Serious discussion: Is this the end of Blizzard's "We'll release it when its ready?"

[Vudu]

The "We'll release it when it's ready" philosophy died around the time WoW really started to pick up steam because it's simply not a workable philosophy for an MMO. MMOs are based around steady content patches. If you delay, people get bored and leave the game, and they often never come back.

Blizz realized a long time ago that they have to put out a new expansion consistently. And, since the release of BC, they've released every single expansion 2 years after the previous one (+1 month or -3 months). That schedule is absolutely deliberate, and ultimately it's clear that while Blizzard might delay a month or two, they'll ship the game on-time regardless of how ready it is. A whole lot of the failures since BC, and especially in BFA, are likely due to time deadlines more than anything else.

In other words, they're currently following the same release schedule philosophy they've had since BC, so it's not new at all.

[lordzed83]

While this thread risks falling into a girpefest, I feel after seeing all the problems with WC3:R, and the problems with BfA - It really made me ask a serious question:

Are the days of Blizzard's age-old policy of "We'll release it when we feel it's ready" over?

Looking at all the problems WC3:R had, from every single bug and screen issue - to cinematics demonstrated in the trailer but not used in the game, to really REALLY cheap generic cinematics made for the game (Just saw the Arthas vs Illidan one... that is NOT Blizzard "ready" quality IMO!) and all the side-by-side resolution issues made me ask that question. This is NOT something Blizzard-quality, nor with all its issues is it something that should've been released at this point.

And this is all also on the backs of the reported discussions how Acti-Blizz upper echelons are forcing the devs to release stuff under resourced.

The Old Blizzard I know would've gladly punted WCIII:R to the end of this year than let it go out in the condition it currently is in to polish the bejesus out of it - and the audience, while there would be forum gripes for sure, would've still ultimately accepted it as par for the course for Blizzard-quality - knowing full well that letting something out in this state/condition is worse than postponing it for another several months.

So... is this the end of Blizzard's "We'll release it when it's ready" policy? Will we be seeing an unfinished/unpolished D4 by the end of 2021 (regardless of the Devs saying "it's not currently even Blizzard-soon ready" as the higher-ups might not care) as well as the same with Shadowlands for WoW whenever they release that one?

What Blizzard ??

It's been China'sVision Blizzard for at lest 3 years lol

[Blackmist]

It's ready when they told the shareholders it would be ready.

[kaminaris]

No expansion nor even vanilla was "ready" at least according to forums for release. Thing is "ready" means completely different depending on point of view. Ready as in have low amount of bugs? Or Ready as "I don't like this system they should change it so it is not ready?".

Anyways those kind of threads could only be made by people not having idea how app dev really is.

What blizzard really fails is promising too much. I would be completely fine with like 5 dugeons, main story line and some raid at the beginning of expansion.
Then as time goes on, they should simply release more content that hasn't been completed/tested yet.

So small but faster steps.

They should simply say: Those are our plans but only half of them will be available on launch. Here is a roadmap we have planed but some of those features may be delayed.

[TheBull300]

I didn't read the whole thread but, they lost the blizzard polish obviously in WoD, was dwindling since Cata

[JacobusRex]

Activision-Blizzard isn't done yet, but it's also not done being awful. They've shown they're taking money over morals. They've shown they're taking the quick buck over the long term payout. They've shown their disregard for employees in favor of rapid production / customer consumption. They've shown a nearly complete disregard for customer feedback and a tolerance only for yes-men shills.

You can definitely see the parallels with China's way of doing things right?

In addition to all that, they're completely out of touch with the very people who made them rich over the years and while they have no tangible contract obliging them to listen to us, that's where all their true colors are shown. Red and Yellow...

[TheTaurenChieftain]

This is Activision-Blizzard. Look at the quality of their games across the board in the last ten years and name a single one thats gotten better and not worse. Just one. Any single game Actiblizz has made objectively better rather than forced a user exodus by pushing mobile game mechanics to supplant rpg ones, real money microtransactions or their old reliable "this will be the brood war esports lightning in a bottle if we force it, 15th times the charm!" strategy.

I don't know if anyone played Crash Bandicoot Team Racing. But CTR: Nitro Fueled is also published by Activision. And this game was really well done and did everything right. Most fans were pretty pleased. When i compare the CTR remake to WC3:Reforged I still don't understand how such an amazing remake could happen in the hands of Activision. Maybe they did give the developers more freedom? And maybe Beenox has had a lot more to say?

[Greengrim]

You kids need to stop asking stupid questions...

Blizzard has been dead in terms of proper game development for quite some time now. Probably at some point during, or shortly after WotLK's success was the time that bigger businessmen saw the potential and started buying out shares. From that point onwards the priority was shifted from providing a proper game, into making as much money as possible.

A fun analogy, for those who have seen One Piece anime, maybe you remember the character Kuma, who was once a human being, but has had so many cyborg parts inserted into him, that at some point he just lost his personality and became a mindless robot. Well, the same thing happened with Blizz. We see the same name and logo, but the Blizzard that was once passionate about creating high quality games and unique experiences for their players, are long gone, it's just a money feeder to a hungry corporate throat.

[Mormolyce]

Blizzard never followed this mantra to the T even in the old days.

They did in the 90s.

It didn't mean there were never any bugs. Just that they took their sweet ass time...

[Pancreatin]

Didn't you get that when they released BFA lol

[RoKPaNda]

Blizzard never followed this mantra to the T even in the old days.

Thank you.

StarCraft 1, Diablo 2, WarCraft 3, WoW, StarCraft 2, Diablo 3, HotS, Hearthstone, etc. Their games have always been released in a state that needed massive fixing later. "When it's ready" and "Blizzard polish" are complete and total corporate marketing wank.

[quras]

Just like some of blizzards other so called "core values" that have also been killed off. The concept of blizzards "release it when it's ready" has long since died and stopped being a part of what blizzard does.

now it's more of a "lets release a broken product and take as much money as we can upfront."

Whats worse though as we move forward is watching for those other "core value" blizzard loves to throw around slowly get pushed aside and forgotten as their "money over morals" continues to tarnish everything about blizzard gamers used to love.

[david0925]

That mantra has been gone for years, as others have pointed out.

But I also blame the players for accepting that because "15 dollars a month isn't much". If you enjoyed the content, that's fine. If you didn't, but just put up because it's pocket change, no, and money talks the loudest.

[Martymark]

Cataclysm was released half finished (because re-doing every 1-60 zone took vastly longer than expected). That was the first time.

WoD was rushed and released half finished.

BFA was a smoking trash pile and it's impossible to tell what it was even supposed to look like.

[Orby]

I think this is the end of Blizzard releasing good games.... Beware Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4.... Blizzard scored their first bad rating for a video game. (Not expansion). Very sad for what was one of the premier best developers for PC in the 90's and 00's.

Now I know you might say this isnt the first real bad game you can say maybe it was Diablo3 or Starcraft 2, but those were rated and recieved very well despite their problems. They were the slip before the fall, the dent int he armor before the exposure. We are at down right exposed levels right now.

These guys were fans wet dream the same way CDPR are today. Between Blizzard and Bioware, video games are dead to me. All will eventually succumb to corporations and greed. Just enjoy your developers while they last.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

It was already gone by the time classic launched with tons of cut content that ended up being tbc and tons of bugs and other issues.

[sam86]

Try telling that to the makers of Cyberpunk. That game was one of the first games announced for the PS4, and it's apparently going to be one of the LAST games to be released before the PS5 launches this September - and yet, there's a huge following behind it despite the delays.

i was going to answer him but u beat me
all good companies (which sadly can be counted on 1 single hand fingers) delay as they want to release a good product, and ppl wait because they trust them

[mvaliz]

Duke Nukem Forever took over 10 YEARS to release....it was originally supposed to be a PS1 game

arguement is invalid

Very VERY different set of circumstances there as it was in development haiatus/budgeting/no management/ect that caused that to go for 10 years, not because people were ACTIVELY developing the game for 10 years - and you damn well know that.

Argument is invalid

- - - Updated - - -

I think this is the end of Blizzard releasing good games.... Beware Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4.... Blizzard scored their first bad rating for a video game. (Not expansion). Very sad for what was one of the premier best developers for PC in the 90's and 00's.

As per my OP, I'm already predicting we're getting an unfinished/unpolished D4 release in late 2021, where the bean counters look at the devs and say "I don't know what you mean by "It's not Blizzard-Soon" ready, just have something ready by Christmas 2021 Dammit!"

But all the buyable skins and mounts will be ready!

[Hellobolis]

we'll release it when it's ready died 10-15 years ago. which was fine cause it only really meant we went from excellent standards to high standards.

and sure the standards have been slowly getting lower and lower over the years, but it's only 1-2 years ago that they really took a drastic nosedive.

[Aehl]

I don't think they really have a clear metric about that.

Thats fine MoanaLisa..I am sure that the Australian Federal Court would be delighted to provide them with one...along with a massive 3 million dollar fine and some VERY adverse publicity.

Word to the wise...a little bird tells me that the last few days have seen the ACCC very busy..and it appears (this is rumour ...so far...) that this has gotten to the level of Blizzard being an actual blip on their radar.

If you are a business?

You dont want that.

You dont.