Activision Blizzard Q2 2021 Investor Call, Blizzard Employee Letter to Leadership

[mbit]

Wait, so if I log into a trial account to see if my old server is dead yet and I play a few games of Heroes of the Storm on the weekend I get counted as two MAUs?

Yes, whats more is if they count retail & bcc as separate games. Easy way to push up numbers.

[justandulas]

That depends on the circumstance, i'm not well versed in how things work in american football leagues but i assume those clubs are still seperate legal entities.

The NFL gets sued when there's systemic issues at hand, meaning that the issue is present in the majority of / all teams and said the overarching entity does nothing to rectify this.

When one employee gets discriminated by their supervisor, they won't sue the parent company (Or NFL for that matter), they're going to sue their employer (the subsidiary) first and foremost.

The issue only gets to those levels if the person reports the incident and gets ignored by those entities, because then they have knowledge of such an incident and have at least investigate the matter.

They sue Activsion Blizzard because the issue they are sueing them over is allegedly present in the entire company, not just Blizzard.
After all, this lawsuit isn't just about sexual harassment, but the discrimination of women, meaning payment, promotion, termination and so forth.

They also would risk the lawsuit itself, as the DFEH wants to prove systemic discrimination within Activision Blizzard, if that is limited to a single subsidiary, then they're setting themselves up for failure.

If somebody wrecks my car, i'm not going to sue their entire family unless i can showcase they had a hand in it, i have to sue the person that damaged my car.
The comparison isn't perfect because a family is not a legal entity like a company, but should get the point across: You have to sue the right entities, not simply their higher ups for [reasons] unless you have proof that they're involved somehow.

You aim for the biggest fish possible in america when dropping a lawsuit. Let's say you were to sue wal-mart... you don't sue the particular store, you sue the BRAND wal-mart.

And for your car analogy... a better and more accurate one would be if the parents let the kid drive their car without a license and totaled your car or injured you.... you'd have every right to sue the parents into oblivion since they're technically responsible for the child's actions to a certain legal/financial degree.

You have to keep in mind that in america, lawsuits aren't used primarily for justice.... but rather financial gain at a slight or major injustice. It's more retaliation than seeking justice most of the times, and for that... you aim for the big fish which would be ACTVISION-BLIZZARD here and not just Blizzard.

Secondly, we've never once heard a single complaint from the staff at CoD or King that even is in the same stratosphere as what we've heard about blizzard.

Considering blizzard is tied to the hip at ATVI, when you sue them, you sue the top of the company, go for the money, and let the board sort out the rest.

[OrangeJuice]

Activision Blizzard Q2 2021 Investor Call
The Activision Blizzard earnings call is this afternoon. We've highlighted some of the written results below.

• Activision had 127 million MAUs in the second quarter, down from 150 million MAUs in the first quarter, down from 128 million MAUs in Q4 2020, up from 111M in Q3 and 125M in Q2.
• Blizzard had 26 million MAUs in the second quarter, down from 27 million MAUs in the first quarter, down from 29 million in Q4 2020, down from 30 million in Q3 2020, and down from 32 million in Q1/Q2 2020.
• World of Warcraft net bookings again grew a double-digit percentage year-over-year, driven by the launch of Burning Crusade Classic.
• Subscriber numbers and hours played were higher following the release, demonstrating the importance of Classic in enabling more ways for players to engage.
• World of Warcraft remains on track for much stronger engagement this year than is typical outside of a modern expansion year.
• The latest expansion of the Hearthstone franchise, Forged in the Barrens, delivered expansion-over-expansion net bookings growth for a second consecutive release following its March launch
• The team is pursuing additional opportunities to make Diablo Immortal even more engaging for a wider audience, with the launch now slated for first half of 2022
• Blizzard continues to make strong progress on Diablo 4 and is allocating substantial resources to creating exciting in-game content to drive engagement over multiple years
• Overwatch 2 development passed an important internal milestone in recent weeks. After a great response to the recent community update, the team is looking forward to revealing more of the game in the coming months as they approach the laterstages of production.

Blizzard Employee Letter to Leadership
IGN shared Blizzard employee's letter to management.

To CEO Bobby Kotick and the Activision Blizzard executive leadership team,

We are The ABK Workers Alliance, an organized group of current Activision Blizzard, Inc. employees committed to defending our right to a safe and equitable workplace. That right remains endangered as the stories of abuse and mistreatment continue to grow in scope, and new accounts of harassment perpetrated by current Activision Blizzard employees have continued to emerge since the publication of the DFEH’s lawsuit.

Last week, we took collective action to demand better working conditions for women and other marginalized groups at Activision Blizzard King (ABK) by writing an open letter signed by more than 3,000 current employees. We organized the #ActiBlizzWalkout at Blizzard Entertainment’s Irvine headquarters where more than 500 workers walked out and hundreds more participated virtually around the world.

Our request for action crosses studio lines, including workers from Activision, Beenox, Blizzard Entertainment, High Moon Studios, Infinity Ward, King, Sledgehammer Games, Raven Software, and Vicarious Visions. Our goal is for the executive leadership team to address their response to the California DFEH lawsuit, acknowledge the reality of working conditions across our organization, and commit to meaningful change at Activision Blizzard.

We communicated a list of four demands aimed at protecting our most vulnerable workers. These are: (1) an end to forced arbitration in employment agreements, (2) the adoption of inclusive recruitment and hiring practices, (3) increases in pay transparency through compensation metrics, and (4) an audit of ABK policies and practices to be performed by a neutral third-party. Importantly, we demanded that this third party be selected by an employee-led Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion task force.

In response to our demands, you wrote a letter to employees expressing a commitment to doing a better job of listening. You said you would do everything possible to work with employees in improving our workplace. And yet, the solutions you proposed in that letter did not meaningfully address our requests. You ignored our call for an end to mandatory arbitration. You did not commit to adopting inclusive recruitment and hiring practices. You made no comment on pay transparency.

One of our demands, a third-party audit of ABK practices and policies, was ostensibly addressed by your decision to hire WilmerHale to conduct an internal review. While we commend the idea of hiring a third-party firm to perform an internal review, The ABK Workers Alliance cannot support the choice of WilmerHale as an impartial reviewer.

We reject the selection of WilmerHale for the following reasons:

• WilmerHale’s pre-existing relationships with Activision Blizzard and its executives create an unacceptable conflict of interest.
  
  • Activision Blizzard has already been a client of WilmerHale, who you used to dispute the Diverse Candidate Search Policy proposed by the AFL-CIO Reserve Fund and UAW Retiree Medical Benefits Trust earlier in 2021.
  • ○ Frances Townsend is known to have relationships with multiple partners at WilmerHale, including former FBI Director Robert Mueller.
• WilmerHale has a history of discouraging workers’ rights and collective action.
  
  • WilmerHale states on their public website that their services include “advising on union awareness and avoidance”.
  • WilmerHale used anti-collective action tactics in their work with Amazon & Uber.
  • In media portrayals, WilmerHale is regularly referred to as a “Union Busting Firm”. We are already seeing the effects of this ideology in actions that leadership has taken to restrict our freedom of association since last week, including reducing the size of listening sessions and limiting access to those sessions.
• The WilmerHale partner leading this investigation, Stephanie Avakian, specializes in protecting the wealthy and powerful.
  
  • WilmerHale outlined Avakian’s work as: “...counseling and defending financial institutions, public and private companies, hedge funds, accounting firms, investment advisors, boards, corporate executives, and individuals facing regulatory and criminal investigations and litigation with the government.”
  • In Stephanie’s speech highlighting her successes with the SEC, all of her significant examples included achievements in favor of investors, retail clients, and customers, but does not once mention employees or laborers. We need legal representation that centers on the concerns of our current employees, rather than investors.

We call on you and your executive leadership team to do better, and to fully address our list of demands. We will not abandon our cause. Our ranks continue to grow across multiple Activision Blizzard studios. While there are structural problems that only you can address, we are already taking steps to improve our workplace through a number of employee-driven initiatives:

• Worker-to-Worker Mentorship: We are building a mentorship program where workers can seek career advice, support, and sponsorship from a network of colleagues in a safe external channel outside company communication networks.
• Open Listening Sessions: We will host listening sessions that will be recorded and disseminated across the organization to facilitate ongoing conversation, education, and emotional support for employees.
• Community Meetings: We will facilitate monthly employee meetings, in a secure external channel, to discuss our concerns, desires, and progress toward achieving our goals. All current ABK employees are welcome to participate in these conversations.

As these actions show, we love our studios and care deeply for our colleagues. We share your expressed unwavering commitment to improving our company together.

We are doing what we can, and we call on you to do what we cannot.

Sincerely,

The ABK Workers Alliance

Twitter: @ABetterABK

Friendly reminder that 1 account can be counted as TWO or MORE "active" users.

yep. If you login to only WoW you're counted as 1 mau.
If you login to WoW+WoW Classic, you're counted as 2 MAU
If you login to WoW+WoW Classic+WoW TBC Classic, you're counted as 3 MAUs
This goes for any Blizzard game. Each separate game you login to counts as 1 MAU and additionally, each platform you use counts as 1 MAU.
So if you play hearthstone on your phone+PC you're counted as 2 MAUS. Its kinda scummy imo and probably why they're being sued in a separate case.

- - - Updated - - -

Its also crazy that MAUS are even down considering TBC classic's launch in q2. They essentially doubled their MAU count with TBC classic yet still are the lowest they've been in years. Even before all this lawsuit drama people have stopped playing Blizzard games.

They only mention "double digit profits" which could literally just mean 10%, which isn't really something to brag about. I'm sure a huge chunk of that money came from TBC level boosts.

[justandulas]

yep. If you login to only WoW you're counted as 1 mau.
If you login to WoW+WoW Classic, you're counted as 2 MAU
If you login to WoW+WoW Classic+WoW TBC Classic, you're counted as 3 MAUs
This goes for any Blizzard game. Each separate game you login to counts as 1 MAU and additionally, each platform you use counts as 1 MAU.
So if you play hearthstone on your phone+PC you're counted as 2 MAUS. Its kinda scummy imo and probably why they're being sued in a separate case.

it's definitely scummy. When they don't have the player count anymore, just fudge the math and count people multiple times. As an investor, that troubles me almost as much as the other stuff... because they are literally lying about the player count and fudging the numbers... and lying or misleading the shareholders is a death sentence for ANY publicly traded company. There's no faster way to end up broke and in jail than to lie to your shareholders.

[Clozer]

it's definitely scummy. When they don't have the player count anymore, just fudge the math and count people multiple times. As an investor, that troubles me almost as much as the other stuff... because they are literally lying about the player count and fudging the numbers... and lying or misleading the shareholders is a death sentence for ANY publicly traded company. There's no faster way to end up broke and in jail than to lie to your shareholders.

This is a gray area. A player playing multiple games, also spends money on multiple games. Therefore counting him as an active user multiple times is not as bad and misleading as it seems.

[OrangeJuice]

it's definitely scummy. When they don't have the player count anymore, just fudge the math and count people multiple times. As an investor, that troubles me almost as much as the other stuff... because they are literally lying about the player count and fudging the numbers... and lying or misleading the shareholders is a death sentence for ANY publicly traded company. There's no faster way to end up broke and in jail than to lie to your shareholders.

Ya this probably has something to do with the fraud investigation going on.

- - - Updated - - -

This is a gray area. A player playing multiple games, also spends money on multiple games. Therefore counting him as an active user multiple times is not as bad and misleading as it seems.

Ya maybe I guess but if you're playing the same game on 2 platforms I don't see how there is additional potential to spend more money so I don't see the need to count as double MAUS. Plus I haven't read the investor report in awhile so I'm not entirely sure if that means the WoW app counts as 1 MAU as well, although I have a feeling it does.

[mbit]

Ya maybe I guess but if you're playing the same game on 2 platforms I don't see how there is additional potential to spend more money so I don't see the need to count as double MAUS. Plus I haven't read the investor report in awhile so I'm not entirely sure if that means the WoW app counts as 1 MAU as well, although I have a feeling it does.

On hs - they argue we cant link phone and pc reliable due technical limits so we just count everyone double. It makes somewhat sense, if someone has different accounts on pc & phone you can link them being the same household most likely by using same wlan but you cant say if its 2 people in same household or just 1. Im saying somewhat because you could still put out how many are using the same account on phone&pc and avoid counting those double.

[Kralljin]

You aim for the biggest fish possible in america when dropping a lawsuit. Let's say you were to sue wal-mart... you don't sue the particular store, you sue the BRAND wal-mart.

Again, that depends on the circumstance and whether the brand Wal-mart violated anything.
If your supervisor calls you a cunt and the first thing you do is to sue the entire Wal-Mart brand because of disrimination without notifying them on what has happened, they're going to say "We have no idea what you're talking about".
In such a scenario, you have to give the acussed some time to rectify this issue internally, if they don't, go ahead and sue them, but you can't go around and sue on the highest level the second you're wronged and expect to have success.

For example, in this infamous "Mcdonalds coffee lawsuit" case, it was actually revealed that Mcdonalds had internal rulings to boil that coffee way too fucking hot => Mcdonalds (the brand) had to pay up because their internal rulings led to a person being harmed.

Turns out that handing out a cup of liquid with a 180-190°F / 82-88°C temperature is damn dangerous.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liebec...7s_Restaurants

And for your car analogy... a better and more accurate one would be if the parents let the kid drive their car without a license and totaled your car or injured you.... you'd have every right to sue the parents into oblivion since they're technically responsible for the child's actions to a certain legal/financial degree.

J Allen Brack is however not a kid without a driver's license, driving a car.

Brack / Blizzard Entertainment had the responsibility to protect their employees, unless allegations of misconduct go straight to Activsion Blizzard (which they didn't), then Blizzard is responsible first and foremost, Activision Blizzard did not hand the keys of Blizzard entertainment to someone that was legally not allowed to become president of a company they own.

The case alleges that this is a company wide issue, they wouldn't allege that unless they have proof that it has happened in every branch of Activision Blizzard.

You have to keep in mind that in america, lawsuits aren't used primarily for justice.... but rather financial gain at a slight or major injustice. It's more retaliation than seeking justice most of the times, and for that... you aim for the big fish which would be ACTVISION-BLIZZARD here and not just Blizzard.

This is however first and foremost a goverment agency sueing a private enterprise.
the affected mployees aren't going to necessarily get paid any compensation out of that lawsuit itself, because that's going to be a court case of sexual harassment, where it must be established, what has happened and to what extent Blizzard / accused is guilty of.

Secondly, we've never once heard a single complaint from the staff at CoD or King that even is in the same stratosphere as what we've heard about blizzard.

We also haven't heard much of sexual harassment at Blizzard.
Until a few weeks ago.

The fact that those employees participated in the walkout and also are seemingly part of the organization that uses the name of the company they're employed at, gives you an idea that they're quite likely involved.

Also, considering Blizzard is far from the first company with this issue, it's clear that this is an industry wide issue.

And, most of all, keep in mind that we're not just talking sexual harassment here, the lawsuit is primarily about payment, assignment, promotion and termination, which is something that has been barely discussed on this forum by the way.
The sexual harassment stuff is actually just there to make a point how much women were discriminated at Activision Blizzard.

[agentsi]

It's literally part of the lawsuit and was investigated by the police when it happened.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultas...h=435006ba166c

As I said, this never happened at Blizzard.

Care to try again? Or are you one of those delusional types where you think just because you believe something, that it must be true, even though the facts prove that it is not?

These types of things are so incredibly hard to identify properly, and sometimes it appears worse than it really is.

Some men and women just aren't good at their jobs, and that's okay. But when men aren't, they're rarely promoted, rarely given second chances, or in some cases let go. If women in this day and age aren't good at their job, it's considered harassment to not advance them, or give them more opportunities. As someone who works in HR, and sees this every single day, the culture of America is changing for the worse. No one is held accountable for their actions. Male, female, non-binary, no one. But when men aren't, it's considered favoritism, when women aren't, it's considered sexual harassment or discrimination. When in reality, it's 100% total bullshit.

If you're lazy and shitty at your job, it usually has nothing to do with what sex you identify as.

[ClassicPeon]

You aim for the biggest fish possible in america when dropping a lawsuit. Let's say you were to sue wal-mart... you don't sue the particular store, you sue the BRAND wal-mart.

And for your car analogy... a better and more accurate one would be if the parents let the kid drive their car without a license and totaled your car or injured you.... you'd have every right to sue the parents into oblivion since they're technically responsible for the child's actions to a certain legal/financial degree.

You have to keep in mind that in america, lawsuits aren't used primarily for justice.... but rather financial gain at a slight or major injustice. It's more retaliation than seeking justice most of the times, and for that... you aim for the big fish which would be ACTVISION-BLIZZARD here and not just Blizzard.

Secondly, we've never once heard a single complaint from the staff at CoD or King that even is in the same stratosphere as what we've heard about blizzard.

Considering blizzard is tied to the hip at ATVI, when you sue them, you sue the top of the company, go for the money, and let the board sort out the rest.

Thats not how MAU works.

1 MAU per battlenet user thats active.

If you play both d4, wow, classic, hots(rofl) and whatever else in one month you still only count as one MAU.

[Clouds2]

Thats not how MAU works.

1 MAU per battlenet user thats active.

If you play both d4, wow, classic, hots(rofl) and whatever else in one month you still only count as one MAU.

This is incorrect per blizzards own definition of MAU calculations.

[OrangeJuice]

Thats not how MAU works.

1 MAU per battlenet user thats active.

If you play both d4, wow, classic, hots(rofl) and whatever else in one month you still only count as one MAU.

If you played all 4 of those games you would be counted as 4 MAUS.

[Alduin]

yep. If you login to only WoW you're counted as 1 mau.
If you login to WoW+WoW Classic, you're counted as 2 MAU
If you login to WoW+WoW Classic+WoW TBC Classic, you're counted as 3 MAUs
This goes for any Blizzard game. Each separate game you login to counts as 1 MAU and additionally, each platform you use counts as 1 MAU.
So if you play hearthstone on your phone+PC you're counted as 2 MAUS. Its kinda scummy imo and probably why they're being sued in a separate case.

- - - Updated - - -

Its also crazy that MAUS are even down considering TBC classic's launch in q2. They essentially doubled their MAU count with TBC classic yet still are the lowest they've been in years. Even before all this lawsuit drama people have stopped playing Blizzard games.

They only mention "double digit profits" which could literally just mean 10%, which isn't really something to brag about. I'm sure a huge chunk of that money came from TBC level boosts.

Basically they are confirming that they are inflating MAU for shareholder value whilst not even being able to engage ALL WoW Classic players into the TBC Classic transition.

Standard Users logging into WoW and maybe Hearthstone on PC and via mobile app (yes the WoW app counts as engagement) would count as 4 (!) MAU with only one subscription. For most of their titles the MAU even is not related to profits (e.g. you have no monthly fee on Hearthstone). And who knows how many bots are in that MAU statement.
WoWprogress btw lists only 550.398 unique player accounts for EU, 465.580 for US. WoW Classic was around 240k players last time I checked. Overwatch around 198k. Hearthstone in 2021 clocks in for 3.5mio accounts (down from presumably 23mio in 2020 und 100mio in 2018).
These are some really dire numbers they published there - pretty much stating that WoW has now less (!) players than when they launched back in 2005.

PS: If I would be some wallstreet reddit boy I wouldn't shortened this til Bobby gets f*d.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

Basically they are confirming that they are inflating MAU for shareholder value whilst not even being able to engage ALL WoW Classic players into the TBC Classic transition.

Standard Users logging into WoW and maybe Hearthstone on PC and via mobile app (yes the WoW app counts as engagement) would count as 4 (!) MAU with only one subscription. For most of their titles the MAU even is not related to profits (e.g. you have no monthly fee on Hearthstone). And who knows how many bots are in that MAU statement.
WoWprogress btw lists only 550.398 unique player accounts for EU, 465.580 for US. WoW Classic was around 240k players last time I checked. Overwatch around 198k. Hearthstone in 2021 clocks in for 3.5mio accounts (down from presumably 23mio in 2020 und 100mio in 2018).
These are some really dire numbers they published there - pretty much stating that WoW has now less (!) players than when they launched back in 2005.

PS: If I would be some wallstreet reddit boy I wouldn't shortened this til Bobby gets f*d.

3rd party sites aren’t at all reliable, all we know for wows numbers is that while every thing else has fallen wow has reported growth for every quarter but I think one since classics release.

There’s little to no chance they have less players then in 2005 and that the drops aren’t in other games.

[OrangeJuice]

Basically they are confirming that they are inflating MAU for shareholder value whilst not even being able to engage ALL WoW Classic players into the TBC Classic transition.

Standard Users logging into WoW and maybe Hearthstone on PC and via mobile app (yes the WoW app counts as engagement) would count as 4 (!) MAU with only one subscription. For most of their titles the MAU even is not related to profits (e.g. you have no monthly fee on Hearthstone). And who knows how many bots are in that MAU statement.
WoWprogress btw lists only 550.398 unique player accounts for EU, 465.580 for US. WoW Classic was around 240k players last time I checked. Overwatch around 198k. Hearthstone in 2021 clocks in for 3.5mio accounts (down from presumably 23mio in 2020 und 100mio in 2018).
These are some really dire numbers they published there - pretty much stating that WoW has now less (!) players than when they launched back in 2005.

PS: If I would be some wallstreet reddit boy I wouldn't shortened this til Bobby gets f*d.

Its pretty crazy to think that WOTLK had more players than all of Blizzards current games combined. I guess thats what happens when you spread yourself too thin. If you own any ATVI stock you get a investors report. The last one I looked at was in Legion, and it detailed where all of their money comes from. You're able to get a rough estimate of how many subs the game has based on it. I calculated in Legion WoW had 300k NA (USA/Canadian only) subscribers. Majority comes from overseas and South America. I stopped reading them but I'm pretty sure WoW has nowhere near 300k NA players anymore. If that website is right about 550k unique players then I'd imagine theres probably around 100k or less from NA.

In MoP and even early WoD, if you q'd for a skirmish it would pop instantly. I used to use skirms to get out of WPvP or duels when I started to lose (lol). Now, I sit in q for 5-10 mins. If you're good at math you can probably calculate how many people are playing based on q times.

[Alicianna]

Just read on a German News site an investor wants to sue ActivisionBlizzard und Bobby Kotick because he kept the whole thing under the rug for too long. Maybe we‘re getting rid of Coca Cola guy after all…

[OrangeJuice]

Just read on a German News site an investor wants to sue ActivisionBlizzard und Bobby Kotick because he kept the whole thing under the rug for too long. Maybe we‘re getting rid of Coca Cola guy after all…

I think Bobby is trying to reach a billion dollars before leaving. I don't see him giving up yet.

[pahbi]

Wow is a business, and until enough people vote with their wallets to the point where the investors start to lose money, you can pretty much bet Blizz is just going to keep on with business as usual instead of trying to do better.

IMO, that's the most disappointing aspect of the entire report.

[OrangeJuice]

Wow is a business, and until enough people vote with their wallets to the point where the investors start to lose money, you can pretty much bet Blizz is just going to keep on with business as usual instead of trying to do better.

IMO, that's the most disappointing aspect of the entire report.

Pretty much all people have to do is stop using the cash shop. Quitting entirely helps but not so much if you quit and then return and purchase a bunch of tokens to jumpstart you back into the current patch. Its more effective to just stop buying anything other than the expansion.

[rrayy]

If only the employees at blizzard has some sort of collective rights group, a union of workers if you will. That would insist the company come to the table and argue on a vaguely equal footing instead of promoting a culture of individual negotiation.

Have fun trying to accomplish that. THey will implode as their own greed will come billowing out.