Microsoft has ‘let Blizzard be Blizzard’ following its acquisition, studio says
Microsoft has ‘let Blizzard be Blizzard’ following its acquisition, studio says
Microsoft has “let Blizzard be Blizzard,” following the acquisition of the veteran developer according to World of Warcraft’s executive producer.
Thats the problem. Blizzard has been shit for years.
Blizzard was (still is?) Activision for a number of years as well, so that didn't help. There is much more to blame and I can't even begin to pretend like I know all of it, though.
My own complaint is similar though. When "profit at all costs" takes over, and knowing how to make a quality game is lost, there is usually little hope left.
Saying that Blizzard pursues profit at all costs is inaccurate, unfair, and frankly slanderous.
Blizzard would NEVER sacrifice their rampant misogyny to make more money
Welcome to Capitalism
The people that made blizzard are all gone, there's several newer studios that haven't released much of anything yet. Frostgiant, warchief gaming, dreamhaven, imagendary studios are all offshoots of former blizzard employees.
Although Metzen is back, Blizzard will never be the Blizzard of old. They are just too big now. I am very curious to see what Morheim will bring to the table though.
Too bad they didn’t have this attitude before cutting 1900 jobs, most of them Blizzard employees and making the cut after promising not to make massive cuts.
im so glad that blizzards internal culture and conduct align with microsofts values enough for them to skip the hands-on approach theyve shown with other subsidiaries
I thought MS was less big on sexual harassment and assault, but maybe I was wrong.
evidently they dont give much of a shit either way
Interesting thing to say, with lots of the public expecting Microsoft to uproot the abusive work culture. I mean, you probably can't say anything right in that regard, nor is not talking about it going to look good, but yeah...
"The breast milk snatcher will be caught", a Microsoft representative assured the New York Times before taking a deep, long slurp of their milkshake, their eyes closed in apparent bliss as shivers ran down their spine. "Your days are numbered!"
lmaoo💀💀💀
Oh no
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Honestly, Microsoft bought them because they thought it can magically catapult them to #1 in the gaming industry. And they have, in a sense. The advantage of having so much money that you can buy your way into the industry. But the problem is that Microsoft has no idea what to do next.
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They know exactly what they're doing. They're playing the software game. Right now they've turned their development studios into marketing divisions for game pass. They don't need to do anything special right now other than let their teams make games, put them on their subscription library and watch the money roll in.
Versus Sony, which not too long ago was rabidly against anyone having crossplay with their console and is individually publishing titles.
The thing is, for the most part it doesn't matter who's holding the strings so long as good games get made available for as many people as possible at a decent and not rising price point.
The whole $70-80 free rise is being done by companies that are struggling to keep their foothold with their current MTX-based models.
MS has been doing that for over 20 years, no news there. The reason for acquiring is to deny acquisition to others, and to ensure MS’s ecosystems have software, I imagine.
Has King even made anything other than Candy Crush? Seems like they're just a shitty mobile game company.
They are a company that makes shitty mobile games, but the revenue has look good if you view games as business.
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So, still stealing breast milk?
In this case I don't know if that's a good thing...
This is just world of war warcraft which is printing money on mtx
Out of the loop here, but my recollection was WOW printed money because they were a subscription service before it was cool. I can't say I'm surprised, but are they really doubling down with MTX?
I feel like the justification for subscriptions is "this way we can afford to keep adding new content." To turn around and go "oh, BTW, you have to pay separately for that new content you're subscribing for" just feels like an extra slap in the face. But I guess you do you WOW players. They'll keep pulling this kind of BS as long as folks keep paying for it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Remember, that's the third time you have to pay! The first rug pull is when you buy the game and then find out that the entire world is utterly devoid of players because everyone only plays the latest expansion. But you can't access it because you don't have a subscription. On top of a full price game.
Besides the switcheroo, I also think it's sad for WoW. Its world is massive and beautiful and utterly dead. Everyone is only in the latest zone. The game would be better named "Zone of Warcraft". I love how e.g. Elder Scrolls Online solved it. They made all zones viable. You will see players everywhere. It's a real contrast.
The sub is great for their bottom line. The current state of the game is selling carries for everything from pvp, ranked, raids, dungeons, even leveling. To fund these legal in game purchases blizz will sell you gold for money. They also introduced a cosmetic store with in game currency which you earn by keeping the sub active. Then finally they have their normal store of mounts and pets for cash.
Subscriptions are to keep the lights off, servers on and server maintenance and improvement. Then purchases of expansions covers the cost of development.
MTX in such a game is a bit weird, but it does give something for extra asset creation and animation. I suppose if they make something that doesn't end up being used they can repurpide it as a pet or mount.
It's the trading money for gold and the effects of the economy in wow that put me off.