Blizzard: No longer socially acceptable

[Coniferous]

Tbh, so far I think they rather successfully have sat out their PR crisis into the new year, at least for bobby that is already a win. The issue for the studio is that they have no games to show which would distract their investors and customers. Their biggest issue though might be actually getting proper new hires right now, which in turn will just excasserbate their lack of output. I doubt they are dead yet, but they won't be the same ever again - if that wasn't already clear. My bet would be they become a full on "actvision" shell and lose all of their autonomy in the next few years.

Next step - actually release a new game for the first time in what, 7 years?

[Pterodactylus]

Now that Blizzard has been forever tainted by the sex scandals, and Bobby Kotick has been unable to be removed by anyone (the one thing that could convince the public that anything will be different), is Blizzard effectively dead now? Its no longer “ok” to be playing their games.

Even if they release a very good expansion people will still take you over the coals for supporting them, so its not safe to do publicly.

lol, wow. This is just silly.

[LordVargK]

Let's view it this way:
Most people don't care about WoW, thus don't really care about how Blizzard treats its employees, since reading those news is not important for them. The people that do care about WoW most likely play it themselves.

Also WoW players have been stigmatised since its inception, so I don't think anything changed.

[Shink]

Without marketing/media those companies would've died out decades ago. Same applies to Blizzard; if not for twitch/youtube nobody would be left playing. Honestly, if not for Asmongold in WoD making those videos that gave people hope, they would've quit then.

Miniscule numbers compared to people actually playing, if they held any remote of power to change anything these "protests" would actually have power but they don't

[Fistfighter]

Blizzard is dead, but not because Bobby Kotick raped a few people, people don't care about that.
Blizzard is dead becasue they will never release a good game again.

If they released a banger of a game, let's say Diablo 4 was a stellar 10/10 game, everyone would forget that Blizzard hot shots felt up a few interns that one time, because frankly, they only sexually assaulted a few dozens of people. Well, there's still millions of gamers they haven't raped, and those people couldn't give two shits about stuff that doesn't affect them directly, they just wanna play good videogames.

[Chilela]

Their biggest issue though might be actually getting proper new hires right now, which in turn will just excasserbate their lack of output.

I think you might underestimate just how stupidly competitive positions in the games industry are. There's probably literally at least a good few hundred applications going out to every single position listed on Blizzard's site. Probably a decent chunk of actual talent in there as well. Plus, with how many people go in and out of game development during every cycle, I would wager there will be little more than a hiccup in current development directly due to the scandals.

[OrangeJuice]

Miniscule numbers compared to people actually playing, if they held any remote of power to change anything these "protests" would actually have power but they don't

if by "they" you mean streamers, literally none have protested blizzard. They don't survive without blizzard, since nobody cares to watch them play anything other than that. Its not like MoP where everyone streaming is in their late teens/early 20s- these people are pushing 30 with literally no job history or college education. They're not protesting shit.

[Gaidax]

OW2 is a big gamble and the next wow expansion is most likely more than 1 1/2 years away. Given how much behind shedule they are, I would not be surprised if we only see 10.0 in 2024 or at least in the second half of 2023.

Diablo 4 will sell HUGE ofc,but that is also planned for 2023. This IS going to be a hard year for Blizzard.

Then they will just have to wipe their tears and sweat with their billion+ dollars revenue for releasing no games in 2022.

It's the reality and it's why this whole thing is so fleeting. Even if they legit release nothing, but upkeep content - they will be very much in the green anyway.

[Santti]

Nah.

Just like every scandal, it's going to be forgotten soon enough. Does anyone even remember Blitzchung?

All Blizzard needs to do, is to create some hype for something and yell "Look, a distraction!".

At the end of the day, people just don't care. They don't want to think about shit like Nike sweatshops, or sexual harassment scandals. They just want their entertainment and not think about it.

[Beastiel]

The internet will have you fooled into thinking people care about this shit in the slightest. They don't.

I do believe many people are realizing a good amount of time has passed since they last had legitimate fun with a blizzard product. But at the end of the day all it takes for the average person to come back is to hear their friend picked up Overwatch 2.

[Super Dickmann]

If they release a good game no one will give a shit, if they release bad games people will use it as a cudgel to back up feelings that they already had based on the quality of the games. The amount of people who's purchasing habits solely depend on the conduct of the people making the product or the circumstances of how it's made are vanishingly few.

That and the people who genuinely believe that employees went about stealing breast milk for ten years are not a demographic you can or should satisfy.

[Gumble]

Now that Blizzard has been forever tainted by the sex scandals, and Bobby Kotick has been unable to be removed by anyone (the one thing that could convince the public that anything will be different), is Blizzard effectively dead now? Its no longer “ok” to be playing their games.

Even if they release a very good expansion people will still take you over the coals for supporting them, so its not safe to do publicly.

A good rule of thumb is that anyone that would care about your scandal:

A) doesn't buy your product
and/or
B) doesn't want to work for you

The best solution to any sort of scandal is to ignore it, focus on making a good product, and let your lawyers handle it. The pandering blizzard has done, both in the things they have released to the press and the changes they have made in their games only hurt them. All it does it remind people of what they have been accused of, without making anyone happy. The small group of loud twitter users who scream about it cannot be made happy, and the CUSTOMERS get ignored by you spending time trying to make those people happy while your game sucks.


Spend money making good games and Blizzard would be amazed how quickly nobody cares what they do in Blizzcon suites. Their biggest weakness was a series of shit expansions that turned public opinion against them. If these "scandals" (that from the sound of them are shockingly invented) had come out during WOTLK or Legion then they would have been laughed off as nothing.


Their problem is focusing on nonsense over making good games. Fix that and their problems largely go away.

[Fencers]

As long as they make money, things will be the same relatively speaking.

It's all about the money.

[Makabreska]

Now that Blizzard has been forever tainted by the sex scandals, and Bobby Kotick has been unable to be removed by anyone (the one thing that could convince the public that anything will be different), is Blizzard effectively dead now? Its no longer “ok” to be playing their games.

Even if they release a very good expansion people will still take you over the coals for supporting them, so its not safe to do publicly.

Ye I dunno, this post seems baity, because I don't think you are this naive and out of touch with gaming industry and how players operate.

But oh well, let's bite. Nothing will happen, the drama is almost completely forgotten. Blizzards biggest "tragedy" in all of that was not having any big release after the abuse story broke to divert attention (check Ubisoft). They had nothing, so instead we were fed for a month news about the shit going under the scenes. Things like risqué paintings being removed were front page stories, and were laughed at. That's why all of this seems so bad. But it's pretty much forgotten by now, because players ultimately don't care. Blizz just needs to start releasing games and they, and we all will be back on track.

[Orby]

I will never say I will not ever play Blizzard games again but it will be some years later until I do. For more than just the California lawsuit. (although that hasn't helped my decision lol)

Blizzard games are just not fun anymore. I don't get that same excitement and passion for Blizzard games I used to in the 90's and early 2000's.I quit WoW back in February last year and haven't played a Blizzard game since, I was even put off buying Diablo 2 Resurrected. I just don't see Blizzard as that company that I used to love anymore

Good news is finding a lot of other games to enjoy and have fun with.

[Lucetia]

is Blizzard effectively dead now?

No, they aren't.

Its no longer “ok” to be playing their games.

Sure, if you want to do this then fine. Though realize if you do this then you should stay in your home and never leave it again nor socialize with the outside world. Practically, not all, every company has some form of this going on or other shady enough business practices that you don't know about. I mean if you want to boycott a game for reasons like this then fine, but then you should boycott every business out there for the same principles. Otherwise you are basically doing it for one of two reasons. Number one, you want to look cool and hop on the "I'm leaving Blizzard" wagon or number two the game no longer interests you and stuff but you want a "reason" to make it sound better on why you are leaving.

[McNeil]

Blizzard is dead but for different reasons. Yes the name is still around, but the entire team that made the company great in the first place is completely gone, so if anything its used as a skin to cover some abomination of a company. They are still raking in lots of money despite that their MAU is much lower since Legion and continue to go down to this day. It only shows how much influence all the MTX and FOMO tactics have and Blizzard happens to have a lot of addicts playing their games. I don't expect Blizzard to ever make a good game again. Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4 are long away and considering that they are both in development hell I doubt that they will be even any good, yet will still sell really well because of their brand.

All the scandals will hardly affect anything. Gamers are easily persuaded once some new cinematic drops and get all excited, and that while the cinematic team is by no means an indication of how well the development team will perform.

[Tojara]

Nobody cares lol.

The amount of people who stay away from products because of moral reasons are basically the vegans of the industry. Plenty of video game companies, let alone companies in general have done retarded shit and people generally forget, or don't care. If Blizzard paid attention to social media and used that as a standard for how they're perceived, they would be done as a company, same as pretty much anyone let alone company that lets social media dictate their future. Cancel culture is pretty overblown, and the only people who truly get cancelled are the morons who actually cancel themselves because they think negative social media (forums included) are a good foundation for what people who consume their products really think.

Blizzard just needs to make new shit is the TLDR. They haven't had a new IP and their flagship franchises have been middling to say the least. Won't get into semantics about the direction of WoW or OW but I think most would admit that there hasn't been any fresh ideas or innovation in those franchises to say the very least.

As of recent RIOT had a fucking massive scandal as well and people just kept on trucking. The difference between the two, even though I don't like LoL in the slightest, is Riot is at least expanding and building off their IPs.

[Cracked]

Yeah and thats good becouse it was in good old Blizzard most of the shit happened.

it's also the place where those good games came from

[stross01]

Fewer people know about Blizzard's problems than you think.

Few of those that do actually care.

And few of those will actually do anything in response to it.