Ion on Raid Release Timing, Activision Blizzard Q3 2020 Investor Call

[rrayy]

"Activision had 111 million MAUs in the second quarter, down from 125 million in Q2 and up from 102 million in Q1 2020."

Wut?

They have this game called Call of Duty. It's a pretty big deal.

[Tiev]

I don't get the hate. Yes they fucked up with how they hyped up the announcement. But I am quite sure that the D4 announcement got postponed and they were left with only that. Since we are getting D4, what is the issue with a diablo mobile game?

Every larger gaming company needs to do that. Little team, huge profits.

Edit: And if it doesn't suck we can play diablo on a phone. I will not play it instead of the PC version, but being able to play it on a bus? That sounds nice to me.

The hate is: Blizzard has traditionally catered to the PC gaming crowd who wants their focus to be squarely on PC games. I bet had they started the presentation with: THIS IS A PC GAMING COMPANY. WE'VE ALWAYS DONE PC GAMES AND WILL CONTINUE TO BE DEVOTED TO PC GAMES. But here's a little treat to mobile gamers... might have been a different look.

Trying to market Diablo Immortal as something blizzard die-hards (aka- convention goers) would care about and be hyped got them their well deserved negative meme. Just felt very tone-deaf and out of touch with their roots.

Especially when Diablo is such a big franchise and people wanted to know what was next for it.

[Eapoe]

Which he could've just said instead of avoiding the question entirely, couldn't he?

Huh?
Was that question asked by a player or community representative?

No, it was asked by an Investor, which makes it legally binding for Brack to answer that question truthfully.
The fact that chose to avoid it entirely implies that a truthful answer would make them look bad.

Considering that Blizzard refuses to release any actual sub numbers, you can figure it out yourself that WoW is getting more and more carried by MTX rather than the regular sub.

So "going strong financially" would be the more accurate statement.

Trying to create a tanget about "all the other MMO's" is just a smokescreen, it has absolutely nothing to do with the discussion at hand.


It's not about proof mate, it's about the fact that he completely avoided answering a very simple question.

Which proves nothing. They don’t reveal sub numbers. Asking a question, knowing that full well, means the person asking shouldn’t really expect a genuine answer. He didn’t need to answer it and didn’t.
That doesn’t mean people who say “WoW is dying” because he didn’t answer a question are correct. You’re grasping at straws to be correct.

[Firebert]

Enjoying all the responses to my post that basically say "we don't care about the people propping up the raiding scene".

Just shows how out of touch the rest of the community is and vindicates my position

[Kralljin]

He didn’t need to answer it and didn’t.

No, you're just missing the point.

He didn't go "Sub count is a bad metric", he distracted from the actual question that was asked.
Two different things.

[Sluvs]

No, you're just missing the point.

He didn't go "Sub count is a bad metric", he distracted from the actual question that was asked.
Two different things.

I mean, the pre-sales are the highest they ever had apparently? So they are definitely not in bad shape, IIRC, legion had 7 million day 1 purchases because of that.

[BlackGoldShooter]

They have this game called Call of Duty. It's a pretty big deal.

I think hes just pointing out they cited two different numbers for the same Quarter

[Kralljin]

I mean, the pre-sales are the highest they ever had apparently? So they are definitely not in bad shape, IIRC, legion had 7 million day 1 purchases because of that.

Pre sales and current sub numbers are two different things.

If the Subs only skyrocket during the release of an expansion, then that doesn't mean those players stay.
We've seen how Subs went from WoD's 10M Launch to ~5 within 6 months.

And afaik, BfA is leading 3.4M day one purchases, which also includes pre purchases.

[Sluvs]

Pre sales and current sub numbers are two different things.

If the Subs only skyrocket during the release of an expansion, then that doesn't mean those players stay.
We've seen how Subs went from WoD's 10M Launch to ~5 within 6 months.

And afaik, BfA is leading 3.4M day one purchases, which also includes pre purchases.

Oh! You are right, I thought it was a bigger number.

[Nite92]

The hate is: Blizzard has traditionally catered to the PC gaming crowd who wants their focus to be squarely on PC games. I bet had they started the presentation with: THIS IS A PC GAMING COMPANY. WE'VE ALWAYS DONE PC GAMES AND WILL CONTINUE TO BE DEVOTED TO PC GAMES. But here's a little treat to mobile gamers... might have been a different look.

Trying to market Diablo Immortal as something blizzard die-hards (aka- convention goers) would care about and be hyped got them their well deserved negative meme. Just felt very tone-deaf and out of touch with their roots.

Especially when Diablo is such a big franchise and people wanted to know what was next for it.

You just repeated basically what I said. We get D4 now.

[SirReal]

Easy. The typical end of the expansion dip we've seen for at least 5 expansions now.

Paired with a presumably pandemic inflated Q2 number

[Nitrax]

Urgh just had to check.. and yes it’s NetEase who developed EVE online for mobile. And that game is nowhere near Blizzard quality.

[Kallisto]

Large part of it, in my opinion, is the self let down that triggered in people which led to a feeling of being betrayed. There’s no real reason to feel betrayed, but people still felt it. Based on information people had gathered the player base fully expected a Diablo 4 announcement. When they didn’t get what they wanted and thought was going to happen, instead of just being upset about it, they directed all of their hurt and upset at the developers even though it was the players who were at fault.
Just a parallel, imagine a couple that have been together for years. One of them thinks the other is going to propose because of the plans they see are put together. Night of the date comes along and the person they thought was going to propose gives them a necklace or earrings but no proposal. The person expecting it now becomes upset, hurt, and possibly angry at the other person even though the idea was only ever built up in their own head.
The difference in this scenario is one group loves each other and works it out in an adult manner. In the other instance it’s a consumer versus developer situation and the consumer just keeps looking for more reasons to hate the company and developer(s).

That self let down would have been avoided if the player base actually listened to what blizzard was saying over the months building up to blizzcon that year openly saying "There will be no Diablo 4 or some kind of Diablo mmo. Temper your expectations." and not outright shitty sources like kotaku or polygon who were bullshitting for clicks becaue that is what they do.

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There is nothing wrong with the diablo game in itself but it will just always be a meme because of the hype. People were expecting diablo 4 and they got a mobile game. Therefore it will always be a meme and hopefully Blizzard see it as an example of how not to treat customers. You can also argue that they “wasted” resources on a mobile game which they could have used on the development of diablo 4.

How is "do you not have phones." treating the customer badly. When the actual response could have easily been " you fucking morons don't you read our announcements saying we don't have Diablo 4"

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People like to act like thay are big brain by waving around sub numbers, I am happy they no longer publish them, less number waving from people, now an even smaller minority just wave around that they don't publish arbitrary numbers so it must mean something conspiracy! x)



That can basicaly be summed up as you played them as you had no other choice though. Its not stab at you, its good you enjoyed them, but for most people well certainly myself, I am in the opposite situation, I am a troglodyte that stays home all the time, playing on a pc is by and far easier and more enjoyable for me, so when I see a game I kinda like then see its for mobile my enthusiam takes a 100% drop :/

That no other choice though is why mobile gaming is huge in the far East. China, Korea, Japan it is not unusual for your commute to be 2+ hours on public transport. While traveling you can't really set up a pc or a console so mobile is king.

Let's not also forget the population of China is equal to americas and Europe combined. Ignoring that as a business is shooting yourself in the foot. Add India and the South East asian corner you have 60-70% of the world's population.

[LazuOG]

Raiding isn't analogous to watching a movie.

They literally are under the same label of "consuming media content".

[Super Kami Dende]

I'll never understand the blind hate "gamers" have against mobile games. It's a bit cringe tbh..

To be fair, a lot of the original hate of Mobile Games came down to them nearly always being filled to the brim with Ads, Microtransactions or horrendous pay2Win mechanics, which a lot of Gamers saw as a slippery slope as many larger companies that made regular games for consoles/PC started creating Mobile Phone divisions within their companies and People were worried it would lead to those type of Phone payment systems becoming largely used in "normal" games.

low and behold.

[Eapoe]

No, you're just missing the point.

He didn't go "Sub count is a bad metric", he distracted from the actual question that was asked.
Two different things.

And what’s that matter? Blizzard does not publish sub numbers.
I can easily flip your argument with “he didn’t outright state ‘I’m not going to talk about sub numbers,’ and instead went ‘let me talk about these other things I am allowed to talk about and mention.’”
He doesn’t need to give any reason to his response, nor do your arguments of “well, he went this other route so I’m right,” have any merit.

[Firebert]

They literally are under the same label of "consuming media content".

Eating glue is also consuming media content; doesn't make it the same.

You are trying very hard at being purposefully unreasonable. I don't think a conversation with you is something worth having.

Thanks for admitting I'm right <3

[Kralljin]

And what’s that matter? Blizzard does not publish sub numbers.

Again, they felt comfortable to talk about them when Classic came out.

I can easily flip your argument with “he didn’t outright state ‘I’m not going to talk about sub numbers,’ and instead went ‘let me talk about these other things I am allowed to talk about and mention.’”

That does not make a lick of sense.

He doesn’t need to give any reason to his response, nor do your arguments of “well, he went this other route so I’m right,” have any merit.

If you're being that willfully ignorant of the fact that he just completely dodged the question without even touching upon any point that was asked, i can't help you.

"the other route" he chose was to talk about nothing related to that question.

Let me remind you: He's not talking to some community schmuck, he's talking to people where:
1.Saying things that make Activision Blizzard look bad will call down the wrath of his superiors
2.Lying to them will bring him in legal hotwaters

[Raisei]

Considering that Blizzard refuses to release any actual sub numbers, you can figure it out yourself that WoW is getting more and more carried by MTX rather than the regular sub.

So "going strong financially" would be the more accurate statement.

You keep telling yourself that, maybe one day it will come true.

Seriously, after 15 years of the game dying every day, one would think the doomsayers get tired, but apparently that never happens. Just like the folks that declare every expansion as the worst ever. Guess everyone needs a hobby.

[ryanmahaffe]

laugh all you want it's gonna earn them scary amounts of money and make other companies go into mobile

Diablo Immortal won't be what makes companies do this, Genshin Impact already is showing it with 245M in it's first month alone