Activision Blizzard, Inc Earnings Report - WoW's Predictions

[Aleksej89]

"World of Warcraft saw expected declines post the expansion release this summer."

How shit of an expansion you have to release to make the number of users drop after a brand new expansion is released.

Historically the biggest increase an expansion gives to WoW subscriber count is in the first 6-12 months - but BFA is so awful it caused a DECLINE in the number of users...

Good thing blizzard has that cash shop to milk players xD

[Kathranis]

Same end result lmfao...

No. The end results of a termination and a layoff are not the same. Layoff usually comes with a severance package, the possibility of a future rehire, and a much easier time collecting unemployment.

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How shit of an expansion you have to release to make the number of users drop after a brand new expansion is released.

It's already been six months since BFA launched.

[Ehrenpanzer]

Any news about WoW--which is unlikely--will be drowned out by the Layoffapocalypse which may or may not have any effect on WoW.

To be fair, its hard to take a company at face value when they say they have record profits the year before, then promptly lay off 8% of their workforce less then 2 months into the next year.... If it looks like bullshit, sounds like bullshit, smells like bullshit, its probably ________

[MoanaLisa]

To be fair, its hard to take a company at face value when they say they have record profits the year before, then promptly lay off 8% of their workforce less then 2 months into the next year.... If it looks like bullshit, sounds like bullshit, smells like bullshit, its probably ________

Fact: They had record earnings in 2018.
Speculation: 2019 looks to be a difficult year so they are preparing for it.

Is that really so difficult to understand?

[maticks]

I don't see how WoW has a 20% growth. being someone who has played this game since Classic, this Azerite Armour system along with the AP Grid has resulted in many people leave.

My friends list everyone had cancelled their subs, my guild of 500 which use to have active 100 members is around 10-15.
The world is empty during what would be peak times, it feels very much like classic days when Oceanic people had only US Servers and you'd run around to find no one.

The content is stale, the World Quests are unchanged and not challenging if you want to run up an Alt you have a lot of work to do starting at Level 1 on your AP grind.
All Blizzard really have to do is make AP Account Wide this problem will go away, really don't see why Gold, AP, Rep is not account wide.


Usually when something new drops you get all excited, set bonus type stuff for example.
Would love to know who in blizzard sat down and said i have this great idea, lets make them grind the Artefact Power stuff in Legion for 3 month straight just to get their Armour set bonuses. Then when they think they are there we will drop higher ilevel gear and make them do it again.

It is truly odd how disappointing people are when ilevel 410 gear drops, once they see the gating they almost cry.
That i think is the problem its not "fun" when that happens.

That feeling of "YES!" is gone.. and now is dread, that kills games..

[darklogrus]

CM's are part of the public relations group. It's sad but not surprising.

Sad part is they have hundreds who barely registered for the new site and they let go probably 1 of the more active Cms they have had in yrs..

[RoKPaNda]

Where are all the "Activision has no influence on Blizzard" people now?

Hi. It's not that Activision has no influence it's that Blizzard is still just plodding along doing the same Blizzard things they've been doing since the 90s. To pretend that Activision is the reason that Blizzard is doing something you dislike is to ignore Blizzard's history. All of the things that Blizzard gets accused of are the same things they've been accused of since well before Activision was in the picture.

If there is finally some oversight here with how Blizzard wastes money on side projects or old projects and it means more resources for relevant projects and new projects that are actually interesting that's actually a good thing for consumers.

[dope_danny]

In summation:

[maticks]

Hi. It's not that Activision has no influence it's that Blizzard is still just plodding along doing the same Blizzard things they've been doing since the 90s. To pretend that Activision is the reason that Blizzard is doing something you dislike is to ignore Blizzard's history. All of the things that Blizzard gets accused of are the same things they've been accused of since well before Activision was in the picture.

If there is finally some oversight here with how Blizzard wastes money on side projects or old projects and it means more resources for relevant projects and new projects that are actually interesting that's actually a good thing for consumers.

We will know if Activision ever do, you will see Loot Crates in game you can buy for high end gear. :P

[darklogrus]

No. The end results of a termination and a layoff are not the same. Layoff usually comes with a severance package, the possibility of a future rehire, and a much easier time collecting unemployment.

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It's already been six months since BFA launched.

Well thats dependent on what he's actually getting with the severance package. At the end of the day he's still jobless...

[burzian]

Hi. It's not that Activision has no influence it's that Blizzard is still just plodding along doing the same Blizzard things they've been doing since the 90s. To pretend that Activision is the reason that Blizzard is doing something you dislike is to ignore Blizzard's history. All of the things that Blizzard gets accused of are the same things they've been accused of since well before Activision was in the picture.

If there is finally some oversight here with how Blizzard wastes money on side projects or old projects and it means more resources for relevant projects and new projects that are actually interesting that's actually a good thing for consumers.

"Laying off hundreds of employees after the best results year in company history" is not something Blizzard does. I appreciate your canned talk tracks about Azerite armor or whatever morons are blaming on Activision these days, but we're talking about something legitimate here.

You're gonna hurt your back carrying all that water for Activision.

[dope_danny]

You know the most telling thing out of all of these on a reread? the "planning to increase dev teams by 20%" lists wow, call of duty, diablo, overwatch and hearthstone.

so friendly reminder: Starcraft died with firegod-angelqueen kerrigan. Aint that some shit?

[Lahis]

So I was wrong. Instead of bad year, they had their best year yet.

BUT LETS NOT LET THAT GET INTO THE WAY OF FIRING PEOPLE! EXECUTIVES NEED THEIR BONUSES!!

[Sentynel]

So I was wrong. Instead of bad year, they had their best year yet.

BUT LETS NOT LET THAT GET INTO THE WAY OF FIRING PEOPLE! EXECUTIVES NEED THEIR BONUSES!!

Laying off social media people to hire more devs. Smells like a good deal to me.

Try harder next time.

[Armourboy]

No. The end results of a termination and a layoff are not the same. Layoff usually comes with a severance package, the possibility of a future rehire, and a much easier time collecting unemployment.

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It's already been six months since BFA launched.

While you are correct, very few people today that get layed off ever get rehired. The reality is it's just a nicer way of saying you don't have a job. Odds are they get a relatively small package on exist, and " job placement " help that amounts to nothing more than shoveling you too your local carrier center ( aka the unemployment department). It generally also opens up some educational services as well, although that's state by state so I don't know in this particular case.

I've been through 3 factory closures since 2005, I know what they are dealing with.

[Lahis]

Laying off social media people to hire more devs. Smells like a good deal to me.

Try harder next time.

Devs to churn out cheap mobile games.

[Armourboy]

Laying off social media people to hire more devs. Smells like a good deal to me.

Try harder next time.

Have they stated specifically they are hiring 20% more Devs? What I read was 20% increase in resources, which is a lot more than just developer hires.

[GreenJesus]

So I was wrong. Instead of bad year, they had their best year yet.

BUT LETS NOT LET THAT GET INTO THE WAY OF FIRING PEOPLE! EXECUTIVES NEED THEIR BONUSES!!

Well yeah.. CoD sold better than the previous CoD which is a lot and the BFA expansion itself (not counting subs) brought in a nice chunk of cash too... but that is just the "release day".. now it's just "survive mode" in 2019 with barely anything in the pipeline to be released.

[MoanaLisa]

Have they stated specifically they are hiring 20% more Devs? What I read was 20% increase in resources, which is a lot more than just developer hires.

No, they didn't say that. The implication was that the development budget would increase by 20% aggregate to be split over several games including (one would assume) all of the Warcraft stuff they're working on. That would include the next expansion as well as perhaps a little more for classic, and Warcraft reforged. I'm not sure the latter two would need much. A good guess is that whatever piece that WoW gets will be going into late patches or the next expansion. Again, that's not 20% for each game. It's 20% total with probably Brack or someone deciding how that will be allocated.

[rrayy]

Well this is about as firm a "No Activision, you're lying to your investors" as I've seen.

https://twitter.com/RobertAWing/stat...43754977128448

Except it isn't. The layoffs are a plan to combat the future. That doesn't change the fact of what their earnings for the last quarter were compared to history.

People need to stop throwing the "lying to their investors" around because they have absolutely no clue what it means.