Kotaku: Diablo 4: Hades and Fenris, Titans, Activision and mobile gaming

[Vakir]

its hard to gain trust in something lost, and i know myself that kotaku made at least 2 times fake news that i believed and felt like idiot for believing them
hence why i lost faith in kotaku

I feel ya. Kotaku does have tons of problems, I am not going to bat for 'em or anything.

It's just not how it works. There's more to it than that - namely similar information is coming from other sources, and also there's been accuracy among the inaccuracies among some reports that come from less reputable sources.

I can't speak on irrelevant crap like Diablo IV being darker or whatever, but the rest of it? The mismanagement and the corporate stress aspect? It sounds completely on point with the showing Blizzard's given lately. There's been PLENTY about how Activision has been pushing harder, including from former Blizzard themselves. There's also just a general trend of how big mergers like this start to hurt the soul of smaller companies.

The "Geek Is" crap from Metzen several Blizzcons ago felt transparently "we're sorry we signed the Faustian bargain, here, have some nerd references." This shit was a long time coming, and as much as people suck off Wrath, that's where it started. Heavily casualized to a new degree, a tier with reused content and only 2 new encounters, only one challenging one (Sarth+3), the whole Trial of the Crusader, more emphasis on dailies for player progression, etc. One good raid in the form of Ulduar doesn't devalue that it was a trend in how the game functioned.

It's been a long time coming, and I find it humorous people use a mobile game as the breaking point when the writing has been on the wall for almost a decade. On the topic of games journalism, it's as bad as when people ignored shit like Jeff Gerstmann getting fired from Gamespot but got all up in arms over Zoe Quinn's personal crap. People get up in arms over the lamest crap.

Immortal is a travesty, but I'm shocked people are going to bat over that and not...the entire fucking corporate trend of Blizzard up to now.

EDIT: Super late edit, but also around this involvement time - increased focus on mictrotransactions for a game that is sub based involving blatantly removed or repurposed content. Yes, I'm sure that star pony totally wasn't a mount drop off the boss made of stars in the same tier release time period. Heart of the Aspects both appears in the Mythic Deathwing encounter and has flavor text referring to it...and is a store mount. Instead, you get an Alex Drake Recolor.

IDK why people act as if it's somehow strange that the increased corporate shilling and stranglehold of Activision is a strange idea.

[Yvaelle]

Sounds like all their problems stem from overlap with Activision leadership, which literally everyone in the world predicted when the merger was first announced.

Blizzard and Activision should break up, that'd fix it.

[Magicpot]

Like when he reported that a Diablo 4 announcement had been planned then pulled from Blizzcon and the reported that Blizzard denies his report?

I have no doubt someone told him this stuff and that he didn't just make it up, but this stuff reeks of bullshit.

Blizzard denied it so it never happened.

Lets ignore the blatant monetary interest blizzard has in denying information potentially hurtful to its stock price.

[The Stormbringer]

Sounds like all their problems stem from overlap with Activision leadership, which literally everyone in the world predicted when the merger was first announced.

Blizzard and Activision should break up, that'd fix it.

Agreed. Signed. Hash-tagged. Up-voted. Liked.

[shadowmatrix]

Blizzard denied it so it never happened.

Lets ignore the blatant monetary interest blizzard has in denying information potentially hurtful to its stock price.

Lets ignore the blatant reasons people have to believe its real in order to make themselves feel good. It is like politics, people believe anything that makes them look good even if it ends up hurting them in the end.

[Yvaelle]

Agreed. Signed. Hash-tagged. Up-voted. Liked.

mikemorhaime Sounds like there are a lot of issues with Activision leadership getting their claws into Blizzard_Ent and trying to steer it lately. Is it possible for companies like this to go through a divorce if things aren't working out?

[Magicpot]

mikemorhaime Sounds like there are a lot of issues with Activision leadership getting their claws into Blizzard_Ent and trying to steer it lately. Is it possible for companies like this to go through a divorce if things aren't working out?

considering blizzard belongs in majority to activision stockholders, no. Unless management can somehow cough up enough cash to buy themselves out (unlikely, they're a multibillion dollar company, management aren't multibillionaires.)

[Soon-TM]

considering blizzard belongs in majority to activision stockholders, no. Unless management can somehow cough up enough cash to buy themselves out (unlikely, they're a multibillion dollar company, management aren't multibillionaires.)

Exactly. Blizzard ought to find a generous sugar daddy if they ever want to get out of Electr... err, Activision's death grip

[Deletedaccount1]

They deserve all the shit they are in right now. All of their games could be so much better with just a little bit of effort.

OW, stop adding heroes that aren't annoying as fuck to play against like Brigitte, Doom, and Hammond. HW, stop adding cards like baku. Stop turning WoW into a slot machine.

Actually update Diablo 3 or hint at some sign of Diablo 4.

[mvaliz]

mikemorhaime Sounds like there are a lot of issues with Activision leadership getting their claws into Blizzard_Ent and trying to steer it lately. Is it possible for companies like this to go through a divorce if things aren't working out?

...Activision owns their ass. It's not a marriage when somebody owns you and punishes you if you don't meet up to expectations. There's another term for that...

However, there's one thing the original Blizz devs CAN do - and that's willingly quit and reform as a new company. Historically speaking some companies have done that, for example the makers of Twisted Metal 1 and 2, Singletrac, was purchased by GT Interactive and after making their TM Clone "Rogue Trip" when Sony farmed out TM3 to a dev that horrifically fucked it up. At that point the devs of Singletrac left and formed "Incog.inc" (Short for Incognito) to begin working back on Twisted Metal: Black for Sony.

[Deleted]

holy shit, no wonder why blizz is dying slowly.. a diablo dark souls what the fuck..

[KainneAbsolute]

Well, the CFO (from Activision) that started the cost cut (according to the article) moved to Square Enix.

At least, Blizzard should be meditating for an entire long term planning and how to improve its communication.

[Eleccybubb]

Well, the CFO (from Activision) that started the cost cut (according to the article) moved to Square Enix.

At least, Blizzard should be meditating for an entire long term planning and how to improve its communication.

They did not move to Square Enix.

They moved to a finance services company called Square.

[Dhrizzle]

Sounds like all their problems stem from overlap with Activision leadership, which literally everyone in the world predicted when the merger was first announced.

Blizzard and Activision should break up, that'd fix it.

The merger took place in 2007, these problems stem from ActiBlizz buying themselves out from Vivendi in 2013.

Do you think if Blizzard were an even smaller, independent concern they would need less cost-cutting exercises?

[Mormolyce]

Shrug, some of this may be true, it doesn't ring entirely fake.

Better make sure they get on that Pokemon GO bandwagon while that's still hot. LOL.

[ONCHEhap]

...Activision owns their ass. It's not a marriage when somebody owns you and punishes you if you don't meet up to expectations. There's another term for that...

Isn't that exactly what a marriage is though?

[Yvaelle]

The merger took place in 2007, these problems stem from ActiBlizz buying themselves out from Vivendi in 2013.

Do you think if Blizzard were an even smaller, independent concern they would need less cost-cutting exercises?

Yes. I think the focus on cost cutting is an Activision ideology. If Mike were still CEO and Blizzard was independent, they'd go get money, rather than tell their games to suck.

[tru]

so we have reached the point where people make fanfiction about their favorite video company instead of the franchise they produce...

That shit gets old. Take it with a grain of salt. Unless you can disprove it. It is what it is take it or leave it.

[Dhrizzle]

Yes. I think the focus on cost cutting is an Activision ideology. If Mike were still CEO and Blizzard was independent, they'd go get money, rather than tell their games to suck.

Well the cost-cutting directive was for non-developmental costs, they're actually trying to expand their dev teams still, and it was made whilst Mike was still in charge. Where would you want them to go to get more money? Try to sell to another Vivendi-size corporation and hope to regain golden-goose status and not be strip-mined for their IPs (which is something Vivendi looked into, though probably more to give an idea of Acti-Blizz's potential value rather than as a real threat?)

[Pebrocks The Warlock]

holy shit, no wonder why blizz is dying slowly.. a diablo dark souls what the fuck..

What are you talking about? Diablo in the style of Dark Souls would be amazing.