless of whether you liked it or not)
-Warcraft 3 remastered
-New cinematics for every one of those franchises

Seriously. whoever opened this thread is nuts.

[Kaleredar]

That get released almost every 3 months now.
That get released almost every 6 months now.
WoW content patch that is sitting on PTR and is so old right now that players know more about it than the devs.
Do anyone really care about HotS?
New Diablo cashgrab game that nobody asked for
The only good thing they had to show and is basically a remaster, just go to E3 or any other convention to show it.
Cinematics that are released frequently and are expected from Blizzard at this point.

Except all of those things are things they DO announce at blizzcon. And all of them are ready to be announced now.

E3 isn't until June of 2019 and blizzard does not normally attend. PAX west and Gamescom aren't until August. Hell, even the soonest gaming convention that blizzard has a precedent for attending, PAX east, is six months from now, when all of these things will have been released.

They don't have game conventions every month, you know. At least not the caliber that blizzard would attend and announce things at.

They didn't need a Blizzcon just a forum post, but they can't make money of it, can they?

As I stated, cinematics, new games, new heroes, new expansions and new patches are all par the course for blizzcon.

pandaria was too, they didn't made a Blizzcon that year.

MoP was announced at blizzcon 2011.

I hope charging those tickets for Blizzcon are worth it, because for me looks like a bad deal.

I doubt that stockholders in activision-blizzard give a single fuck about whether a piece of the fan base for a single one of their IPs liked or disliked the announcement of an upcoming oroject.

[rhuulum]

Pandaria was too, they didn't made a Blizzcon that year.

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Just make stuff up as you go. How the world is today it seems and that is why we need to vote.

Check out blizzcon opening ceremony 2011 when Chris Metzen announced it on stage. I was about 15 rows back, don't try and tell me it didn't happen.

[sam86]

Blizzard was partnered with Activision WHILE under Vivendi; then Activision and Blizzard bought themselves out from Viviendi and remained a joint company.

how much did activision own in blizz stocks ? saying that activision was partner with blizz is like saying i'm partner with vodafone because i own a single stock market
if i remember right activision didn't hold anything significant at all, they went full takeover over blizzard

[Kazuchika]

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'm honestly wondering what justified the bump in the Virtual Ticket price after seeing the absolute nothing Blizzcon basically was this year

[chiddie]

Maybe it would better be a subject for a separate thread but... D4? Seriously? Unless they are on with something “a little” revolutionary behind the curtains, what could add D4 to D3 apart from story going on, better graphics and a new set of skills for the classes? Competitors are in stale too, the only thing that make someone see PoE as the messiah is that absurd “hardcore” skill tree (and we all know Blizzard will never come up with a monstrousity like that).

[Beerbill Society]

Just make stuff up as you go. How the world is today it seems and that is why we need to vote.

Check out blizzcon opening ceremony 2011 when Chris Metzen announced it on stage. I was about 15 rows back, don't try and tell me it didn't happen.

Just a honest mistake.

Sorry didn't realize they announced Panda land prior to 2012.

https://www.wowhead.com/news=199959/no-blizzcon-in-2012

I remember too well they hosted a small event about it and that we haven't had Blizzcon that year, so it was about the release and not the announcement.

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Except all of those things are things they DO announce at blizzcon. And all of them are ready to be announced now.

E3 isn't until June of 2019 and blizzard does not normally attend. PAX west and Gamescom aren't until August. Hell, even the soonest gaming convention that blizzard has a precedent for attending, PAX east, is six months from now, when all of these things will have been released.

They don't have game conventions every month, you know. At least not the caliber that blizzard would attend and announce things at.

They don't have anything concrete to show for, War3 reforged is the only thing and they don't even have a release date, waiting six months probably wouldn't hurt.

As I stated, cinematics, new games, new heroes, new expansions and new patches are all par the course for blizzcon.

Many people here disagree, I for one I'm glad I didn't bother to get a VT otherwise I would be ape shit crazy.

Not saying the announcements we're bad, just lackluster for Blizzard standards. When the highlight of your event are remasters you should consider if your company is still relevant.

MoP was announced at blizzcon 2011.

Yeah sorry, honest mistake. They skip 2012, the event I meant was Pandaria release.

Doubt that stockholders in activision-blizzard give a single fuck about whether a piece of the fan base for a single one of their IPs liked or disliked the announcement of an upcoming oroject.

Looks like they care enough to drop it 6% with a steady drop over the weeks.

Not saying it's because of what Blizzard have show on their convention, but surely the backlash it received is helping.

[Goldielocks]

The only real reason Blizzcon should exist is for game announcements. Real game announcements. Not stuff that can be released so easily. WoW and Diablo expansions should be reserved for Blizzcon, but everything else Blizzard hypes up for other games during this time have been done outside of them. Overwatch characters get announced every three months, and Hearthstone expansions get announced regularly as well (6 months?).

This year was mostly a resounding dissapointment. They didn't bring anything Blizzcon worthy to the table. They could have with Diablo 4 but the dev team chickened out and didn't want to commit to a reveal. The only interesting information was on a remake of a game that's very old.

[crono14]

Blizzard doesn't make money from Blizzcon

This is a marketing event and a convention for fans. Even though this article is old, I've been told by some Blizz employees I know and they confirm the same.

[Kazuchika]

Blizzard doesn't make money from Blizzcon

This is a marketing event and a convention for fans. Even though this article is old, I've been told by some Blizz employees I know and they confirm the same.

Yeah I mean my dad works for Nintendo and he told me Blizzard doesn't make any money from it too

Bullshit.

[crono14]

Yeah I mean my dad works for Nintendo and he told me Blizzard doesn't make any money from it too

Bullshit.

You can believe whatever you want, they will never release financials, but it's pretty well known they don't make money from this. It's for marketing/fans.

[Triceron]

https://kotaku.com/sources-blizzard-...bli-1830232246

this explains a lot.

[MikeBogina]

If you're a WoW fan, there's usually no reason for there to be a Blizzcon for even years, like how there was no Blizzcon in 2012. The Expansion announcement is usually a year ahead with the Blizzcon that happens close to launch having little excitement about it.

But then the other games usually get some announcements aswell. Diablo was a huge disappointment, Starcraft I forget even existed, HotS,Hearthstone and Overwatch didn't have any major announcements worth having an event for and Warcrafts announcements was Warcraft 3 remastered and info on a patch...

Blizzcon 2018 was extremely lackluster, but I'm sure next year will be better(Even if it was just the expansion announcement)

[Xykotic]

Its money, its PR (irregardless if its a bad or good blizzcon) and it would be strange for them not have their annual event. I don't think you can fathom the backlash situation we'd have if Blizzard essentially came out as having no new announcements and nothing going on, so we're just gonna cancel Blizzcon this year.

Its a bad Blizzcon (relatively speaking), it happens. I reckon the next one will be better. Based on current trends I'm thinking there's a possibility of 3 main series titles or expansions on the next one, but perhaps that's being optimistic.

[SirCowdog]

I see this as largely a hey there is this Chinese market that would love this game and lets try to market this to the NA and EU for additional revenue.

I expect this game to overall do well on just the Chinese market and for Blizzard to call it a success. Media wise the world has been seeing a shift in normally NA and even EU based groups factoring Asia preferences as a factor in the decision making.

As I said in another thread, then sell the game in Asia. Sure, maybe make it available in the EU and NA markets as well, but don't try to present it as the next big thing. This game had no place in Blizzcon. It should honestly have never even made it to the western market at all.

It SHOULD have gone the same way as Warcraft Adventures, Starcraft Ghost: Into the garbage.