With the sale--do you think WoW is moving into maintenance mode after 9.2?

[Gadzooks]

Not uncommon in business for competitors to buy out the competition solely to shut the competition down and for multiple reasons.

Nobody here can even pretend to know what Microsoft's plans are.

Microsoft has no competitor to WoW, that they would need to shut down WoW for. If anyone would be in a position to do that, it would be Nintendo.

[Kiivar86]

Microsoft has no competitor to WoW, that they would need to shut down WoW for. If anyone would be in a position to do that, it would be Nintendo.

Technically speaking, as Microsoft owns Betheda, they thus own Elder Scrolls Online, a competitor.

[Akta]

Technically speaking, as Microsoft owns Betheda, they thus own Elder Scrolls Online, a competitor.

If any the one being shut down would be ESO

[epigramx]

with this sale why do i see Microsoft adding wow to the xbox games pass them making signing up to that games pass a requirement to play wow?.

I am forever gone from this game if they do that. I only pay with in-game gold-making for the sub and that only because I enjoy in-game gold-making (to some limited extend).

I don't think it's worth giving hundreds of euros every year for this game (to me at least).

[thunderdragon2]

Technically speaking, as Microsoft owns Betheda, they thus own Elder Scrolls Online, a competitor.

i doubt if microsoft shut wow down every1 would just jump into elder scrolls i suspect that if that happened wow players would avoid ES like the plague

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I am forever gone from this game if they do that. I only pay with in-game gold-making for the sub and that only because I enjoy in-game gold-making (to some limited extend).

I don't think it's worth giving hundreds of euros every year for this game t(o me at least).

i agree worst part is if they did this i for see a double sub fee to play wow appearing

[Gadzooks]

The only delusions here I see is a group of WoW fans convinced that Activision's lead profit horse was...wait WoW? Lol.

From what I see here is that MS wanted King most of all. In the investment announcement it was clear mobile gaming was their chief motivation. Then CoD is the second money maker for the company. Having that, combined with Halo under it's belt now MS can properly compete with Sony as they're now only 2 slots behind them if this deal goes through.

WoW is a money maker, I don't deny that. But out of all the Blizzard IPs WoW is probably the only one who's standing at this moment, and quite frankly given I work in a corporate environment the news and tweets from leadership about their IPs is disingenuous. Especially given that on the quarterly's their MAUs count you twice if you played WoW once and then HS once, so engaging in what an actual $$$ that WoW is generating is rather difficult because well it's obscured and then tied back to in-game store sales.

I think the issue I see here with regards to this thread is that people are overestimating WoW's value. If Blizzard wasn't tied to Activsion, MS wouldn't even be looking at them I'd wager.

I should also clarify that maintenance mode would only apply to after 9.2. That's not to say you won't get a 10 release, but it's holding off until the deal is complete.

I do think a few shakeups are coming once Bobby is out though. I can't imagine how WoW fares with the token system and the gamepass system. I know ESO has a sub, and is in the gamepass, but they don't have any device like the WoW token. I'm willing to say I do think MS when they bring their corporate people over they're going to be talking about Statements of Work, Delegation of Authority, Guardrails and controls to increase QA...that type of stuff. But I do also believe MS would mention to the WoW team you had 12 million subs, you're now at 4 on a good day, 2 on average, what happened?

You reek of copium/hopium.

WoW was not the driving factor of this purchase, but shutting it down or going into maintenance mode makes no sense, in any way. Nobody throws the money WoW brings in. Nobody. I'll keep repeating it, until the blockheads here understand it - nobody does that.

If anything, MS being the owner could be positive for one reason - they could back off the demands for MAUs and such that Kotick's office was most likely demanding, to push profits. It won't go away, because as long as ATVI stock exists, that need will exist, as ATVI is in investment portfolios because of it's dividends. ATVI is attractive to companies like Fidelity and Blackrock for that specific reason, and MS/ATVI need to prop up that stock price, if and until ATVI is exchanged for MSFT, which may or may not happen. Killing Blizzard's main income stream would not go over well for investors on either side of this deal, so thinking they'd shut WoW down is just hopelessly naive, especially as you're claiming corporate experience. Nobody pisses off investors at the scale of ATVI for no reason, and the one thing you've failed utterly to do is make a rational case for them doing it. It would be corporate/investor suicide to shut WoW down, especially before the deal goes through - and MS isn't going to be in a position to even make a decision like that until after the time frame a 10.0 expansion would release in.

I expect the most important thing MS could do is take some of the pressure off MAUs and cash shop sales, to let the teams under Ybarra restructure and rebuild their workflow, fix whatever the hell is wrong internally in Blizzard, and start shipping games worth paying for again. And open up the budgets as needed, and maybe re-staff Q&A and such. You know, all the things people have been accusing Activision of for years. One day it's "Bobby Kotick is killing WoW for MUNNY", and today all of a sudden "MS has to shut WoW down, because it doesn't make enough MUNNY!" Who thinks like that?

Oh, right. Children. Children think like that.

Shut WoW down, or go into maintenance mode? Not. Fucking. Happening. And MS isn't even close to being able to call shots like that. Yet.

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Technically speaking, as Microsoft owns Betheda, they thus own Elder Scrolls Online, a competitor.

Please. ESO is not threatening to WOW, never was, never will be. The only "threat" to WOW is Final Fantasy. Period. Even IF WoW went away, ESO will not pick up the slack and get all the players. It's simply absurd to think MS would shut down WoW to prop up ESO.

[cantrip]

WoW already is in maintenance mode. The world content sucks and is trash, and everything the developers focus on are raids and dungeons. They lost million of players and cater to the minorities they like most.

[MoanaLisa]

I was going to say no... but it very well could be going into a soft "maintenance" mode. While im sure so much work has already gone into the next expansion that very few changes could be made we are seeing a changing of leadership at blizzard. The idea they wouldn't pause and reevaluate all of their properties isn't outragous.

It would most likely be after the buy out in 2023 and in the next expansion for the expansion after mind you.

With Mike Ybarra having been at Microsoft for 22 years before coming to Blizzard it's less of a change of leadership than one might think. For that matter, Blizzard's leadership has already changed dramatically with all of the old school people leaving. The ridiculous development process that leads to a couple of games a decade; the office culture...those guys (and they are all guys) are gone.

[Kiivar86]

Please. ESO is not threatening to WOW, never was, never will be. The only "threat" to WOW is Final Fantasy. Period. Even IF WoW went away, ESO will not pick up the slack and get all the players. It's simply absurd to think MS would shut down WoW to prop up ESO.

Never said it was, just that Microsoft does have a competitor, but I never expected them to drop either.

[MoanaLisa]

If any the one being shut down would be ESO

Why shut either of them down. Where does it say that a company can't manage studios with different MMO's? If they are both making money why would anyone do that?

[voidillusion]

I dont know for sure which game makes more money currently, and tbf i believe it to be completly pointless because being the 1st or the 5th overall, after cashing out 70b assuming they would just put one of the biggest moneymakers in a shelf, with potential make even more than it is currently... it's impressive reasoning i'll give you that.

Did MSFT make the deal because of WoW? Ofc not. Will they put WoW in maintenance mode given the profit it still turns in and might turn in even more in the future if well managed? LoL

[Deadite]

I know the deal was just announced but do you think they'll halt working on 10 until MS can evaluate the buy? I know 9.2 is actively being worked on right now, but I feel like 10 expansion may not have the same level of support, and could lead to a delay while the company evaluates the IP.

Did they not say they work on the next expansion in advance of the one they are working on just now? Any change good or bad prolly own't happen till the expansion after the next one.

[Berndorf]

WoW already is in maintenance mode. The world content sucks and is trash, and everything the developers focus on are raids and dungeons. They lost million of players and cater to the minorities they like most.

To some degree this feels true to me as well. The last two expansions felt that way after Legion which might also be blamed on covid but they made such a big deal out of how many people they had added in the MoP-WoD days and having two separate teams working on expansions(which never worked nearly as well as they thought it would) then turned around and fired a bunch of people in the last few years. The last 3 expansions all feel like almost the same one with the dh being the only class or race added of real substance. Am I saying Wow is permanently on maintenance mode and can't become better? No, but the next exp will probably be very similar to the last 3 in terms of systems/content.

[justandulas]

It’s the opposite. This is the most hopeful WoW fans should be feeling for over a decade. Microsoft will manage better and spend what it takes to breath new life into WoW

[netherflame]

I know the deal was just announced but do you think they'll halt working on 10 until MS can evaluate the buy? I know 9.2 is actively being worked on right now, but I feel like 10 expansion may not have the same level of support, and could lead to a delay while the company evaluates the IP.

No thats literally the dumbest suggestion we've seen since shadowlands, the game prints money despite what people think its still wildly successful even with the dip.

[Arcreid]

More like delusional people such as you thinking they would stop developing WoW for no reason whatsoever.

This is the problem with stupid people, you tell them facts and they start building strawman, i never said Microsoft would stop developing WOW you goblin.

[Wadrak]

I think its the opposite, if the sale didn't happen it would go into maintenance mode in near future.

Actually when you ask that, I thought before the Shadowlands, if the expansion is not good, it may be the last big one with new features. I was thinking about the maintenance mode too ...

But considering Microsoft bought it, and Shadowlands wasn't complete flop. I dont see the maintenance mode in near future.

[PixelFox]

1) Microsoft didn't pay 68 billion dollars for IP in maintenance mode with a declining user base.

2) During the process of a merger, the two companies are required by law to operate as independent entities and not co-mingle operations or otherwise behave as though it were a done deal until it's actually a done deal.

3) I'm pretty sure all the next-expansion planning is complete at this point, so it's unlikely that Microsoft will have any particular impact until sometime after 10.0. They could play with things like pricing models (creative marketing to try to boost MAUs for example) but I doubt anything major will change development wise for a while.

4) They are not going to ride in on a white horse and throw Ion into a flaming volcano and declare a new glorious rebirth for WoW. Well, probably not anyway.

5) World of Minecraft.

[Cosmic Janitor]

It’s the opposite. This is the most hopeful WoW fans should be feeling for over a decade. Microsoft will manage better and spend what it takes to breath new life into WoW

Actually, no. With the way the change of hands is going to work, microsoft seems entirely not interested in immediately taking action for all their other acquired properties, with the exception of platform release schedules that won't effect Blizzard in the slightest. So not only does the change not happen tomorrow, no, it's 1.5 years away and MS seems to not do sweeping changes in the first couple of years as well (admittedly, they haven't bought a dysfunctional studio like Blizzard before to my knowledge). That likely means we will have at least 3 to 5 years of just what Blizzard is doing right now; so more widespread corporate dysfunction. Unless Ybarra is already an MS spy and works towards changing Blizzard, something that wasn't corroborated by anyone, if not even the opposite, the immediate future will still be just Blizzard doing Blizzard things. The only thing that might change is HR having actual zero tolerance policies for certain behavior, but that is hardly the reason why games like WoW are the way they are now, no matter if you are satisfied with them or not. WoW players should actually be looking at what Blizzard is doing rght now and not fear what MS may be doing in the still distant future.

[Elodeon]

Control of every valuable thing in society is being concentrated in the hands of a few, and the reasons do not boil down to money.

The people behind these consolidations already have all the money. They print arbitrary amounts. You can see the effects clearly through inflation.

What these consolidations are about, is total surveillance of every individual in all aspects of life, and total control of messaging.

It's now obvious why the "woke scandal" afflicted Blizzard recently. This was a pretext to get rid of people who might have been an obstacle.