Activision Earnings Call, Hearthstone Pop-Up Book, Mobile Titles for Blizzard IPs

[Axaion]

"Fan reaction was muted, but fan's reactions at BlizzCon confirmed Diablo Immortal will be well received by players around the world." haha, what?, they clearly were dead silent and boo'ed at them.

These guys are in pure denial, and the rabid fanboys will keep throwing wads of cash at them forever, sad really.

[Varitok]

I mean, mobile is a legit gaming platform with the by far the biggest audience whether you like it or not. Blizzard is trying to personally raise the standard for mobile games, I'd say that's a good thing for the industry.

Big audience but not a legit gaming platform. Sorry to say. 99.9% of mobile games are MTX cash grabs, They aren't raising the standard, if they were, they'd do it alone and not pump it full of money grubbing.

[SirCowdog]

Blizzard shifting development to mobile in lieu of PC will likely lead to slower development of PC assets (which are already too damned slow vs. industry average), and likely a decline in the quality of their PC assets, as they are moving "their best developers" to mobile.

This shift is what has long time fans upset and feeling a bit betrayed. Is it a bit entitled? Sure, but many fans that are upset, including myself, have been invested in Blizzard PC games for more than 20 years. To see the company that my money helped build shift their focus away from long time loyal fans in lieu of making a quick buck on the eastern markets is beyond disappointing, and I don't think it's wrong for myself, and other like me, that have supported Blizzard through thick and thin, to have a strong opinion - and further voice that opinion.

Sorry for the long write-up, just trying to break it down for you from the perspective of someone who is voicing their opinion in a polite way (these people that are flat out attacking Blizz employees really need to grow up!), but is a part of the negative reaction.

Over nine-thousand times this!

I can't even express how well these few paragraphs describe the situation. Blizzard's actions up til now have been disappointing, to say the least. But their reaction and response to the backlash is baffling. They're just sticking their head in the sand and spinning their reports and numbers to try and keep pushing the mobile thing onto the PC market and players, despite the blatantly obvious fact that no one in those markets actually wants it.

[dranlord]

Big audience but not a legit gaming platform. Sorry to say. 99.9% of mobile games are MTX cash grabs, They aren't raising the standard, if they were, they'd do it alone and not pump it full of money grubbing.

But that is the idea with mobile game, quick money and micro transactions, that by big companies want to get into it. is a good source of money.

And last i check that how companies grow.

[Socialhealer]

those mobile "high standards" LUL.

[apelsinjuice]

Maybe time to buy acti-blizzard stocks, if they hit big in china/asia and keep making mobile games for their market

[Gadzooks]

Big audience but not a legit gaming platform. Sorry to say. 99.9% of mobile games are MTX cash grabs, They aren't raising the standard, if they were, they'd do it alone and not pump it full of money grubbing.

Depends on what your definition of "legit" is. To a game publisher, anything that gets them profits is legit.

This whole "raising the standard" is just the talking points. It's why the Diablo devs were parroting 'authentic Diablo experience" the whole time. They're spinning. It's the bread and butter of marketing.

And, every game except Starcraft has MTX now. Overwatch, Hearthstone, HOTS, WoW, and now Diablo. This is something new? Somehow MTX on mobile is worse than the WoW Token?

[Kpmk]

Suuuure. Whatever helps you sleep at night.

Just trying to think with logic instead of emotion

[sopeonaroap]

I mean, mobile is a legit gaming platform with the by far the biggest audience whether you like it or not. Blizzard is trying to personally raise the standard for mobile games, I'd say that's a good thing for the industry.

lol, personally

they're paying netease to reskin their other mobile game Endless Gods. blizz isn't personally doing shit

[Kpmk]

Big audience but not a legit gaming platform. Sorry to say. 99.9% of mobile games are MTX cash grabs, They aren't raising the standard, if they were, they'd do it alone and not pump it full of money grubbing.

Because it is largely still a new emerging market. Everyone rushed to get in on the profits. Now if companies start making real gaming experiences on mobile that would leave less room for the shitty cash grab type games and hopefully drive them out.

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lol, personally

they're paying netease to reskin their other mobile game Endless Gods. blizz isn't personally doing shit

I still don't get this argument, the games don't really look similar. And it makes sense they would work with another company that already knows the ins and outs for their first mobile endeavor

[Daedius]

The "muting"...

Fuck Blizzard, seriously... Done with this fucking company.

[Kpmk]

They aren't though. The game they showed is a reskin of a shitty game, and it isn't even made by them.

They are working with another company that already knows the mobile market well, yes. And no, the reskin thing is a blatant lie.

[Th3Scourge]

Live by the market, die by the market

Capitalism can be bittersweet sometimes.

[Cthulhu fhtagn]

Seeing them say that "some of their best devs are on mobile now" kinda breaks my heart. It feels the same as when we saw overwatch being built with such polish and launched at the time we had the biggest drought the game had seen. It's just shitty when the games that brought them the fortune they have is being funneled into projects with a wider audience while the original games are being left more and more. Now they are after an audience that has nothing to do with the audience that made diablo the series it is today.

The "bigger audience" shit does not justify anything, they still are abandoning most of their original fanbase and the platform that allows them to get stinky rich from shitty games now. I do believe we will still get a diablo 4 and whatever the fuck for the other ips, but they are not a priority clearly. They are not going to be the games with the "best developers" or the most time put into them. It is like if your favourite metal band started to play some current autotune horseshit pop (sorry i have no idea what's in right now, in my head its that). That's what blizzard feels to me on many fronts now, they used to make games that felt like they were just made for whatever releases the dopamine in my brain. Now they are going forward with the audience first, then trying to figure out a game to reach as many people as possible instead of having their own vision.

[Gadzooks]

I still don't get this argument, the games don't really look similar. And it makes sense they would work with another company that already knows the ins and outs for their first mobile endeavor

This isn't their first mobile endeavor, Hearthstone was.

They have to partner with a Chinese company, to sell a game in China. Companies in China that sell games have to be Chinese owned.

Netease already licenses WoW and Hearthstone and other titles there for Blizzard.

This is less about Netease's experience, because there are plenty of other Chinese companies with that, and more about Netease already being Blizzard's partner there, a necessary one, and that they have a game they can rebuild for Diablo is just icing on the money cake. I'd almost guarantee they didn't shop this project around to other Chinese companies.

If Blizzard intended to make this game for US/EU markets primarily, they wouldn't need Netease, at all.

[Kyphael]

I have owned 6 cell phones over the last 12 years. I used them maybe a max of avout 100 or so hours. They served me more as alarm clocks and calendars than a phone.

I do text and call, and use the alarm but that's it. My desktop is irreplaceable.

[Logwyn]

"Enchanters will have new recipes that will actually convert Sanguicell into Expulsom for personal use."

Hurray!!!!!!!

[f3llyn]

"The team admits that..."

"didn't translate as well as they hoped"

"we know it feels bad..."

They *always* say shit like this after they get negative criticism. Stop making excuses blizzard and start listening to feedback, and not last week. But 8 months ago when we told you azerite was shit. When we told you the gcd change was shit. When we told you certain specs were shit.

[Daedius]

People mocked me when I said back during Legion I didn't like the direction the company was heading in... guess it took this Blizzcon to see how far they've fallen from their mantle for the masses...

[Deficineiron]

Depends on what your definition of "legit" is. To a game publisher, anything that gets them profits is legit.

This whole "raising the standard" is just the talking points. It's why the Diablo devs were parroting 'authentic Diablo experience" the whole time. They're spinning. It's the bread and butter of marketing.

And, every game except Starcraft has MTX now. Overwatch, Hearthstone, HOTS, WoW, and now Diablo. This is something new? Somehow MTX on mobile is worse than the WoW Token?

observant forum readers will start connecting the dots between the authentic diablo experience phrase and the authentic classic experience phrase.