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

[MoanaLisa]

It's a deceptive metric unless the methodology you use to formulate it is clear. It's not(at least from what I can see). Like do they count me if I log into wow, overwatch, and diablo 3 times? If they do, it's a useless metric.

Since it's not broken down by game, it's also a fairly useless metric. Right now you can see for blizzard specifically that MAU are declining quarter over quarter, but given that it's blizzard and therefor (hearthstone, d3, overwatch, wow, maybe d2 etc etc) it could be essentially masking itself. With hearthstone a free game, exploding the MAU count, and blizzard hemorrhaging. (not saying that's the case)

Presumably people are thinking that all the alleged MAU's are revenue generating too, and very likely this is not the case.

So yea it's a metric, but not a terribly useful one. It's essentially people have talked about you X times this month. And about as useful.

You might find this informative. It's not really that complicated. It's measuring engagement by game. The thing we don't know is which titles are big losers, small losers, etc. Too many people assign it all to WoW (for...reasons I guess) but Hearthstone, Overwatch, D3, and the rest are part of it. Data is up-to-date through first quarter. As I said earlier MAU is also useful to compare games, game studios and the rest across the industry. That's not particularly useful for people here but it's one of the industry standard metrics. Whether you like or dislike the metric they're pretty up front about it.

The metric I would actually like to see is engagement by day and time spent on a title. For obvious reasons I don't believe that anyone actually publishes that although you can bet if they have the technology to know, they know. If you log into WoW once during any particular month then you count as one. If you log in every day, even multiple times a day in the same period, you count as one for WoW.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/...quarterly-mau/

A note from Activision Blizzard on MAU: "We monitor monthly active users (“MAUs”) as a key measure of the overall size of our user base. MAUs are the number of individuals who accessed a particular game in a given month. We calculate average MAUs in a period by adding the total number of MAUs in each of the months in a given period and dividing that total by the number of months in the period. An individual who accesses two of our games would be counted as two users. In addition, due to technical limitations, for Activision and King, an individual who accesses the same game on two platforms or devices in the relevant period would be counted as two users."

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Can't wait for next one. PepeLaugh

Looking forward to seeing how their PR tries to spin that!

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They are going to need some major store sales to make up for the losses this quarter. So... incoming new TBC store mount!

I'm surprised they haven't gone all in on selling more transmog armors on the cash shop. Every other MMO now does it (FFXIV, GW2, Asian games) and at this point Blizzard has little to lose from following suit. WoW is going out the door anyway and it's not like Blizzard cares about their prestige anymore so they mind as well milk for all its worth.

[aceperson]

that letter is impressive to me and showed me an irony of this situation. when blizzard was in it's prime quality days, it led the industry to a new standard in quality of games. now, in it's darkest days, blizzard is leading the industry in the quality of employment. by no means is this intentional but it's kind of ironic to me that blizzard seems to lead the way for positive changes in the AAA industry.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Blizzard employee's letter is also not good.

It has woke and left agenda driven all over it, these are also the people blizzard don’t need activists that want politics and agendas seen in all of entertainment.

The entertainment industry in California is a snake pit. Don't touch it with a 10 feet pole.

Color me shocked, no impending doom spelled out for WoW (or SL in particular) despite 3rd party website's OH SO RELIABLE reporting about the game supposedly losing all of its players to FFX-fucking-IV...

BUT, this quarterly is not, imo, a reliable source for seeing the fallout of the controversy on the companies. That'll come next quarterly. But, if going by the Hong Kong controversy, I'd doubt it'll have much of an impact on the financials.

Even if this quarterly report covered recent events, Blizzard isn't going to straight up say "we lost millions to FFXIV!". Doesn't change the fact that everyone knows it to be true, just like how after player subs dropped off a cliff a few months after WoD's launch Blizzard didn't admit it but it was blatantly obvious to everyone.

MAU is such a funny way to gauge things.

The only number that matters to anyone is net revenue. Be even better if it got broken down by game.

They're trying to obfuscate the truth as much as possible by beating around the bush and redefining their metrics for success. Which ofcourse, means that they don't have any success to show in the first place.

Also, Unions are just another word for a corporation. UFW was originally a union of Fillipino workers. Now it is the largest land holder in California. Dress it up with words all you like, it operates like a corporation and pretty much is one. There is no "rebels vs evil empire" here; it's everyone out for themselves and throwing everyone under the bus and climbing on top of each other for more pie and more attention.

Blizzard will have to consider WoW 2 a very real option to break the status quo, as the games current progression systems already amount to nothing by the end of an expansion, meaning more expansions wont save WoW anymore, a new game entirley may however.

Of the two risks of keeping things as are until the game decays to a painful end, which its already terminally at, and reinvigorating Blizzards passion for the warcraft mythos and universe by giving them a NEW team of people to develop a NEW game over 4-5 years of work while possibly releasing a final 10.0 expansion to serve as a gap bridge between now and WoW 2, they may just save the warcraft franchise.

What *would* be the death knell of wow at this point would be some console/mobile transition which has been hinted as Vicarious Visions are notorious for some ideas veering this way and the new Ceo Jen is actually its head. However, she did save that company from disaster meaning she could do the same with blizzard here so its a wait-and-see situation until we know more.

Ambition is needed at this point, not safe options, they need to take a risk or they absoleutley will be in serious trouble.

However, they may already, be too late.

WoW 2 won't happen. FFXIV 2.0 happened because Square Enix was a prestigious Japanese company and the tragic state of their flagship Final Fantasy franchise under Yoichi Wada's tenure was incredibly humiliating, resulting in Wada resigning and FFXIV being scrapped and redeveloped (rather than simply abandoned) in an attempt to rectify SE's reputation and to win back the fans. Blizzard might have done that in the 2000s, but now all of the oldtimers who cared about the Blizzard name are gone and the company is run by suits who don't give a damn about prestige or the legacy of the Warcraft franchise; they'll milk it for all it's worth and then throw it away.

People do love to lick the boots of corporate america in this forum, it is almost funny.

If not sad.

It is sad. They are pop cultists who think the way the owners of the franchises they worship tell them to think, unable to think for themselves and live outside of franchises.

Blizzard is dead folks. It's not coming back. You need to let it go and move on with your life. It's important to look at things that aren't Warcraft.

Americans seem to be more prone to buying into fandoms as their identity. Combined with America's prosperity and consumerist culture, it's easy for people to adopt fandoms and materialism as their identity. Popular culture is a secular religion at this point.

[Graeham]

I tried playing FF14 awhile back but fuck, I hate the movement in other MMOs. WoW feels so snappy and fast with it's movement and abilities, I can't get over it. I didn't get very far though, to be fair.

That's fair. It can take some getting used to and some won't be able to get used to it or make it 'click' through no fault of their own.

I feel the same way with ESO. I can't get into the combat at all. I like it for the exploration factor and housing, but the combat and movement is just so clunky to me.

I haven't played WoW in years, but when I did it felt satisfying to play my Warlock and do battle in a way other MMO's just haven't managed to capture since.

[Woobels]

It's kind of disgusting how many people here almost seem to be rooting for fucking Blizzard of all things over the employees, likely only because a: they still like WoW and that's more important (they're the people making your game) or b: because the words inclusion or some other scary dirty lefty words were in that letter.

If you're genuinely hoping for this to end "badly" for the employees (it's very unlikely to in the long term, in all likeliness) you're an actual psychopath.

[Varitok]

That's fair. It can take some getting used to and some won't be able to get used to it or make it 'click' through no fault of their own.

I feel the same way with ESO. I can't get into the combat at all. I like it for the exploration factor and housing, but the combat and movement is just so clunky to me.

I haven't played WoW in years, but when I did it felt satisfying to play my Warlock and do battle in a way other MMO's just haven't managed to capture since.

I got into GW2 and it has a little bit similiar movement and the exploration in that game is amazingly fun. Maybe i'll give FF14 another shot sometime.

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It's kind of disgusting how many people here almost seem to be rooting for fucking Blizzard of all things over the employees, likely only because a: they still like WoW and that's more important (they're the people making your game) or b: because the words inclusion or some other scary dirty lefty words were in that letter.

If you're genuinely hoping for this to end "badly" for the employees (it's very unlikely to in the long term, in all likeliness) you're an actual psychopath.

There is a very big subsection of society that has legitimately been duped by the rich. They stoke their sense of "independence" and fear of the unknown or other to the point where they will legitimately jump to the defense of actual billionaires and corporations. It's quite impressive though, how the rich have managed to do that.

[Gadzooks]

Blizzard is dead folks. It's not coming back.

I don't agree that it's dead. But it's going to be a much different company, moving forward. WoW is the cash cow that keeps them afloat and the lights on, but the new leadership could very easily steer them away from relying on it, and get new IPs rolling - which they should. But that will take time, and there's still enough people paying for subs to get there. People have speculated how many subs simply will never unsubscribe, and how low they can go to still keep profitable, and we'll be seeing that tested seriously over the next couple of years.

To me, it could be as substantial as Apple failing so badly under the guy who ran Pepsi that they were in danger of being bought by another company, to the renaissance under Jobs when he came back. Turning a big corporate ship can take time, but it can be done. But, it needs the right people, doing the right things, and that is a big ? right now. (I'm not forgetting that the new leadership also have to appease Kotick, which won't be fun.)

[Rexosaurus]

Oh man, that proto-union letter put me at half mast.

I have my doubts that this situation will end well but America needs waaaaaaaay more people fighting for workers' rights and benefits like this, so good on em. It's gross how far behind the majority of the world we are when it comes to this stuff.

[cface]

I don't agree that it's dead. But it's going to be a much different company, moving forward. WoW is the cash cow that keeps them afloat and the lights on, but the new leadership could very easily steer them away from relying on it, and get new IPs rolling - which they should. But that will take time, and there's still enough people paying for subs to get there. People have speculated how many subs simply will never unsubscribe, and how low they can go to still keep profitable, and we'll be seeing that tested seriously over the next couple of years.

To me, it could be as substantial as Apple failing so badly under the guy who ran Pepsi that they were in danger of being bought by another company, to the renaissance under Jobs when he came back. Turning a big corporate ship can take time, but it can be done. But, it needs the right people, doing the right things, and that is a big ? right now. (I'm not forgetting that the new leadership also have to appease Kotick, which won't be fun.)

Well, thing is, I simply will not allow myself to trust Blizzards new IPs at all. For me, playing a game is investment, which is why I haven't been able to play other mmo's. I will never invest in another Blizzard game unless of course, a miracle occur, which I heavily doubt. Some people play a game for adventure and can go through the story and be content, for me it's all gameplay.
Imagine if Blizzard snatched up Dota 2 instead of valve, holy shit would that game turn bad. Now look at it, it's the only game I can play as a second, but it's not an mmo.

I actually would love to play an asian mmo's, as I simply adore the cute chars and fluffy costumes they have, just can't be arsed putting in the hours of research to find out what I'm getting myself into, and how much I enjoy m+ and raids in wow still. GW2 I liked from the start, but again, everything feels overwhelming in learning. This kind of lazyness is what keeps me in wow still

[Lorgar Aurelian]

Blatant lies.

You really think there going to risk having another actionable case brought against them by lying in there investor report over something so small?

[Xath]

Yeah those demands aren't happening. Should be interesting to see how this plays out.

[Lolites]

Thats about it really. They are not growing. They are shrinking.

are you actualy reading the info or just guessing? their MAUs went from 111m in Q3 through 128m in Q4 to 150m in Q1...

[Paperfox]

The Blizz that created WoW is gone, most if not all of the people from back then are gone. The engineers have been replaced with salespeople (there's a Steve Jobs video where he talks about this). There may be a shakeup in the next while, which means that the current Blizz is gone and there'll be a new one - which may be a good thing.

9.0 to 9.1 was the longest content drought. I've heard anywhere from November 2021 to February 2022 for 9.2. Given the state of the game, and totally ignoring all the real world stuff, how many active subs will they keep?

I fully expect that development on 10.0 has already started. It will contain more of what they think works - more borrowed power, more systems, more currencies. So in other words SL 2.0

[darklogrus]

uhh dude they lost another million MAUs lol its also based on June 30th, not now.

Im not even sure where your going with this are you discrediting me by crediting me?

If you look at the timings of the release, this quarter's reporting would include TBCC and 9.1 launch. I don't think it was an accident that they were released within this time frame, as both events would expect a bump in MAU's. If you're wanting stratified data? Good luck with that, I doubt they would ever willingly release that data as they would gain nothing from releasing said data. Another metric that you won't see is how stable the MAU numbers are through the quarter, as it would account for peaks and troughs in activity that is much more useful than min/max only data. The TL;DR is that one can read between the lines to some degree, as you know that good news will always be brought up, and bad news will be sugar-coated or downplayed... so make your judgements from that.

Next quarter will be one to watch, as they won't have the TBCC launch and probably not a major patch for WoW (don't think anything else is on the slate at this point in time, either). Furthermore, you'll have the ActiBlizz lawsuit effects start showing in their numbers, if they have a tangible effect. I really hope that they don't use the lawsuit as an excuse for WoW's shortcomings, as there's heavy implication that there were many issues beyond the topic of the lawsuit causing issues in the development department.

Usually PR manages to spin this, mentioning that a huge patch has just dropped, or a huge patch is about to drop. Even if its to give a false illusion that players are headed back. But they never mentioned Retail or 9.1 patch which to me is a red flag.

I agree though, 3 months is going to be very telling as the the current state of both games. TBC will have lost a lot of its steam and 9.1 was such a pile of crap, that nobody bothered to stick around and see it through. Then throw ontop of it all the issues within Blizzard and it not going to look good.

An lets face it theres probably not going to be a 9.2 at the 6 month mark from the sounds of it..

[MoanaLisa]

Everyone thinking they asked for too much in the letter apparently doesn't know anything about starting a negotiation. I don't know that ATVI in Santa Monica will negotiate with Blizzard's employees but when something like this is starting ask for the moon and be willing to negotiate down. It's basic stuff.

[AboikoS]

Why are people continuing to support this company?

We're just playing the game that we love and play for YEARS. Whats wrong about it?

[Mic_128]

We're just playing the game that we love and play for YEARS. Whats wrong about it?

There's a difference between playing the game and defending the company that allowed rampant sexual abuse to occur.

[Trumpcat]

As we expected the content drought decline of retail was offset by TBCC. Then a month after followed by another surge with 9.1. to make the quarters look good.

But isn't the overall player feeling that we are getting too little too late? I expect player fatigue to hit pretty fast this time around if 9.2 is releasing in another 8 months. I know I won't be sitting through another drought.

[Voidism]

Demand that Kotick steps down as CEO. Nothing less will do.