Activision Blizzard Q1 2020 Earnings Call

[Onikaroshi]

Except it is delayed, because all of Blizzard's Shadowlands promotional material says "releases on or before Sept 30th, 2020"

From announcement it said "on or before December 31, 2020"

[deenman]

Can't wait for "Shadowlands WILL be delayed", even though they say repeatedly over and over "it's on track"

its on track for being delayed DUH

[TorAndre]

How can something that comes out when its ready by definiton be delayed?

Delayed would be releasing it after it was ready.

People should stop putting imaginary dates in their heads and claim a release after that is a delay.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

How did YOU lose money?

I bought WC3 Reforged.

But I take it you are taking this all very much to seriously. So I will just laugh and move on.

[Divinex]

I bought WC3 Reforged.

But I take it you are taking this all very much to seriously. So I will just laugh and move on.

WC3 Refunded?

[Onikaroshi]

How can something that comes out when its ready by definiton be delayed?

Delayed would be releasing it after it was ready.

People should stop putting imaginary dates in their heads and claim a release after that is a delay.

Well, if it releases after Dec. 31, 2020, then it's been delayed, because that's the date they gave for on or before.

[pewpmeiser]

Can't wait for "Shadowlands WILL be delayed", even though they say repeatedly over and over "it's on track"

With the constant stream of information about the game over the past weeks, and given that things are progressing well in Alpha, nothing would indicate a delay.

[Speedlance]

Why does it matter if wow has 500k players or 5 million?

[Cavox]

Imagine believing Activision-Blizzard won't bend data to suit their purpose. Earning calls are a joke and data can be interpreted to suit one needs. When WoW sub numbers take a plunge they say "due to our effort the queues are shorter.".

[MrLachyG]

You really want repeat of BfA rushed launch? Let them work until they say product is ready.

Also I don't get how Q4 is a news. We had "before December 31" message on pre-order (both BfA and Legion had "before September 21"). Last big patch launched really late in expansion lifetime compared to Legion and MoP. Last upgrade to legendary cloak is scheduled for 9th September.

If anything, some MMOChamps here, that always must come with doomer&gloomer version of reality (no matter how bad reality is), were rather spreading news about "certain" 2021 release. Good to know Q4 schedule remain intact so far, but I hope they are more flexible this time if something would go wrong during Beta like it went during BfA testing.

my hope is that if they are still on track for a 2020 release is that prepatch will hit either October 27 or November 10; will run for 4-6 weeks and then the expansion will launch December 8. 4-5 weeks to level up and first raid opens either on the 5th or 12th of January

[jiih]

So classic is succeeding in the East (more prone to grind games) and retail in the West?

Interesting

western culture more addicted to quick reward/dopamine kicks.

not just in wow

[micwini]

Not that it's a surprise but.. 8.3 till atleast august then ;/

Great.

You expected the expansion to be released even earlier? It's most likely going to be in december and have a cata-esque release date.

[Kumorii]

Why does it matter if wow has 500k players or 5 million?

It doesnt. But people who dislike something have a weird need to prove others don't like it either. As well as proving when they liked it is when most liked it.

I guess they want to be part of the biggest group of something.

[erifwodahs]

Wait... You actually believe that because they retained their MAU's from the previous quarter, it means they're doing well? And as you stated, despite the pandemic? Lmao. The fact that their MAU's remained the same during current stay-at-home efforts, in comparison to the previous quarter free of this situation, is probably not a good enough reason to gloat. You would expect their MAU's to increase if people had to stay home, especially with a recent update.

I get you want to prove the doomsayers wrong; and I don't wish a game I played for 14 years to die either, but come on, you disproved your own reason for retaliation in one sentence lol...

woop

Do you know what quarters are? For a lot of people lock down did not kick in until mid march or in case of UK end of March. Q2 will be a result of this pandemic rather than Q1 as it only affected like 1/6th of Q1 and we are already have over 1/3 of Q2 which will likely last at least until mid-may, so 1/2 of Q2.
Q1 had a major patch release in WoW and it's winter period on northern hemisphere which all have effects on how much time people spend behind their computers.

[Corroc]

Kinda suprising that Classic is more popular in the east. You would think the amount of noise made by forums would account more popularity in the west.

[Kumorii]

Kinda suprising that Classic is more popular in the east. You would think the amount of noise made by forums would account more popularity in the west.

Forum noise is rarely an indicator of whatever they try to indicate. Which is why most business's actually use more sophisticated data analysis tools than looking at forum as well as using marketing researchers that investigate.

Only ones thinking loud mouths on forums is indicating anything on a grand scale are the loud mouths.

[ff50dccd-a222-42f3-a786]

How can something that comes out when its ready by definiton be delayed?

Delayed would be releasing it after it was ready.

People should stop putting imaginary dates in their heads and claim a release after that is a delay.

I get it, steam summer sale is a king and good final product is more subs in the long term.
And yet, I want to believe Blizzard will take the risk. Because this quarantine advantage is a real thing unlike their dreams to not fail with xpac design.

I think that Corona is a pretty good incentive to push the expac out fast. Games are hitting all time high player numbers. I personally believe that people will spend more time home playing until we have a vaccine that makes the virus basically disappear. Therefore, if there is anything to speed up the development, I think they are willing to do it.

So yes, there is more than enough time to make it a good expac. A small vocal group will still say it sucks though, while playing 8 hours a day.

[Collected]

Can't wait for "Shadowlands WILL be delayed", even though they say repeatedly over and over "it's on track"

Based on the alpha state and the fact they have all of 2020 to pick a date... I doubt it will be delayed into 2021.

[Niwes]

"improved sequentially"

"increased meaningfully"

"strong execution in live operations."

Ill have to remember these for when I have to downplay bad news at work. Genius stuff.

yeah always think the same when they come up with their numbers and that well defined terminlogy. great stuff

- - - Updated - - -

rest of the thread:
what a nice battleground for all the white knights and doom sayers.
same shit different day. how /yawn

[Corroc]

Forum noise is rarely an indicator of whatever they try to indicate. Which is why most business's actually use more sophisticated data analysis tools than looking at forum as well as using marketing researchers that investigate.

Only ones thinking loud mouths on forums is indicating anything on a grand scale are the loud mouths.

I'm not talking about loud mouths. I'm talking about the fact that there were so many people interested in classic from perspective of different forums. Not just MMO-C, this place is trash can anyway.