Is It Possible That Blizzard Will Consolidate Their Talent Behind WoW?

[The Stormbringer]

This forum meme needs to end.

Blizzard's issues are purely and completely their own. No, it's not Activision that made their higher ups stroll around the office in drunken stupor sexually harassing women employees. Neither it's Activision that made the shitshow WoW currently is or made Blizzard lose their way with Starcraft dead, Overwatch being a rotting carcass and Diablo 4 taking 10 years to come out.

It's all 100% Blizzard proper fuckups and people need to stop thinking there is some big bad man in Activision that forces Blizzard to not make games and shit on remaining ones they have.

Yes, after all that has happened - you bet Activision will actually take over, but seeing the trash Blizzard pulled out of their backsides for years now, damn I'm glad some changes are actually going to happen, because it legit can't be worse than last half a decade of Blizzard results.

No, the issue that lies with Activision is trying to push a CoD mindset onto the Blizzard people. Results need to come faster, we need regular releases, we gotta make more money! More more more! Can't have the old motto of "When it's done" and quality, just gotta bump up those MAUs and keep investors happy. Who cares about the players and the fans? They're just paypigs and whales, a source of money. Why should we bother respecting them and making THEM happy? We know what's best, not them. They'll play it anyway!

In other words, short term gains over long term investments.

[Axaron]

The answer is yes, absolutely. Their fallbacks for guaranteed marginal income regardless of PR are WoW and Hearthstone. If Diablo IV fails, that's what will happen. The rest will be put into maintenance mode, or have development duties "outsourced" to less expensive states than California. End game is making most of Blizzard's library free to play with MTX, but I don't foresee that large of a decrease in revenue.

You're going to get a lot emotionally driven answers but the majority do not care about WoW being associated with the bad PR, it still prints money. My family owns a minority in ActiBlizz the financial fallout is minimal, as it was, and is for Riot and Ubisoft. Activision has no shortage of studios to make good use of the Overwatch source code / IP as a tertiary moneymaker.

#meetoo reckonings make corporations money when the dust settles. This is our reality, I did not wish for it.

Bad news for everyone is if Diablo IV enters development hell. That would cost a lot more than the lawsuit, Blizzard's future as a separate entity depends entirely on that launch being on time, quality and profitable after box sales using IAPs and a rapid expansion cycle.

[Accendor]

From the perspective of the suits, they probably think that WoW is on the way out and that there is no point pouring more money into it (hence why Shadowlands didn't get a huge marketing campaign like the prior 3 expansions). More than likely they will switch to mobile games and trying to milk the Warcraft IP as much as possible before it is completely exhausted of customer goodwill.

I personally think Ion and Danuser should be thrown off of WoW (Ion can still design raids though) and the game should be redesigned to cater to casuals again, but that's not going to happen.

The game only catered to casuals for the lst 4 expansions...

[Eggroll]

What???? There was literally an article on MMO-C like last week, saying they are hiring for the WoW team big time...

[Soon-TM]

The game only catered to casuals for the lst 4 expansions...

It's funny how the game was so casual friendly at the beginning... Compare it to what it has become in its old age.

[Lahis]

Blizzard is ran by accountants and shareholders. If anything they’ll pool resources into easily profitable games. WoW is profitable but they look at it as how much can they make over the most time with as little development time they can.

WoW is profitable, but it is also expensive to maintain and develop.

Some mobile gachashit game will be much cheaper to make and will produce even better profits.

[starstationprofm]

What talent?

What successful systems have you seen in a Blizzard IP in the last 5 years?

Mythic+ is better than any system in another MMO.

[Axaron]

WoW is profitable, but it is also expensive to maintain and develop.

Some mobile gachashit game will be much cheaper to make and will produce even better profits.

This is why Hearthstone provides more gross marginal income than any other Blizzard product. In terms of overall revenue however, it is still World of Warcraft, WoW is essential to their brand.

[Moozart]

Maybe they should pause on classic for a bit and focus on retail. It seems like ever since they started working on Vanilla classic wow retail content has been getting worse.

[Icathian]

The problem with WoW is that the game is a huge cash cow and Blizzard up until recent times had little motivation to do something new/creative.
All they gotta do is pump store mounts or whatever every few months and it's a quick and easy way to make millions of cash. Why worry about class balance? Decent systems? Decent storyline? This is all complex and unnecessary shit in their eyes.

Things are different now. It doesn't matter if they're still making a profit, they got some real bad PR and it keeps getting worse. The announcement that they're hiring fresh people to the wow team kinda says a lot.

They need to at least TRY to make a decent 10.0. Legion tier or higher.

[Saintlel]

Said as someone who has never tried high end PvE in FF14. I mean, you are entitled to like WoW and its undoable (without addons) mythic raids, but please don't spread misinformation.

I've cleared every savage tier since HW and have killed every ultimate but TEA, nice try

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Even if you raid only normal/hc (i fall into thos category ) would you pass over a basically free chance at a 252 piece of gear? I suppose there are people who simply don't care, but the majority of players will easily spend 30 minutes in a dubgeon for their weekly cache, as they did in legion and bfa.

Actually, even more reasons for them to do m+ because a) it drops better than the hc raid (9.1 is tge exception due to the multitude of raid specific stuff) and b) it will make hc raiding much easier. Especially of you're not in a guild that raids and you pug, ilvl boosts os extremely valuable.

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Lol clearly you don't know shit about FFXIV (while i think wow raids are better technically speaking).

I mean I know my experiences, it's better than lying to yourself and acting like there's any kind of player choice in that game, two gearsets per tier, stack crit/dh and some classes want skill speed to a breakpoint, wow, crazy, that's it, that's the only way to differentiate yourself, no talents, no specs, no gear choices outside of BiS, which isn't even needed to clear shit, it's boring, I like getting drops in WoW because it's meaningful, I clear Savage in less than two weeks in crafted gear, there's no progression

The problem with WoW is that the game is a huge cash cow and Blizzard up until recent times had little motivation to do something new/creative.
All they gotta do is pump store mounts or whatever every few months and it's a quick and easy way to make millions of cash. Why worry about class balance? Decent systems? Decent storyline? This is all complex and unnecessary shit in their eyes.

Things are different now. It doesn't matter if they're still making a profit, they got some real bad PR and it keeps getting worse. The announcement that they're hiring fresh people to the wow team kinda says a lot.

They need to at least TRY to make a decent 10.0. Legion tier or higher.

The problem with FFXIV is that the game is a huge cash cow and Square up until recent times had little motivation to do something new/creative.
All they gotta do is pump store mounts or whatever every few months and it's a quick and easy way to make millions of cash. Why worry about class balance? Decent systems? Decent storyline? This is all complex and unnecessary shit in their eyes.

fixed

[Swnem]

No, it's more likely they will cut on investment and manage the decline while milking all they can.

[Queen of Hamsters]

They're hiring more people for WoW specifically, to G R O W the team.

Anyone claiming that they're not pouring resources into it, is lying or ignorant. I'd guess the former as most of them seem to be FFXIV-flaggers. Teh second coming and all that.

There's been no discernable drop according to the latest quarterly. Anyone claiming that there has been one, is citing feels. At least wait for the next one which will include the lawsuit period.

[Swnem]

I've cleared every savage tier since HW and have killed every ultimate but TEA, nice try

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I mean I know my experiences, it's better than lying to yourself and acting like there's any kind of player choice in that game, two gearsets per tier, stack crit/dh and some classes want skill speed to a breakpoint, wow, crazy, that's it, that's the only way to differentiate yourself, no talents, no specs, no gear choices outside of BiS, which isn't even needed to clear shit, it's boring, I like getting drops in WoW because it's meaningful, I clear Savage in less than two weeks in crafted gear, there's no progression




The problem with FFXIV is that the game is a huge cash cow and Square up until recent times had little motivation to do something new/creative.
All they gotta do is pump store mounts or whatever every few months and it's a quick and easy way to make millions of cash. Why worry about class balance? Decent systems? Decent storyline? This is all complex and unnecessary shit in their eyes.

fixed

What? FF is really well balanced. Where do you come up with this? XD
You want covenants, conduits, azerite gear, etc in FF? WoW proves that is not what players want.

I mean accusing FF of lazyness is the biggest BS i have seen in quite a while. The game that has so many content types that are evergreen and this guy wants it to turn into the worst of WoW. Deary me... you clearly didn't do much on FF.

I can just list things if i want. Chocobo racing, triple triad, mahjong, lord of verminion, palace of the dead/heaven on high, Eureka and it's much improved variant Bozja. New abilities and classes with each expansion, 78 players 3 faction battleground, Isgard restoration+diadem system, upcoming island (harvest moon?), colaboration raids, etc.
Doesn't do anything different eh?

Shadowbringers had the most raid bosses in a single expansion i've ever seen. Of course, if you play the whole game rather than only the 8 man ones.

What it doesn't do is the mistakes modern WoW has and thank god for that. Rather than crap systems you can play all the classes in one too. That is your variation.
It's not like i would be opposed to something good like the tacticals in swtor, but that is a slippery slope not worth going down into.

[Alydael]

I don't think it's controversial to say that WoW is the game that's bleeding the most out of their repertoire right now. D4 still seems to be in fairly good hands despite recently losing its Game Director, and stuff like D2: Resurrected is trucking along nicely. I'm not following Overwatch 2 much but apparently it's taken a turn for the better recently, as well.

So that really just leaves WoW that's still in quite the painful state. The thing that makes me wonder about the future of this game is whether or not they will try consolidating their dev talent in order to reinforce the WoW dev team and bring in additional, probably much needed help? And is that even a realistic thing to expect/hope for?

We know they have multiple unannounced projects they are working on and some of those projects will undoubtedly be mobile titles. We know that Tom Chilton......

What do you think? Would/should Blizzard do this? People have already lost a lot of faith in the current dev team. Maybe it's time to truly shake things up, and not simply by recruiting outside talent?

They need a restructuring, I am not sure they will get it. I have no idea how much it costs to "produce" WoW but I imagine they will keep moving forward, as is, unless the game isn't making enough money.

If it isn't making enough money, I think they will drop it before they would re-invest.

They haven't managed WoW well since Activision took over. I don't think they know how, frankly. I think they thought they could just roll in and treat it just like Call of Duty and just start bankrolling off it.

The problem is that WoW isn't Call of Duty. Call of Duty doesn't really need a "community" aspect to run successfully. I think we have proven (with the success of Classic and C TBC) that WoW works best when there is a good, solid community on the server. I don't think Activision has even the slightest idea of how to accomplish that.

Activision figured WoW was about designing power creep systems that "keep the players playing" and some raids. Look at pvp since they have taken over- its basically a content desert. They leaned heavily on repeatable questing (world quests) and even added "power creep" to that (the higher your renown- the better the WQ rewards!).

They even designed a power creep dungeon system (M+) and now they even make less dungeons! Remember when we used to get new dungeons every patch, sometimes more than 1. The last patch in WOTLK had 3 new dungeons. Now we get the launch dungeons and then one "mega dungeon" at some point. They even try to slap a timer on basically everything (a cheap and easy way to make something more "challenging"). They even had to make sure to put one in Torghast (even though the community screamed "no" loud, clear and constantly on that one. The star rating at the end of the run counts your time).

They have clearly demonstrated that they have no idea how to run this game at all. I expect them at some point to either try to sell it or to just throw up their hands and stop wasting their time with it. Unless it is still really profitable- Activision is beholden to a panel of investors and they want that cold, hard $$$. So, $$$ will always rule the day there.

[Soon-TM]

I've cleared every savage tier since HW and have killed every ultimate but TEA, nice try

Mind linking a profile, with some verifiable proof that it is yours and not some random, weak attempt at lying?

EDIT: almost everyone is a real pro on the internet... until he/she's asked to show hard proof.

btw loosing a game director is a really serious business

Yet you will still find a good bunch of folks in these boards claiming that it isn't really important, a minor hiccup at most

[hecpercu]

Nobody wants to work for blizz these days, the times of:its the job of my dreams and i will do it for free are gone.
They pay less than anyone, they have become s company wich is the paradigm and definition of an evil corp{see mr robot), they got no talent left, and everything that is to come after D4( btw loosing a game director is a really serious business) will be mobile trash forever and ever.
So no.
Blizz is done.
Deal with it.

[Accendor]

It's funny how the game was so casual friendly at the beginning... Compare it to what it has become in its old age.

I meant last 4 expansions

[Saintlel]

What? FF is really well balanced. Where do you come up with this? XD
You want covenants, conduits, azerite gear, etc in FF? WoW proves that is not what players want.

I mean accusing FF of lazyness is the biggest BS i have seen in quite a while. The game that has so many content types that are evergreen and this guy wants it to turn into the worst of WoW. Deary me... you clearly didn't do much on FF.

I can just list things if i want. Chocobo racing, triple triad, mahjong, lord of verminion, palace of the dead/heaven on high, Eureka and it's much improved variant Bozja. New abilities and classes with each expansion, 78 players 3 faction battleground, Isgard restoration+diadem system, upcoming island (harvest moon?), colaboration raids, etc.
Doesn't do anything different eh?

Shadowbringers had the most raid bosses in a single expansion i've ever seen. Of course, if you play the whole game rather than only the 8 man ones.

What it doesn't do is the mistakes modern WoW has and thank god for that. Rather than crap systems you can play all the classes in one too. That is your variation.
It's not like i would be opposed to something good like the tacticals in swtor, but that is a slippery slope not worth going down into.

Bard has been terrible since Shadowbringers release and I know you probably don't do any Savage at all considering you listed fucking LORD OF VERMINION of all things as "content" but the game is terribly balanced, and they constantly gut classes (Rip AST)

I guess we'll agree to disagree, also I never said I wanted any convents or shit, but some kind of class differential would be amazing, all the melee classes minus Ninja pretty much just rotate 1-3/4 and use oGCDs, fill a bar, and then use it, it's boring and uninspired, imagine if I could DPS as a Paladin, or tank as a Ninja, the game is already homogenized so I don't understand how adding any kind of RPG elements to make yourself unique is bad but I guess this is a different crowd than Classic Andys and you just want meaningless mini-games for casual play

I never thought I'd see someone unironically simping for Eureka or FFXIV's PVP but you must be either new or a shill because god damn

For me I like having reasons to do things, Alliance raids aren't fun past the first clear, it's just pointless grinding if you have gear and things like TGC make me suffer for how bad the community is at doing basic raid fights, spamming roulettes and PoTD/HoH to level jobs isn't fun either, I'd rather quest but hey, leveling was an after thought, can you believe they used to make you spam fates to level? Thank god they don't ban botters lmao

That being said, you pretty much affirm what I was talking about, the game is great if you're a casual player, if you like to have meaningful PVE, it just aint it

The biggest example I can mention is, we don't list Pet Battles, LFR, and spamming LFD to level as content in WoW, but you mention it as content for FFXIV

[hzjf]

you people are so funny. The Game still has 2-4million Subs. Zero Chance its on its Way out. All it need is some fresh Air and we will see if they can deliver that with the next Expansion