Is the Blizzcon stream too expensive?

[Existenz99]

And you wonder why they don't mention the financial stats about the event? Now why would they not publish that?

They don't break it down because they don't have to. They've stated they lose money, they have no reason to lie about it.

Whether they make a profit or a loss doesn't matter, people will still show up and people will still buy the stream. The event isn't to make money it is an event for Blizzard fans. The event isn't an advertisement for the general public, it is an hype party for people already interested and playing Blizzard games.

Again, where is your proof that they make money?

[Kelimbror]

They don't break it down because they don't have to. They've stated they lose money, they have no reason to lie about it.

Additionally, if they make the statement publicly in any way they are likely bound by law to not misrepresent their finances to their shareholders. And even beyond that, it can probably be analyzed by looking at their expenditures. In any case, it would be illegal to lie about revenue as they are publicly traded.

[jcf190]

If you're going to complain about a two day pass for a unique event, why not the cost of movie tickets? The cost to go out to eat? Your tab after one night at the bar? All these things are luxury purchases, with the Blizzcon ticket being the best bang for your buck.

[Deleted]

They don't break it down because they don't have to. They've stated they lose money, they have no reason to lie about it.

Whether they make a profit or a loss doesn't matter, people will still show up and people will still buy the stream. The event isn't to make money it is an event for Blizzard fans. The event isn't an advertisement for the general public, it is an hype party for people already interested and playing Blizzard games.

Again, where is your proof that they make money?

Ofcourse they don't have to, but they are blatantly not telling the truth. Let's look at 2010 figures.

150 usd per ticket and 27000 attendees : 4.05 million usd
40 usd per livestream ticket and 555000 paid viewers : 22 million usd

An event that earns you 26.05 million usd is enough money to put the 20 most expensive performers in it, give 20 hours of a concert, and still have over 6 million usd to host the event, pay for the staff, food, drinks and rent the entire place + publicity and moval services. They make profit, whether they will admit is another thing.

In the days of modern corporate greed, it's really impossible to think they might be lying. Just like any company in the world does.

Yet then you act surprised they screwed you over, because you were too naive.

[Mortal Strike]

I'd pay $20. $40 is a bit too much.

[Existenz99]

Ofcourse they don't have to, but they are blatantly not telling the truth. Let's look at 2010 figures.

150 usd per ticket and 27000 attendees : 4.05 million usd
40 usd per livestream ticket and 555000 paid viewers : 22 million usd

An event that earns you 26.05 million usd is enough money to put the 20 most expensive performers in it, give 20 hours of a concert, and still have over 6 million usd to host the event, pay for the staff, food, drinks and rent the entire place + publicity and moval services. They make profit, whether they will admit is another thing.

And costs? Also, they dont get the full revenue for the streams. DirectTV gets quite a bit of it (as they do with any PPV event).

They rent out halls A-E for a week (guarantee higher than the minimum listed prices on the convention center website) plus the lobby area and other rooms.
Loss of wages while everyone is at Blizzcon for a week and not working towards projects, including the time spent to produce the event beforehand.
Travel, lodging, and food expenses for all those employees as well.
Hiring of caterers (might counter balance some of the food expenses depending).
Hiring of Security, including traffic personnel.
Printed materials for all the events.
Hiring of production staff including lighting, video, and audio crews.
Bandwidth costs for the massive amount of streamers.

And there are probably a dozen more expenses I haven't even thought of. Perhaps since you're the expert and "you know" you could elaborate on more of the expenses that I missed...

[Drithien]

I think it should be free. I can't fathom how so many streams from much less profitable organizations are free but Blizzard's cost anything, much less so much money. I would watch it if it was free; not because I can't afford it, but because I would feel like a fool to pay that amount of money for ... a stream.

[Stonecloak]

I think it should be free. I can't fathom how so many streams from much less profitable organizations are free but Blizzard's cost anything, much less so much money. I would watch it if it was free; not because I can't afford it, but because I would feel like a fool to pay that amount of money for ... a stream.

This is the position they are in though. Ethics aside if you knew you could make x amount of money on a particular event. Especially that costs a lot to function. I would bet anyone would do it. A hypothetically free huge game convention. Yea, why wouldn't a company take it.

[Drithien]

This is the position they are in though. Ethics aside if you knew you could make x amount of money on a particular event. Especially that costs a lot to function. I would bet anyone would do it. A hypothetically free huge game convention. Yea, why wouldn't a company take it.

Yeah, I understand why they price it so high, but I would be interested in a petless rewardless version of the stream nonetheless!

[Deleted]

Cheap, poor people everywhere.

One day, when you become an adult, you will be ashamed of that.

[NotFunny008]

40 bucks mehhh...is a good price if u cant attend the event which is double that priice of 40 dollars

What about airfare, hotel?

[PrairieChicken]

Only thing worth seeing is SC2 matches which will be available in twitch, and none of the rewards are interesting too me to I won't buy it. Waste of money for me

[Tharkkun]

I think it should be free. I can't fathom how so many streams from much less profitable organizations are free but Blizzard's cost anything, much less so much money. I would watch it if it was free; not because I can't afford it, but because I would feel like a fool to pay that amount of money for ... a stream.

Examples? Streams of a couple of interviews are one thing. Streams of a 2 day event are another. Most streams are also accompanied by advertisements on websites which counteract the cost. When you have 7.5 million people or more watching a stream versus a few hundred thousand it's a big difference in cost.

[Raldazzar]

not remotely...

seriously.. its like under 30 quid... if you think that's too much, get a better job.

[mackenzie]

paying money to watch advertisement is just stupid.

Remind us all again of your cable and/or satellite provider?

[Vhalerius]

$40 stream is dirt cheap for full coverage a 2 day event.

Just be glad they offer it at all.

Shouldn't you be working on Blizzcon, Chris Metzen?

Seriously though it's retarded, 40 bucks to watch about an hour of two of shtick you care about and ignore the rest?
How about I just read everything that happened literally minutes later on ANY GIVEN World of Warcraft blog on the internet, for free, at my own convenience.

[Deleted]

$40 stream is dirt cheap for full coverage a 2 day event.

Just be glad they offer it at all.

Dunno, 4 days of GamesCom cost me 20€. Comparing that to a full ticket, and not a video..

- - - Updated - - -

Remind us all again of your cable and/or satellite provider?

Free TV is packed with ads, but paid TV, atleast in Germany, just does self advertisement for movies or other staff

[Mukor]

if all you care about is WoW then wait for mmo champ to post about it.
if you play d3, sc, WoW and enjoy watching a band, + free gifts and a tournie then buy the ticket.

40 bucks is really cheap.

also, im sure someone on twitch tv like swifty, ravedged, sodapoppin will stream it free

[wombinator04]

Yes no......

[Ashadelo]

I thought the in game rewards are bound to your account and that it would be impossible to sell them apart from actually selling off your account. I might be wrong though.