Kotaku: WoW Senior Game Designer Jonathan LeCraft (and others) have been let go

[Sluvs]

You realize that Blizzard lost HALF of their MAUs over the course of Legion and BFA, they lost money during those expansions, that's indisputable lol. Just saying there is factual information stating his claim that neither of the expansions were financially successful.

You are presuming that the biggest loss comes from WoW. While that might be true, it does not mean that it did, and from the reports apparently WoW has been as lucrative as ever.

[rhorle]

Usually when they have been designated as "let go" -- it means that they were told to leave or be fired. This raises questions since neither LeCraft nor Barriga were involved in Cosby Suite or publicly implicated.

"Jonathan LeCraft and Cory Stockton, currently a lead game designer at Blizzard, were also pictured in the suite. "

The only one that wasn't in the suite was Mr.Barriga. IT should be noted that Cory Stockton was put on leave but not fired. So there has to be more then just "in the picture".

[Queen of Hamsters]

he was the director tho..

So? Contrary to popular belief amongst Gamer mobs, these games are NOT just 1 person's work. They'll assign someone new, and the project will carry on.

[Utrrabbit]

You realize that Blizzard lost HALF of their MAUs over the course of Legion and BFA, they lost money during those expansions, that's indisputable lol. Just saying there is factual information stating his claim that neither of the expansions were financially successful.

No they did not. You people know nothing and are always so quick to jump at anyone sprouting what you want. Wow kncreased in subs. The losts were from overwatch and the others. Wow gained the lowing is fron blizzards other IPs

[Spriggs]

Diablo IV will probably be fine. Rod Fergusson is still with the project. He's the grandfather of the Gears of War franchise and is famously an industry closer; if your game has problems internally, he'll make sure it launches (ex. Rod helped finish Bioshock Infinite).

[Voidwielder]

You are presuming that the biggest loss comes from WoW. While that might be true, it does not mean that it did, and from the reports apparently WoW has been as lucrative as ever.

Lucrative means profitable. Has nothing to do with actual engagement/sub metrics.

[Gorsameth]

Weirdly enough, apparently Lecraft supports the walkout.

Everyone supports the walkout, including those who commit the harassment because to do otherwise is to paint a massive bullseye on your face with the subtext "I publicly support harassing and discriminating against women".

[Queen of Hamsters]

You realize that Blizzard lost HALF of their MAUs over the course of Legion and BFA, they lost money during those expansions, that's indisputable lol. Just saying there is factual information stating his claim that neither of the expansions were financially successful.

Blatantly false, as can be expected.

MAUS are 1) Not only WoW and 2) Not specifically mentioned on a game-per-game basis, however they do mention the game holding steady, or growing as with the past 2 reports. I follow the Quarterlies, you obviously do not. Saying that the game's not being financially successful is such a hilarious take that I can't even entertain it, and I won't.


/End.

[Gorsameth]

You realize that Blizzard lost HALF of their MAUs over the course of Legion and BFA, they lost money during those expansions, that's indisputable lol. Just saying there is factual information stating his claim that neither of the expansions were financially successful.

Yes, Blizzard lost MAU's and yet WoW keeps seeing higher then usual levels of engagement. Aka the MAU's probably came from not WoW (Sc2, Overwatch, Hearthstone, D3, HOTS). Not hard to imagine when your timeline (since Legion) includes the end development on Overwatch, HoTS and Sc2.

[rhorle]

You realize that Blizzard lost HALF of their MAUs over the course of Legion and BFA, they lost money during those expansions, that's indisputable lol. Just saying there is factual information stating his claim that neither of the expansions were financially successful.

How many of those MAU came from Heroes, Starcraft 2, and Overwatch which would all see declines due to no content/support. With out game specific MAU or other numbers we can't say for sure how many have actually left WoW. Legion and BfA were not financially successful? Care to provide that proof?

[Queen of Hamsters]

No they did not. You people know nothing and are always so quick to jump at anyone sprouting what you want. Wow kncreased in subs. The losts were from overwatch and the others. Wow gained the lowing is fron blizzards other IPs

No use, they don't do facts. They spout what they believe and that's taken at face value by others agreeing with them.

BfA was said to be in the dumps. Not a single quarterly supported that idea, then came Classic, then came SL pre-patch with numbers not seen in 10 years. The latest quarterly made no mention of anything but growth, TBC and the new expansion included.

But yeah, all losses are WoW's and the game's not profitable, cuz 3rd party reasons...

[Sluvs]

Lucrative means profitable. Has nothing to do with actual engagement/sub metrics.

Yep, and whether you like it or not. To acti-Blizz, what matters is the profit, but they do measure engagement and they are also looking good. Sub metrics though, impossible to know.

[MoanaLisa]

No they did not. You people know nothing and are always so quick to jump at anyone sprouting what you want. Wow kncreased in subs. The losts were from overwatch and the others. Wow gained the lowing is fron blizzards other IPs

To be 100% fair: While Zyky is wrong to blame Blizzard's MAU problems on just WoW as that measurement is across many titles, it's just as wrong to say the increased subscriptions. They say that engagement is good (that's not subscriptions) and that revenue is fine (that also is not strictly subscriptions). In fact they haven't said a word about subscriptions in some years. We don't know if they have increased or not. There was certainly a short term burst for Classic WoW and probably a smaller one for Classic BC but no one has thrown out any numbers over a range of time for comparison.

[Afrospinach]

Apple lost Jobs and they are doing fine.

Remind us how that worked out the first time he left?

[Daronokk]

And so the Culling of Blizzard continues. This entire company must be purged

The only thing that should be purged are toxic fans and hyperbole news.

[Voidwielder]

Remind us how that worked out the first time he left?

The company was in shambles and the product line sucked. Yeah sure you can draw parallels but not every time that a CEO/project lead leaves or is kicked out, the product dies.

[pewpmeiser]

Could be from the lawsuit, could be from designing 2 expansion with mass exodus of players, at least the WoW people. Whatever the reason I hope it will prosper better expansions in the future, wow isn't that far gone yet

BfA and Shadowlands haven't had a mass exodus. Maybe you're brainwashed by the garbage spewed on these forums.

[Voidwielder]

The only thing that should be purged are toxic fans and hyperbole news.

And how would that improve the product? They closed themselves off long before any of this happened, you'd think the company is a town under a siege in how reluctant they are to engage with their audience - let's not forget they are the ones who culled Q&A teams which we later found out were crucial to getting critical class design information through few Community Managers (who did it on their own initiative).

Don't simp for ActiBlizz.

[Zyky]

Blatantly false, as can be expected.

MAUS are 1) Not only WoW and 2) Not specifically mentioned, however they do mention the game holding steady, or growing. I follow the Quarterlies, you obviously do not. Saying that the game's not being financially successful is such a hilarious take that I can't even entertain it.


/End.

MAUs are the only thing that matters in the business world. If the game was successful the game wouldn't feel dead. If the game was successful the game wouldn't be creating blatantly obvious chores that manipulate the players to spending more time in the game. Period.

You are presuming that the biggest loss comes from WoW. While that might be true, it does not mean that it did, and from the reports apparently WoW has been as lucrative as ever.

WoW is the main game in the Blizzard lineup. We can easily cross off HotS, Starcraft, and Diablo; all three of these have been practically dead for years and haven't even been mentioned on quarterly reports. That leaves Overwatch, which we know has been in a steady decline, it wasn't even mentioned this quarterly report. Hearthstone, if you're going to argue that Hearthstone is more popular than WoW then go at it, but it'll be a joke and nobody will take you seriously. That leaves WoW, the game that has always been at the forefront of every quarterly report. The reports do not claim "lucrative"(net bookings =/= revenue) they claim "engagement" which is average player activity within the game, it doesn't look at it as a whole, it looks at it on an average. So if 40% of players are "engaging" with the content with a player pool of(spitballing) 6M that percentage still looks better on quarterly reports when it's 70% of players are "engaging" with a player pool of 4M. This is business 101.

[MoanaLisa]

MAUs are the only thing that matters in the business world. If the game was successful the game wouldn't feel dead. If the game was successful the game wouldn't be creating blatantly obvious chores that manipulate the players to spending more time in the game. Period.

Like vanilla and BC didn't have a lot 'blatantly obvious chores' in it that was specifically to keep people around while they did their attunements and got their fire gear together. Tell us more. This story has been moaned about for-fucking-ever. If it wasn't MAU years ago it was to keep subscriptions up. It's the game. It's always been this.