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

[Orisai]

Yeah all those women got themselves harrassed so they can form a union and grab away power from poor old Kotick and Brack

Victims can bring their case to the courts alone or as a group, then prove that they were sexually assaulted by Afrasiabi, Allen Brack, whoever they fill charge against. If the defendants are found guilty of the charges upon them in due process, then they'll be sentenced to either jail, fines, victim indemnization, whatever the judge decides.

[TheRevenantHero]

Victims can bring their case to the courts alone or as a group, then prove that they were sexually assaulted by Afrasiabi, Allen Brack, whoever they fill charge against. If the defendants are found guilty of the charges upon them in due process, then they'll be sentenced to either jail, fines, victim indemnization, whatever the judge decides.

When there is forced arbitration, they aren't allowed to take it to court as per their contract. Otherwise, Blizzard would be buried in court cases right now.

[CaptainV]

When there is forced arbitration, they aren't allowed to take it to court as per their contract. Otherwise, Blizzard would be buried in court cases right now.

Under normal circumstances that may be the case but looking at this unfortunatley with a logical mind, the evidence provided, in context too has been monumnetally damaging to blizzard.

This isnt really a case anymore of weather or not theres a defence of forced arbitration or not, theres already brutal evidence provided by the state government via internal investigation.

Not to mention blizzards LAUGHABLY bad PR hoping this will blow over.

Jen and Mike sadly have been given the worlds worst job right now. Because they're going to be sued EVEN IF they fix the company and they have to face that reality with the harshest possible acceptance that the company has ALOT of public and investor image to regain right now.

Years of decay and poor form have broken the confidence of even investors who are sueing now.

So Blizz is already buried in court cases, the question is no longer if they'll happen, but when they'll come into force.

And sadly, for blizzard? That may be significantly sooner than they'd like, given that a state investigation is not exactly something you magically wish away like the Hong Kong debacle, besides, this is a local issue, not a foreign affair matter like that was.

And it addresses a bigger issue of the western workplace enviroment as a whole in gaming. I myself, am a pretty moderate person who is not one to be easily swayed by emotion, but this stuff has some powerful evidence in the prosecutions favour from the prooven existance of the cosby suite to the blatantly concerning discord communiques and Townsend's twitter silence.

The evidence is overwhelmingly damning right now for blizzard, and I do mean overwhelmingly.

And thats from the POV of a moderate that quite strongly believes facts are far more important than feelings.

The fact the company is outright responsible for the suicide of an employee is damning enough.

The fact that all the other allegations have some pretty solid ground to bite into, is fatal, and no investment calling BS is going to save them from the brutal amount of company reshuffling they'll have to do.

As for the Shareholder appeasement of this Investor Call? They already failed to appease because they're being sued by the investors.

[TheRevenantHero]

Under normal circumstances that may be the case but looking at this unfortunatley with a logical mind, the evidence provided, in context too has been monumnetally damaging to blizzard.

This isnt really a case anymore of weather or not theres a defence of forced arbitration or not, theres already brutal evidence provided by the state government via internal investigation.

Not to mention blizzards LAUGHABLY bad PR hoping this will blow over.

Jen and Mike sadly have been given the worlds worst job right now. Because they're going to be sued EVEN IF they fix the company and they have to face that reality with the harshest possible acceptance that the company has ALOT of public and investor image to regain right now.

Years of decay and poor form have broken the confidence of even investors who are sueing now.

So Blizz is already buried in court cases, the question is no longer if they'll happen, but when they'll come into force.

And sadly, for blizzard? That may be significantly sooner than they'd like, given that a state investigation is not exactly something you magically wish away like the Hong Kong debacle, besides, this is a local issue, not a foreign affair matter like that was.

And it addresses a bigger issue of the western workplace enviroment as a whole in gaming. I myself, am a pretty moderate person who is not one to be easily swayed by emotion, but this stuff has some powerful evidence in the prosecutions favour from the prooven existance of the cosby suite to the blatantly concerning discord communiques and Townsend's twitter silence.

The evidence is overwhelmingly damning right now for blizzard, and I do mean overwhelmingly.

And thats from the POV of a moderate that quite strongly believes facts are far more important than feelings.

The fact the company is outright responsible for the suicide of an employee is damning enough.

The fact that all the other allegations have some pretty solid ground to bite into, is fatal, and no investment calling BS is going to save them from the brutal amount of company reshuffling they'll have to do.

As for the Shareholder appeasement of this Investor Call? They already failed to appease because they're being sued by the investors.

You're not wrong but because forced arbitration is part of their contract, none of the employees are allowed to file their own charges or lawsuits. It's why a separate entity is filing the lawsuit.

[gonzajd777]

lol , dude the facts talk to themselves

but i dont blame him for try

[Alduin]

3rd party sites aren’t at all reliable, all we know for wows numbers is that while every thing else has fallen wow has reported growth for every quarter but I think one since classics release.

There’s little to no chance they have less players then in 2005 and that the drops aren’t in other games.

Third party sites like WoWprogress or Overwatchleague are using the Armory API to check for "active" players (e.g. players that actually play the content and not just bots) so Retail WOW and Overwatch are solid to say "in decline". No idea where you got the information that WoW reported growing player base for every quarter (but one) since they stopped that back in WoD and switched to MAU. Isntead they report growing "profit" (aka more players using the WoW ingame store for mounts or buying gold (via Tokens) or TBC pass) and growing MAU (aka players playing Retail, Classic and/or TBC which in their statistic is combined to WoW).
Also a lot of players moved from retail to TBC during the 8 month lack of content

Back in Q1 2015 (!) with the last official WoD statistic they already reported 5.5mio players (not MAU) which is less than they had at Q4 2006 (before TBC) with 5mio. Since 2015 player lost averaged out at ~1mio players gone per year which puts an estimated 1-1.5mio players now at realistic value (after the worst expansion (BFA) and a dreadful 8month of content losses).
Even if we give the benefit of doubt that WoWprogress does not list "casual" players (not raiding or doing m+) and estimation would be correct with 2.2mio (less than FF XIV) that would mean that half (!) the player base is not engaging with the game at all.

The numbers Blizzard puts up to shareholders are simply inflated (thats how stock trade businesses work...).

(Also if I take a look around the auction houses in Orgrimmar at 12:00 its waaaaay emptier than during Vanilla).

[MoanaLisa]

No the state won't. The only records the state has is of complaints given to them directly, not what happened inside the company.

It's been bandied about that Blizzard kept terrible records on this, in some cases no records at all about employee complaints.

- - - Updated - - -

Jen and Mike sadly have been given the worlds worst job right now. Because they're going to be sued EVEN IF they fix the company and they have to face that reality with the harshest possible acceptance that the company has ALOT of public and investor image to regain right now.

That's one way to look at it.

Another way is to note that old management, largely responsible for creating the culture that is in place, is gone. People have been mostly out of the office for the better part of a year. It's ideal conditions for a turnaround and they will apparently have the full support of everyone who matters in Santa Monica. If they can straighten out the pipeline for content (which will take a while), make the company aware that it needs to be a lot more agile, clamp down on the excesses, they can pretty easily look like heroes. Making change in a relatively clear field is easier.

Changing corporate office culture is difficult but they have a set of conditions that will make it easier than normal. The first few months will be the worst if a lot of people are fired or leave. After that it's like being dealt new cards.

The lawsuit, while zeroed in on Blizzard, is really about ATVI generally. We don't know what if anything will turn up outside of Blizzard but given the business culture in general it won't be surprising if there is. That's not necessarily a minus. Ubisoft and Riot have been through roughly similar things and weren't hurt much at all.

[Wangming]

Victims can bring their case to the courts alone or as a group, then prove that they were sexually assaulted by Afrasiabi, Allen Brack, whoever they fill charge against. If the defendants are found guilty of the charges upon them in due process, then they'll be sentenced to either jail, fines, victim indemnization, whatever the judge decides.

Like how Blizzard cared about due process when anyone related to them was accused of far less than what they are accused now? Oh wait, they fucking didn't.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

Third party sites like WoWprogress or Overwatchleague are using the Armory API to check for "active" players (e.g. players that actually play the content and not just bots) so Retail WOW and Overwatch are solid to say "in decline". No idea where you got the information that WoW reported growing player base for every quarter (but one) since they stopped that back in WoD and switched to MAU.

I went over how we know they have been growing in another post here I’ll post it again.

Q2 2019 Subscribers in World of Warcraft® increased since mid-May, following the release date announcement and beta for World of Warcraft Classic and the Rise of AzsharaTM content update.

Q3 World of Warcraft® Classic drove the biggest quarterly increase to subscription plans2 in franchise
history, in both the West and East

Q4 World of Warcraft® exited 2019 with an active player community3 more than twice the size of its Q2-ending
level.

Q1 2020 After doubling in the second half of 2019, World of Warcraft’s active player community1 increased further in
the first quarter, driven by both new and returning players, as the team continued to deliver more content
between expansions than ever before.

Q2 World of Warcraft® reach and engagement once again increased sequentially, as shelter-at-home
conditions further boosted the franchise’s strong trajectory. The Shadowlands expansion saw an enthusiastic response from players in its public testing, with pre-sales accelerating even further ahead of its release in the fourth quarter. Franchise engagement is the highest in a decade at this point ahead of an expansion.

Q3  World of Warcraft® MAUsD were stable year-over-year. Anticipation continues to build for Shadowlands,
the next expansion for modern World of Warcraft, ahead of its November 23 launch.

Q4 World of Warcraft MAUsD grew year-over-year for the sixth consecutive quarter, contributing to overall Blizzard MAUsD of 29 million in the fourth quarter.
 Fourth quarter net bookingsB for World of Warcraft grew sharply year-over-year, driven by strong sales of the Shadowlands expansion, subscriber growth,

Q1 2021 where the growth stopped. Blizzard segment revenue grew 7% year-over-year, led by strong growth in the Warcraft® franchise, with World of Warcraft’s Shadowlands expansion building on the substantial increase in scale seen since the launch of World of Warcraft Classic in 2019. Blizzard had 27 million MAUsD in the first quarter.
• World of Warcraft’s Shadowlands expansion continued to drive strong results following its record-setting

Q2 2021 this report World of Warcraft net bookingsB again grew a double-digit percentage year-over-year, driven by the launch of Burning Crusade Classic. Subscriber numbers and hours played were higher following the release, demonstrating the importance of Classic in enabling more ways for players to engage. World of Warcraft remains on track for much stronger engagement this year than is typical outside of a modern expansion year.

https://investor.activision.com/events-presentations

that would mean that half (!) the player base is not engaging with the game at all.

raiding and mythic+ isn’t at all the only way to be engaging with the game even back in classic when it was the only end game content millions didn’t touch it at all.

[rrayy]

It's been bandied about that Blizzard kept terrible records on this, in some cases no records at all about employee complaints.

Not surprised. ANd you certainly aren't going to find records with Kotick's name on it especially when stuff of that type rarely reaches his desk.

[Paperfox]

Aren't the record profits from token sales? $5 of every token is goes directly to ActiBlizz.

The definition of MAUs has been deliberately obscured so that people cannot determine how many individual customers they have. And given that the world has been in lockdown for the last while it means that gaming should have been a go-to activiity for many people, yet they managed to lose customers.

We will have to wait for the next quarterly before learning the immediate impact of the lawsuit.

[Thentix21]

Yeah all those women got themselves harrassed so they can form a union and grab away power from poor old Kotick and Brack who were absolutely great for the game. Pro 5D chess move.

Do you even hear yourself you fucking wanker?

I mean you can like the game all you want. I wont argue taste. Or lack thereof. But this is some pretty nice conspiracy theory shit right here.

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Who are we to judge? If people really want to pay a monthly fee to get back to a ten years old game that won't have any content updates ever, let them. Everyone else has like half a dozen games to pick from depending on what they want in an MMO.

It is utterly amazing how people like you talk as if this all actually happened and blizz is guilty beyond a doubt. There is a thing called, innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. There has been no evidence or proof brought forward. Just an investigation that multiple people have said was never done and no cooperation between blizz or corrupt california has ever been had. So I don't understand why you have to attack people as if you have all the facts and proof when you don't and know blizz is guilty just cause you hate them or something.

[Vutar]

So current wow sucks and past wow is carrying the game. Ya that sounds about right.

[Wangming]

It is utterly amazing how people like you talk as if this all actually happened and blizz is guilty beyond a doubt. There is a thing called, innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. There has been no evidence or proof brought forward. Just an investigation that multiple people have said was never done and no cooperation between blizz or corrupt california has ever been had. So I don't understand why you have to attack people as if you have all the facts and proof when you don't and know blizz is guilty just cause you hate them or something.

You mean 1 or 2 Activison executives denying it, while dozens of past and former employees like Morhime, Metzen, Danuser or Ghostcrawler confirming it to be true?

It is utterly amazing how people like you dismiss overwhelming evidence just to keep yourselves in the cozy pink bubble where money hungry corporations are run by saints.

[rrayy]

You mean 1 or 2 Activison executives denying it, while dozens of past and former employees like Morhime, Metzen, Danuser or Ghostcrawler confirming it to be true?

It is utterly amazing how people like you dismiss overwhelming evidence just to keep yourselves in the cozy pink bubble where money hungry corporations are run by saints.

They aren't confirming anything. They are apologizing to cover their own ass from this. Understand the difference.

[Kralljin]

Press [X] to Doubt

Key word(s): outside of a modern expansion year
They're basically talking about engagement outside of the release year of an expansion - more recent ones (hence "modern") in particular.

[Wangming]

They aren't confirming anything. They are apologizing to cover their own ass from this. Understand the difference.

While that IS true they sure as hell don't treat it as false.

[Khann]

so you never watch a movie twice or play an older game you used to play?
your life must suck i feel pity for you

Movie and a video game is not same thing and playing a game that is old and technology retrograded and call it a "better choice", is something I disagree with. Especially in WoW where core of the game did not change much since vanilla and people obliviously think that it did.
And no, my life does not suck. Quite the opposite. I have nothing to complain about unlike many other.

[Thentix21]

You mean 1 or 2 Activison executives denying it, while dozens of past and former employees like Morhime, Metzen, Danuser or Ghostcrawler confirming it to be true?

It is utterly amazing how people like you dismiss overwhelming evidence just to keep yourselves in the cozy pink bubble where money hungry corporations are run by saints.

It's not just activision "executives" but, ok. Have fun in your victimhood, everyone is evil, bs corporations are bad mmkay "bubble", while the rest of us live in reality. Those guys could only be doing it to save face or to make themselves look "woke" to the masses or seem like they are on the women or mens side that filed this suit. Because no one has ever lied to make themselves look better, get ahead or for gains right? I am convinced you are just a troll and looking for victim points.

Guess you will be the first person I add to ignore after 10 years.

[Wangming]

It's not just activision "executives" but, ok. Have fun in your victimhood, everyone is evil, bs corporations are bad mmkay "bubble", while the rest of us live in reality. Those guys could only be doing it to save face or to make themselves look "woke" to the masses or seem like they are on the women or mens side that filed this suit. Because no one has ever lied to make themselves look better, get ahead or for gains right? I am convinced you are just a troll and looking for victim points.

Guess you will be the first person I add to ignore after 10 years.

I'm just going to save this rant here for future reference because it will be hilarious once this mess gets sorted out.