Wednesday, February 13th 2019
Activision Blizzard Doubling Down on Diablo, Warcraft IPs Amidst Changing Market
The times have been rough for the Activision Blizzard juggernaut, as changing market conditions and lack of differentiated IP launches have led the company into a sort of stagnant position in the market - in both launches and revenue sources. The recent split from Destiny developer Bungie took out a bite from one of the company's additional streams of revenue amidst dwindling World of Warcraft subscriptions (after the usual spike post launch for Battle of Azeroth) and the lack of any new sources of income in the close future. This saw the company's stock valuation coming down, and was bookended by the recent layoff of some 8% total of the company's workforce (around 800 out of its 9,600 employees). Reports peg these as being mostly outside of the game development workforce, though, which could give traction to the report that the company is doubling down on IP-related development, instead of shying away from it - a sensible move, if you'll ask me.
Activision Blizzard COO Coddy Johnson reiterated Blizzard's fantastic IP reserves, and wants the company to achieve a higher cadence in content releases that follow the type of high-quality launches they achieve in their World of Warcraft expansions - but on other, more differentiated revenue sources. Johnson also reiterated more resources being put to work on the Diablo franchise, saying that "Diablo's development headcount will grow substantially", with "The teams are working on several projects for the franchise as well as the global launch of Diablo Immortal."
Sources:
Kotaku, Venture Beat
Activision Blizzard COO Coddy Johnson reiterated Blizzard's fantastic IP reserves, and wants the company to achieve a higher cadence in content releases that follow the type of high-quality launches they achieve in their World of Warcraft expansions - but on other, more differentiated revenue sources. Johnson also reiterated more resources being put to work on the Diablo franchise, saying that "Diablo's development headcount will grow substantially", with "The teams are working on several projects for the franchise as well as the global launch of Diablo Immortal."
29 Comments on Activision Blizzard Doubling Down on Diablo, Warcraft IPs Amidst Changing Market
Activision might turn it into another Battle Royale :laugh:
IMO D3 is great on PC and even better on consoles. I wish I had time to actively play online like I had with D2. :/
You know it's trouble when all success rests on Blizzard. Blizz nearly collapsed their own cash cow in WoW. Silly it got to the point that private servers running vanilla were more interesting than modern content. Enough to invest in bringing back the original game and going back on all the welfare systems they put in place because scrubs couldn't figure out how to not stand in stuff.
CoD...they finally changed it from the old Q3a engine but it's still nothing really different. They aren't capable of innovation and they fired or ran off guys who did it.
Bungie is nothing more than a lifeless husk of it's former self. Completely gutted by MS and now wanders the earth peddling lifeless pseudo MMO shooters. Losing Destiny was no big loss. They tossed out an incomplete sequel that DLC didn't even really improve. Then they decided gamers would be more than willing to spend the cost of another full game on an expansion which promised to fix the original game, and at the same time, killed off a fan favorite character which was leaked to heck before it ever launched. Gah, so much nonsense.
Time to bring back Marathon, Bungie. Or heck, Myth. Sadly we'll probably just get Destiny 3 and then Bungie declares bankruptcy.
So no, forget it. Go elsewhere: Grim Dawn (best option IMO), Path of Exile, Torchlight, the list is LONG these days.
What they need right now, is a new shot at Starcraft Ghost. Some singleplayer focused IP that builds on their rich settings. Alternatively, they need Warcraft 4. Or some Starcraft-inspired persistent world WoW spinoff. Whatever it is, they need to revitalize the idea that Blizzard can create beautiful worlds to walk around in, with gameplay that just keeps on giving. Not silly card games and deathmatch maps or an infinitely scaled content box, that is kindergarten level development and everyone can do that nowadays. Fun at times, but never Blizzard core business. They're (were?) too good for that.
And Diablo 3... there was a time when I couldn't imagine not preordering that. And then... no multiclassing in a modern RPG? I just went Path of Exile.
Instead of adding/changing/fixing/modifying the exisiting antiquated WOW spagetti code, just reboot it, start over and have the ability to import your characters from the old WOW into the 'new world'
Would be cool tho and probably get me playing again.
Games evolve. You simply cannot remake vanilla WoW and not get major flak from the community for omitting all the improvements it gained over the years. With those improvements also came a more streamlined experience, quality of life features and a much lower barrier of entry. The vast majority won't take kindly to making the barrier of entry high again - the playerbase that really looked for the challenge as a baseline in the game (and not just another difficulty level like it is now) is loooong gone, only some truly hardcore addicts have stayed. Diablo 3 has the same problem with difficulty. The real number-crunchers in the community have left for greener pastures, because they do exist and are called Path of Exile, for example. There's a good reason that game is so profitable even though its free to play with an extremely lenient business model. People wánt to donate something because it fills a strong demand in the market, and that demand is the void Diablo 3 left behind - the same void fans experienced once more when Blizz announced Diablo Immortal. Somehow, even with the old team long gone people are still waiting for another Diablo 2.
I will say, Blizzard is going to have to do some very serious soul-searching to find that old spirit back and return it to its game releases. I have strong doubts that they even can. Talent is not simply replaced and the business model defines whether it gets room to grow - HotS, Overwatch and Hearthstone are the worst places for cultivating that talent and mobile gaming even more so.
To have your stock price lose nearly half its value isn't exactly good.