wouldn't Blizzard be more profitable making GREAT games?

[Ron Burgundy]

as opposed to maximizing profits from micro transactions and the in-game shop?

[Askyl]

Nope. Milking money is where the $$ is at. Sad but true.

[Ron Burgundy]

Nope. Milking money is where the $$ is at. Sad but true.

fuck


10char

[MrLachyG]

as opposed to maximizing profits from micro transactions and the in-game shop?

I mean their shop is quite small compared to others. almost every game now has a store with micro-transactions. the bulk of the money they make from wow would be from the subs I reckon, not from the shop. In terms of a great game, well I guess that largely depends on what you play wow for really. The raids are usually a pretty high standard, dungeons too. Questlines and story usually get a bit of a savaging especially on this forum but honestly I don't think many people sub exclusively for the story. PvP'ers, collectors, RP'ers all do their thing until they are done and then have a break until the next patch.

[deenman]

not really,trying to make a good game is a lot of work and investment,and its never really a guarantee that it will bring in more profit vs the cost,plenty of good games out there get overlooked for many reasons that arent related to its quality

[Zirelle]

It takes a lot of work to make a really good game, it's far easier to make a bad/mediocre one and stuff it full of MTX features.

[MoanaLisa]

as opposed to maximizing profits from micro transactions and the in-game shop?

It takes a lot of work to make a really good game, it's far easier to make a bad/mediocre one and stuff it full of MTX features.

It might help if they release new games more frequently than every five years.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Blizzard has found that they can rest on their laurels and continue raking in the cash.

[owbu]

I mean their shop is quite small compared to others. almost every game now has a store with micro-transactions. the bulk of the money they make from wow would be from the subs I reckon, not from the shop. In terms of a great game, well I guess that largely depends on what you play wow for really. The raids are usually a pretty high standard, dungeons too. Questlines and story usually get a bit of a savaging especially on this forum but honestly I don't think many people sub exclusively for the story. PvP'ers, collectors, RP'ers all do their thing until they are done and then have a break until the next patch.

There was an interview with the old CEO in one of the buisness magazines a couple of years back (forbes, I think?), where he said that subs used to be their main income, but these days "added services" (shop, transfers and so on) is their main source of income from WoW.
@Topic making great games is indeed good for profits. But thats pretty much like saying "shouldnt our team win the world cup (or EVEN the american league!) to be a more profitable club?" You can invest into a CHANCE to make great games. But that's expensive and chances are you are just going to make something that sucks AND doesnt make you any money.

[Soon-TM]

Why worrying about making a good game, which is expensive, risky and may take a very long time (especially for Blizzard kekw), when you can instead put a new coat of paint on the rust bucket and call it a day?

They don't care about good games, MVP (Minimally Viable Product) is where the money lies at.

[WowIsDead64]

as opposed to maximizing profits from micro transactions and the in-game shop?

They tried to do it back in WOD - it didn't work. Sad truth - players can't play games without gun barrel at back of their heads.

[McNeil]

Making a good game requires effort, resources and passion. For long term it can provide more profit and more goodwill, but a much easier route for Blizzard and most other companies are short term profits like releasing WC3:R unfinished and still cash in on nostalgia.

[Lolites]

There was an interview with the old CEO in one of the buisness magazines a couple of years back (forbes, I think?), where he said that subs used to be their main income, but these days "added services" (shop, transfers and so on) is their main source of income from WoW.

i think it depends on where you count the token in, technicaly most people use it for sub, but its in fact one of the added service

[Zora-Prime]

Blizzard has a habit of making a game with an amazing base/foundation, and then completely shitting on it with awful decisions.

WoW has an incredible base... ruined by a multitude of awful design decisions
Overwatch is also amazing... ruined by slowly phasing out the fps portion of the game in favor of shit barrier no aim characters.
HotS ...
Diablo is the best feeling and most polished ARPG, horribly supported (+5000% dmg to a random set for your class)
HS ...


Blizzard doesn't know how support games after making them, or has a bunch egotistical designers that wont backdown from their garbo decisions.

[Duroga]

World of Warcraft is a GREAT Game and they make Profit with Subs and a couple of microtransactions which, btw nobody is forced to buy.
I quess they don't put too many company ressources in those microtransactions, so there are a lot of employees free to develop the game(s)
15$ or 13€ a month is a small fee, that doesn't hurt my wallet. I am having a great time, playing wow.

[Verdugo]

I am expecting them to jump on NFT bandwagon any day now.

[Klingers]

I am expecting them to jump on NFT bandwagon any day now.

They’re too busy already implementing NFC’s. (No Fucking Content)

[Zirelle]

It might help if they release new games more frequently than every five years.

That is true, also abandoning two of their IPs was a weird choice as well. Although to be honest, if what they're putting out recently is indicative of their level of care and skill, I'm kind of happy they aren't doing anything else with Starcraft. I'd prefer it not to be ruined.

You'd figure with how much they love MTX, killing off HotS was a weird choice. It's like just because they couldn't make it into as big of a property as LoL or Dota after a few years, then it wasn't worth even supporting anymore.

- - - Updated - - -

I am expecting them to jump on NFT bandwagon any day now.

Aren't they updating their store in the next few months? I remember a few weeks ago they were making a bit stink about the store going away for a while for a 'revamp.' I wonder what the likelihood of it coming back with a bunch of NFT nonsense in it.

Imagine, you, too can buy a 'unique' gif of Golden Thrall from Hearthstone using an attack.

[Soon-TM]

You'd figure with how much they love MTX, killing off HotS was a weird choice. It's like just because they couldn't make it into as big of a property as LoL or Dota after a few years, then it wasn't worth even supporting anymore.

It wasn't so weird from Blizzard's PoV. They knew that they were late, very, very late to the MOBA party, so initially they didn't try to compete directly against the LoL/DotA behemoths. Instead, they marketed HotS as THE casual-friendly alternative: no gold/resources, no complicated item recipes, shared XP, no quirks like e.g. denying creeps in DotA.

Lo and behold, this approach allowed HotS to gain a relatively important playerbase, which while certainly included Blizzard fans, it also opened the doors to many "foreigners", who wanted to get their feet wet in the (at the time) ever popular MOBA genre, but hadn't due to time/skill constraints, not to mention the well-known toxicity of DotA's and LoL's playerbases, especially the latter.

This initial success, mild as it may have been, encouraged Blizzard to try their hand at the Holy Grial of esports, which they had been chasing since at least BC (arena PvP was supposed to become the esport part of WoW) but had systematically failed. This new esport-friendly approach alienated a large amount of the playerbase, who slammed the door on their way out - and at the same time largely failed to attract MOBA pros, who were quite invested already in DotA/LoL.

And today, HotS isn't even mentioned in their quarterly reports. Any similarities with WoW are just coincidences - or maybe not.

[Azerox]

Nope, because all the noobs with a big wallet keep buying tokens and stuff to feed them with enough money to justify crap products.

This is the problem with most games atm.