BlizzCon 2019 - November 1 - 2, Tickets on Sale May 4 and May 8

[Bloodscore]

Blizzcon, now with 85% more mobile gaming. Coming to a phone near you.

[korijenkins]

Why improve the flow and layout of your convention when you can just charge more and let a select few enjoy it?

Not only are they selling a greedy ticket, but they also RAISED the price of the base ticket, after year where they announced NOTHING at Blizzcon.

I am fucking speechless.

[tangers58]

*mobilecon

[SinR]

I have some coworkers that play some mobile Star Wars game. every paycheck they *ALL* sink anywhere from 25 to 100 bucks into it. They ask me if I pay money in WoW for anything and "Nope, just 15/month for Subscription Fee."

[Aoyi]

I really had been planning to go to Blizzcon this year. This would have been my first yesr going, but after the last 5 months or so of Blizzard news, I just don’t want to anymore. Its not just WoW. The layoffs bothered me. Their handling of e-sports bothered me. They dropped Heroes e-sports pretty much over the holidays and right as teams were prepping for the next year. They messed up the Hearthstone Grandmasters by having invites which undermines the point of the Grandmasters. And the tickets are $230, but aside from giving away statues, I don’t aee what they have added for value. I’m just disappointed.

[Stormspark]

Man...someone would have to be a real sucker to go to that after last year.

[Niwes]

greed to infinity.

what this company has become... cheesus christ.

[SirCowdog]

or ... crazy idea i know ... people enjoy the direction in which games are going .

yes there is few very vocal people on forums who dont like it but silent majority who dont spend half of life on forums enjoy both mobile games and microtransactions.

every developer atm is releasing mobile games with MTx

you know why ? because people have shitload of money with nothing to spend them on.

i get it - there are poor people here or people from poor countries but there are milions out there who make >3k $/euro per month and dont care if they spend 100-200 monthly on games.

thats why whole gaming market is moving into this direction.

Over-using MTX or prefering mobile over PC is secondary. I'm talking about ActiBlizz committing tax evasion while giving their CFO massive bonuses at the same time as laying off 800 employees during a year of record profits!

Does this sound like the type of company that you want to celebrate? That you want to pay MORE money to after last year being told that they don't give a shit about you because they're going to china?

Do you think a company willing to do those things is going to be good or benevolent towards its players? Do you think they're going to be fair, or have your best interests at heart?

Come the hell on. What does it take? A blizzard employee slapping your mom and kicking a puppy in front of you before you realize what they are?

At what point does the excuse of "Well I just enjoy their games" stop holding up?

[-aiko-]

They're definitely planning something big with the extra convention space, but this was a horribly thought out announcement. All I got from this was that the tickets are more expensive...they should have announced what exactly they are planning this year to justify the increased cost. Right now I'm just kind of...bleh about the whole thing.

I don't know if I'm going to go this year, which is a shame, because I had a lot of ideas for some Jaina cosplay.

[ramborg]

hahahaahahaha the drama never ends *grabs popcorn*

[Devilyaki]

I'll just get the streaming ticket and some goodies from the store like always -shrug-

[Th3Scourge]

Came here for mobile jokes. Was not disappointed.

Please never change <3

[Eapoe]

Over-using MTX or prefering mobile over PC is secondary. I'm talking about ActiBlizz committing tax evasion while giving their CFO massive bonuses at the same time as laying off 800 employees during a year of record profits!

Does this sound like the type of company that you want to celebrate? That you want to pay MORE money to after last year being told that they don't give a shit about you because they're going to china?

Do you think a company willing to do those things is going to be good or benevolent towards its players? Do you think they're going to be fair, or have your best interests at heart?

Come the hell on. What does it take? A blizzard employee slapping your mom and kicking a puppy in front of you before you realize what they are?

At what point does the excuse of "Well I just enjoy their games" stop holding up?

Where is the overuse of micro transactions? So far, there has been more added in game than anything in the shop, and even if that wasn’t true there’s the fact that everything in the cash shop is cosmetic and optional. There’s no reason to buy any of it except the f you want to.
Tax evasion? Jesus, did you even read the article? So far, nothing illegal has happened. What they did is no different than the equivalency of people itemizing their taxes or claiming their cell phone for work use as a write off. Just because a big company knows how to save money thru smart tax practices does not mean anything illegal is happening.
Oh wow, higher ups getting more money after a profit year, what company ever does that?
Yeah, they terminated employees. Considering most of them were in sectors that are being made obsolete with future technology, such as customer service and handling in game tickets, why should a company keep people on as it simply loses them money? Is it horrible that people lose their job? Yes, but why do you not rage out over Walmart terminating employees while installing self checkouts? Or any company that laid off employees in favor of automated systems?
Who said Blizz is going to China? Do you have insider information? They made a mobile game as a business venture that will increase profits. For fucking shame! I’m not going to defend how they handled the situation as I agree Blizzcon could have been handled better; however, now that the dust has settled most people have taken the position they wouldn’t have cared about a mobile announcement if Blizz had announced Diablo 4 with it. Most people don’t come off as outraged about a mobile game being made except the way it was announced.
Bottom line is I do enjoy their games. Maybe that’s because I can accept that life happens and companies pay people off, even while making money. Maybe I can accept that a company tries to make extra money while putting cosmetic, not necessary, items on a cash shop that I don’t have to buy. I still enjoy playing with multiple people and progressing in raids. Eventually the game won’t be fun for me and I will quit. Or maybe some day WoW will become P2W and I will quit then. That has not happened, so I will keep playing.

[Stickiler]

There's the rub though; they're who they used to be in name only. Now, they are a publicly traded company with a parent company who wants one thing; results. They are taking that good will that they earned off the backs of their predecessors in the company and using it to get said results; in this case being, profit.

As sad as it is, Blizzard is now a company that prioritizes money first, players second. Sure, they can say they still prioritize customers, but I feel like people haven't felt that in a long while. Also, with them moving towards a market (mobile gaming) that their core players (the players who made them the company they are) are being tosses to the wayside in favor of turn over customers and whales, and all of that is thanks to their parent company and public trading.

If they were a private company, they wouldn't have to answer to stock holders and their boards, and might focus on long term health of their games, not quick flips to generate money.

They've literally never been a private company, not under the name "Blizzard Entertainment", because they changed to that name the first time they got acquired, and they've just been bounced around to different owners since then.

[TheRevenantHero]

I'd be willing to bet that the "statue" is the size of a fucking D&D mini. Also, a $30 increase in price after last year's shitshow? I expect to see attendance at an all time low this year.

[Onikaroshi]

I'd be willing to bet that the "statue" is the size of a fucking D&D mini. Also, a $30 increase in price after last year's shitshow? I expect to see attendance at an all time low this year.

Haha... it'll sell out instantly and be packed, there's no question about it.

[woofpup]

If you aren't giving us a Battlepet I won't be buying a virtual ticket this year.

[Hitei]

At what point does the excuse of "Well I just enjoy their games" stop holding up?

When they stop being a fucking video game company.

[SirCowdog]

snip.

Really dude? You're defending and rationalizating these practices? You can't be serious.

[Kuja]

Shouldn't the tickets be much more expensive? Considering they sell out in minutes. And Blizzard is a business, so they do stuff to make money and not to give everyone (Who is super quick) a chance to experience cool stuff at a lesser price.