Theory: Activision is prepping Blizzard to be sold out to Disney.

[bloodwulf]

When one starts with this, it is an announcement of what it actually is.

I think another telling feature is when the OP abandons the thread immediately after posting....

[Afrospinach]

Polish is... effectively the word is irrelevant to what you're argueing, as polish in the context of Blizzard games has always meant properly finished, relatively smooth and flawlessly operating products. Whereas here you're trying to make it seem like it means the common sort of political correctness that now infests all American companies.

I would argue that it is almost impossible to consider any MMO family friendly.

Anyone that think's WoW is wholesome entertainment is not paying close attention. My favourite example is the troll zone in Icecrown, Gun Drak I think. You make enemies with a troll there, proceed to kill his wife and kids, loot their possessions only to reanimate them in a tiki and beat him to death with it in a grand finale. What sort of person comes up with this stuff? It is very thematically trollish so maybe you just glazed over while doing the quest, when in Rome? Me personally, I am not phased but beneath the cartoonish veneer WoW is actually incredibly violent. Shocker there.

I literally wouldn't care if Blizzard folded tomorrow. In fact, I encourage it. Old Blizzard of the 90's and 2000's is gone, nothing in the company resembles the good old days

I don't "like" what the company is right now nor the direction most things are taking but I am not hoping for the destruction. However what you say is true and as an "original" fan of the company I would not really miss them if they folded any more than I do right now.

[Mask]

inb4 warcraft land and starcraft land installations at disneyland

An Overwatch map has the template for it, even. This means the design work is already done, they just need a place to break ground.

[Cracked]

I can see it. The question is why would Disney want it at this point. 5 years ago it probably would have been an attractive acquisition, with building out a Warcraft / Starcraft / Diablo section in their theme parks. Now? I think they realize the brand hit that Blizzard took, it's pretty damn damaged, plus Blizzard franchises are not attractive to young gamers, which means the brand is worth even less.

[unbound]

This seems rather unlikely. While there is some cyclical elements of Blizzard, it isn't nearly as cyclical as Activision properties (and a lot closer to King property ranges).

King quarterly revenue (Q2 2018 thru Q1 2021) - $499M to $609M
Blizzard quarterly revenue - $344M to $686M
Activision quarterly revenue - $209M to $1,657M

While Overwatch may be "Disney like", it certainly isn't a Disney property. So what would Blizzard really bring to Disney? They already have their hands full with Star Wars and Marvel right now. Unless Disney is looking to shift to a different vendor to handle those IPs, I don't see why they would be interested.

Furthermore, considering the multiple lawsuits and investigations into Activision-Blizzard right now, I really can't imagine Disney wanting to touch Blizzard with a 20' pole right now.

[Myradin]

Disney has made it rather clear they prefer to contract out companies to make games for their IP's, rather than have an in-house game dev.

Just look at what happened to LucasArts. The moment disney bought star wars they disbanded it immediatey to go sign a deal with EA. They didn't want a game studio.

[Xykotic]

At this point it would be an improvement

[Biglog]

Absolutely no chance, less than zero, and half the bullet point arguments by the OP don't even make sense. The fact that Blizzard failed to respond appropriately to the California investigation and is now under a significant investigation by the SEC does not improve 'sellability' (lol). So excluding the nonsense arguments the OP is making, you're saying because Blizzard's offices are physically near Disneyland and Blizzard may have leaned on some Disney art styles, that Disney would want to buy Blizzard. That's really grasping and trying to make a story where there isn't one. Often here in mmo-c we see posts that are more from a fan/gamer perspective than founded in business reality, and this is one of them.

One of the actual reasons Blizzard's offices are in Anaheim near Disneyland is because *BLIZZARD* (not Disney, an important distinction here) often leverages Disneyland for ideas. It's not difficult to find influences of various rides and attractions from Disneyland in Blizzard games. Blizzard encourages it. Once in a while Blizzard even rents out Disneyland for it's employees, for entertainment and partially for inspiration. But that's one-way, Blizzard getting inspiration from Disney, not the other way around.

As for actually happening, Disney would not touch Blizzard right now with a 10 foot pole for many reasons. In fact almost no company would. The PR nightmare, sexual harassment, abuse of employees, shredding documents, mistreatment of women, etc. isn't something ANY company would want to take on, much less a company with a very valuable family-friendly brand like Disney. Plus Disney isn't really developing those kinds of games at this time. ~5 years ago maybe when the Blizzard brand was intact, more of the core Blizzard devs were still around, Blizzard was putting out the Warcraft movie, WoW and the other Blizzard IPs were more popular, was the time it would have happened if there was a chance. But that ship has long sailed.

I'm sure ATVI would love to sell Blizzard right now, but it would be like trying to sell a home in the middle of a flood that it's in. It's a similar take to a fan wanting to trade a star player from your favorite team right after he breaks his leg. No one else wants him then, it's the price of waiting too long. It's definitely not happening to Disney during 2 major investigations including one by the SEC that could land some of upper management in Federal prison. ATVI would also be selling very 'low' because of that which is never exactly good business. So it definitely won't happen to Disney, but there are good reasons no sale could happen now. In fact I doubt the SEC would even allow Activision to sell Blizzard during an active investigation if Activision found a buyer.

Maybe after the investigations conclude one possibility would be Amazon as a way for them to accelerate their push into gaming. They have the $50B it would take, and are big enough to probably absorb the PR hit if they renamed Blizzard and made large-scale changes. But yuck.

[Santti]

To Disney? I don't think Disney is in the business of making such a purchase. No, I don't mean money-wise. I mean going back in to the video game market again, after they closed their own video game company.

I suppose there is a chance, that the recent disasters might have made Activision more prone to sell Blizzard, but as long as Blizzard remains wildly profitable, I doubt they are getting sold. Unless someone makes a real enticing offer, but it ain't going to be coming from Disney.

And Diablo is not exactly Disney. And the recent disasters don't really make good sales pitch. EA might not give a shit, but Disney probably does.

[Usernameforforums]

If it happens then diablo will become a disney princess lmao

[Th3Scourge]

I don't "like" what the company is right now nor the direction most things are taking but I am not hoping for the destruction. However what you say is true and as an "original" fan of the company I would not really miss them if they folded any more than I do right now.

It's not the same company that gave us the masterpieces of warcraft 1,2,3 diablo I & II, starcraft, broodwars and vanilla/tbc wow. I have no emotional connection to the husk that remains now

[Neverafter]

When one starts with this, it is an announcement of what it actually is.

Like when my uncle says "Not to sound racist but..."

[aceperson]

because disney is going to want to buy a game about shooting people, a game about discrimination and warring factions, a game about demons bathing in the blood of innocents, and a game about an alien species who brutally murders everything in sight so they can evolve.

me thinks no. even marvel can't get away with what blizzards biggest IPs do.

[Myradin]

To Disney? I don't think Disney is in the business of making such a purchase. No, I don't mean money-wise. I mean going back in to the video game market again, after they closed their own video game company.

I didn't even realize they had their own and closed that.

So yeah, between closing its own in-house studio, and doing the same to LucasArts, I don't see why Disney would want to buy a game studio if its track record is to intentionally not have a game studio.

[Thunderball]

By dropping it's value on purpose? Are you ok there?

[Ielenia]

Now before you think this a troll thread about the recent changes hang in there for a minute and read some facts.

That's not what a "theory" is.

What you got is called WILD SPECULATION at best, and CONSPIRACY "THEORY" at worst.

Your "reasons" are circumstantial at best and even together don't amount to anything. A dune has more structural integrity than your reasons, put together.

[Blackmist]

Disney are shit with games. Why would they want Blizzard anyway? A game about shooting, a card gambling game, a dying MMO and a game about demons. Not exactly a core Disney thing.

If Activision is prepping anything, it's the shutting down of Blizzard. Don't be surprised to see the next expansion made by Beenox or somebody.

[Yelmurc]

If Disney wanted to get into game development, they wouldn’t be outsourcing all the game development for their IP’s.

[uuuhname]

Disney opening their own studio is more likely to happen than throwing out billions of dollars to buy up *any* game dev. if they don't have one sitting around collecting dust already.

[segara82]

I doubt it since Disney simply lacks the money to buy Blizzard. Revenue has been down 80%+ for about 2 years, they have no funds.
And even if they had the money, given the stink of 2 investigations now (Cali and SEC) no one would touch that.