For everyone blaming Activision for Blizzard failures. Read this! And shut up!

[Deficineiron]

So basically Vivendi wanted to fire Kotick, and in the end Kotick ends up taking his ball to play with someone else. You kind of have to read between the lines, but how do you go from owning an extremely successful set of franchises, and wanting to fire your CEO, to all of a sudden that company making a split from you the parent company.

I'm not talking leave you broke and homeless broke and homeless hostile, but it's not JUST an offer so good you can't refuse. If you read the stories about King Digital, how could a nearly 6 billion dollar purchase be hostile? Sounds like a sweet deal. Not so sweet when many analysts at the time had the Candy Crush creator valued much higher.

Perhaps hostile isn't the right word. Cutthroat? He's a business man, and he only deals with high performing products. Profitable? Irrelevant. High margins? Keep. Low margins? Cut.

Activision has a reputation for tearing studios apart. Bleeding them dry, and leaving nothing but an empty husk behind. Yeah sure, some would call that smart business, or the nature of capitalism, But if Kotick sets his sights on you and yours... gird your loins.

you are referring to vivendi talking about firing kotick in 2013~ over his insistence on getting nearly half the vivendi stake for his investment group? I certainly found that interesting, but no one ever confuses business at this level with anything but mercenary. (I am still amazed that deal was found legal).

for whatever reason, vivendi found it best to just cash out and be gone rather than push the issue. For everyone who is not a blizzard fan, Kotick IS the face of activision-blizzard and for the street the association is very positive. Losing him would harm a/b's image with the folks who actually matter [I believe this was actually mentioned as a reason in some court case where this stuff came out]. Vivendi could have done themselves net harm, financially, by taking the approach of trying to remove kotick, even if they succeeded. at that point they still were majority owners of the company, they had more to lose than anyone.

The king issue is interesting, and I don't know a lot about it. Were they even offered stock vs. cash? cash, depending on where the corporation was domiciled, has all kinds of complicated issues attached, and that is an awful lot. Where there other interested bidders? Why not (EA for example)?

[czarek]

Blizzard don't "have to" make income for Activision, but they need to show something to the shareholders every quarter. It worked fine at the beginning, they were trying and working hard, so it was a good thing until they started offering pets and mounts in cash shop because they had nothing else to show.
It's not Activision who pushes that, it's cruel share holders who would dump stocks and go somewhere else where they make more profit. Because no matter how much money Blizzard makes, stock holders will always want more.

They need to show smth for shareholders = they have to show their income. Low income = shareholders move away. And yes activison have to put some pressure on them they are publisher blizzard is developer that is why they join activison. They just want to focus on games nothing else. It worked very well till income goes down. I dont blame activison. There is a lot different things have influenced it game market, community requirements, developers, bad ideas (or not good ideas), burnout of developers. I believe they will survive bad times.

[Deleted]

I TOLD YOU SO.
But you all tried to convince me that I was wrong. There you go, confirmed by Blizzard again!

Question:

So why does everyone keep saying “Activision is ruining Blizzard” if Activision doesn’t have anything to do with Blizzard?

Answer:

Because they’re upset and they don’t know how companies work, that or trolling, you can guess which one it usually is. It’s usually legitimate complaints that are reaching for an irrational explanation.

I get why it happens, but I would be lying to you if I said it wasn’t a little frustrating sometimes.

Source:
https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wo...nship/68419/38



I'm sure some of you still won't accept it.

[Dastreus]

This thread again? Let it go. Activision is still a part, even if it is Blizz fucking up their own company. Besides, more evidence to support it was the money-making team fucking shit up.

[Dundebuns]

Blizzard don't "have to" make income for Activision, but they need to show something to the shareholders every quarter.

Shareholders only care about dividends.

[Deleted]

This thread again? Let it go. Activision is still a part, even if it is Blizz fucking up their own company. Besides, more evidence to support it was the money-making team fucking shit up.

Guess what? I won. And at the same time I proved that Blizzard fanboys are just bunch of sheep.

I created this thread, pointed out to source and added my own rational and logical explanations and defended it. Now I'm victorious and you can't do anything about it.
I won the internet.

There is nothing to discuss anymore. This thread can be closed now.

[Felixon]

From 2008. Words directly from Blizzard director Mike Morhaime after the merge.

https://www.wired.com/2008/07/blizzard-presid/





Why don't you blame Blizzard if Activision fails to create good Call of Duty....but blaming Activision for bad WoW expansion?
Can you stop blaming Activision for Blizzards failures now?

EDIT: Confirmed again by Blizzard. Source: https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wo...nship/68419/38

Blizzard is infected with a shitty game creation virus of Activision. Both of their newest games - Destiny and yet another Call of Duty - are total failures. Activision is like an anchor,which is drowning the Blizzard. Also,how can you compare the Blizzard back then and the Blizzard today,which is all about the money making and creating mobile game crap nobody cares about in Europe and US?

[L3fty]

It's quite a sad state of affairs no matter who is really pulling the strings. I think from an aesthetic design perspective BfA is great, but it just compounds the trend since launch of style over substance. The max level content this expansion offers is truly woeful and it's the first time I've genuinely come to the conclusion that WoW is beyond redemption. I would be very interested to see subscription figures but alas.

My sub began in June 2005, and ended November 2018.

[Daedius]

Guess what? I won. And at the same time I proved that Blizzard fanboys are just bunch of sheep.

I created this thread, pointed out to source and added my own rational and logical explanations and defended it. Now I'm victorious and you can't do anything about it.
I won the internet.

There is nothing to discuss anymore. This thread can be closed now.

Cringe...

Also;

[Baltasar]

Stfu fucktivision made wow shitty casualmode.

[MisterBigglez]

Cringe...

Also;

You found that cringy? You are weak.

The gif though 10/10

[Peporro]

Oh, again

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Wrw3c2NjeE

[lockybalboa]

Mike Morhaime sold out Blizzard, he's the chief culprit

[d00mh4cker]

It's Blizzards fault for merging the company. Smart by Activison, stupid by Blizzard.
You have to remember that you as an individual doesnt matter at all, what matters is that the company is richer tomorrow then it was yesterday, this to please the many stockowners.

This is greed. I bet Morhaime was promised something back in the days when the merge was done. But the board probably voted against him later on in the name of money.

Edit.
The only good developers are the ones that's not on the stock market. Simple, they dont make games for the board leaders, they make games for the fans.

Issue is. Wow is so far from what people in their 30's who started out with wow vanilla finds fun and it doesn't please the younger audiance.
How can a new player get into this game? Its impossible.

Why would someone sit through island expeditions or just spamming WQs all day long when they can log into that stupid game fortnite and have twice as fun in seconds.

BLIZZARD. Please your fans, not the stupid fortnite kids, please.

[pinkz]

It's Blizzards fault for merging the company. Smart by Activison, stupid by Blizzard.
You have to remember that you as an individual doesnt matter at all, what matters is that the company is richer tomorrow then it was yesterday, this to please the many stockowners.

This is greed. I bet Morhaime was promised something back in the days when the merge was done. But the board probably voted against him later on in the name of money.

Edit.
The only good developers are the ones that's not on the stock market. Simple, they dont make games for the board leaders, they make games for the fans.

Issue is. Wow is so far from what people in their 30's who started out with wow vanilla finds fun and it doesn't please the younger audiance.
How can a new player get into this game? Its impossible.

Why would someone sit through island expeditions or just spamming WQs all day long when they can log into that stupid game fortnite and have twice as fun in seconds.

BLIZZARD. Please your fans, not the stupid fortnite kids, please.

it's not Blizzard's fault, and it's not your fault or am i insulting you, many gamers do not know the bigger picture concerning business


2007 Blizzard was owned by Vivendi
2008 Activision joined / merged with Vivendi
2008 Vivendi merged Activision and Blizzard listed them as ATVI (Vivendi was still parent company)
2013 Activision-Blizzard bought enough stock back from Vivendi to gain a major controlling stake, Vivendi still a major shareholder in ATVI
2014 Vivendi sold half of its stake which brought them to 5.8% stake in ATVI
2016 Vivendi sold remaining shares of ATVI

[TheRealDavidTwo]

Fuck it. Im blaming Gaben from Valve. thats how it works here, right? aimless finger pointing?

The curse of Half Life 3 strikes again.

[Dastreus]

Guess what? I won. And at the same time I proved that Blizzard fanboys are just bunch of sheep.

I created this thread, pointed out to source and added my own rational and logical explanations and defended it. Now I'm victorious and you can't do anything about it.
I won the internet.

There is nothing to discuss anymore. This thread can be closed now.

You're acting like a child. Maybe you're a troll.

[MoanaLisa]

Guess what? I won. And at the same time I proved that Blizzard fanboys are just bunch of sheep.

I created this thread, pointed out to source and added my own rational and logical explanations and defended it. Now I'm victorious and you can't do anything about it.
I won the internet.

There is nothing to discuss anymore. This thread can be closed now.

Closing this as the conversation has moved on to other threads. Victory laps are unnecessary and smack of trolling. They are ill-advised. If anyone has anything else to say there are other threads for it.