Activision Blizzard Q4 2022 Earnings Results

[HansOlo]

Nothing beyond seeing people proven wrong, but considering your insistence, might i ask why it's that important to know that?

I didn't say any of that, nor implied it.

If you think there's no room on the spectrum between "it sold less than SL / BfA" and "WoW is dead", then that's on you.

People proven wrong = Blizzard proven wrong.

Got it.

Mine is complete opposite - im cheering for Blizzard. There is absolutely nothing negative in this report. In fact - as fanbase we should be proud of what we got(maybe even despite).

[Osmeric]

Look, another post that says "one day wow will die". Well, duh. Thats kind of a given? One day it will happen. But i'd bet that wow will still be around in 10 years, and more.

I'm saying more than that, but if you want to caricature me to make yourself feel better, go knock yourself out.

[Stickiler]

The game is on a long term downward trend. Why do you imagine this will change? If anything, if declining engagement leads to lower development budgets, the decline could accelerate.

Did you miss where it said WoW has seen growth in both engagement and net bookings? There is no "declining engagement".

[Osmeric]

Did you miss where it said WoW has seen growth in both engagement and net bookings? There is no "declining engagement".

I sure hope WoW saw year-on-year growth like that. I mean, there was a new expansion in Q4 2022; there wasn't a new expansion in Q4 2021. If there hadn't been growth of that kind it would have been extremely dire.

[HansOlo]

I sure hope WoW saw year-on-year growth like that. I mean, there was a new expansion in Q4 2022; there wasn't a new expansion in Q4 2021. If there hadn't been growth of that kind it would have been extremely dire.

WHY DO YOU CARE?

You are this prime subject rambling about sub and growth. Give us some answers.

What use is sub and growth for you, unless you are Bobby K?

[Relapses]

I sure hope WoW saw year-on-year growth like that. I mean, there was a new expansion in Q4 2022; there wasn't a new expansion in Q4 2021. If there hadn't been growth of that kind it would have been extremely dire.

The point is the same: It's not all bad news and you seem to be in this thread specifically to revel in some weird type of schadenfreude you get from the decline of WoW.

[Kralljin]

People proven wrong = Blizzard proven wrong.

I get the impression that you are confused.

There is absolutely nothing negative in this report. In fact - as fanbase we should be proud of what we got(maybe even despite).

I mean, they just had to admit in an earnings call that their flagship product underperformed, but sure.

[Mysterymask]

Ahh yes that time of day when all the folks seeking validation for nerfing their character years ago can feast

[Osmeric]

I get the impression that you are confused.

I mean, they just had to admit in an earnings call that their flagship product underperformed, but sure.

Strictly speaking, it was just a quarterly report, not a "call". They aren't doing calls right now because of the MS buyout.

[Relapses]

I mean, they just had to admit in an earnings call that their flagship product underperformed, but sure.

I'll admit they buried the lede a bit but it didn't come off as patently negative as some of the late-BfA QRs did.

[Sensa1]

The report also says that DF is having better retention rate than the last expansions, which indicates that those who tried it, liked it better in average. A lot of people aren't going to even try it because of Blizzard's past mistakes, and that's fine - but it's a good thing for the game that those who play it like it enough to stay playing. And that's considering the negative trend and social backlash Blizzard received with last year's scandals and when quitting WoW and announcing it was pretty much a cool badge of honor, everyone's favourite bandwagon to jump on, so to me it feels like they are taking steps in the right direction to change that trend.

Retention being higher than SL, despite lower sales, may or may not be related to the "quality" of the expansion. With the exception of Dragon Riding, the Trading Post and the elimination of borrowed powers the "game" is largely the same.

A more likely cause of higher retention is that the lower sales were to Blizzard's "base" (to borrow a political term) to begin with - committed customers - who are going to buy and play WoW pretty much come hell or high water.

The hey day has clearly come and gone and it was obvious, despite a 59 page thread trying to suggest otherwise, that the sales were down...doesn't mean WoW is dead as WoW can survive a long time on this base of customers. It was amusing, however, to watch some of the die hard fanboys try to avoid admitting the obvious - sales were down.

[chiddie]

I’m kinda surprised about DF retention, honestly.

I mean, of course it’s better than SL in any possible way but it’s another mots, especially in end game. Imho the game desperately needs a new fourth pillar.

[Fitsu]

A lot of people saying Blizz is slowly bleeding out, this is the result when you treat your community bad etc. But honestly I think this is just the result of Blizzard showing it's age.

Blizzard were and still are the kings of game design from a mechanical gameplay point of view and once upon a time that was enough. Classic WoW took off because it took pre-existing ideas and polished them up. Nothing even came close to Diablo 2 from a gameplay loop perspective back in the 2000s. But they were never the innovative company, they've never been the complexity company.

Gamers have evolved and Blizzard hasn't kept with them. Your average gamer now wants more depth, more complexity, more challenge and these are all things Blizzard simply do not offer. All they offer is a tight gameplay experience and in 2023 that just isn't enough anymore.

[Relapses]

The hey day has clearly come and gone and it was obvious, despite a 59 page thread trying to suggest otherwise, that the sales were down...doesn't mean WoW is dead as WoW can survive a long time on this base of customers. It was amusing, however, to watch some of the die hard fanboys try to avoid admitting the obvious - sales were down.

There's a difference between admitting sales are down and insisting that imaginary numbers scraped from Blizzard's API by a balding, European ball shaving connoisseur proved anything meaningful. That's what most of the discussion in that 59-page thread was about.

[Osmeric]

I’m kinda surprised about DF retention, honestly.

They drove away the "weak sisters", so those remaining will tend to be more attached to the game. Viewed another way, they front loaded the sub losses so that more occurred before the expansion actually started. This is still somewhat bad for them, since they have lost the revenue from those expansion sales. I imagine they're trying to get those people to buy the expansion now to make up for it.

[Relapses]

Gamers have evolved and Blizzard hasn't kept with them. Your average gamer now wants more depth, more complexity, more challenge and these are all things Blizzard simply do not offer. All they offer is a tight gameplay experience and in 2023 that just isn't enough anymore.

My outlook is a bit less cynical. Blizzard still offers a unique product in WoW that has a dedicated base. Even though this expansion didn't have blow-out sales numbers like the last, it's still a great game which has a long development cycle ahead of it. All this talk of "gamers evolving" would see Blizzard sooner give up entirely on WoW and focus all of their dev time on something like OW2. I don't think that's the best way forward either. There's room for WoW in the Blizzard vernacular but it doesn't need to always outsell every preceding expansion in order for it to be successful or enjoyable.

[Osmeric]

Your average gamer now wants more depth, more complexity, more challenge

And this is why mobile games are so popular!

Wait a sec...

[HansOlo]

And this is why mobile games are so popular!

Wait a sec...

Comparing WoW vs. the mobile game segment was... Fantastic.

You are something special.

[Utrrabbit]

I AM SHOCKED

/s

No one expected it to have higher sales than previous xpacs not even blizzard, the one thing thst is important here that people are glossing over is the higher player retention. That is they key figure.

Their numbers could of been high at launch, but witgout retention it does not matter. Seeing players staying engaged and enjoying the game is far more important to blizzard at this time as it draws in more players to come back seeing numbers go up from launch not down.

[qwerty123456]

I think it's more fair to say that the people who quit in Shadowlands quit because they moved on with their lives and fewer people were enticed by Dragonflight. I know this is surprising, but sometimes people quit playing games for reasons that aren't because they hate them.

There were tons of reasons why people quit, some didn't like it, some moved on, some did so because they thought Blizzard was letting titty grabbers run rampant, some did because they removed sexy pictures and emotes, some did because thier fav streamer started playing Final Fantasy, etc....

... Did you even read the whole thing? Literally two lines below it completely disproves you by saying player retention is higher than the previous expansion. How do you read that and think "that means Blizzard is bleeding even more subscribers!!"?

If Shadowlands starts with 100 subscribers and 30 leave after a month (70 active subs)and Dragonflight starts with 50 subscribers and 2 leave after a month(48 active subs) they have retained more players than the previous expansion percentage wise. That doesn't mean Dragonflight definitely has less subs as it could also mean something like Shadowlands 100-30+70 Dragonflight 80-9=71. Since we don't have actual numbers he could be correct that Blizzard is bleeding more subscribers but it could also mean subscribers have mostly leveled out and fewer people try and leave.