Activision Blizzard Q1 2020 Earnings Call

[Low Hanging Fruit]

Hell yeah, I lost money to these people so they could make it!

(what are we celebrating again?)

[Pebrocks The Warlock]

Hell yeah, I lost money to these people so they could make it!

(what are we celebrating again?)

How did YOU lose money?

[MrLachyG]

August? More like September or October for 9.0 if we get the normal 6 weeks of pre-patch.

If they have a 5 month beta then prepatch might not hit til November

[McNeil]

I wonder how much the corona quarantine helped to boost these numbers.

Some other interesting bits is how battlegrounds in Hearthstone are still doing well, but I find that constructed play is getting overshadowed because of it. If you look at the most viewed Hearthstone streamers, almost none of them even play constructed anymore. And considering that they just released a new expansion that for the first time added a new class, I was expecting it to be doing well enough to deserve a mention in these reports.

Also still no HotS news. I don’t even remember who the last new hero was.

[Queen of Hamsters]

Hahaha, all the salt and mental gymnastics from the crowd wanting WoW to fail. It was pretty clear that WoW's doing strong on both fronts between people staying at home and the buffs given to Live. Surprised that the East is singled out as going strong with Classic whilst the West with Live though.


- Activision had 102 million MAUs in the first quarter. This is down from 128 million MAU in Q4 2019.
- Blizzard had 32 million MAUs in the first quarter. This is the same as Q4 2019.

Just to repeat it. They're counted separately, Blizzard's remained stable, Activision has lost almost as many as Blizzard retained despite corona. Woop!

[Calfredd]

Blizzard is apart of ActivisionBlizzard just like Activision is apart of ActivisionBlizzard.

That's why they listed Activision and Blizzard seperately.

[Finear]

[QUOTE=McNeil;52318293]I wonder how much the corona quarantine helped to boost these numbers.

corona didnt hit most places until mid march, so im not sure how big of an impact it had

[Yuli]

Blizzard is apart of ActivisionBlizzard just like Activision is apart of ActivisionBlizzard.

Like King, they're still different sections of the company. Blizzard is Blizzard.

[FelPlague]

I wonder how much the corona quarantine helped to boost these numbers.

Some other interesting bits is how battlegrounds in Hearthstone are still doing well, but I find that constructed play is getting overshadowed because of it. If you look at the most viewed Hearthstone streamers, almost none of them even play constructed anymore. And considering that they just released a new expansion that for the first time added a new class, I was expecting it to be doing well enough to deserve a mention in these reports.

Also still no HotS news. I don’t even remember who the last new hero was.

Quater 1 is jan, feb, march btw.
and the qaurntine didnt start till march in a lot of places (april in others), so not very much.
Q2 is when we will see how much the qaunrtine did, (q2 is april, may, june)

(q3 is july, august, sept, and q4 is oct, nov, dec, just for reference)

[Onikaroshi]

So blizzard is either growing or holding their own on numbers, but Activision is hemorrhaging players. Blizzard will continue to be Activisions strongest asset for a while it seems.

Activision lives and dies by CoD and those only show huge growth on release.

[McNeil]

Also where the hell is the Warcraft 3 Reforged report?

[Saltysquidoon]

Also where the hell is the Warcraft 3 Reforged report?

Loving every laugh my friend.

[Villager720]

Blizzard is apart of ActivisionBlizzard just like Activision is apart of ActivisionBlizzard.

It’s May and we’re 2/4 zones through alpha, already seen Torghast, and, seemingly, the classes have received the bulk of their updates.

What’s going to take 7 more months?

[Queen of Hamsters]

Also where the hell is the Warcraft 3 Reforged report?

We don't talk about that.

[Villager720]

Also still no HotS news. I don’t even remember who the last new hero was.

Deathwing ... at* Blizzcon.
It’s not been great.

*kinda...

[Nythiz]

It’s May and we’re 2/4 zones through alpha, already seen Torghast, and, seemingly, the classes have received the bulk of their updates.

What’s going to take 7 more months?

Pretty sure it's going to be 6 months. They'll want to release this for Black Friday end November for US sales and with Christmas around the corner for global sales.

I mean, even if the game wouldn't need another 6-7 months to develop, from a sales point of view games generally sell better in the oct/nov/dec months.
And they're probably already working on patch 9.1 by now.

[Villager720]

Pretty sure it's going to be 6 months. They'll want to release this for Black Friday end November for US sales and with Christmas around the corner for global sales.

I mean, even if the game wouldn't need another 6-7 months to develop, from a sales point of view games generally sell better in the oct/nov/dec months.
And they're probably already working on patch 9.1 by now.

Sure - makes sense. But October/November 2020 isn’t “delayed” like my quoted colleague called for.

[Will]

Blizzard is apart of ActivisionBlizzard just like Activision is apart of ActivisionBlizzard.

apart means separate from. I'm not sure if you meant to say "a part" or you actually meant "apart".

[Beefhammer]

apart means separate from. I'm not sure if you meant to say "a part" or you actually meant "apart".

No. The holding company ActivisionBlizzard owns three dev companies, Activision, Blizzard, and King. All separate entities. Activision holds no sway over Bkizzard. AB does.

- - - Updated - - -

It’s May and we’re 2/4 zones through alpha, already seen Torghast, and, seemingly, the classes have received the bulk of their updates.

What’s going to take 7 more months?

I think you meant to quote someone esle.

- - - Updated - - -

Like King, they're still different sections of the company. Blizzard is Blizzard.

Yup. I think most mean AB but say Activision. It's a pet peeve of mine.

[Chickat]

Activision lives and dies by CoD and those only show huge growth on release.

Yes and Cod, but Blizzard is like a quarter of their revenue. Thats a lot of revenue from 1 single company. Blizzard and CoD alone could keep Activison afloat. Losing either would be a big blow.