Fresh rumour...mickey mouse and murlocs?

[Voidwielder]

it might be written better than the shit Dausner and Golden have been feeding us

Authors don't create. They write to spec, game development team sets the plot points and character arcs.

[Kyphael]

Authors don't create. They write to spec, game development team sets the plot points and character arcs.

All right, so the shit the dev team has been feeding us. I can't help but think Dausner gets a lot of creative freedom given Nathanos is his brainchild and has had a major role in the story.

[Thrif]

Didn't work with Star Wars don't see why it would work with Blizzard IPs.

Because Blizzard storytelling is already at TLJ/TROS level?

[tikcol]

I would think that Disney owning Blizzard would be a positive for the players though. They seem to care about quality at Disney and that is something lacking these days.

I'm afraid to even ask but what do you consider the latest quality products Disney released?

[Revamp Man]

you are JOKING, right? right?.....

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Can we ignore the fact that you ignore the fact that comics always have been political vocal and stay on topic? tia.

Well considering Disney has marvel
And marvel is retconning and has writers who have said they don’t care about the canon for their respective stories (including RJ and Star Wars)

It’s on topic and telling

[Steelangel]

Wrong: Blizzard is a subsidary from ATVI. ATVI is the mother company from Activision AND Blizzard. And yes, it's possible to buy out the subsidary, even if they are interlinked from ATVI.

Ok, why then do people around here seem to think that Activision is calling the shots on Blizzard?

[ercarp]

In the famous words of Akama, "I think part of me knew even then, that the Black Temple had only traded one evil master for another."

So which is worse, Disney or Activision? Because, to me, it seems like they both kind of suck ass.

[MatadorMedia]

Disney already had their pseduo-mmo with Disney Infinity. It was an okay game but the toys-to-life genre collapsed rather quickly. I'm not sure how they would effectively merge with Blizzard. Although I'd love to see another 16-bit style Castle of Illusion or something but nobody talented works for Blizzard any more.

[Kumorii]

Ok, why then do people around here seem to think that Activision is calling the shots on Blizzard?

Because people know nothing in general when it comes to this? None of us know except the facts stated above...

[huth]

Because people know nothing in general when it comes to this? None of us know except the facts stated above...

And because they can't manage to tell the difference between ATVI(AKA Activision-Blizzard) and Activision.

[Shadowsgrace]

You're joking right, people thought MoP was bad when they added Pandaren, and People complain that Wow has lost some of it's edge over the years... what do you think Disney will do with the graphic visuals of Violence, blood Gore, etc across all the Blizzard titles if they buy it. Disney isn't known for "adult themes" and more of Kid and Family Friendly. No I would not wish Disney to buy Blizzard... it would be the final nail in the coffin for all the games as we know it. Just look at Diablo, you think it would survive a Disney Buy out?

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Disney is the Far greater evil. Hell The Simpsons have poked fun at Disney these past few weeks in their episodes since Disney owns FOX, which owns the rights to the Simpsons. No, Disney, as it is now, is a Cancer on society.

[FelPlague]

He didn't say it was news he secretly got. He said he read it in an industry newsletter. Those aren't secret. Christ, people, stop "refuting" things that nobody ever said.

"I work at an investment banking related firm and we receive certain "special reports" type of newsletters and today's issue was specially interesting"
Sounds like "I work at this super special place, and we got super special information no one has, so much so i am making a thread on it, and pointing out how i got it so specially"

The best part is.
"Fresh rumour"
When as you can see, its been almost a year that we have known that its been a consideration.

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All right, so the shit the dev team has been feeding us. I can't help but think Dausner gets a lot of creative freedom given Nathanos is his brainchild and has had a major role in the story.

Nathanos aint his brainchild.
Idk why you hate him and golden so much when golden has written amazing stories for over a decade. Shes got over 50 best sellers my dude, but yes "Golden is shit"
She has made it very clear on twitter many times, that they do not write the stories, they are given the stories, and their job is to make the bullet points, and idea, into something that reads like a novel, not a list.

[AlmightyGerkin]

Blizzard doesn't have many profitable IPs tbh.

It's really just WoW and OW. Hearthstone in a freefall, HoTS dead, SC dead, Diablo not profitable.

Got Diablo Immortal and Diablo 4 so who knows how profitable that will be. Right Hots is practically dead and SC they ended it and HS eh.

[FelPlague]

Blizzard doesn't have many profitable IPs tbh.

It's really just WoW and OW. Hearthstone in a freefall, HoTS dead, SC dead, Diablo not profitable.

hearthstone freefall? uhh wut...
SC is not dead, its still making a fair bit, not as much as it used to, but those co-op commanders and skins pull in mad.
diablo not profitable? where do we see that, they got TWO diablo games, and a netflix series coming out for it.

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Ok, why then do people around here seem to think that Activision is calling the shots on Blizzard?

Lots of people also think the earth is flat, vaccines cause autisim, and its good to put olive oil in the pasta water to "prevent sticking" just cause people think it, does not mean its right.

[Thage]

I mean personally, I think op is just trolling. I wouldn't say Disney wasn't interested, cause ya know they want everything that makes money but;

Usually I'd say your barking up the wrong tree and this wouldn't happen, but Disney actually take these kind of things super seriously. I could easily see them spending the ££ to figure out who leaked it if was genuine. Although op wouldn't need to worry about prison, they'd just sue his arse for everything. Much more effective way of dealing with stuff like this.

To be fair, it's been public knowledge since last year that there are forces within the House of Mouse that are keen on acquiring Blizzard and its IPs. With the new CEO, this may come to pass if they and Activision Blizzard can come to a number both agree is a good enough price for ATVI to sell Blizzard off. If such talks move from passively extending feelers to actively negotiating a price, I could see how Shadowlands, Overwatch 2, and Diablo IV perform playing a major role in how much ATVI thinks they can get away with and how quickly they take the deal.

As to whether or not it would be a good or bad thing, getting back to the main discussion in the thread, I don't think it would be a terrible deal on our end. The Mouse is known for getting peoples' shit in gear from a financial perspective, without sacrificing quality, or at least the appearance of quality (arguing about story direction aside). I remain convinced Battlefront turned around as well as it did because the Mouse kicked down EA's door, held their collective face up to a bandsaw, and told them to fix it. Disney jealously guards their IPs, so at the very least, a Blizzard acquisition would very likely result in an uptick in in-house development quality as far as launching with minimal bugs rather than the absolute plethora that the last few expansions and their patches have been launching with.

Disney likes money. They like things that make them money. Bad products don't make money--the underperformance of TLJ and Solo is why they put several side-story films on hiatus or canceled them. Meanwhile, Disney has more or less given Kevin Feige free reign over the MCU and Avengers: Endgame is sitting at top dog in the box office, having deposed Avatar. They've given him free reign because he's a proven money-maker. As a player, from my perspective Blizzard's leadership might need that Sword of Damocles hovering over their heads to shake them out of whatever cynical complacency has taken hold of them. And once they're proven moneymakers, the sword gets put away and the Mouse backs off.

[Relapses]

Great, just what Warcraft needs: A fucking $200 million dollar big budget Hollywood film directed by JJ Abrams.

[Kumorii]

And because they can't manage to tell the difference between ATVI(AKA Activision-Blizzard) and Activision.

Hell, people can't even tell the difference between a publisher and developer.

[Daedius]

WoW Subscription gives you Disney+ too.

Woohoo!

I expect to see Ion wearing Mickey Mouse ears, as compulsory, during his dead fish-eyed interviews and discussions... assuming there's much soul left to leave that husk of his.

[Kumorii]

To be fair, it's been public knowledge since last year that there are forces within the House of Mouse that are keen on acquiring Blizzard and its IPs. With the new CEO, this may come to pass if they and Activision Blizzard can come to a number both agree is a good enough price for ATVI to sell Blizzard off. If such talks move from passively extending feelers to actively negotiating a price, I could see how Shadowlands, Overwatch 2, and Diablo IV perform playing a major role in how much ATVI thinks they can get away with and how quickly they take the deal.

As to whether or not it would be a good or bad thing, getting back to the main discussion in the thread, I don't think it would be a terrible deal on our end. The Mouse is known for getting peoples' shit in gear from a financial perspective, without sacrificing quality, or at least the appearance of quality (arguing about story direction aside). I remain convinced Battlefront turned around as well as it did because the Mouse kicked down EA's door, held their collective face up to a bandsaw, and told them to fix it. Disney jealously guards their IPs, so at the very least, a Blizzard acquisition would very likely result in an uptick in in-house development quality as far as launching with minimal bugs rather than the absolute plethora that the last few expansions and their patches have been launching with.

Disney likes money. They like things that make them money. Bad products don't make money--the underperformance of TLJ and Solo is why they put several side-story films on hiatus or canceled them. Meanwhile, Disney has more or less given Kevin Feige free reign over the MCU and Avengers: Endgame is sitting at top dog in the box office, having deposed Avatar. They've given him free reign because he's a proven money-maker. As a player, from my perspective Blizzard's leadership might need that Sword of Damocles hovering over their heads to shake them out of whatever cynical complacency has taken hold of them. And once they're proven moneymakers, the sword gets put away and the Mouse backs off.

This is a good summary tbh and I agree with everything.

[Rogue Karl]

So why on earth would they want to buy Blizzard then? Operating and profit margins have been shrinking year over year. They don't even have any games in growing sectors (like mobile) and they're not particularly strong in emerging markets (China). They don't actually have any new games.

Wouldn't it make much more sense to poach King, if they're poaching ATVI's house? King IP's would also be MUCH easier to adapt to their current IPs - they could release Frost themed candy crush if they wanted to, that wouldn't even require development - it's basically printing money.

This whole thing sounds a bit like financial analysts made the whole thing up in their own MMO-Champ equivalent forum, just like we spring up crazy ideas every now and then and people actually start believing they were "promised features"

I could see them going after the IPs starcraft and warcraft are pretty well known even to people who don't play games. Some of blizzard's third party story telling has been really go ( the Tokyo pop short story manga books come to mind).

I don't think they would consider it as something akin to buying marvel or starwars but I can see profit in it.