Ion on Raid Release Timing, Activision Blizzard Q3 2020 Investor Call

[Kiri]

Seriously...do people have actual arguments against a mobile Diablo? And no..."It should not be a on a phone because it ruins the franchise" is not an argument. Nor is "They ruin it cuz muneyZ" ^^ - That is not even an observation. It is an opinion and can as such be listened to, considered, analysed and ignored - because it is vapid.

...and I won't even be playing Diablo Immortal...but boy oh boy...some gamers ...

I personally don't care much, but since you asked for actual arguments, I guess we can always fall back on this being a mobile game by Activision-Blizzard based on a series that has always revolved around randomness. There is almost no chance that this game will not be a microtransaction-riddled, most likely lootbox based skinner-box of a game designed to prey on Diablo fans that are vulnerable to these sorts of tactics but so far had no interest in gachas and the like.

And since people will accept that "because it is a mobile game", some of these microtransactions might well bleed back into Diablo 4, since then it's part of the series.

Not saying that it will happen, obviously, but I would reckon the chance for it to do is relatively high.

[Redroniksre]

Because LFR is a secondary element.

Huh? Difficulty aside, it is the most played raid difficulty.

[Eapoe]

There is nothing wrong with the diablo game in itself but it will just always be a meme because of the hype. People were expecting diablo 4 and they got a mobile game. Therefore it will always be a meme and hopefully Blizzard see it as an example of how not to treat customers. You can also argue that they “wasted” resources on a mobile game which they could have used on the development of diablo 4.

As I stated in a previous reply, the issue is the players themselves expecting something they didn’t get. It’s laughable that people believed what they wanted and then blame the 2nd party for not giving something they were never promised. The majority will always blame Blizzard for how the situation was handled, but at the end of the day it is the customers themselves who are to blame for deciding what they were getting with nothing but conjecture and wishful thinking.

[Clozer]

As I stated in a previous reply, the issue is the players themselves expecting something they didn’t get. It’s laughable that people believed what they wanted and then blame the 2nd party for not giving something they were never promised. The majority will always blame Blizzard for how the situation was handled, but at the end of the day it is the customers themselves who are to blame for deciding what they were getting with nothing but conjecture and wishful thinking.

Imagine blaming your customers for wanting a product that you are unable to deliver.

[Nite92]

There is nothing wrong with the diablo game in itself but it will just always be a meme because of the hype. People were expecting diablo 4 and they got a mobile game. Therefore it will always be a meme and hopefully Blizzard see it as an example of how not to treat customers. You can also argue that they “wasted” resources on a mobile game which they could have used on the development of diablo 4.

But they are not "wasting" resources. That is like saying Samsung shouldn't make watches because their phone quality will suffer. Nobody does that, and I find it weird that every gamer thinks he knows best on how to run a gaming company. The Diablo Immortal employees would not exist, without diablo immortal being a project.

[iosdeveloper]

Diablo Immortal lol.

laugh all you want it's gonna earn them scary amounts of money and make other companies go into mobile

[orsraunia]

As I stated in a previous reply, the issue is the players themselves expecting something they didn’t get. It’s laughable that people believed what they wanted and then blame the 2nd party for not giving something they were never promised. The majority will always blame Blizzard for how the situation was handled, but at the end of the day it is the customers themselves who are to blame for deciding what they were getting with nothing but conjecture and wishful thinking.

In part you are not wrong, but still it's also true that companies need to have a feel about what their customers want. They failed with that. PR matters. So, even when this thing got blown out of proportion fast, it's not like Bliz failed at nothing.

[Krimzin]

Ive been saying this all along.
Release has nothing to do with being ready or not ready this time.
It is solely based on ATVI P&Ls.If they wait to release SL til Jan earning from SL go on Q1 and not Q4.
So they either barely hit or miss their projections and stocks go down.
Was no way they weren't going to release in 2020.

[Eapoe]

Imagine blaming your customers for wanting a product that you are unable to deliver.

Blizzard never blamed their customers, I did. I am not affiliated with, nor am I defending Blizzard outright. I simply stated that people are putting all the blame on Blizzard for failing to deliver on something that Blizzard never stated or promised to be doing. Players built up what they wanted and expected in their own heads, and when Blizzard didn’t meet that fabricated expectation the players responded by putting the blame on Blizzard.

- - - Updated - - -

In part you are not wrong, but still it's also true that companies need to have a feel about what their customers want. They failed with that. PR matters. So, even when this thing got blown out of proportion fast, it's not like Bliz failed at nothing.

Blizzards main, and possibly only fail, in regards to the Diablo: Immortal reveal was that instead of trying to hype it up more and assure their customers it would be a fun and wonderful experience, they responded with snide and sarcastic remarks. I place the entire blame on Blizzard for their response and terrible attempts to salvage the reveal.

[Doffen]

When Diablo Immortal comes out, I'll make sure I buy a proper gaming phone!

[Bane-Thunder-God]

Just release Diablo Immortal already! It will be fun to have a little diablo game to play on my phone while I wait for Diablo 4...

And the people b1ching about the release date I'd rather have shadowlands right now than wait longer for it I don't care about the Maw or xmas lol

[Kralljin]

A thing of note, during the Investor Call Q&A, J. Allen Brack was asked about the WoW Sub count and dodged to answer that question.

Question:

Hey, Bobby, congrats on another solid quarter here, and thanks for taking my questions. A few questions for J., if
you're up for it here. Curious if you could update us on WoW subscriber or player base, expectations for
Shadowlands, and your view of the growth trajectory for the franchise heading into 2021? Thank you.

Answer:

Thanks a lot for the question. It's a pretty big one. The first thing I have to do is express that we're really excited
for players to get their hands on Shadowlands and we've announced that that release date is November 23. That
is the exact 16-year anniversary for the launch of the original World of Warcraft. We made the delay earlier to
Shadowlands to make sure that the quality of the game is really going to match our expectations and that the
game was going to be great.
The community feedback that we received on that decision was overwhelmingly positive. And so we're keeping
the quality of the game as a top concern. It's helped drive I think a lot of excitement for WoW, both in the form of
really strong player engagement and as well as expansion in pre-sales. So players are already enjoying the
content that we released with the Shadowlands pre-patch.

I want to talk about a feature of that I'm personally really passionate about, which is the new player experience.
So the goal for this system was to really streamline learning how to play World of Warcraft for newcomers and
also give people who have multiple characters a way to level-up in previous expansions. So today the way we
look at the WoW ecosystem is that we operate two distinct game modes, both with very engaged player bases
and that gives us the opportunity to deliver a lot of content into the WoW community really more than ever before,
all under a single unified subscription.
We've talked before about our plans to expand the size of development teams, and we intend to follow the launch
of Shadowlands with even more content across both the modern game and in Classic. But if we step back, we
think of Warcraft as a huge franchise, and WoW is only a part of it. We're always exploring how to express
Warcraft with new experiences and we see a lot of opportunity for growth in 2021 and beyond.

He's also hinting at TBC Classic, but i guess at this point you're absolutely winning no prizes for betting on TBC.

[Eapoe]

A thing of note, during the Investor Call Q&A, J. Allen Brack was asked about the WoW Sub count and dodged to answer that question.

Question:


Answer:


He's also hinting at TBC Classic, but i guess at this point you're absolutely winning no prizes for betting on TBC.

Are you surprised? They don’t reveal sub count anymore.

[Kralljin]

Are you surprised? They don’t reveal sub count anymore.

No, it is however a hint that the sub numbers don't look that good anymore.

For reference, last time they talked about Subs was after Classic release, now after that died down, they essentially refuse to answer any question regarding it.

And it's not like he went on "We have better metrics than sub count", he just went on about loosely related topics rather than to answer the actual question.

[Lorgran]

"Activision had 111 million MAUs in the second quarter, down from 125 million in Q2 and up from 102 million in Q1 2020."

Wut?

[Liberate90]

Diablo Immortal lol.

I get people were expecting a fully-fledged Diablo title for PC, but I don't get all the hate on it. If they do this right, they'll attract a whole bunch of new custom and players to the Blizzard universe.

Besides, that being said. Mobile games aren't just Candy Crush Saga anymore, and they've come leaps and bounds from Snake for the Nokia phones. It'll be nice to have a familiar game on my mobile for a change, especially while retaining the Blizzard eco-system.

[Raisei]

Launching but delaying the raid further would ruin overall pacing

Then why do LFR players not get the entire raid until February?

Because it has always been this way. First Wing opens with the Mythic release then another every two weeks. Has been like that since Legion.

There is a small delay of 1 week between Wing 1 and 2, owed to the fact that Wind 2 would have to open in the week between Christmas and New Year. Probably the Devs would like some holidays too after a very stressful year and more stressful months ahead (since work does not stop after launch).

They earned that much and really a week of LFR delay is a very small price to pay.

[shimerra]

I get people were expecting a fully-fledged Diablo title for PC, but I don't get all the hate on it. If they do this right, they'll attract a whole bunch of new custom and players to the Blizzard universe.

Besides, that being said. Mobile games aren't just Candy Crush Saga anymore, and they've come leaps and bounds from Snake for the Nokia phones. It'll be nice to have a familiar game on my mobile for a change, especially while retaining the Blizzard eco-system.

The hate's easy to get. As you mentioned you already understand many "gamers" look down to some extent on mobile games. Which is fair. They're overloaded with free to play bullshit pavlovian experiments designed to see how much money they can funnel by triggering an addiction response. Although with loot boxes and other anti-consumer practices it's not like regular games aren't without issue. But I'll agree that has been turning around and especially with everyone's raging love for 2d/pixel games no reason it can't be on a phone.

But really it comes down to when Blizzard works on X, in this case a mobile game, that means less or no resources working on Y in their mind, presumably a traditional diablo game or insert other blizzard IP, and they hate X and want Y. And people are selfish if nothing else.

[Lurker1]

laugh all you want it's gonna earn them scary amounts of money and make other companies go into mobile

Most likely 100% agree.

[Lurker1]

No, it is however a hint that the sub numbers don't look that good anymore.

For reference, last time they talked about Subs was after Classic release, now after that died down, they essentially refuse to answer any question regarding it.

And it's not like he went on "We have better metrics than sub count", he just went on about loosely related topics rather than to answer the actual question.

Nope it just simple means there making money sub counts don't matter anymore if there up or down only how much there making as a company keep reaching here.