Fresh rumour...mickey mouse and murlocs?

[FelPlague]

Great, just what Warcraft needs: A fucking $200 million dollar big budget Hollywood film directed by JJ Abrams.

hey man if they had the intrest and money an animated warcraft movie woulda been amazing, they did live action as they were worried about it, cause well fully animted woulda cost like 4 to 5 times more money.

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Hell, people can't even tell the difference between a publisher and developer.

SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
you cant say that here, you will be found in a ditch ripped apart by rotten "logic"

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This is no secret, we know Disney has been wanting to buy Blizzard for a while now. They’ll probably succeed and then we’re really in for it.

Yeah, this, this was known almost a year ago.

[Eurhetemec]

Financially, TLJ did well, but there was a pretty vocal backlash--and again, see the bit about Disney jealously guarding its IPs. They had to finish out the trilogy, but they canceled almost all the side stories when Solo flopped and TLJ got vocal, negative feedback. You're right that 'underperformed' was the wrong word choice for TLJ specifically.

The "backlash" for TLJ was basically a few hundred Gen Xers (and a couple of younger dudes who seemed to be in it for the trolling, but mostly Gen Xers) going round all the genre sites whinging pathetically with the exact same BS and getting told to fuck off. There's absolutely no possibility Disney, of all people, made decisions based on that.

They have had real issues with Star Wars, though.

1) Rogue One only did okay, and Solo did underperform (flop is too strong). Disney clearly had higher expectations for them.

2) Rogue One, Solo, and Rise of the Skywalker were all three "troubled movies" (TFA and TLJ were not). Rogue One required absolutely massive reshoots, to the point where the shape of the third act of the movie appears to be entirely different - I'm not sure why this happened, but it was after early cuts were seen so I assume Disney ordered it. Solo fired the original writers/directors, and replaced them with a "safe pair of hands", because they felt it was "too jokey" or something - that set back production and caused various issues, and I like Ron Howard but he doesn't make exciting or modern movies and he didn't here. Rise required to outright fire Colin Treverrow (and his script and directing would have been a disaster - he's a terrible director, it's astonishing they ever booked him - a sign of their fallibility, frankly) and bring in JJ, and then made JJ get Rise out when it clearly needed more time, because it was a huge fucking mess (as anyone who has seen it can attest - like, all my friends, who thought TFA and TLJ were between good and great, their first comment about Rise was some form of "What a mess!").

3) They had problems finding stories people would actually want to watch as a movie. I can't remember the exact quote, but that's what it came down to (somewhere around the time where they pulled most of the in-development stuff). Whereas I think the success of the Mandalorian has them looking at TV much more seriously for Star Wars now (I mean, we just got a new series of Clone Wars, too!).

It depends. Disney's obviously got no problem with making stuff not for kids. That's a bit of a meme but if you want I can go hunt down the subsidiaries owned by Disney that specialize in content aimed at young adults and adults and definitely aren't kid friendly. Hell, they've committed to keeping Deadpool films rated R going forward (don't mess with a proven formula and whatnot).

They LITERALLY have NOT made that commitment. Please don't spread this false information. They have repeatedly dodged that issue. They have repeatedly said things which amount to "We think Deadpool is cool!", but they have NEVER committed to keeping it R-rated. If you think they have, source and quote, because I'm saying they haven't.

I guarantee you that if they even ever made another Deadpool movie, it's going to be some sort of PG-13 romp. I'm sure it'll be funny-as-fuck. It may even be a great movie. But it's not going to be R, unless something really wild changes.

And again, having the House of Mouse calling the shots, if Battlefront and Fallen Order are any indication, isn't a bad idea. Obviously the Mouse has no problem throwing its weight around and telling studios to fix their fuck-ups, because they do not want their IPs to be seen as subpar. With a game that prints money like WoW, Disney's interests would be in making sure it keeps printing money; maintenance-moding the game would be its death knell.

Yeah, see you're not understanding the difference between licensing something out, and owning something.

With BFII, they could say "Yeah, don't let it keep sucking!" because they have something to hold over EA, which is the license, and Disney don't have to spend a SINGLE PENNY making it not suck. EA does, if they want to keep that license. If Disney owned it, and it sucked, Disney would have to pay to fix it, and suddenly it's a different equation. You cannot honestly believe that one SW game sucking would damage the SW IP significantly, because mate, 7/10 Star Wars games, historically, have sucked monkey butt. And there's no way Disney believe that either. They'd assess the cost of making it not suck, and if it was too high, they'd quietly end it.

With Fallen Order, I'm confused as to how you think Disney helped? Maybe I missed an article or something, but AFAIK, Disney got in the way repeatedly, and literally tried to stop them making it about a Jedi. They had to initially design the game with just "a force user" hoping they'd be allowed to use a Jedi, whilst they argued with Disney on this.

I think re: WoW you overestimate how much Disney would like WoW's model. I think it's entirely possible Disney would think this was a tired, old-fashioned model, and push for F2P accompanied by a decreasing in spending on development and support. Disney are behind and fully accept tons of extremely aggressive mobile games based on their IPs. I mean, you think Fallen Order made them money? It didn't make shit compared to some of the trashy mobile games out there.

The Warcraft IP has value. WoW itself? To Disney? That's wishful thinking. I think they'd give it a chance, as I said, I think we'd have one more expansion to see if it could be proved that this was a good model, but if that expansion didn't increase subs significantly and chart a course to higher profits, I think it's entirely possible Disney would push it to F2P (where Activision and Blizzard would be more cautious about that), because that has a benefit to them in that it introduces more people to the IP.

Indeed, if Disney bought Blizzard, and did a Warcraft animated TV show, maybe a new movie, or whatever, I feel it's likely they'd want WoW to be F2P, or have an major F2P option (not just the starter thing), because they want their audience to just be able to go over and play WoW, not to have to mess with a subscription and so on. They value IPs, not individual products. Not shows, not movies, not games. IPs.

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Pressing 'X' for doubt.
Compared to Marvel and Star Wars, the Blizzard IPs are obscure, minuscule and largely only recognized by gaming crowds.
The Warcraft movie barely scraped together numbers that reach the worst performers of the Marvel franchise and it didn't do well in the domestic market. No one outside gaming knows what Overwatch is.

Worth pointing out that this isn't as true as you might think. WoW has had over 100m people subscribe at one point or another. That's pretty huge (and that figure was from like 2014), and if you say "World of Warcraft" to someone aged 20-50, they know, at least in vague terms, what you're talking about, unless they're the kind of "I don't own a television!" sort of upper-middle-class types. I think it's fair to say that a lot more people know what WoW is than knew who Iron Man was before the RDJ movie.

And yeah, loads of people outside of gaming have a vague to less-vague idea of what Overwatch is. I was as surprised to find this out as anyone else, but it was recently a topic of discussion in my office. Virtually everyone who had 10+ year old kids had heard of it.

[Kyphael]

Like they saved Star Wars?

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Mind You, I'm all for blizzard getting out from under the thumb of Activision but believe me, Disney buying them would be the WORST possible outcome.

Why? Disney partners with EA which is where blizzard will go. They will go from under the heel of Activison to the complete utter game ruining dictatorship thats EA. Prepare to see lootboxes....wait I mean "Surprise Mechanics" in wow. Prepare to see not only Level skips, but soon, STORY SKIPS in wow. Prepare to see boxes on the shop that have a chance to contain mythic raid gear. EA will butcher wow to the point its no longer wow and wonder why the playerbase left. Activison is doing that already but at least their approach is to slowly creep in over the course of a few expansions and THEN hit you. EA will do it all upfront and worse.

So no, I do not want Disney buying Blizzard, but I do not want Blizzard to remain with Activision.

Huh, damn, I didn't think it could be worse, but EA does sound pretty terrible, and that is right up their alley.

[Muajin76]

I want it, maybe Disney can save Blizzard games from Activision and we can get that Kingdom Hearts/World Warcraft crossover WoW players have been clamoring for years.

I know that SquarEnix games do a lot of collaboration between their various titles, even including Disney characters. Like you mentioned with KH. They do a lot of crossovers. Even with their mobile titles. Blizzard doesn't do crossovers with other games so much, i think it would make people support Blizzard more. *Like say..a SC themed crossover where you can get SC transmogs/mounts*

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I did like the Mickey themed Star wars stuff, pretty cool!

[Seranthor]

Ok, why then do people around here seem to think that Activision is calling the shots on Blizzard?

Because apparently its easier to blame the big bad Activision than to hold Blizzard responsible for their actions.

[lokithor]

Its bullshit. Disney wants ZERO to do with games. Its why they just license their IP's

[Raven]

Yeah Disney buying Blizzard would be bad, i cant wait for the raid where everything seem lost until Captain Marvel comes and rescue us.

And lets not forget the fun it will be when some like Khadgar and Thrall magically turn female

But lets be positive, when Tony Stark is added to the game, players will get their tinkerer class

[Alkizon]

2 years ago I said:

Much that, I don't think it will somehow worse affect neither art, nor story, nor game mechanics. Really, it's already difficult to expect something even worse.

If we talk about mergers, then I would suggest (Disney) + (Activision-Blizzard) + (Microsoft). Conglomerate will subordinate a large part of entertainment infrastructure (including soft, games and movies with cartoons)

and I still think the same way for current days

[Raisei]

Oh dear mercyful Void take me... if this happens...

Disney already destroyed several Franchises with Star Wars the newest of them. They literally demanded that the Expanded Universe would be declared non-canon so they could make their own story, only to steal from the EU left and right and not even having the understanding to steal the interesting bits.

The Lore of Star Wars is a joke now, the Force, a concept that created hundreds of books and it's very own real-life religion, has been completely destroyed by people that could not manage to give a frack about how it actually works, what limitations it has and what the requirements are. Decades of people pouring their hearts into creating a universe and Disney throws it all out to make some extra dollars. That Mouse is a true monster.

No one in their right minds should ever want this for WoW and Blizzard.

Next thing we get AU Gul'dan returning, withered and old, and Sylvanas stares at him:

"How did you come back? Your body exploded and Illidan crushed your skull!"
- "The Fel is a pathway to many abilities, some of which could be considered ... unnatural."
"Yeah but..."
-"The Fel can do this now! Shut up and assemble my hidden army of Legion Star Destroyers that I hid underground in Outland!"

[Xath]

I actually like them. I know I'm not a part of the vocal minority.

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They release solid Marvel products constantly. Their theme parks are top tier. Their cruise line is great. I liked the new Star Wars movies. They had Disney+ come out last year and a show on there went viral in meme culture.

I guess I should ask you what large studio is constantly pumping out quality material as fast as Disney?

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Haven't watched those. They do not appeal to me.

Not a minority lol there is a reason audience reviews are trash level especially for last jedi

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The "backlash" for TLJ was basically a few hundred Gen Xers (and a couple of younger dudes who seemed to be in it for the trolling, but mostly Gen Xers) going round all the genre sites whinging pathetically with the exact same BS and getting told to fuck off. There's absolutely no possibility Disney, of all people, made decisions based on that.

They have had real issues with Star Wars, though.

1) Rogue One only did okay, and Solo did underperform (flop is too strong). Disney clearly had higher expectations for them.

2) Rogue One, Solo, and Rise of the Skywalker were all three "troubled movies" (TFA and TLJ were not). Rogue One required absolutely massive reshoots, to the point where the shape of the third act of the movie appears to be entirely different - I'm not sure why this happened, but it was after early cuts were seen so I assume Disney ordered it. Solo fired the original writers/directors, and replaced them with a "safe pair of hands", because they felt it was "too jokey" or something - that set back production and caused various issues, and I like Ron Howard but he doesn't make exciting or modern movies and he didn't here. Rise required to outright fire Colin Treverrow (and his script and directing would have been a disaster - he's a terrible director, it's astonishing they ever booked him - a sign of their fallibility, frankly) and bring in JJ, and then made JJ get Rise out when it clearly needed more time, because it was a huge fucking mess (as anyone who has seen it can attest - like, all my friends, who thought TFA and TLJ were between good and great, their first comment about Rise was some form of "What a mess!").

3) They had problems finding stories people would actually want to watch as a movie. I can't remember the exact quote, but that's what it came down to (somewhere around the time where they pulled most of the in-development stuff). Whereas I think the success of the Mandalorian has them looking at TV much more seriously for Star Wars now (I mean, we just got a new series of Clone Wars, too!).



They LITERALLY have NOT made that commitment. Please don't spread this false information. They have repeatedly dodged that issue. They have repeatedly said things which amount to "We think Deadpool is cool!", but they have NEVER committed to keeping it R-rated. If you think they have, source and quote, because I'm saying they haven't.

I guarantee you that if they even ever made another Deadpool movie, it's going to be some sort of PG-13 romp. I'm sure it'll be funny-as-fuck. It may even be a great movie. But it's not going to be R, unless something really wild changes.



Yeah, see you're not understanding the difference between licensing something out, and owning something.

With BFII, they could say "Yeah, don't let it keep sucking!" because they have something to hold over EA, which is the license, and Disney don't have to spend a SINGLE PENNY making it not suck. EA does, if they want to keep that license. If Disney owned it, and it sucked, Disney would have to pay to fix it, and suddenly it's a different equation. You cannot honestly believe that one SW game sucking would damage the SW IP significantly, because mate, 7/10 Star Wars games, historically, have sucked monkey butt. And there's no way Disney believe that either. They'd assess the cost of making it not suck, and if it was too high, they'd quietly end it.

With Fallen Order, I'm confused as to how you think Disney helped? Maybe I missed an article or something, but AFAIK, Disney got in the way repeatedly, and literally tried to stop them making it about a Jedi. They had to initially design the game with just "a force user" hoping they'd be allowed to use a Jedi, whilst they argued with Disney on this.

I think re: WoW you overestimate how much Disney would like WoW's model. I think it's entirely possible Disney would think this was a tired, old-fashioned model, and push for F2P accompanied by a decreasing in spending on development and support. Disney are behind and fully accept tons of extremely aggressive mobile games based on their IPs. I mean, you think Fallen Order made them money? It didn't make shit compared to some of the trashy mobile games out there.

The Warcraft IP has value. WoW itself? To Disney? That's wishful thinking. I think they'd give it a chance, as I said, I think we'd have one more expansion to see if it could be proved that this was a good model, but if that expansion didn't increase subs significantly and chart a course to higher profits, I think it's entirely possible Disney would push it to F2P (where Activision and Blizzard would be more cautious about that), because that has a benefit to them in that it introduces more people to the IP.

Indeed, if Disney bought Blizzard, and did a Warcraft animated TV show, maybe a new movie, or whatever, I feel it's likely they'd want WoW to be F2P, or have an major F2P option (not just the starter thing), because they want their audience to just be able to go over and play WoW, not to have to mess with a subscription and so on. They value IPs, not individual products. Not shows, not movies, not games. IPs.

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Worth pointing out that this isn't as true as you might think. WoW has had over 100m people subscribe at one point or another. That's pretty huge (and that figure was from like 2014), and if you say "World of Warcraft" to someone aged 20-50, they know, at least in vague terms, what you're talking about, unless they're the kind of "I don't own a television!" sort of upper-middle-class types. I think it's fair to say that a lot more people know what WoW is than knew who Iron Man was before the RDJ movie.

And yeah, loads of people outside of gaming have a vague to less-vague idea of what Overwatch is. I was as surprised to find this out as anyone else, but it was recently a topic of discussion in my office. Virtually everyone who had 10+ year old kids had heard of it.

The backlash for TLJ was Solo cratering and a significant drop in expected viewing for Rise. It wasn't "trolls" or w/e you want to claim. Solo was a flop the rule of thumb is to double the budget just to break even they only get half the box office at absolute best. Also that isn't counting toys that didn't get sold.

[Eurhetemec]

Sure WoW is probably the most recognizable of their titles, but doesn't actually mean that extends to the Warcraft franchise. Or actually anything beyond the game. Those 100m people didn't actually show up to see the movie. Especially in domestic markets. A lot of people have returned to play Classic, but I doubt we're in the 100m range (or even 10M).

I agree but my point is that you don't need a lot of IP awareness to get the public interested. The previous WoW movie suffered because it was well, not very good, despite a good director (and not be a terrible Warcraft movie). A TV series, on Disney+, could be far more influential. And 100m people having engaged with your IP is pretty significant! A lot of much smaller IPs went really huge with TV or movies.

Re: Overwatch, yeah, gamers (so 10+ year old kids) know it, but again - does your anecdote actually mean it has legs as a franchise from "lets-get-into-multibillion-deal-over-this"-perspective? Again - doubt.

I'm willing to bet Spider-Man lunchbox sales are not in the same ballpark with Tracer lunchbox sales. I would still watch the shit out of Overwatch animated show produced by Disney, but I think I'm in niche market demographic.

Nothing is in the Spider-Man ballpark. Come on that's not a fair comparison Superman isn't in the Spider-Man ballpark, nor is Bats. The whole of the rest of Marvel isn't in the Spider-Man ballpark in terms of merchandise for kids! They've been trying incredibly hard to make The Avengers happen (as a property for kids), but kids love dat Spider-Man, not the rest of them (though I think the Hulk has some enduring appeal).

Also, Overwatch is a fairly small-though-growing IP now, but it has potential, and most importantly it has a bit more widespread recognition than you were giving it credit for.

As for a multibillion-dollar deal, which yeah, buying Blizzard probably would be, I actually agree with you - I don't think Blizzard's IPs are worth it if Activision is going to ask a high price for them. I'm just saying they're worth more than you're suggesting. Not Star Wars money, though.

[Uurdz]

I work at an investment banking related firm and we receive certain "special reports" type of newsletters and today's issue was specially interesting because it mentioned that disney is suddenly very interested in buying out blizzard from activision. Mind you this is one step behind the companies going into actual talks, this is just disney going through m&a consultancy firms with certain inquiries.

Could you imagine Blizzard world as a Disney park? What about Overwatch Animated TV show?

[FuxieDK]

I want it, maybe Disney can save Blizzard games from Activision and we can get that Kingdom Hearts/World Warcraft crossover WoW players have been clamoring for years.

Like when Disney "saved" Star Wars?

[tikcol]

I liked the new Star Wars movies.

Oh right. Sorry to disturb you.

[Raisei]

Destroyed for neckbeards from the internet that can't stand if something does not happen the way they want it. Star Wars Canon was always messy and bullshit, long before Disney bought it. The second trilogy was already a disaster.

While the second triology did give us mediclorians, it also brought many good things. Like a lot more Palpatine and McGregor Obiwan. Also I assume you are aware of the irony of complaining about people on the internet while complaining on the internet. The Star Wars canon was pretty diverse yes, but there were very detailed and set ideas about the Force, the Jedi and the Sith, many of them established in guide books and some of the best stuff written about the universe.
You do not have to be a "neckbeard", to use your own words, to be offended by the idea that millions of hours of work put in by thousands of people were brushed aside so that a new director can come around with no idea about anything and just goes by the rule of cool.

[Dhrizzle]

I would think that Disney owning Blizzard would be a positive for the players though. They seem to care about quality at Disney and that is something lacking these days.

I dunno man, I hardly see a lot of Marvel or Star Wars games getting massive praise.

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Oh dear mercyful Void take me... if this happens...

Disney already destroyed several Franchises with Star Wars the newest of them. They literally demanded that the Expanded Universe would be declared non-canon so they could make their own story, only to steal from the EU left and right and not even having the understanding to steal the interesting bits.

The Lore of Star Wars is a joke now, the Force, a concept that created hundreds of books and it's very own real-life religion, has been completely destroyed by people that could not manage to give a frack about how it actually works, what limitations it has and what the requirements are. Decades of people pouring their hearts into creating a universe and Disney throws it all out to make some extra dollars. That Mouse is a true monster.

No one in their right minds should ever want this for WoW and Blizzard.

Next thing we get AU Gul'dan returning, withered and old, and Sylvanas stares at him:

"How did you come back? Your body exploded and Illidan crushed your skull!"
- "The Fel is a pathway to many abilities, some of which could be considered ... unnatural."
"Yeah but..."
-"The Fel can do this now! Shut up and assemble my hidden army of Legion Star Destroyers that I hid underground in Outland!"

Disney destroyed the Force? Not George "midi-chlorians" Lucas>

[Raisei]

Disney destroyed the Force? Not George "midi-chlorians" Lucas>

Well, I can't say the midiclorians were a great adition, neither was JarJar but still compared to Rei who can use any Force Power she wants after 3 days of training (things that took Jedi Masters in the past decades to learn) and Kylo "Lord Helmet" Wren, who can teleport solid matter across the universe because shut up, the midiclorians are harmless.
In fact they at least served to deepen the Lore by creating explanations for Force Sensibility and without midiclorians we would not have had Darth Plagueis and one of the most excellent books of the franchise.

[DeuZWw]

i like how this slowly becoming a star war discussion thread.

[Deferionus]

I dunno man, I hardly see a lot of Marvel or Star Wars games getting massive praise.

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Disney destroyed the Force? Not George "midi-chlorians" Lucas>

I think the backlash may be because Disney is making these IPs appeal to a mainstream audience in ways that may irk the people that were invested into them from comics and the original triology. Like Star Wars, a lot of people who were hardcore into it hate the new ones. However, my fiance who never saw the original ones but went with me to see the new ones said she liked them. I enjoyed them despite noticing some questionable things that has people hated online. I could be entirely wrong but I don't think its because they are bad.

I guess a similar scenario would be Blizzard being bought by Disney and they make a movie that retcons lore and changes a popular character in ways that don't mesh with the existing Blizzard fans.

[Kumorii]

I don't even get the hate about midi-chlorians... It explains why some have more potential in using the force. It's also just mentioned one or twice and that's about it. Hardly changes anything if it is in the movie or not to me, but hey, not that into star wars lore. Neither am I a big fan of "not knowing is mysterious". More times than not I find it more interesting knowing why.