Blizzard General News

**Athas** · 2022-02-04 15:39

It's going to be really annoying when Immortal is a commercial success.

**Lucavi** · 2022-02-04 17:31

I mean, I'd say that about every gacha game as well, but that's me being petty. Mobile games aren't for me, but I'm trying my best not to just be an old curmudgeon about Immortal simply because I have 0 interest in it. I'd be less salty, though, if they had better-quality releases of PC games so I wouldn't care if mobile got the occasional game or two, but Yacht-boy Bobby has fucked up just about every Blizzard IP on PC over the last few years, so yeah, let the salt flow.

**carlweathers** · 2022-02-04 18:32

I think Immortal is the worst thing to give a shit about. Like SE has like 40 mobile games, that doesn’t matter. There’s waaay more pressing concerns for Blizzard.

**arus2001** · 2022-02-04 23:30

Gacha games existing isn't the problem. It's trying to turn everything else into gacha, from both monetization and minimal/non-existent content, that is. Overall, we have no idea how much DI's production has corrupted D4's, but I figured we can bare minimum expect an exclusive cosmetics cash shop under the nebulous promise that those sales help the game.

**carlweathers** · 2022-02-05 03:07

Originally Posted by arus2001

Gacha games existing isn't the problem. It's trying to turn everything else into gacha, from both monetization and minimal/non-existent content, that is. Overall, we have no idea how much DI's production has corrupted D4's, but I figured we can bare minimum expect an exclusive cosmetics cash shop under the nebulous promise that those sales help the game.

Eh, if that does happen, I don’t think we would or should attribute it to Diablo Immortal. I would attribute it to its a completely different world. Like Diablo III’s business model was completely outdated when it came out. You have Path of Exile getting crazy amounts of patches and content updates meanwhile Blizzard didn’t really update their game because they were saving stuff to put on the back of the box for the expansion pack. Then we got cool patches for like a year…. Then the necromancer pack and then the game was done.

**Lucavi** · 2022-02-05 13:44

I agree with this. D3 was fucked up right out of the box. You could smell the Activision all over it, trying to grab maximum profits outside of box sales while offering no real value to the consumer. While I won't speak on any perceived "value" that gacha games provide to their consumers, there are a hell of a lot more people willing to engage with their systems than people were with that real-money AH in D3, especially when the concept completely gutted the nature of gear drops and completely changed the way the game played compared to D2.

**arus2001** · 2022-02-05 21:57

D3 had its problems, sure, but money wasn't one of them. The 30m sale number is old AF now with RoS sales on top of that. Blizzard just chose to willfully not reinvest, and thus patch cycles declined and nothing of any real merit came since Necro. I had no qualms arguing with folks that thought D3 was an unsalvageable mess, but a lot of it boiled down them just wanting D2 with prettier graphics.

I've generally been of the belief that hungry devs are more productive, and PoE being F2P plays into that. I'm not inclined to call it a better game given my own tastes and the leaning into aspects of D2 I personally didn't like. But I don't begrudge people for feeling GGG has been more productive because they're not sitting on Scrooge McDuck piles of money to swim in, or at least they weren't until Tencent stepped in. Going any deeper kinda has the futility of a FFXI vs. WoW debate.

**Boyiee** · 2022-02-05 22:31

I think everyone thought immortal is a joke and a meme generator but it's going to make billions.

**carlweathers** · 2022-02-06 02:57

My point wasnt that Blizzard didn’t have money to keep investing into the game, but their plan for the game wasn’t designed to be as a service.

They were using a model where outside the RMAH, they sell an expansion pack or two, have a few content patches in between and then they move onto the next project, like Blizzard’s projects in the 90s and aughts. It was never planned to be a service like an MMO where they release expansion packs forever.

**synistar** · 2022-11-16 22:05

https://twitter.com/Wowhead/status/1...G0LgYWtJA&s=19

https://investor.activision.com/news...-game-services

Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. announced today that it will be suspending most Blizzard game services in mainland China due to the expiration of the current licensing agreements with NetEase, Inc. on January 23, 2023. This includes World of Warcraft®, Hearthstone®, Warcraft® III: Reforged, Overwatch®, the StarCraft® series, Diablo III®, and Heroes of the Storm®. Diablo Immortal® co-development and publishing is covered under a separate agreement between the two companies.

**Athas** · 2022-11-16 22:38

Man, and they suspended that Hearthstone player and everything. What'd they need to do for ol' Pooh bear?

**Melena** · 2023-07-11 12:05

US Courts cleared the way for the Microsoft/Activision merger, leaving England as the only country pushing back now.

**Obsidian** · 2023-07-11 14:19

The judge telling the FTC that it's supposed to be advocating for consumers, not for Sony, was probably a big hint that the FTC was going to lose its shambolic case.

I thought Microsoft had already satisfied the UK regulator with some kind of cloud deal/promise?

**Melena** · 2023-07-11 17:39

Originally Posted by Obsidian

The judge telling the FTC that it's supposed to be advocating for consumers, not for Sony, was probably a big hint that the FTC was going to lose its shambolic case.

I thought Microsoft had already satisfied the UK regulator with some kind of cloud deal/promise?

Nothing official, but England seems really hesitant on it still.

Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk

**Roranora** · 2023-07-11 18:16

Call of Duty: Halo, Rise of the Warcraft

**Drai** · 2023-07-11 19:19

I’m legit suprised we haven’t seen a Call of Duty: Azaroth or something similar yet.

**Prothescar** · 2023-09-26 17:48

For all 0.02% of people who care, Chris Metzen has been handed back the reins for WoW

**carlweathers** · 2023-09-26 18:23

I'm apathetic. I think it's probably good PR because he is incredibly charismatic, so him dropping the next big Warcraft thing will excite people. I think his writing/ideas have sucked since 2004 so I'm not expecting the franchise will become exciting just because he's back on board.

**Athas** · 2023-09-26 19:00

I was under the impression that the last WoW expansion was received more positively then others lately. There's still enough discontent for an executive shake up?

**Lucavi** · 2023-09-26 20:36

Its not like the storylines were great with him there anyway. Excellent decision to have the alliance and horde engage in a fucking airship death-match literally 300 feet outside of the Lich King - a FUCKING LICH -'s throne room. Also great how the two sides have 0 fucking communication (despite being able to speak the same language) when performing a joint assault on the Legion.

He must have gotten sick of "spending time with the family".