About Activision Blizzard

[enigma77]

https://classic.wowhead.com/news=297...by-john-staats

From the book:

There was nothing magic about Blizzard; it was simply one of the only companies in the industry not forced into Faustian bargains with “dumb money” publishers. Because we financed our own games, we could afford to maintain high standards; this was extremely rare and it gave us an important advantage in that we weren’t tethered to short-sighted partners with their own agenda. Publishers, distributors, and retailers can take 80–90 percent of sales revenue, leaving little return for the studio to reinvest into its own people (with bonuses) or funding future projects. Studios working with publishers rarely have control over their games, especially the shipping dates, which means polishing is never guaranteed. Blizzard didn’t have investors, marketing people, or other non-gamers dictating what to make or when to ship it, or even how it should look. There were no suits. Everyone in the company played games, from the CEO down to our receptionist. We even turned away qualified programmers who didn’t play games.

Without constantly answering to impatient investors, Blizzard executives had more autonomy. This freedom meant they could delay or cancel their own projects and turn over more control to the employees building the games. And the fact that management frequently solicited opinions demonstrated their genuine interest in our input. If the worker bees resisted a decision, management put on the brakes and listened. It was still management’s call, but the fact that employees had a say in the matter made all the difference. If the executives did something we didn’t like or understand, they gave us the reasons for their decisions—usually by giving us pieces to the puzzle we weren’t previously aware of, and it usually made us feel better knowing the “bigger picture.”

Can there be any doubt left that the Blizzard we knew and loved, the one that once gave us quality games, for gamers by gamers, is well and truly dead? Its very soul consumed by Activision?

[Calfredd]

Can there be any doubt left that the Blizzard we knew and loved, the one that once gave us quality games, for gamers by gamers, is well and truly dead? Its very soul consumed by Activision?

Why did Blizzard thrive under Vivendi and not under Activision? Why are most, if not all, of Blizzard's screw ups blamed on Activision-Blizzard instead of Blizzard?

[Seranthor]

https://classic.wowhead.com/news=297...by-john-staats

From the book:





Can there be any doubt left that the Blizzard we knew and loved, the one that once gave us quality games, for gamers by gamers, is well and truly dead? Its very soul consumed by Activision?

You DO realize that Blizzard sold their soul way back in 1994. This blaming Activision is intellectually dishonest if you know anything about Blizzard's ownership history. I know that bashing Activision is supposed to be cool. But its a lie. It has always been about making money, if making quality games happened thats cool too, however it has ALWAYS been about making money.

- - - Updated - - -

Why did Blizzard thrive under Vivendi and not under Activision? Why are most, if not all, of Blizzard's screw ups blamed on Activision-Blizzard instead of Blizzard?

Why, because people want to see Activision as the boogeyman.

[MoanaLisa]

John Staats in an interview published November 19, 2019 (11 days ago):

"John Staats: Blizzard makes quality games. Games are often buggy and unpolished. Blizzard had (and still has) an unbroken streak of releasing terrific products.

https://www.adventuresinpoortaste.co...ture-and-more/

There's a lot I could say about it but fuck it, I've said all of this before more than once. It's pathetic that people are still so moonstruck over what Blizzard used to be that they have to blame things on Kotick and ATVI. They got here entirely on their own. They say they still scrap about half the stuff they start. They haven't published a new game in over three-and-a-half years.

I think Titan broke Blizzard and they have yet to pull their shit together because of it. Because they can't seem to organize themselves to get a new title out on a regular basis they must find ways to monetize their games. They would be doing exactly the same thing if they were self-owned. In fact it's entirely possible that it would be a fuck of a lot worse if they didn't have CoD, Candy Crush and Skylanders merchandise to cover the quarters and years that they can't bring themselves to finish and publish something.

The problem is in Blizzard HQ.

[Zyky]

Why did Blizzard thrive under Vivendi and not under Activision? Why are most, if not all, of Blizzard's screw ups blamed on Activision-Blizzard instead of Blizzard?

Because Activision forces them to appeal to investors rather than making a good game that makes money.

[Eric Arthur Blair]

Welcome to the corporate world. Soon countries won't even exist, just corporations.

[aceperson]

John Staats in an interview published November 19, 2019 (11 days ago):

https://www.adventuresinpoortaste.co...ture-and-more/

There's a lot I could say about it but fuck it, I've said all of this before more than once. It's pathetic that people are still so moonstruck over what Blizzard used to be that they have to blame things on Kotick and ATVI. They got here entirely on their own. They say they still scrap about half the stuff they start. They haven't published a new game in over three-and-a-half years.

I think Titan broke Blizzard and they have yet to pull their shit together because of it. Because they can't seem to organize themselves to get a new title out on a regular basis they must find ways to monetize their games. They would be doing exactly the same thing if they were self-owned. In fact it's entirely possible that it would be a fuck of a lot worse if they didn't have CoD, Candy Crush and Skylanders merchandise to cover the quarters and years that they can't bring themselves to finish and publish something.

The problem is in Blizzard HQ.

even with ignoring titan and only looking at released products, did this guy somehow delete diablo 3 launch from his brain? people literally couldn't log in, there was a real money auction house, gear was so rare that i didn't get my first legendary until my 4th play through and it was a wizard orb that had no wizard stats on it. d3 was literally broken, compromised by greed, and horrendously balanced and stayed that way until ros.

i really hate to say it but i think this guy might be a nostalgic fan boy of blizz and refuses to admit fault. any level-headed person would not call original d3 unbuggy and polished.

[callipygoustp]

Is that the carcass of a horse? Hard to tell with how much of a beating it has taken.

[Onikaroshi]

You DO realize that Blizzard sold their soul way back in 1994.

Most people don't realize that Blizzard as is named "Blizzard" has never been an independent entity.

They did have two decent games with Lost Vikings and Rock n Roll racing as S and S, but were mostly making ports. They then changed their name to Chaos Studios and finally Blizzard at the same time they got bought by Davidson & Associates.

It was actually during a CES where both Blizzard (then S&S) and Condor made the same game for two different consoles (Justice League Taskforce) that David Brevik actually had someone seriously listen to his plans for diablo.

[MoanaLisa]

Because Activision forces them to appeal to investors rather than making a good game that makes money.

You would think if Activision was so good at forcing Blizzard to do their will and had all of this awesome and unstoppable influence they would release a new game more than once every few years.

I would think that.

Since they don't and apparently can't based on the last Blizzcon with yet another year and no new IP I guess there must be another explanation. Yay, a D4 announcement that will likely still be unreleased when we know what the next expansion after Shadowlands will be. Great job.

[DesoPL]

Let just Blizz give to THQ or idk someone else, intelectual properties to making thier games and be done with it.

Diablo 4 most anticipated and what? Microtransactions? No thanks...
Starcraft? Wait this game is still alive? Ah right... It is Korean national sport.
Heroes Of The Storm? No comment.
Overwatch? No comment.
Hearthstone? No comment...
Warcraft? Cataclysm was first sign, that something went wrong. And let's don't forget that recently people started acknowledge that MoP was good, but still complaining about Pandas.

But fear not. Bethseda is as well not in good light since for year. Yay Fallout 76.

[maccajoe]

Why did Blizzard thrive under Vivendi and not under Activision? Why are most, if not all, of Blizzard's screw ups blamed on Activision-Blizzard instead of Blizzard?

Truly? IDK. But mostly because it think its easy for people they blame Activision when vivendi is a giant conglomerate already or they blame CHINA.
Yet GGG is basically owned by China ybut GGG are doing so well? So obviously its the people currently there not some random ghost over reaching and destroying everything.

Blizzard HQ is dun goofing.

[Kallisto]

Why did Blizzard thrive under Vivendi and not under Activision? Why are most, if not all, of Blizzard's screw ups blamed on Activision-Blizzard instead of Blizzard?

They fucked up many times over the years before Activision blizzard was made (even after it was made vivendi still owned it for a few years). People were just more forgiving back then.

Take for example corrupted blood. Obviously a game breaking bug, but people joke about it. If that happened today well as Taliesin puts it. The forums would be a shit show, obviously.

Or how bugged as fuck many raid bosses were. Looking at you C'thun. Or bugs stopping you getting into instances. Or tcg exclusive in game stuff.

[Onikaroshi]

Truly? IDK. But mostly because it think its easy for people they blame Activision when vivendi is a giant conglomerate already or they blame CHINA.
Yet GGG is basically owned by China ybut GGG are doing so well? So obviously its the people currently there not some random ghost over reaching and destroying everything.

Blizzard HQ is dun goofing.

People are extremely forgiving of GGG, it's silly. Oh your game is free? Well then it's completely ok to overcharge for all your MTXs.

12 dollar spell cosmetics? 8 dollar foot prints? 60+ dollar looks? all ok in people's books because the game is "free" (though I wouldn't touch it with a 12 foot pole without stash tabs, so it's not really free, and that kind of is power.)

[Neuroticaine]

even with ignoring titan and only looking at released products, did this guy somehow delete diablo 3 launch from his brain? people literally couldn't log in, there was a real money auction house, gear was so rare that i didn't get my first legendary until my 4th play through and it was a wizard orb that had no wizard stats on it. d3 was literally broken, compromised by greed, and horrendously balanced and stayed that way until ros.

i really hate to say it but i think this guy might be a nostalgic fan boy of blizz and refuses to admit fault. any level-headed person would not call original d3 unbuggy and polished.

What about D3 was buggy and unpolished? The game itself was polished to high heaven and back. There was some minor balancing issues but the only real glaring issue was the garbage real money auction house system.

[maccajoe]

People are extremely forgiving of GGG, it's silly. Oh your game is free? Well then it's completely ok to overcharge for all your MTXs.

12 dollar spell cosmetics? 8 dollar foot prints? 60+ dollar looks? all ok in people's books because the game is "free" (though I wouldn't touch it with a 12 foot pole without stash tabs, so it's not really free, and that kind of is power.)

Lol yea so true I really dont know how people rationalize spending hundreds MTX "coz lul game was free it helps the devs". I have friends that treat that shit like a steam sale when stuff goes on discount and end up spending hundreds of dollars without realizing it.

[Zyky]

You would think if Activision was so good at forcing Blizzard to do their will and had all of this awesome and unstoppable influence they would release a new game more than once every few years.

I would think that.

Since they don't and apparently can't based on the last Blizzcon with yet another year and no new IP I guess there must be another explanation. Yay, a D4 announcement that will likely still be unreleased when we know what the next expansion after Shadowlands will be. Great job.

Why would you think that? When Activision is the king of rehashing old games and just making a new CoD every couple years to make money.

[Onikaroshi]

Why would you think that? When Activision is the king of rehashing old games and just making a new CoD every couple years to make money.

I mean, can you blame them? That rehashed game is like the 3rd best selling franchise of all time behind mario and pokemon.

Still has more variety then thinks like FIFA and Madden at least lol.

[jstnw89]

Blizzard gets more embarrassing as time goes on. It is understandable to be greedy and want as much possible but their games are progressively getting worse with the more money. Now D4 is going to triple dip with box price, expansion price, and mtx while their free to play competitor churns out new updates like crazy for free while also having the superior game. D3 had he depth of a puddle and got stale in 3 days after getting all your gear and then hopping on the grift treadmill. D4 looks gorgeous, smooth, and like they're at least attempting to make it more interesting than D3 but damn are they greedy fucks.

[letssee]

heres the problem, on one hand its the game makers and publishers, and the ON THE OTHER HAND THIS SHIT KEEPS SELLING, LIKE MTX SELLS, SCUMMY TACTICS SELLS, REHASHED SHIT SELLS, mindless sheep keep buying, so no matter how much we scream nothing changes cuz the reality is, FKING SADLY, that people buy regardless