Kotaku - Warcraft Version of Pokemon Go Rumor, New Islands Preview in Patch 8.1

[Darkguyver2020]

"Diablo: Immortal exists because they heard that China really wanted a Diablo mobile game."

Fuck. China. In. The. ASS!

[Sting]

Sounds like a likely scenario. What I personally read into this is that Blizzard might be running (RELATIVELY) low on money. The cash cow WoW has seen greener pastures, and afaik Overwatch revenue has been dropping since its launch too. Both of those brought Blizzard an insane amount of cash flow that they could spend relatively carefree. Venturing into China to farm money from mtx seems like a smart choice although obviously the western player base is shitting on DI:I.

I hope we don't see a culture change inside of Blizzard because of increasing pressure from Activision, but I fear it's already too late since Morhaime is gone.

[Aeula]

So Blizzard have turned from gamers into mobile enthusiasts? Not surprising considering recent announcements.

Activision tightening it's grip doesn't bode well either. Damn it Blizzard, what happened to you?

[JingCake]

When will they realize that they Can't earn ALL of the money in the world?

Also, the 2nd expansion for D3 was Heavily hinted at after you beat the last boss in Reaper of Souls...

[Ickz]

ITT: Denial about the beginning of the end of Blizzard.

Been playing Blizz games since Lost Vikings was originally released. It's sad, but I'm not going to sit here trying to defend them anymore when it's blatantly obvious what's going on now.

[kingpinuk880]

I’m all for rumours etc but kotaku is utter dog shit. Can’t wait till the site dies.

[Casperite]

That's actually hilarious, I wonder if Blizzard is trying to find a way to get out of Activision. It seems like no matter what they do the board wants more.

It would be very weird for a major corporate board to just be okay with everything as is and not want anything more. A corporation is there to make money, and making more money is always the goal that will never change. The fact some of you people expect Blizzard to operate differently is bizarre.

[SLSAMG]

do you not have phones?

Yes. Doesn't mean I want it to be my main gaming platform.....

[Shaeris Shadowgale]

"Blizzard hasn't confirmed any of this news that indirectly speaks ill of blizzard. Therefore, all of this is fabricated."

The absolute state of people on this board.

[Fuze]

Blizzard is unfortunately slowly turning into Warner Bros. of the gaming industry

[Magicpot]

to quote Jim Sterling - the games are making them a lot money but are not making them ALL of the money

real talk though blizzard has been underperforming expectations and their development pipeline is too long. They need to release more money making games quicker in future.

[Deleted]

To reach new people and create new fanbases.

What's wrong with the existing fanbase?

[Zandalariprelate]

Someone at blizzard is hellbent on pushing this mobile gaming cancer to the max. How sad to throw such a nice brand in the trash like this...

Truly a sad day

[Auxora]

Cutting costs being an initial push for the new Activision-style CEO doesn't bode well. Financially Activision-Blizzard has been killing it for the past 2 years. The stock has skyrocketed. But any non-gamer CEO coming in is just going to automatically go for cost-cutting. It's an easy move to make shareholders happy. Overall, from the financials we do know that the positions of Blizz and Activision have kind of flipped over the past 5-6 years. It used to be that Blizzard was the cash cow and Activision leaned on them through some weak CoD and other weak Activision game years. But as a portion of the overall company that flipped because CoD is doing well again and Blizzard has fallen off a bit. So it might be actually time for Blizzard to be pushed financially a bit.

From the outside looking in seeing quite a bit of top talent leave, Overwatch falling off, BfA falling off quickly, a cold reception for the Diablo news at Blizzcon, nothing really on SC, and stagnation in HS and HOTS, I could see where investors might be starting to become concerned. There wasn't anything at all at Blizzcon in the remasters or other news that would signal me as an investor that there is a big surge in Blizzcon #'s in the short to medium term. They might have needed at least a flash of something on the horizon at Blizzcon, like even just an image of a Diablo 4 logo, or Wow 2, or SC 3, or maybe something entirely new (the Diablo Dark Souls-ish cancelled game sounded amazing). But there was nothing at all. For all an investor could know, anything close to Diablo 4 might be 10 years away.

[Wondercrab]

Depressing if true. The mobile stuff is whatever, but the talk about cutting costs and showing growth is dismal to hear. Blizzard has always been more on the fringe of the profit-driven AAA industry, and this kind of corporate talk is the first death knell of any passionate, artistically motivated developer.

[Onikaroshi]

What's wrong with the existing fanbase?

Any business worth it's salt looks to acquire new customers, stagnating in your same customers will just end up in financial failure when those customers inevitably move on to the next big thing.

[Deleted]

HAHAHAHAHHAHA, wait you are serious??!?! Let me laugh even harder! H A A AH AH AHA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HHA H AHA HA HAH HA H AHA HA HA HA HA HAH HA HA HA HA HA H AHA HA HA HA HA H HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA , nice work out. Almost got six pack, laughed so hard. Wait you still serous? AHEHAEHHEAHEHEAHEHAEHEH EH AE
HA EH EHAH EAH EH EAH EHAE HEH H EA "sick pack" Achievement unlocked!! AHAHEHAEHEAHEHAEHAEHEHAEHHEAHEHAEHEAHAEHEAHEHAEHEHAAHEEa
Dude stop you are killing me! HEAHEHAEHEAHEHAHEHEAHEHAEHEAHEHAAHEHAEHAHEHAE
I died. I am now dead.

[Zantos]

Pokemon GO! destroyed the quality of pokemon main games.

Be prepared to the worst

Pokemon Go has not had an impact on the main games. The next main game comes out in 2019. As stated by Nintendo. These new lets go games are a second "main" line aimed at a more casual group.

This ties into a main point perfectly. Just because the core games for WoW are popular, that doesn't mean it will translate to the mobile market place. Pokemon has brand recognition as well as a game play that can translate. WoW doesn't have that gameplay and its brand recognition is as an MMO. I just don't see a mobile version having a good base to draw from.

[Kralljin]

What's wrong with the existing fanbase?

I remember how Kripparian once talked about Youtube revenue on stream and basically said that the most profitable group are kids and young teens.

The 20-40y old group is not that interesting from a financial PoV.


So yeah, even if you played Warcraft 3 / WoW when you were barely legal to play it (meaning around 12), you're an adult now and not part of the most profitable group for companies related to entertainment.

[Melsiren]

Warcraft Go, I can see it now, you will have the opportunity to catch over 120 types of cancer.