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

[Delever]

For the guys sipping hard on copium thinking streamers were the only influence on XIV, I ll update you with the reality of the situation as someone who has played XIV since ARR and only jumping on and off from WoW since WoD primarily to play classic.

The game started with a niche playerbase which was large enough to sustain it. Since ARR it has only grown hitting its lowest points every time naturally at the end of each expansion where people have experienced most of the content. The game had been gaining a steady updward momentum for a while and had a steady but slow growth over the years.
With that being said, shadowbringers and its marketting made the game grow a bit more than usual since the begining of this expansions. Couple that with SL being the 2nd shit expansion in a row and a lot of people were starting to jump ship, making XIV gain a larger and larger momentum.
It was this very momentum that eventually made the streamers start jumping into this game. I was already sitting at queues of around 100 people before Asmons and Annie started streaming the game and those have now become queues of 600 people daily on prime time and I m not even on the most populated EU server.
The streamers did not suddenly just decide to start promoting XIV. They deliberately chose a game that was gaining momentum before they jumped ship and what the streamers did is they made the linear upward line of growth suddenly spike. This spike will naturally drop but it is disingenuous for a lot of you to say that this investors call proves that people already quit XIV when with a little bit of reading comprehension you can clearly see that hearthstone and classic are carrying the company on their backs (2 crowds that are a lot different than what XIV aims at getting).
It is also not fair to say that XIV is entirely built on streamer hype when the streamers are the ones who jumped on the bandwagon and not the ones who created it.
In any case if you dont enjoy XIV that is fine. You can enjoy either one or even both of the games at the same time. Just stop sipping on copium because retail is not doing so great atm. I hope there will come a time when it will rise to greatness again.

[rrayy]

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…

Have fun trying to prove that. That reeks of someone extorting for a pay day.

[Alicianna]

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

You‘re probably right… but hey even the investors finally figured out he‘s not good for the company in the long run. Fingers crossed.

[Polybius]

I do love the hot takes of "Blizzard employees wanting more equity in the workplace? Now you're going too far! Just be happy you maybe aren't going to be sexually harassed and call it a day!"

Let them use this wave of goodwill to push for change. And hopefully that propagates to other studios as well. Studios (and corporations at large) are all too happy to short-change the talent that allows them to exist. Anything that starts to sink that is good in my eyes.

They’ve either never held an office job or live in ignorance of everyone around them. People who lack empathy don’t deserve empathy from others. The world doesn’t revolve around them and it’s time they got the hint.

[OrangeJuice]

You‘re probably right… but hey even the investors finally figured out he‘s not good for the company in the long run. Fingers crossed.

Not really. ATVI still shows growth despite games (specifically Blizzard games) declining. He can easily chalk that up to poor Blizzard leadership, which hes already replaced.

[Draco-Onis]

Not really. ATVI still shows growth despite games (specifically Blizzard games) declining. He can easily chalk that up to poor Blizzard leadership, which hes already replaced.

It's just difficult to remove a CEO even before this several lawsuits were filled because Bobby uses ATVI as his own little piggy bank and his compensation makes zero sense.

[PenguinChan]

So I'm rather confused. If Blizzard CANNOT in a modern sense, distinguish between games for MAU - then why can they do so for Overwatch? They even admitted to it being at its highest peak player count late last year. This just sounds like they have (to some extent) fixed the MAU issue reported back in 2018, or that it only is fixed for Overwatch? I dunno.

But anyone thinking WoW is on the rise is fooling themselves. Blizzard said it in their own reports that Classic / TBC have helped tremendously in the WoW front. That should really tell you retail wasn't doing so hot and isn't doing so hot now. That isn't to say it doesn't have players because that's absolutely false to state.

[jackoff]

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.

Ofc it's a business, nobody cares about community or what they really want, all they want is fill up their wallet. 300k+ babies born a day and imagine how many new kids discovers wow and starts playing. Circulation is more than enough. They dont care if some people make a sit protests or some streamers unsub. Its still a huge wide fantasy world and there always be new money (clients).

So while you curse them they just care about how to fix this to keep their wallets with less cost damage, otherwise they dont really care at all about this harassment scandal, welcome to 2021 period.

[Nimin]

They’ve either never held an office job or live in ignorance of everyone around them. People who lack empathy don’t deserve empathy from others. The world doesn’t revolve around them and it’s time they got the hint.

Being blindly emphatic is a great way to get duped and let terrible things take place.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

So I'm rather confused. If Blizzard CANNOT in a modern sense, distinguish between games for MAU - then why can they do so for Overwatch? They even admitted to it being at its highest peak player count late last year. This just sounds like they have (to some extent) fixed the MAU issue reported back in 2018, or that it only is fixed for Overwatch? I dunno.

The quote is cut off it says under that bit that blizzard doesn’t count different platforms twice just activison and king. The same likely apply’s to different games as well though rather they can break it down and rather they do for reporting total numbers Is unclear.

[Nurasu]

Have fun trying to prove that. That reeks of someone extorting for a pay day.

It would be rather easy to prove, actually - the State of California will have a record of dates and notices, and if Bobby didn't properly or timely disclose the scale of the investigation to investors, there's a case.

[Draco-Onis]

Ofc it's a business, nobody cares about community or what they really want, all they want is fill up their wallet. 300k+ babies born a day and imagine how many new kids discovers wow and starts playing. Circulation is more than enough. They dont care if some people make a sit protests or some streamers unsub. Its still a huge wide fantasy world and there always be new money (clients).

So while you curse them they just care about how to fix this to keep their wallets with less cost damage, otherwise they dont really care at all about this harassment scandal, welcome to 2021 period.

I am not sure how you are coming to that conclusion MAUs are down year over year. Even with lockdown and TBC release, the player base is shrinking but they are milking their base more and more that's a very bad sign.

Also keep in mind these numbers don't include recent events and the streamer exodus.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

I am not sure how you are coming to that conclusion MAUs are down year over year. Even with lockdown and TBC release, the player base is shrinking but they are milking their base more and more that's a very bad sign.

Also keep in mind these numbers don't include recent events and the streamer exodus.

Total MUA are down year over year but wow it self has grown for the last 7/8 quarters, while overwatch Diablo and the like might have a shrinking player base wow has kept growth since classic came out.

[Draco-Onis]

Total MUA are down year over year but wow it self has grown for the last 7/8 quarters, while overwatch Diablo and the like might have a shrinking player base wow has kept growth since classic came out.

That's not what the numbers show the PR speaks just says WoW did well when the new expansion released. They don't release sub numbers so all we have is PR speak.

The cash is growing from more monetization, blizzard is shrinking overall. The logical conclusion is to expect shadowlands to end early and more mobile and monetization.

[Pann]

Total MUA are down year over year but wow it self has grown for the last 7/8 quarters, while overwatch Diablo and the like might have a shrinking player base wow has kept growth since classic came out.

Seeing as ATVI no longer release subscriber numbers or WoW earnings I am not sure if we can make this determination and given the way MAUs are calculated it is possible that WoW MAUs are being inflated by players who play both retail or classic.

[PenguinChan]

The quote is cut off it says under that bit that blizzard doesn’t count different platforms twice just activison and king. The same likely apply’s to different games as well though rather they can break it down and rather they do for reporting total numbers Is unclear.

So they potentially know each games active userbase but they (From what I'm reading right) can't distinguish if player A in WoW is also player A in Overwatch.

Total MUA are down year over year but wow it self has grown for the last 7/8 quarters, while overwatch Diablo and the like might have a shrinking player base wow has kept growth since classic came out.

MAU has been on the decline since 2018, plateau'd during 2019 until mid 2020, and then since 2020 Q3 has declined. Unfortunately since Classic released and TBC Classic, they mix that in with Retail. But it's easy to infer Classic helped WoW numbers tremendously, and since it has been 'over' for a little while now, also makes sense why it has lost players (Regardless of Retail's status). Then TBC Classic seems to have not done too hot - or retail and classic lost enough where the boost on TBC Classic wasn't enough to stabilize numbers.

But you are right, other games are losing traction naturally due to no updates and / or waning interest. Hearthstone exempt, of course. That still makes a lot of money and has people playing constantly.

~ SNIP ~

I stand corrected on the TBC / Classic front. They seem to admit it is helping WoW's numbers tremendously - which leaves Retail out to dry as it seems. Or at the very least, stagnated in comparison. It feels wrong that they combine all forms together, but it looks prettier.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

That's not what the numbers show the PR speaks just says WoW did well when the new expansion released. They don't release sub numbers so all we have is PR speak.

The cash is growing from more monetization, blizzard is shrinking overall. The logical conclusion is to expect shadowlands to end early and more mobile and monetization.

It’s exactly what the numbers show as they have been going down in MAU since atleast 2019 yet kept reporting sub/player count increasing.

Q2 2019 Subscribers in World of Warcraft® increased since mid-May, following the release date announcement and beta for World of Warcraft Classic and the Rise of AzsharaTM content update.

Q3 World of Warcraft® Classic drove the biggest quarterly increase to subscription plans2 in franchise
history, in both the West and East

Q4 World of Warcraft® exited 2019 with an active player community3 more than twice the size of its Q2-ending
level.

Q1 2020 After doubling in the second half of 2019, World of Warcraft’s active player community1 increased further in
the first quarter, driven by both new and returning players, as the team continued to deliver more content
between expansions than ever before.

Q2 World of Warcraft® reach and engagement once again increased sequentially, as shelter-at-home
conditions further boosted the franchise’s strong trajectory. The Shadowlands expansion saw an enthusiastic response from players in its public testing, with pre-sales accelerating even further ahead of its release in the fourth quarter. Franchise engagement is the highest in a decade at this point ahead of an expansion.

Q3  World of Warcraft® MAUsD were stable year-over-year. Anticipation continues to build for Shadowlands,
the next expansion for modern World of Warcraft, ahead of its November 23 launch.

Q4 World of Warcraft MAUsD grew year-over-year for the sixth consecutive quarter, contributing to overall Blizzard MAUsD of 29 million in the fourth quarter.
 Fourth quarter net bookingsB for World of Warcraft grew sharply year-over-year, driven by strong sales of the Shadowlands expansion, subscriber growth,

Q1 2021 where the growth stopped. Blizzard segment revenue grew 7% year-over-year, led by strong growth in the Warcraft® franchise, with World of Warcraft’s Shadowlands expansion building on the substantial increase in scale seen since the launch of World of Warcraft Classic in 2019. Blizzard had 27 million MAUsD in the first quarter.
• World of Warcraft’s Shadowlands expansion continued to drive strong results following its record-setting

Q2 2021 this report World of Warcraft net bookingsB 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.

These are the facts of the player numbers while total MAU at blizzard has fallen wow has growth for 7 out of 8 quarters and there is no pr talk to hide behind they flatly say player numbers have been rising and they legally can’t lie.




https://investor.activision.com/events-presentations

- - - Updated - - -

Seeing as ATVI no longer release subscriber numbers or WoW earnings I am not sure if we can make this determination and given the way MAUs are calculated it is possible that WoW MAUs are being inflated by players who play both retail or classic.

See my above post.

- - - Updated - - -

So they potentially know each games active userbase but they (From what I'm reading right) can't distinguish if player A in WoW is also player A in Overwatch.

it’s rather unclear based on the info they gave us. We know that king and activstion can’t tell the difference between rather the same person is on pc or console and count both as a MAU while blizzard and tell the difference and doesn’t do that. One would assume if they can tell if it’s the same person they could also tell if it’s the same person in multiple games given how Battle.net accounts work but they don’t comment on it. So either they can tell and there numbers account for it and each one is unique based on account or they can tell but they double dip to pad the numbers.

The chances they don’t know seem rather unlikely.

MAU has been on the decline since 2018, plateau'd during 2019 until mid 2020, and then since 2020 Q3 has declined. Unfortunately since Classic released and TBC Classic, they mix that in with Retail. But it's easy to infer Classic helped WoW numbers tremendously, and since it has been 'over' for a little while now, also makes sense why it has lost players (Regardless of Retail's status). Then TBC Classic seems to have not done too hot - or retail and classic lost enough where the boost on TBC Classic wasn't enough to stabilize numbers.

But you are right, other games are losing traction naturally due to no updates and / or waning interest. Hearthstone exempt, of course. That still makes a lot of money and has people playing constantly.

Ya Classic and tbc are absolutely the saving graces in wows number and hearthstone is likely also staying rather stable while I assume things like Diablo and overwatch are dropping like a rock which would be the why the global number drops while wow growths.

[PenguinChan]

Ya Classic and tbc are absolutely the saving graces in wows number and hearthstone is likely also staying rather stable while I assume things like Diablo and overwatch are dropping like a rock which would be the why the global number drops while wow growths.

OW, WoW and Hearthstone all saw growth or stabilization over the last year or so right? So the decline must be somewhere in the remakes / old versions, Diablo, HotS, and Starcraft. Which is wild, because we went from 33 / 34 MAU to now 26. Didn't expect that many people to be playing the other titles.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

OW, WoW and Hearthstone all saw growth or stabilization over the last year or so right? So the decline must be somewhere in the remakes / old versions, Diablo, HotS, and Starcraft. Which is wild, because we went from 33 / 34 MAU to now 26. Didn't expect that many people to be playing the other titles.

Overwatch had some growth but for about half of the recent reports isn't mentioned alot so it's likely had some drop off. hearthstone mostly just talks about earning so its also possible there dropping in F2P players but buying players are still stable.

that leaves SC2 Hots Diablo3 WC3R and classic titles all likely droping.

[PenguinChan]

Overwatch had some growth but for about half of the recent reports isn't mentioned alot so it's likely had some drop off. hearthstone mostly just talks about earning so its also possible there dropping in F2P players but buying players are still stable.

that leaves SC2 Hots Diablo3 WC3R and classic titles all likely droping.

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/ex.../1100-6490696/

According to this they've gained 10 million since 2019, or early 2020? And this is in 2021. They had 10 million MAU at the end of 2020. Doubtful it dropped off that hard. Losing some from Hearthstone is realistic but not millions realistic I think, let alone upwards of a million. OW may have lost some RECENTLY but it's doubtful they lost anywhere near the amount over the years.

So yeah, the other titles are bleeding players which is... Interesting to me. I never thought, at least, 7 million MAU lost were in their old titles. This of course, all hinges on Blizzard being able to distinguish MAU from game to game accurately. Which I assume they can, to some extent.