What happened to the HD cinematics from BFA?

[Ast1982]

Hi all, sorry if this has been asked - couldn't see it answered.

Unpopular opinion but I actually really enjoyed BFA, mosly because of those high definition cinematics. The cinematics were absolutely incredible.

My question is - why don't we get anymore of those high definition cinematics anymore?

Was it a certain team that did it, that is no longer with Blizz? Or budget cuts or something?

[Ximothy]

Well they are tons more expensive, that's probably the reason. It was probably an experiment to see if it was worth the cost.

Also, those cinematics take years to work on. Chris Metzen left shortly before Legion started, and the Battle for Azeroth cinematic trailer was the last thing he worked on over well over a year before we saw it. Its much harder to change the story or focal characters if they want, as it'd take far too long to change gears.

[Candy Cough]

Moslty because the cinematics were made with stuff they already had on hand

Saurfangs model for example is literally just a repainted Grommash Hellscream. Even the nose ring is the same

[Ashana Darkmoon]

Probably didn't have any ROI. They were cool but didn't keep people engaged with the game yet cost millions to make.

[Plehnard]

My guess would be that the FX-team responsible for the pre- rendered stuff just were free at that time and had to be kept busy.
Diablo4 was still in early development, there was nothing to do for overwatch2 as well and since it's an in-house team that had to be paid any ways they got that kind of tasks.

[KOUNTERPARTS]

I do love Blizzard's fully rendered, CGI, big budget cinematics. The Saurfang ones from BfA and even the Shadowlands fight between Sylvanas and Bolvar were fucking amazing.


However, these new in-game, NPC model cutscene ones are also fucking good. They've come a loooooooong way.

[GabrielKnight]

Unpopular opinion but I actually really enjoyed BFA

Yes, I knew it. There are dozens of us out there!

[Val the Moofia Boss]

My question is - why don't we get anymore of those high definition cinematics anymore?

1. Budget. WoW is in managed decline with each expansion having less and less effort poured into it than the last, culminating in Shadowlands and Dragonflight where you only get four questing zones and a single raid at launch and nothing else. The purpose of youtube cinematics is marketing to attract people who aren't already into WoW, but WoW holds no appeal to zoomers. Zoomers aren't joining WoW. The only people who play WoW are gen Ys and millennials who joined over a decade ago. From the perspective of Acti-Blizzard's suits, it would be a waste of money.

2. lack of a creative force, a person with the vision and the clout at Acti-Blizzard to push for the big cinematics.

[Venziir]

Moslty because the cinematics were made with stuff they already had on hand

Saurfangs model for example is literally just a repainted Grommash Hellscream. Even the nose ring is the same

... You've got to be kidding right?

- - - Updated - - -

Yes, I knew it. There are dozens of us out there!

I really liked BFA up until 8.3.

[Soon-TM]

BfA cinematics were as good in a technical sense as they were awful story wise. I frankly don't need 3049025 HD cinematics if all they are going to do is to show how sad is the current Alliance sycophant and how great, wise and pure are Alliance leaders.

[username993720]

They were a waste of resources if you ask me.

[Doffen]

Budget priorities. Remember Blizzard was flying high in the two years before BfA because of Overwatch and Legion's success and most likely had more "bank" from the company as a whole. Because despite its quality, the cinematics didn't do anything for the game and popularity. Then its easy to say "we skip those and focus more on other aspects of the game to try to improve and get more money in"

And then we have all the mtr they focus on instead which is more probable to rank in some coin. If a skin is more valued on a work to income ratio than lets say cinematics, doing less overall for more is a better way to keep this company going, than they'll do that. So budgeting priorities are a probable reason.

Getting resources for those splendid cinematics was probably easier back then when Legion alone was making World of Warcraft a successful game so for BfA they went all in just to fail.