Game News Blizzard Scraps Planned Diablo 3 PvP Mode

All that is needed for Blizzard's demise is a wow killer. It's the only game that keeps Blizzard alive now, given how much they failed with D3 and, to a lesser extent, with SC2.

When the WoW killer arrives, Blizzard will immediately try to react, placing all their chips on something new, which they no longer have the talent to pull off. The rabid fanbase might keep them going for a while longer after that, but it will only delay the inevitable.

 

Blizzard? Don't they have hundreds of millions of dollars of pure profit every year from WoW? Didn't Diablo sell 9 million boxed copies? The orginal Starcraft is still seliing (just bought it for $10).

If they aren't making money, then something is seriously wrong.

 

They are making TONS of money. These people are just deluded. That they are making lots of money, is also the main beef people have with this company, though I'm sure that very few will admit that.

 

Inside source says they're leaking money like a sieve. They've already fired a third of their staff, though none of that is public yet. Next month they'll be selling off their furniture and closing down a few offices.

 

There is nothing wrong with criticising business practices, in or outside of gaming.

Publicly traded business outlooks and gaming don't get along, and you shouldn't try and marry the two.

I bet you could employ as many people at Blizzard (with good wages) with them making 1% of the money they make now if they had a different culture there.

 

Agreed. And if you think that I think that Blizzard is a paragon of morality, I have conveyed the wrong image of myself, I think exactly the opposite: I think they are just as greedy as the rest of the corporate world. I do wonder what that has to do with the case in question though.

 

I heard that WoW was operating with 50% of the money from subs going to costs, and the rest pure profit.

Though I don't know if those costs were just the costs of running the game as is, or if they included R&D, development for expansions etc...

 

Pretty much just bandwidth and hardware costs.

 

If it was one of the features promised before the game was released, then its not really a free feature - its part of the game that people paid for.

 

gaudaost speaks the truth, all anecdotal evidence suggests people eat shit and love it (particularly if well advertised).

 

How is D3 a flop?

Edit: Seriously dude, in a few years you're gonna be the next Volourn if you keep it up.

 

"How is D3 a flop?"

Doesn't matter if it sold over 10m units. Nobody cares about it anymore, less than a year after release. The game is dead nothing is going to change that.

"Edit: Seriously dude, in a few years you're gonna be the next Volourn if you keep it up."

Bullshit. You know nothing about me or volly or anyone else in ehre. You're nothing but a retarded sheep trying to score some kkks with edgy one liners. r00fles!

 

I can't brofist here, but fucking hell

I agree though, they're cutting open their IP like the goose that lays golden eggs.

Seriously, didn't publishing execs read those fables as kids?

 

Granted. You are correct.

 

I think it's obvious that Diablo 3 made a shit load of money, mostly because Blizzard spent next to nothing making it. Their last 4 years of development was nothing but smoke and mirrors. Hell, if we took their word for it, everything they'd worked on before 2006(Blizzard North) and since 2010(runes, pvp) has been scrapped. I'm not buying it anymore. I'm sure that cinematics, advertisement, and server maintenance was costly, but it would have been cool if any of that went into an actual game. How the fuck does a company spend 11 years making a 15 hour game of mediocre production value and a slim feature list? WTF?

 

After developing WoW, they were more valuable as WoW support team than as a developer apparently.

Anyway, with regards to WoW, are people forgetting about boxed copies in their assessments of its profitability? That game made back its development costs in the box copies sold before the game even went online, or so I've heard.

 

People don't criticize Blizzard because they are greedy, they criticize them because they make shitty games.

 

Well, that's like criticising Einstein for making shitty physics contributions.

 

I gotta ask, what's the proof on this? Their big games make huge bucks.

 

First, how many of that "10 million" was actually given away with WoW subscriptions? Considering their insipid fanbase, I'd put 30% as a minimum, so hardly the epic blockbuster people like to claim.

Second, have you all forgotten that Activision was actively shopping Blizzard around for sale this year? Not only is Blizzard so shitty that their parent company sees dumping them as a good thing, they're so shitty that no one else even makes an offer.

 

I'm sure Blizzard is doing fine right now, but their WoW subs decrease every year and splitting SC2 into 3 games followed with the debacling of the D3 launch and general lack playability I hear about has done a number on their goodwill.

None of this says "omg blizzard gonna die", but it does mean it's shrinking business right now which would explain Activision wanting to sell them. All they need is one solid game and all their fans will shit and piss themselves trying to get a copy of it, and they'll be fine.

 

Blizzard is doing good because WoW is the Facebook of MMOs. 10 million subscribers * $15 a month * 12 months = 1.8 billion dollars a year. That's a fuckton of money and almost entirely pure profit for doing nothing (never mind the expansions, which could be free as long as they keep people playing). But despite all of this, it's game resting entirely on inertia and any downward spiral will have the same inertia. A few years from now it could easily be the next Myspace.

Everything else has had a lukewarm (SC2) to completely hostile (D3) reception. Blizzard needs to put out good games again or they will be in danger of Activision EAting them. They need another hit, if not something with the year by year popularity of CoD #1-25 then at least a universally well received game and enduring game like D2 or SC.

 

Subscriptions don't work like that in China. They have pay per hour system. I don't know the exact prices, but I believe it overall costs less than the $15 a month subscription.