Activision Blizzard Q2 2021 Investor Call, Blizzard Employee Letter to Leadership

[Nerovar]

It really seems like WoW Classic is pulling the game out of the muck in terms of numbers. Might turn out to be bad for the game in the long run if it enables Blizzard to rest on that 'accomplishment'. WotLK will likely be the last big Classic title for many. I can't realistically see many players who were drawn to the idea of 'Classic' move over to Cata so it would probably result in a playerbase that is spread very thinly across three titles (retail, wotlk, cata).

Up until then they can just release these morbid throwaway expansions without really suffering from it, I guess.

[Draco-Onis]

It’s exactly what the numbers show as they have been going down in MAU since atleast 2019 yet kept reporting sub/player count increasing

Those are not numbers, what's the baseline? It's simply PR we only have MAUs and the way they are counted is padded. We don't know what the real numbers are that's the reason they no longer release sub numbers.

[MoanaLisa]

it's definitely scummy. When they don't have the player count anymore, just fudge the math and count people multiple times. As an investor, that troubles me almost as much as the other stuff... because they are literally lying about the player count and fudging the numbers... and lying or misleading the shareholders is a death sentence for ANY publicly traded company. There's no faster way to end up broke and in jail than to lie to your shareholders.

For fuck's sake: It's not lying when how they count things is defined. They tell you how they do it. You don't have to like it but they aren't lying about anything. It's true that people don't generally know how MAU works but their ignorance doesn't equate to Blizzard dishonesty. There's lots of shit to complain about but this isn't one of them.

[Pann]

See my above post.

Thanks for the info. However there is not enough information to support the assumption that WoW has grown for 7/8 quarters and I would say that since they use different terms from quarter to quarter - going from clearly stating that subscriber numbers had increased to then using active player community and then on to reach and engagement before settling on MAUs - that this is likely not the case.

I am not saying that it is certain that WoW did not grow during this period - there is enough information to say that there was positive growth in terms of subs in Q1 & Q2 '19 and that revenue likely increased due to SL - but the fact they are using different metrics from quarter to quarter means that we cannot determine whether WoW grew with any certainty.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

Those are not numbers, what's the baseline? It's simply PR we only have MAUs and the way they are counted is padded

It doesn't matter what the baseline is we know that for 7/8 of the last quarter the number of player's has risen while the total blizzard MAU has fallen and that goes for both MAU and subs as the reports say. rather they had 5 subs or 5 million is irrelevant all that matters is that they have grown while the total has fallen.

and those are the facts of the matter

[Draco-Onis]

It doesn't matter what the baseline is we know that for 7/8 of the last quarter the number of player's has risen while the total blizzard MAU has fallen and that goes for both MAU and subs as the reports say. rather they had 5 subs or 5 million is irrelevant all that matters is that they have grown while the total has fallen.

and those are the facts of the matter

They said they experience growth, what does that specifically mean? do you think WOW has more sub now than ever? because according to your logic those are the facts. This is basic math you cannot be confident about the end number if they hide the baseline.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

Thanks for the info. However there is not enough information to support the assumption that WoW has grown for 7/8 quarters and I would say that since they use different terms from quarter to quarter - going from clearly stating that subscriber numbers had increased to then using active player community and then on to reach and engagement before settling on MAUs - that this is likely not the case.

I am not saying that it is certain that WoW did not grow during this period - there is enough information to say that there was positive growth in terms of subs in Q1 & Q2 '19 and that revenue likely increased due to SL - but the fact they are using different metrics from quarter to quarter means that we cannot determine whether WoW grew with any certainty.

there is no assumption's here these are facts. The MAU of wow grew for six quarter from q2 2019-Q4 2020 stopped growing in Q1 2021 and then subs started going up in Q2 2021. this isn't up for debate unless you want to bring a law suit against them for lying in there investors report.

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They said they experience growth, what does that specifically mean? do you think WOW has more sub now than ever? because according to your logic those are the facts. This is basic math you cannot be confident about the end number if they hide the baseline.

As to back to your original post It specifically means the player base for wow isn't shrinking even though the total blizzard MAU is.

as for subs and basic math. you have X, X goes up by Y in Q2 2019, X is then doubled in Q3 2019, X then goes up by Z from Q4 2019 until Q4 2020. X stays the same in Q1 2021 , X then goes up by Y in Q2 2021. X no matter what it is is bigger then X was back in Q2019 even if X isn't as big as its ever been.

rather X is 5 or 5million doesn't mater in this all that matters is that X has only growth and isn't shrinking.

[Draco-Onis]

As to back to your original post It specifically means the player base for wow isn't shrinking even though the total blizzard MAU is.

as for subs and basic math. you have X, X goes up by Y in Q2 2019, X is then doubled in Q3 2019, X then goes up by Z from Q4 2019 until Q4 2020. X stays the same in Q1 2021 , X then goes up by Y in Q2 2021. X no matter what it is is bigger then X was back in Q2019 even if X isn't as big as its ever been.

rather X is 5 or 5million doesn't mater in this call all that matters is that X has only growth and isn't shrinking.

What is X? is X from the low point at the end of an expansion? it is the start of last expansion? is it from 10 years ago? are they talking about net sales? revenues from wow?. They stopped giving sub numbers for a reason, how are you so gullible? they can say WOW has experienced explosive growth and they could mean the size of the game because legally they have no specified what is this "growth". This grey area is why they have chosen to no longer release sub numbers.

[Pann]

there is no assumption's here these are facts. The MAU of wow grew for six quarter from q2 2019-Q4 2020 stopped growing in Q1 2021 and then subs started going up in Q2 2021. this isn't up for debate unless you want to bring a law suit against them for lying in there investors report.

There is, unfortunately, a lot of assumption. You may well be using figures released by ATVI but they are different measurements - Subscribers, net bookings, MAUs, active player community, etc are not interchangeable or comparable terms. Also there is no mention of WoW's MAUs in the figures you pasted above until Q3 '20 (in which they were stable year on year) so I do not know how you have reached the conclusion that MAUs grew from Q2 '19 through to Q4 '20.

I am not accusing ATVI of lying however it appears that you are misinterpreting the data in their reports and as a result your assumption is very much up for debate.

[mbit]

X has only growth and isn't shrinking.

Calling counting customers double as growth is bs. This happened with wow thanks to classic & bcc. And the number even decreased despite that by 1m from q1 to q2 this time.

[Wraethion]

The quarter report was for June 30th.

Asmongold puts up his video for his first time in FF14 July 3rd.

July 15th the online store for FF14 to purchase the game runs out of keys.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

What is X? is X from the low point at the end of an expansion? it is the start of last expansion? is it from 10 years ago? are they talking about net sales? revenues from wow?. They stopped giving sub numbers for a reason, how are you so gullible? they can say WOW has experienced explosive growth and they could mean the size of the game because legally they have no specified what is this "growth". This grey area is why they have chosen to no longer release sub numbers.

I swear it's like talking to children.... Do I really need to quote the reports again? would you even read them it if I did?

X is the MAU as that's how this all started. What number X actually is doesn't matter, rather it's the low point of an expan or start of a new one doesn't matter all that matters is that X has gown up by Y instead of going down By Z.

there is no net sales no revenue or any question of what growth is X being MAU has gone up for the last 7/8 quarters or 6/7 if you want to say the sub growth reported in this one doesn't count as they said subs and not MAU.

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There is, unfortunately, a lot of assumption. You may well be using figures released by ATVI but they are different measurements - Subscribers, net bookings, MAUs, active player community, etc are not interchangeable or comparable terms. Also there is no mention of WoW's MAUs in the figures you pasted above until Q3 '20 (in which they were stable year on year) so I do not know how you have reached the conclusion that MAUs grew from Q2 '19 through to Q4 '20.

I am not accusing ATVI of lying however it appears that you are misinterpreting the data in their reports and as a result your assumption is very much up for debate.

you are right there not interchangeable and your also right they did say in q3 2020 that they were stable which is why its a good thing they gave us a flat statement on how things were for 6 quarters in a row in Q4, If you had just read a couple line further you'd have known how I came to that conclusion.

Q4 2020 World of Warcraft MAUsD grew year-over-year for the sixth consecutive quarter

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Calling counting customers double as growth is bs. This happened with wow thanks to classic & bcc. And the number even decreased despite that by 1m from q1 to q2 this time.

Yes classic was a saving grace to there growth I agree. as to there being a drop as far as wow goes there was no drop all that was reported is that they had sub growth this quarter while total blizzard MAU went down which has been the case for multiple quarters.

[Draco-Onis]

I swear it's like talking to children.... Do I really need to quote the reports again? would you even read them it if I did?

X is the MAU as that's how this all started. What number X actually is doesn't matter, rather it's the low point of an expan or start of a new one doesn't matter all that matters is that X has gown up by Y instead of going down By Z.

there is no net sales no revenue or any question of what growth is X being MAU has gown up for the last 7/8 quarters or 6/7 if you want to say the sub growth reported in this one doesn't count as they said subs and not MAU.

Did you seriously say that when the numbers were taken don't matter? ROFLMAO, please stay way from accounting. I am going with the numbers they gave us which are MAUs, revenues and sales, they are making everything else murky. Your assumptions are based on nothing but blind faith, maybe you are right maybe you aren't but you cannot be sure because drumroll please BLIZZARD HAS MADE SURE NOT TO RELEASE SUB NUMBERS.

[Pann]

you are right there not interchangeable and your also right they did say in q3 2020 that they were stable which is why its a good thing they gave us a flat statement on how things were for 6 quarters in a row in Q4, If you had just read a couple line further you'd have known how I came to that conclusion.

Given that in the previous quarter they state that "World of Warcraft® MAUsD were stable year-over-year." it would appear that they are contradicting themselves. Also year on year growth is not the same as growing quarter after quarter.

However as I have already explained MAUs do not reveal enough information to categorically state that WoW has grown for 7/8 quarters which was your original claim.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

Did you seriously say that when the numbers were taken don't matter? ROFLMAO, please stay way from accounting. I am going with the numbers they gave us which are MAUs, revenues and sales, they are making everything else murky. Your assumptions are based on nothing but blind faith, maybe you are right maybe you aren't but you cannot be sure because drumroll please BLIZZARD HAS MADE SURE NOT TO RELEASE SUB NUMBERS.

Yes, what the actual number is irrelevant, rather it is 5 and growing or 5 million and growing doesn't matter all that matters is that it is growing.

There is no muck there is no faith there is only the legally binding investor reports where they are not allowed to give false information and in which they report that the wow MAU has only grown while Total blizzard MAU has fallen. Mabye you don't get how investor reports work mabye you can't do basic math and don't know that 1+1 is an increase instead of a decrease mabye you don't under stand that when measuring parts of a whole you can have one part go up while the whole goes down no matter what your short comings are the facts are that wow's MAU has grown for the last 7/8 quarters or 6/7 if you want to say subs went up but users went down in this one.

these are just facts until some one takes blizzard to court for lying on there investor reports.

[Draco-Onis]

Yes, what the actual number is irrelevant, rather it is 5 and growing or 5 million and growing doesn't matter all that matters is that it is growing.

There is no muck there is no faith there is only the legally binding investor reports where they are not allowed to give false information and in which they report that the wow MAU has only grown while Total blizzard MAU has fallen. Mabye you don't get how investor reports work mabye you can't do basic math and don't know that 1+1 is an increase instead of a decrease mabye you don't under stand that when measuring parts of a whole you can have one part go up while the whole goes down no matter what your short comings are the facts are that wow's MAU has grown for the last 7/8 quarters or 6/7 if you want to say subs went up but users went down in this one.

these are just facts until some one takes blizzard to court for lying on there investor reports.

Let me ask you these since you know everything, on average how many MAUs does one user generate? Does MAU vary from each expansion? how long does a user have to log on for it to count as an MAU? we can agree it's growing but we don't know what that number means or from what. Again they aren't lying it is vague because of lying would be illegal, you said the number doesn't matter but it's the crux of our disagreement.

If your point is it's growing so I don't care what it means then I am fine with that but you can't extrapolate anything from it since you yourself said you don't care.

[korijenkins]

The fact that their share prices went up after this is funny given it's basically all bad news.

Nothing is near release, Hearthstone is dead, WoW dying, every other game dead.

Investors must know nothing about this industry if this made people buy in.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

Let me ask you these since you know everything, on average how many MAUs does one user generate? Does MAU vary from each expansion? how long does a user have to log on for it to count as an MAU? we can agree it's growing but we don't know what that number means or from what. Again they aren't lying it is vague because of lying would be illegal, you said the number doesn't matter but it's the crux of our disagreement.

If your point is it's growing so I don't care what it means then I am fine with that but you can't extrapolate anything from it since you yourself said you don't care.

I've never tried to extrapolate any thing, all any of my post have done is Point out that the MAU for wow haven't been shrinking like you said in your first post and instead have been on the rise I've only stuck to the facts as we have them, excluding the off comment about classic being a saving grace.

That's the whole reason why in my Investor quote report all Included was the statement's of growth not the other fluff blizzard adds to the reports every post past has been me explain that X+1 is an increase even if we don't know what X is.

[Draco-Onis]

The fact that their share prices went up after this is funny given it's basically all bad news.

Nothing is near release, Hearthstone is dead, WoW dying, every other game dead.

Investors must know nothing about this industry if this made people buy in.

They beat revenues and blew expected earnings for share, World of Warcraft is not their biggest money maker. It's why they leave the numbers murky the subscriber numbers had way too much impact on the stock performance considering it's not the biggest headline in their portfolio.

The scandals will go away all their games will survive, I expect the stock to dive next earning but go back up good buying opportunity then.

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I've never tried to extrapolate any thing, all any of my post have done is Point out that the MAU for wow haven't been shrinking like you said in your first post and instead have been on the rise I've only stuck to the facts as we have them, excluding the off comment about classic being a saving grace.

That's the whole reason why in my Investor quote report all Included was the statement's of growth not the other fluff blizzard adds to the reports every post past has been me explain that X+1 is an increase even if we don't know what X is.

I think our disagreement is on the point that we don't know what they mean by growth because they didn't specifically said MAUs for WOW grew double digits. The devil is in the details we have the MAU for Blizzard as a whole not the World of Warcraft specifically, also the way MAUs are counted is another detail we don't have.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

I think our disagreement is on the point that we don't know what they mean by growth because they didn't specifically said MAUs for WOW grew double digits. The devil is in the details we have the MAU for Blizzard as a whole not the World of Warcraft specifically, also the way MAUs are counted is another detail we don't have.

while we don't have the MAU them self or how they are counted they did Specifically say MAU's for Wow had grown they did so in the Q4 2020 call and then in this report that subs have grown while MAU them self's weren't mentioned.