Fresh rumour...mickey mouse and murlocs?

[Aeula]

This is no secret, we know Disney has been wanting to buy Blizzard for a while now. They’ll probably succeed and then we’re really in for it.

[matrix123mko]

Would Disney be good as an owner? I think they would be quite cautious with Diablo but otherwise I don't see the difference between them and Bobby.

[Xath]

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 take it you haven't watched the most recent star wars movies then.

[Thage]

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.

Same reason they bought Marvel. Marvel wasn't doing super hot prior to the Disney buyout, but a household name has a lot of market potential. Hell, Star Wars wasn't doing so hot after the prequels, but Disney bought Lucasfilm to get their hands on that IP. The Warcraft, Overwatch, and Starcraft IPs would be a huge feather in Disney's hat.

[Eurhetemec]

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.

I agree with what you're saying, but you're really hurting your own argument by claiming TLJ underperformed in some meaningful way (it did very, very well - just not as well as TFA, the first Star Wars movie in 15 years), which isn't actually true. By that logic, Rogue One and other movies also desperately "underperformed", and I'm confident in saying Disney doesn't think that. Perhaps you just mean Rogue One rather than TLJ though? Rise also performed a fair bit worse than TLJ.

Either way, the trouble is, Disney are indeed very keen on money, and keen on safe and homogenized. WoW is tricky to fit with that, because it's not a movie franchise, with relatively predictable performance. It's an ongoing online game, with a 12-month content pipeline (so any major non-numbers change needs a year or close to it before it hits), with an audience which is declining due to age as well as other factors, and which has consistently had relatively light-touch in-game moderation (much as people may think otherwise).

If Disney gets hold of Blizzard, they're going to love Overwatch, and they're going to love "Warcraft" as a property (especially Thrall and all that), but are they going to love WoW as a game? I think that's really questionable. I'd be unsurprised if they basically shut it down. I mean, obviously, it's free money, so they're not actually going to shut it down, but I figure after Disney buys WoW, there's one expansion, and either that is an outstanding success, like unheard-of success and maybe WoW continues, or Disney-Blizzard quietly puts WoW into a real "maintenance mode", and we see different Warcraft products, which definitely won't be WC4 or the like. If it's WoW2, it's basically be WoW+Minecraft+Disneyfication. Y'know, for kids.

[Thage]

I agree with what you're saying, but you're really hurting your own argument by claiming TLJ underperformed in some meaningful way (it did very, very well - just not as well as TFA, the first Star Wars movie in 15 years), which isn't actually true. By that logic, Rogue One and other movies also desperately "underperformed", and I'm confident in saying Disney doesn't think that. Perhaps you just mean Rogue One rather than TLJ though? Rise also performed a fair bit worse than TLJ.

Financially, TLJ did well, but there was a pretty vocal backlash--and again, see the bit about Disney jealously guarding its IPs. They had to finish out the trilogy, but they canceled almost all the side stories when Solo flopped and TLJ got vocal, negative feedback. You're right that 'underperformed' was the wrong word choice for TLJ specifically.

Either way, the trouble is, Disney are indeed very keen on money, and keen on safe and homogenized. WoW is tricky to fit with that, because it's not a movie franchise, with relatively predictable performance. It's an ongoing online game, with a 12-month content pipeline (so any major non-numbers change needs a year or close to it before it hits), with an audience which is declining due to age as well as other factors, and which has consistently had relatively light-touch in-game moderation (much as people may think otherwise).

If Disney gets hold of Blizzard, they're going to love Overwatch, and they're going to love "Warcraft" as a property (especially Thrall and all that), but are they going to love WoW as a game? I think that's really questionable. I'd be unsurprised if they basically shut it down. I mean, obviously, it's free money, so they're not actually going to shut it down, but I figure after Disney buys WoW, there's one expansion, and either that is an outstanding success, like unheard-of success and maybe WoW continues, or Disney-Blizzard quietly puts WoW into a real "maintenance mode", and we see different Warcraft products, which definitely won't be WC4 or the like. If it's WoW2, it's basically be WoW+Minecraft+Disneyfication. Y'know, for kids.

It depends. Disney's obviously got no problem with making stuff not for kids. That's a bit of a meme but if you want I can go hunt down the subsidiaries owned by Disney that specialize in content aimed at young adults and adults and definitely aren't kid friendly. Hell, they've committed to keeping Deadpool films rated R going forward (don't mess with a proven formula and whatnot).

And again, having the House of Mouse calling the shots, if Battlefront and Fallen Order are any indication, isn't a bad idea. Obviously the Mouse has no problem throwing its weight around and telling studios to fix their fuck-ups, because they do not want their IPs to be seen as subpar. With a game that prints money like WoW, Disney's interests would be in making sure it keeps printing money; maintenance-moding the game would be its death knell.

[Ielenia]

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.

Most (if not all) non-Marvel Disney movie released recently begs to differ.

[Stardrift]

Disney buying out video game giants..

Great. What an amazing concept. Just let them take over the entertainment business lol

[Pandragon]

I want it, maybe Disney can save Blizzard games from Activision and we can get that Kingdom Hearts/World Warcraft crossover WoW players have been clamoring for years.

Only if Disney says "You're in full control again. Make games like you used to where everyone loved them" which won't happen. It's like Coke and Pepsi. Same shit, different can.

[Varitok]

Oh yes, Nothing says great games like going through the Disney uniqueness scrubber and removing every ounce of soul from something.

[paxen]

Financially, TLJ did well, but there was a pretty vocal backlash--and again, see the bit about Disney jealously guarding its IPs. They had to finish out the trilogy, but they canceled almost all the side stories when Solo flopped and TLJ got vocal, negative feedback. You're right that 'underperformed' was the wrong word choice for TLJ specifically.

The correct description of TLJ is 'controversial', a loud minority hated it, but there's also a significant audience that really liked it. Most people thought it was fine entertainment, nothing more, nothing less. But TLJ had two problems - one, that they tried some sort of collaborative impro storytelling which really isn't suited to a multi-year big budget movie project (which also fell apart when Trevorrow was fired and JJ tried to wrench the story back to what he wanted it to be). It really should have had a different form of project management.

The second problem is, of course, that Disney abhors controversy like the TLJ reception. It's great for art, not so great for making money.

(end tangent)

I think Disney could work out all right for Blizzard. At least the movies and tv shows have a good chance at being great.

[Stockers]

HAHAHAHAHA. Oh wait, you're serious. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Disney cares about quality. Oh boy that's rich.

Please enlighten us more with your vast knowledge about Disney and quality.

[Soeroah]

On the one hand it might actually be what Blizzard needs to help it return to its former quality.

On the other hand, I doubt it would be much better for the actual developers.

Further on the other hand, I really like Kingdom Hearts and some more niche Disney properties but I reaaaaaaaaaaaalllllyyyyyyyyy don't want them to own so many IPs. I'd rather they sell properties than continue to collect them all. They already own, what, 60% of entertainment at this point?

[Pandragon]

I've always wondered why you guys are giving Blizzard design team such a free pass by blaming everything on ATVI?
I think Blizzard (and the WoW design team of 50 people in particular) are more than capable of taking bad game design decisions on their own.
I don't think Bobby Kotick actually takes part in their morning stand-ups.

I don't think we can ever magically time travel back to 2004 and I don't think new WoW releases will be significantly different, no matter who owns the corporate mothership.

I'm not. They can easily make bad game designs. Like when they turned Uldum into an Indiana Jones movie. Or released reforging. But a lot of the issues we are having is also because they have to meet Activisions timetable.

[Stabbyfists]

I want it, maybe Disney can save Blizzard games from Activision and we can get that Kingdom Hearts/World Warcraft crossover WoW players have been clamoring for years.

Like they saved Star Wars?

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Mind You, I'm all for blizzard getting out from under the thumb of Activision but believe me, Disney buying them would be the WORST possible outcome.

Why? Disney partners with EA which is where blizzard will go. They will go from under the heel of Activison to the complete utter game ruining dictatorship thats EA. Prepare to see lootboxes....wait I mean "Surprise Mechanics" in wow. Prepare to see not only Level skips, but soon, STORY SKIPS in wow. Prepare to see boxes on the shop that have a chance to contain mythic raid gear. EA will butcher wow to the point its no longer wow and wonder why the playerbase left. Activison is doing that already but at least their approach is to slowly creep in over the course of a few expansions and THEN hit you. EA will do it all upfront and worse.

So no, I do not want Disney buying Blizzard, but I do not want Blizzard to remain with Activision.

[Pandragon]

Those things must exist on Blizzard's side as well

Part of the mess they're in at the moment (no new IPs, old titles taking years to release, missed quality goals. shrinking operating margins etc) is because they haven't had internal discipline to keep project scopes together. They run very old development methodology. Speed of change is glacially slow. Their feedback loop is around 2 years for WoW.

They've squandered multi-million (billion?) projects like 7-years of Titan development. In fact, Blizzard cancels 50% of the games it develops - that sort of resource waste is going to catch up with you sooner or later, no matter how successful you are.

It has caught up with Blizzard now. It doesn't matter who the corporate overlord is. This is Blizzard's problem and must be solved by Blizzard.

Yes, but typically the timetables of someone like Activision is much tighter i think. They want a specific amount of progression done in a certain time, and then the game must release when they want it to.

Titan wasn't a "complete" waste, we got Overwatch out of what they did get developed.

Well they can't fix it as long as someone else is in control of them.

[rhorle]

Why? Disney partners with EA which is where blizzard will go. They will go from under the heel of Activison to the complete utter game ruining dictatorship thats EA.

That is not how things work at all. Disney closed down their first party game development, except for mobile, and instead partners with other companies to publish their games. EA isn't the only one that does Disney games. Disney wouldn't buy Blizzard only to give them to EA when Disney doesn't own EA at all. Disney buying Blizzard would be little different then them being owned by Activision Blizzard, Vivendi, and all the others who have owned Blizzard.

The exception to that is if Disney wants to transform Blizzard into more then a studio which would mean they would become just like EA or Activision that over see other studios working for Disney.

[Niwes]

At this point i think i would be way more happy when Disney owns Blizz than Actvission. Really.

[Deferionus]

I take it you haven't watched the most recent star wars movies then.

I actually like them. I know I'm not a part of the vocal minority.

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

They release solid Marvel products constantly. Their theme parks are top tier. Their cruise line is great. I liked the new Star Wars movies. They had Disney+ come out last year and a show on there went viral in meme culture.

I guess I should ask you what large studio is constantly pumping out quality material as fast as Disney?

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Go watch the new aladin or lion king, come back here and genuinely repeat that sentence please.

Haven't watched those. They do not appeal to me.

[Voidism]

I think this would be for the best. I really hope that means we might get some sweet Star Wars games in the future. Preferrably RPG's. :3