Am I understanding this correctly?

[Eosia]

**oh I see you got owned in the Hunters sections already by about everyone, so came here to try and not sounds dumb in supporting Blizzards bad decisions on MSV.

Sorry sweetie, you're not my type. No need to stalk me. And that's really creepy btw.

And no, I didn't get "owned". Your mistake is thinking that these forums represent a majority of actual players. The Official forums are a better measure and they don't even represent a majority of players.

Bye Felicia.

100% of the time I will trust the investor calls over some random from the forum, or some streamer that gets clicks for drama.

I know. Especially since those are truthful statements given the SEC/FTC gets involved if they lie.

Never underestimate MMO Champion arm chair investors

Microsoft PLC sales dropped 5%
This forum OMG ITS BECAUSE THEY NERFED EVOKERS
Sales from Car OS down 10 points
MMOC: fucking Diablo pay to win bullshit that's the proof right there
Windows 11 Professional plateaus in sales
MMOC: If they buffed warlocks and fired Ion more people would buy it

Yup. They're arm chair investors with omniscience to see what every staff member at Blizzard and every player who is actually subscribed to the game thinks. They even have PhDs in Game Design/Development from Google University.

Too bad they can't user Google enough to find out things like the gaming industry as a whole is seeing a drop in spending. Sony reported a 26% drop year over year in game sales. Nintendo saw about a 10% drop in Switch sales.

But of course Sony and Nintendo's slips are Ion's fault too.

[HansOlo]

Blizzard’s second quarter segment revenue and operating income were lower year-over-year but higher versus the first quarter. World of Warcraft net bookings declined versus a year-ago quarter that included the launch of Burning Crusade Classic, offsetting year-over-year growth for Hearthstone and the contribution from the June launch of Diablo Immortal.

It is widely reported that DI has brought in more than $100 million. Hearthstone had growth. This was offset by a decline in WoW. So WoW lost more than $100 million last quarter? And this quarter was better than the last. How do the people running WoW keep their jobs?

Am I understanding this correctly?

This famous last word, before the answer always turns out to be no. You didn't understand it correctly.

[StillMcfuu]

Just wait until the MSFT deal is done. Their quarterly reports are so broad that it's unlikely that you'll see any snippets of information about Blizzard at all.

Besides the importance of Blizzard in ATVI's report has been marginalized once they brought King on board. Candy Crush does more revenue by itself than ATVI titles and Blizzard combined. WoW is basically just a sliver in a pie chart and not nearly as important as fans (or non-fans) wish to make it.

The only thing that ATVI stockholders care about at this point is that the stock price not rise about the price MSFT offered for it. No one, I repeat, no one in the business of stock trading gives one shit about Blizzard's development decisions.

With how poorly people misjudge these very clear numbers, making them more vague would probably be best.

[Echo of Soul]

Why do you think they said STRONGER rather than HIGHER? Why do you think they said TYPICALLY rather than EVER?.......I notice you completely ignored the second part of my comment. I wonder why?

If you get a gold medal, you dont publicize "finished top 3". If you have climbed Everest, you dont promote that you have "climbed one of the bigger mountains".

If the subs were outright more than previously, they would have said so. If it was higher than anything since X expansion, they would have said so. They didnt. They said "Stronger" and "typically".

It's so easy to spot these borderline lies, I'd have to be a complete and utter moron if I believed that it meant that the game had more subscribers.

[Mysterymask]

It's so easy to spot these borderline lies, I'd have to be a complete and utter moron if I believed that it meant that the game had more subscribers.

But what would the point be? Lie to Investors so the game doesn't get shitcanned?

[Biomega]

But what would the point be? Lie to Investors so the game doesn't get shitcanned?

There's a fine line between "lie" and "represent things in a particular way" and it's walked every day when it comes to PR and investor information. Of course they're not allowed to mislead investors intentionally, but they're also not going to come out and say things like "yeah this quarter sucked, nobody liked our product because we made it bad", because language like that could create negative ripples that spiral out of control and tank the stock price even further.

That's why everything is euphemized and soft-talked, and certain information is simply omitted. That's legal, and expected - of course they want to keep investors informed, but they also have to guard what they consider sensitive information to stop it from having unintended consequences or help the competition. That's Blizzard's argument about WoW sub numbers: that they don't reflect the financial situation accurately, create a misleading single metric that garners more attention than it warrants, and that it reveals information that could be used by competitors to deduce proprietary business-model information.

Forum responses such as here on this site quickly show why: people see a drop in subs and immediately scream WOW IS DEAD OMG GAME LITERALLY COLLAPSING. Which is not how any of it works.

[Goat7]

Citation needed for most. Since it implies >50%

We get it. You hate Blizzard, yet you're desperate enough to keep posting here for attention. It's adorable, but move on. Your ex (Blizzard) has. Maybe you should to.


This whole topic is just the "stop having fun!" Meme

Hate Blizzard? Negative. Disappointed that they got super greedy and ruined great gaming titles, sure.

Desperate and needing attention? Negative. I couldn't care less about you or anyone else on here or what you think.

It looks like maybe you are sad about the fact that Blizzard has become a shit company but you don't want to accept it, you choose to ignore that fact, drink the Kool aid, swipe ur card at the in game store, do ur 3 dailies and log out, come on here and tell anyone who says that Blizzard games have gone to shit that they are adorable

[Lorgar Aurelian]

Why do you think they said STRONGER rather than HIGHER? Why do you think they said TYPICALLY rather than EVER?.......I notice you completely ignored the second part of my comment. I wonder why?

If you get a gold medal, you dont publicize "finished top 3". If you have climbed Everest, you dont promote that you have "climbed one of the bigger mountains".

If the subs were outright more than previously, they would have said so. If it was higher than anything since X expansion, they would have said so. They didnt. They said "Stronger" and "typically".

I never said subs were the highest ever that’s something you just made up and added your self why wouldn’t I ignore you making stuff up?

And just to be clear you don’t have any other meaning for what a “stronger subscriber base” means? You just don’t like that blizzard uses common business terms/phrases so they must be lying in there report even if you don’t have any thing else to point to for what it would really mean?

- - - Updated - - -

There's a fine line between "lie" and "represent things in a particular way" and it's walked every day when it comes to PR and investor information.

There is a fine line but flat out saying your sub base is stronger isn’t any where near.

[Biomega]

There is a fine line but flat out saying your sub base is stronger isn’t any where near.

That depends on what "sub base is stronger" means. Some people are construing this to mean "we have more subs" but that's not the only way to interpret this. It could also mean something like "the subscribers we have now are more loyal" or maybe "the subscribers we have now are willing to pay extra money on top of the sub fee" or whatever.

It's open to interpretation. THAT'S THE POINT. Of course fine lines disappear when you read things one way and only one way and do not allow or consider alternatives - but that's not how it usually plays out, which is why those fine lines ARE fine lines in the first place.

[Aucald]

This thread was only tangentially about WoW, to begin with, and has since veered off into discussing broader economics and other unrelated topics. Closing this.