Activision keeps blizzard's name clean.

[Vilendor]

OP is correct, but that's just how the fanboys work. They always have an excuse for their idol, no matter how stupid it is. Luckily we got assraped so hard this year on Blizzcon that people started to wake up.

And that's a good thing. Not because i want to see Blizzard fail, but the opposite, because there is a tiny chance they will cut back the corporate bullshit if we resist.

But honestly i don't think it's possible. They grew to big and their stockholder overlords took control, there is no way back.

The only thing there is left for the fanboys is to realize, that instead idolizing the corporate called Blizzard we should idolizing its founders, the people who made it to what it is (was)

[XangXu]

They are a company that wants to make money. The developers don’t play pc or console games any more, they play “mobile” games because they are getting old.

[Krille]

Something I've noted with blizzard: Ever since they merged with Activision, they have never done a single thing wrong. Not a single thing. According to the fans at least. Any time blizzard does good: go you blizzard, you're the best. Anytime something bad happens? That's just mean ol' activision forcing them to do bad things, poor blizzard, won't somebody save them :<

It's why I feel that blizzard is still seen, more so than other major AAA game developers, as still a good quality place full of the same caliber of people that originally made it. They have not taken part in any of the greed nor distanced themselves from their player base, oh no, that was all activision forcing blizzard to do what they didn't want to do. It's happening now with the mobile gaming stuff: Its all activision doing it. A blizz game has a shitty dev who seem to have an open disdain for fans? They're just some shill activision put there. Blizzard ignoring their fanbase? No, that's activision making them ignore their fanbase. Blizzard following industry wide trends of the AAA gaming industry? Real blizzard wouldnt do that! It's all activision!

They can do no true wrong so long as ol' man activision is there making them do terrible things.

I did a similar post about this few days ago, but never a thread, kudos for making it.

I see a lot of confused people in this thread, mostly people that don't understand corporate structure and/or people that don't understand that there can be separate entities within "one company". The sole reason they merged was to avoid being bought out by big publishers like EA, because they were scared their game-developing integrity would be hurt in doing so. Now you might argue Blizzard ruined their own integrity along the way regardless.

So they joined forces and created one stockholding company for the sake of being bigger than both Activision and Blizzard was on their own, they bought out shares from Vivendi who later on sold most of their remaining shares. But Blizzard and Activision are two different companies, with their own CEOs with their own developing team making their own decisions on what to develop. But both companies also look at what will yield most profit for them and what they're comfortable doing. Activision might not make mobile games because they don't have any good title for it. Blizzard has a big Action-RPG IP, perfect for mobile games, so they make one and are actively hiring people to do more mobile games, because they see this as the best business decision for themselves.

Blizzard showed their greedy face when they released WoW, paying 15 euros for a namechange anyone, that's half an expansion for changing your name. And it's been like that since they first introduced it in 2000 something, long before Activision was even in the picture. I see people blaming Kotick for everything bad that happens, what kind of Superman do you think he is? Running two huge companies and micro-managing everything? It's a ridiculous thought. Blizzard has one CEO and then game directors for each IP, those are the people making the "important" decisions for us gamers, not even the CEO.

As long as Blizzard is making money, nothing will happen. The biggest thing that will happen is that JJ Allen Brack will get replaced as CEO if things starts going the wrong way, cus the CEO is responsible for macro-managing the company, the overall structure and development.

So yes, you can have two different companies within one, it's quite common in the gaming world. Activision and Blizzards only pressure from anywhere is making profit, that's the "downside" of being a big company. You have lots of stockholders to make happy. Blizzard makes decisions themselves on what they think is going to yield the most profit. To me it sounds like some of you guys think Blizzard has 0% shares in ATVI, which certainly isn't the case.

Look up corporate structure and sister/daughter companies or any other organization-theory study. Blame Blizzard for the bad decisions Blizzard makes, not the Activision boogieman/scapegoat.

[Roar-Powah]

this is the part that always confuses me.

you have activision, you have blizzard, you have king, and then you have activision-blizzard. does blizzard report to anyone? who?

Not hard to see who is who in the scheme of things. CEO of Activision Blizzard is? This is the man in charge of all of Activision Blizzard, he has the power to make any change and it's the "president" of Blizzard job to report to the CEO. Activision make the calls, pull the strings and if people are too silly to see that well we're all doomed.

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The biggest thing that will happen is that JJ Allen Brack will get replaced as CEO if things starts going the wrong way, cus the CEO is responsible for macro-managing the company.

One CEO and that is bobby from Activision Blizzard, J. is the president of Blizzard and that is it. You need to understand corporate structures.

CEO
Board of Directors
President
etc etc

[Armourboy]

I did a similar post about this few days ago, but never a thread, kudos for making it.

I see a lot of confused people in this thread, mostly people that don't understand corporate structure and/or people that don't understand that there can be separate entities within "one company". The sole reason they merged was to avoid being bought out by big publishers like EA, because they were scared their game-developing integrity would be hurt in doing so. Now you might argue Blizzard ruined their own integrity along the way regardless.

So they joined forces and created one stockholding company for the sake of being bigger than both Activision and Blizzard was on their own, they bought out shares from Vivendi who later on sold most of their remaining shares. But Blizzard and Activision are two different companies, with their own CEOs with their own developing team making their own decisions on what to develop. But both companies also look at what will yield most profit for them and what they're comfortable doing. Activision might not make mobile games because they don't have any good title for it. Blizzard has a big Action-RPG IP, perfect for mobile games, so they make one and are actively hiring people to do more mobile games, because they see this as the best business decision for themselves.

Blizzard showed their greedy face when they released WoW, paying 15 euros for a namechange anyone, that's half an expansion for changing your name. And it's been like that since they first introduced it in 2000 something, long before Activision was even in the picture. I see people blaming Kotick for everything bad that happens, what kind of Superman do you think he is? Running two huge companies and micro-managing everything? It's a ridiculous thought. Blizzard has one CEO and then game directors for each IP, those are the people making the "important" decisions for us gamers, not even the CEO.

As long as Blizzard is making money, nothing will happen. The biggest thing that will happen is that JJ Allen Brack will get replaced as CEO if things starts going the wrong way, cus the CEO is responsible for macro-managing the company, the overall structure and development.

So yes, you can have two different companies within one, it's quite common in the gaming world. Activision and Blizzards only pressure from anywhere is making profit, that's the "downside" of being a big company. You have lots of stockholders to make happy. Blizzard makes decisions themselves on what they think is going to yield the most profit. To me it sounds like some of you guys think Blizzard has 0% shares in ATVI, which certainly isn't the case.

Look up corporate structure and sister/daughter companies or any other organization-theory study. Blame Blizzard for the bad decisions Blizzard makes, not the Activision boogieman/scapegoat.

While you are correct generally speaking whoever the largest shareholder is eventually works their people into leading roles in the company and while they may be separate entities on paper, it eventually degrades into a single unit. Been through it with several large corporations in the past.

Now with Morhaime staying in charge of Blizzard and being the original guy he may have tamed that a bit and did what he wanted, but with him stepping down as well as several others over the years, you will start seeing the CEO of the overall company inserting his guys.

I'm sure on a macro level being the CEO is an Activision guy they have some influence on how Blizzard has monetized things, but we all know Blizzard has been trying to figure out how to monetize several of their IP's long before Activision came into the picture. Some have been more successful than others, but this idea that Blizzard as a gaming company has been some angel or something has been something they have been able to use as cover for some pretty greedy things over the years. I think that's slowly degraded now that the originals are all but mostly gone, but there will probably always be some that use Activision as wool so they can blindly overlook things.

[Frostone]

Nah, Activision greedy touch is really getting bigger and bigger. When Destiny and COD hit Blizzard App. launcher it was clear that Blizzard no longer plays along with Activision but getting really under them.

[Kallisto]

It all started when Mike Morhaime sold out. Blame him for everything because that is when things started going sour. He took his money and quite recently "ran". I am curious how much stock he sold BEFORE the Blizzcon announcement.

When did Morhaime sell out? Because Blizzard hasn't been independent since early 1994. Before Warcraft, before Starcraft, before anything that wasn't Lost Vikins and their two racing games (RPM Racing and Rock n Racing). Since then they have been wholly owned by other companies.

1994-1998 Davidson and Associates
1996-2013 Vivendi (1996 Vivendi took control of Davidson and Associates meaning they were true owners, these guys make activision look like a charity)
2013 - Activision Blizzard.

Meaning that basically it was up to others to throw around the Blizzard company ownership

[Flutterguy]

I like how OP is being proven correct in this very thread.

[La]

Blizzard fans are some of the most blind fanboys of any game company you will find, anyone will tell you that. If you find someone who doesn't know anything about Blizzard, and one of their friends starts talking about all these things people blame on Activision, you'll quickly realize how blind they are from a fresh perspective.

I mean, Blizzard have been doing this kind of stuff for a while now, but people only bring up Diablo Immortal, as if this is the only thing Blizzard has ever done like this. Lol. Well, I guess people like a scapegoat

[Dekkers]

Blizzards reputation is dogshit now.

[Seranthor]

I like how OP is being proven correct in this very thread.

I'm not sure which fanbase you or OP have been talking to. Everything I dislike about Blizzard I blame squarely on Blizzard. Everything I like about Blizzard I credit squarely on Blizzard. I neither blame or credit Activision with anything. Not everyone thinks the same way, its pretty impossible to find a situation like that in a group as large as Blizzard's fan base.

[Archmage Alodi]

Activision used to make good games before merging with blizzard, just saying.

[Cosmic Janitor]

I think after the last week it has at least become apparent that the old blizzard no longer exists. This won't be something that they can make up any time soon, even if the sentiment of "blizzard can do no wrong" will persist among the uneducated for a while longer, the evidence is out there and from now on it will crumble slowly unless they change course 100%, and we all know they won't.

[Deficineiron]

I see a lot of confused people in this thread, mostly people that don't understand corporate structure and/or people that don't understand that there can be separate entities within "one company". The sole reason they merged was to avoid being bought out by big publishers like EA, because they were scared their game-developing integrity would be hurt in doing so. Now you might argue Blizzard ruined their own integrity along the way regardless.

Ok, so what was EA going to buy out of they hadn't merged? I am not clear on who was protecting themselves.

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Not hard to see who is who in the scheme of things. CEO of Activision Blizzard is? This is the man in charge of all of Activision Blizzard, he has the power to make any change and it's the "president" of Blizzard job to report to the CEO. Activision make the calls, pull the strings and if people are too silly to see that well we're all doomed.

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One CEO and that is bobby from Activision Blizzard, J. is the president of Blizzard and that is it. You need to understand corporate structures.

CEO
Board of Directors
President
etc etc

yeah sorry, I posted a leading question to see how absurd the answers got. This forum is an echo chamber of 'kotick's team would never say a word to blizzard about anything' despite wow itself having been almost half the combined co's revenue in late 2008!! the opposite is true and I would argue kotick & team had a fiduciary obligation to ride herd on the big picture decisions at blizzard rather that just sort-of have this rogue division doing whatever, spending whatever, turning in whatever money it wanted. The idea of this being said on a conf. call is so illegal it is laughable.

The idea that the merger had the slightest impact on any decision ever at blizzard is something vehemently resisted here.

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When did Morhaime sell out? Because Blizzard hasn't been independent since early 1994. Before Warcraft, before Starcraft, before anything that wasn't Lost Vikins and their two racing games (RPM Racing and Rock n Racing). Since then they have been wholly owned by other companies.

1994-1998 Davidson and Associates
1996-2013 Vivendi (1996 Vivendi took control of Davidson and Associates meaning they were true owners, these guys make activision look like a charity)
2013 - Activision Blizzard.

Meaning that basically it was up to others to throw around the Blizzard company ownership

false. 2008-present - activision blizzard. vivendi was a majority holder (with limitations) of activision-blizzard, but blizzard was no longer on the vivendi books.

[shadowmatrix]

After the DI debacle, I'm not sure that Blizzard's name is THAT clean anymore. They've shown their true colours, they have no qualms in being as scummy as EA.

You clearly don't pay much attention to gaming news if you believe that. Oh wait you must have the whole lootboxes are evil argument stuck in your head, all I'll say is follow the timeline and see what game broke the straw.

[Kallisto]

Ok, so what was EA going to buy out of they hadn't merged? I am not clear on who was protecting themselves.

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yeah sorry, I posted a leading question to see how absurd the answers got. This forum is an echo chamber of 'kotick's team would never say a word to blizzard about anything' despite wow itself having been almost half the combined co's revenue in late 2008!! the opposite is true and I would argue kotick & team had a fiduciary obligation to ride herd on the big picture decisions at blizzard rather that just sort-of have this rogue division doing whatever, spending whatever, turning in whatever money it wanted. The idea of this being said on a conf. call is so illegal it is laughable.

The idea that the merger had the slightest impact on any decision ever at blizzard is something vehemently resisted here.

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false. 2008-present - activision blizzard. vivendi was a majority holder (with limitations) of activision-blizzard, but blizzard was no longer on the vivendi books.

As Majority shareholder they were technical owners. Their say goes. So until Activision-Blizzard bought themselves out Vivendi were the ones in control.

[maccajoe]

Ive seen things/experienced similar things but not the same.
Whenever blizz does something bad= Oh boy activison.
When blizz does something good= Nothing really just not bad reactions. No high praise to blizz or even a sqeak outta activison

[Soon-TM]

You clearly don't pay much attention to gaming news if you believe that. Oh wait you must have the whole lootboxes are evil argument stuck in your head, all I'll say is follow the timeline and see what game broke the straw.

Lootboxes are the CANCER of today's gaming industry in my book, and the main reason that I haven't bothered with OW or HotS 2.0. But at least those are new IPs, which I couldn't care less about - unlike Diablo.

[Deficineiron]

As Majority shareholder they were technical owners. Their say goes. So until Activision-Blizzard bought themselves out Vivendi were the ones in control.

not really, there were specific limits on their power in the bylaws. secondly, if they hadn't wanted Kotick in the picture they wouldn't have done the merger.

a/b was not a wholly-owned subsidiary of vivendi (the opposite is true of blizzard, of course - they were and are a wholly owned sub. of atvi and have been since 2008)

thirdly, it seems like you want to avoid mentioning a/b in blizz from 2008-2013, rather than address the complex ownership & mgmt issues.

I think you are greatly oversimplifying 'who owned blizzard' 2008-2013 for reasons unknown.

[Battlebeard]

Lootboxes are the CANCER of today's gaming industry in my book, and the main reason that I haven't bothered with OW or HotS 2.0. But at least those are new IPs, which I couldn't care less about - unlike Diablo.

It's not that simple. Yes, I find the lootboxes a bit unethical, but they are in no way mandatory to buy nor do they give anything that benefits you in game. And to an an optional way to earn money, that no once is forced to participate in, I can't hate on that.

There are however pay-to-win lootboxes in other games that DOES give you things that make you better in the game, those I condemn!