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Blizzard Proudly Announces 30 Million Players - Overwatch - MMORPG.com

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  • holdenhamletholdenhamlet Member EpicPosts: 3,772
    edited April 2017


    Nyctelios said:








    Stopped by today because I saw this on reddit and knew there was going to be some salty comments here.  Was not disappointed.

    Currently have over 500 hours played in the game and it just gets better.  Combining fps and moba-like character abilities and teamplay was a stroke of genius.  The nice thing about it being a skill-based game is it doesn't get boring, as opposed to gear-based games like MMORPGs.  You keep getting better as you play and practice and so do your opponents.

    You can argue about the numbers but it's certainly unprecedented for this type of game in less than a year, so consider the crazy possibility that the game might actually be good.






    How is the playerbase? Is a bit more friendly than other multiplayer games? I'm really curious because I want to buy it.




    Well, it's a pvp game, so some people will rage, troll or try to blame others for losing.  That goes with the territory.  But I got a headset recently and joined in on comms in ranked and mostly people are pretty cool.  It's lots of fun coordinating with them or calling out things during a game, which is something I hadn't experienced yet in an online game.  

    I'd say overall people are a bit cooler, if for no other reason than there's constantly stuff happening, so there's little time to troll or start flame wars with people.
  • Soki123Soki123 Member RarePosts: 2,558




    IceAge said:





    DMKano said:







    cheyane said:




    Blizzard and their Midas $100million+ marketing touch.









    Fixed that for ya ;)

    (oh relax, I am only sort of kidding.... seriously if Overwatch was an indie game from a small dev with no marketing budget - it would have a tiny fraction of playerbase in comparison)









    Warcraft 1 . Came from an ..somehow indie (unknown) company. Yet .. was a massive success. So what's your point ?





    If Overwatch was an indie game from a small dev , but with the same quality as it's now , I am VERY sure it would have been a massive success because "word of mouth" .





    But oh wait .. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayerUnknown's_Battlegrounds





    PLAYERUNKNOWN .. it came out from an indie company, yet is a massive success .





    "Battlegrounds made US$11 million in the first three days of its early access release."





    So again. What's your point ? Good games sells good , with or without big marketing.




    Good games do not always sell well.



    that is one of the dumbest things I ve heard. Good games "to the majority" will sell well. Good games to you doesn t make it good.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 12,263
    edited April 2017
    The user and all related content has been deleted.

    거북이는 목을 내밀 때 안 움직입니다












  • bcbullybcbully Member EpicPosts: 11,838

    Wizardry said:

    Blizzard's marketing team is EASILY summed up in one sentence...
    Tell them about our numbers,tell them they should play because millions of others are playing.
    It is very weak marketing to take this approach,like you could hire a kid out of college to perform the marketing lead role for Blizzard and likely do a better job.

    There is ONLY ONE thing that matters to me and it is not weather Joe Blow is playing,i only care about the  game itself,what it offers,how much EFFORT went into it and the quality of the result.

    You could tell me Obama,Wayne Gretzky,Trump,Lebron James are all playing and it would not do a single thing for me.I only care about the game,NOT the numbers.

    As to the question above poster asked...I have no idea if they said that because this has ALWAYS been their tactic,so i highly doubt they said anything of the sort.




    Man your post are getting stranger and stranger.
    "We see fundamentals and we ape in"
  • SBFordSBFord Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
    All I can say is that you kids better not make me stop this car and turn around or I can guar-ahn-tee that someone's gonna be cryin'. >:(


    Let's all remember "different strokes, different folks" and all that.


    ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 


  • MadFrenchieMadFrenchie Member LegendaryPosts: 8,505





    Soki123 said:
















    IceAge said:











    DMKano said:













    cheyane said:







    Blizzard and their Midas $100million+ marketing touch.















    Fixed that for ya ;)

    (oh relax, I am only sort of kidding.... seriously if Overwatch was an indie game from a small dev with no marketing budget - it would have a tiny fraction of playerbase in comparison)


















    Warcraft 1 . Came from an ..somehow indie (unknown) company. Yet .. was a massive success. So what's your point ?











    If Overwatch was an indie game from a small dev , but with the same quality as it's now , I am VERY sure it would have been a massive success because "word of mouth" .











    But oh wait .. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayerUnknown's_Battlegrounds











    PLAYERUNKNOWN .. it came out from an indie company, yet is a massive success .











    "Battlegrounds made US$11 million in the first three days of its early access release."











    So again. What's your point ? Good games sells good , with or without big marketing.










    Good games do not always sell well.












    that is one of the dumbest things I ve heard. Good games "to the majority" will sell well. Good games to you doesn t make it good.






    "To the majority" huh lol ;) 
    So you never heard of a good game not selling well? If not you have not been around gaming very long.


    Some folks truly believe companies knowingly throw their money down the drain via marketing, I guess?

    Seems strange they would choose to ignore such telling evidence.

    image
  • RusqueRusque Member RarePosts: 2,785

    DMKano said:



    Horusra said:
    I would say that is a lie.  Hype does not equal good, but popular does.  One does not stay popular after launch if not good.





    Bieber was popular for years - so how do you explain that? 

    https://betterexplained.com/articles/logical-fallacy-popularity-is-not-quality/




    The Bieber/McDonald's argument is always twisted because the person using it is either feigning ignorance of reality or they genuinely don't understand what's actually being sold.

    Popstars like Bieber are not vehicles for selling good music. That's not their purpose. "Artists" like Bieber are meant to make boatloads of money by getting tweenage girls to have crushes on them. And they are exceptionally good at doing so (or at least the machine behind the "artist" is good at it). 

    So Bieber was not popular because of his amazing music. He was popular because little girls wanted to put his picture on their binder and posters of him on their wall. He (and the entire team behind him) was very good at this, and very popular for being good at it.

    What someone is selling is not always what they're selling. McDonald's isn't trying to sell you "good food", they're selling consistency, value, and convenience. And they're good at that. 

  • HorusraHorusra Member EpicPosts: 4,411

    DMKano said:



    Horusra said:
    I would say that is a lie.  Hype does not equal good, but popular does.  One does not stay popular after launch if not good.





    Bieber was popular for years - so how do you explain that? 

    https://betterexplained.com/articles/logical-fallacy-popularity-is-not-quality/




    Just cause you do not like it does not make it "good" to enough people to make it popular.  You assume that if it is popular you will like it, but that is not true.  You might be in the minority of active consumers that decide what is "good" in a market.  
  • genaknoscgenaknosc Member UncommonPosts: 112

    Wizardry said:

    Blizzard's marketing team is EASILY summed up in one sentence...
    Tell them about our numbers,tell them they should play because millions of others are playing.
    It is very weak marketing to take this approach,like you could hire a kid out of college to perform the marketing lead role for Blizzard and likely do a better job.

    There is ONLY ONE thing that matters to me and it is not weather Joe Blow is playing,i only care about the  game itself,what it offers,how much EFFORT went into it and the quality of the result.

    You could tell me Obama,Wayne Gretzky,Trump,Lebron James are all playing and it would not do a single thing for me.I only care about the game,NOT the numbers.

    As to the question above poster asked...I have no idea if they said that because this has ALWAYS been their tactic,so i highly doubt they said anything of the sort.



    Cool story bro, except you are full of shit. Social Proof (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_proof) is one of the most powerful impactors on human decision making.
  • IceAgeIceAge Member EpicPosts: 3,115
    And there is Kano , with his .. "Bieber" exemple , which makes me laugh. And there is BlueTrutle , with her .. awesome comments.

    You 2 must understand something. Your beloved games are avarege and that is why they suck and are closing or .. have a bad playerbase. Stop hating ! Overwatch .. is a MASSIVE success. Blizzard started poor. They were indie. WHAT do you want them to do ?! Close in , then start as indie again ? Just to make you feel better? If Blizzard started today as an indie company , they would still be having success. There is this guy , Michael Morhaime , which is one of the guys who founded Blizzard and is still in charge of everything after SO many years. At least THAT should makes you think twice , if they are good because of their team(s), or just .. your so called marketing. 

    Mike , from my point of view, is a living legend and is one of the best presidents out there. Every Blizzard game you are playing, is because of this guy. He's greenlighting everything. If you are questioning this guy ( aka all Blizz games ) then you are just a hater and there is no common sense on you!

    Reporter: What's behind Blizzard success, and how do you make your gamers happy?
    Blizzard Boss: Making gamers happy is not my concern, making money.. yes!

  • rodingorodingo Member RarePosts: 2,870

    rertez said:



    josko9 said:





    Forgrimm said:











    Didn't Blizzard say a year ago they would not play the numbers game anymore? Maybe I'm wrong.






    They said they won't announce subscriber numbers for WoW anymore. But since Overwatch is a B2P game with no sub, 30 million players = 30 million boxes sold.






    Nope, Blizzard has never sold 30mil copies of Overwatch. When they were at 25mil, the reported revenue at around 500mil.







    I mean do the math and you'll notice that it just doesn't add up. That's because Chinese players get to play Overwatch for free, and they ARE in the majority.







    Overwatch didn't sell 15mil of copies in total. And Blizzard can probably expect about 100mil of yearly revenue from now on. Not as big as some people think it is.




    There have been free weekends and even free beta trials too on all platforms. Yeah it's clearly not 30 million copies sold but the sum of people who ever logged into the game.

    Some even forget that games in general struggle to retain the vast majority of their players and no game is an exception. Not even the most popular ones are.



    Yeh, I was one of those free weekend tourists. It was an OK game, but I can find equal or superior gameplay in other games that are free. Either way I guess I'm one of those 30 million players who "charged" into OW.

    "If I offended you, you needed it" -Corey Taylor

  • DivionDivion Member UncommonPosts: 411
    edited April 2017


    Forgrimm said:





    Phixion13 said:



    I feel like this number isn't correct. Is it number of players actually playing or just copies sold?? I bought a copy and it was great for a month but quickly lost it's hype charm for me; so am I in that number?






    It's a B2P game with no sub, so number of players listed will be boxes sold. The actual quote from the tweet is "More than 30 million players have charged into Overwatch!"






    Doubtful - Years ago i did some research into Blizzard's number claims. I learned that Blizzard uses spaghetti statistics to inflate their numbers for marketing.



    For example WoW, at its peak in October 2010 the game had 12 million subscribers.



    After dissecting this, you would come to learn that approx 2.5 million where ACTUAL subscribers, that had re-occurring subscriptions. The other 9-10 million were Chinese players.



    So?



    Allow me to explain, in China you can't own your own computer, or internet connection - Thus majority if not all of these were subscriptions at public internet centers/cafes -



    So?



    Due to this dynamic Chinese players do not pay for months like traditional western players, they pay per time played. - So they would pay for 1 hour or 50 - 1 minute, or 200 minutes, etc.



    So?



    Turns out Blizzard would count anyone who logged in as a subscriber even if they only paid for a couple of minutes, and only logged in one time.



    So - As it turns out, it was highly speculative that 80% of their Chinese player based was transit, and not playing in perpetuity.



    So?



    To me this ties into Overwatch, as Overwatch has a massive presence in China, it's strongly suggestive that the box sales do not apply. -- As a System Engineer, i've worked with license compliance for software fairly consistently - In retail residential sales, you license per copy as a per user (thus account) licensing. -- In enterprise usage, thus commerical internet centers, and cafes you would purchase a hot seat based (similar to MAK, or KMS) license. In other words - I have 100 computers in my internet center. I pay for 100 licenses at a rate far lower than 100 copies of over watch would cost me if i purchased each as a retail user. Often at 50-80% discount. From there we can further divide that number down on how seat licensing works.



    The computer (thus 'seat') is licensed, no matter how many people sit down and play in that seat, it's still a single license, thus a single stream of reduced revenue - however if 100 people on average touch my computers (even for 5-10 minute play sessions) through out a business day, i have 100 computers, suddenly i have 10,000 Overwatch players. Even though truthfully i have less 50-80 license revenue value operating.



    This is just the bullshit shenanigans that Blizzard has been employing since their Activision/Vivendi buyout - However, there is a reason why Blizzard isn't the most profitable property in Vivendi's portfolio. It's good at convincing people it does better than it actually does, and that is about all it does well.

    EDIT : Again, disclaimer - This is based off some old research i did, and analyzing their business practices. I admit the information is dated, thus it's possible Blizzard cleaned up their act. However, judging from their stagnate product line, and lack of innovation in anything i find it doubtful that i'm too far off base.

    image

  • HeretiqueHeretique Member RarePosts: 1,534
    Problem is, now every other company wants to make a "hero" shooter. Thanks a lot Blizzard.
  • DivionDivion Member UncommonPosts: 411

    Heretique said:

    Problem is, now every other company wants to make a "hero" shooter. Thanks a lot Blizzard.


    It's amazing isn't it? So few leaders in this industry, lets just replicate Blizzard's success on whatever product they have...

    Yet Overwatch isn't even a good game. It's a good short term experience - However it is really just a shell empty inside. - There is nothing to aim for - No accessible ladder that makes casual player open, no PvE concepts, no story - and you can play the game to burn out in under a month (in my case far less 2 weeks) - It feels like exactly what it is, the corpse of Project Titan reanimated for a hasty performance before it falls apart. 

    image

  • RaquisRaquis Member RarePosts: 1,029
    blizzard is a cancer in gaming that will ever go away!
  • KyleranKyleran Member LegendaryPosts: 43,373

    IceAge said:

    And there is Kano , with his .. "Bieber" exemple , which makes me laugh. And there is BlueTrutle , with her .. awesome comments.

    You 2 must understand something. Your beloved games are avarege and that is why they suck and are closing or .. have a bad playerbase. Stop hating ! Overwatch .. is a MASSIVE success. Blizzard started poor. They were indie. WHAT do you want them to do ?! Close in , then start as indie again ? Just to make you feel better? If Blizzard started today as an indie company , they would still be having success. There is this guy , Michael Morhaime , which is one of the guys who founded Blizzard and is still in charge of everything after SO many years. At least THAT should makes you think twice , if they are good because of their team(s), or just .. your so called marketing. 

    Mike , from my point of view, is a living legend and is one of the best presidents out there. Every Blizzard game you are playing, is because of this guy. He's greenlighting everything. If you are questioning this guy ( aka all Blizz games ) then you are just a hater and there is no common sense on you!


    Thanks for identifying Mike, been looking for who to blame since 2006.

    Yeah....I'm no fan of Blizz games, designed too much to cater to the plebes. ;)

    "True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde 

    "I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant

    Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm

    Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV

    Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™

    "This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon






  • alivenaliven Member UncommonPosts: 346





    Nyctelios said:











    Stopped by today because I saw this on reddit and knew there was going to be some salty comments here.  Was not disappointed.

    Currently have over 500 hours played in the game and it just gets better.  Combining fps and moba-like character abilities and teamplay was a stroke of genius.  The nice thing about it being a skill-based game is it doesn't get boring, as opposed to gear-based games like MMORPGs.  You keep getting better as you play and practice and so do your opponents.

    You can argue about the numbers but it's certainly unprecedented for this type of game in less than a year, so consider the crazy possibility that the game might actually be good.








    How is the playerbase? Is a bit more friendly than other multiplayer games? I'm really curious because I want to buy it.






    Well, it's a pvp game, so some people will rage, troll or try to blame others for losing.  That goes with the territory.  But I got a headset recently and joined in on comms in ranked and mostly people are pretty cool.  It's lots of fun coordinating with them or calling out things during a game, which is something I hadn't experienced yet in an online game.  

    I'd say overall people are a bit cooler, if for no other reason than there's constantly stuff happening, so there's little time to troll or start flame wars with people.


    One random, non ranked game, quick match in fact.

    Suddenly a female voice in my ear: "Ana, heal me. Ana. ANA! Fuck... Ana wtf?!" 

    It was so chill, so polite and so awesome :pleased:
  • alivenaliven Member UncommonPosts: 346

    Heretique said:

    Problem is, now every other company wants to make a "hero" shooter. Thanks a lot Blizzard.


    Blame idiots who try to replicate Blizz. They always fail and are so adorable. Like those Wow killers :D
  • firefly2003firefly2003 Member UncommonPosts: 2,527
    Doesn't account for those players tastes :pleased:

  • TalulaRoseTalulaRose Member RarePosts: 1,247






    WoW haters and their jelly....just admit it already....people like Blizzards games.
    Move on and enjoy what you like.




    Man people don't know what they like. People end up doing heroin because other people do it, and what your saying is just admit it people like heroin. I understand his point, which is that people are a bunch of idiots, and do what the next person does, just based on that. I do not know of very many examples of some one doing what they like, based only on what they like. 




    Never once mentioned herion and never mentioned people doing things they don't like.
    Did say WoW hater......ding ding ding....we have a winner.
  • CelciusCelcius Member RarePosts: 1,865
    Amazing game, amazing numbers. It is actually already surpassing CS Go in raw numbers if you go by SteamSpy. That is really impressive considering Overwatch is usually 40-60+$ and CS Go is only 15$ now and was only as high as 30$ IIRC. Looks like Overwatch passed it at this point. I would not be too surprised if they passed the concurrent numbers as well since CS Go came out so long ago compared to Overwatch.
  • jgDuffayjgDuffay Member UncommonPosts: 237
    Game is good, people play it. both for serious comp play and for fun quick play's. game is growing and blizzard is probably proud to have sold 30mill copies, good for them. and their marketing does much more that just talk about how many people are playing the game. and what company would not take advantage of having sold 30mill for marketing reasons ?
  • dotdotdashdotdotdash Member UncommonPosts: 485

    Wizardry said:

    If i was Bobby Kotick i would be like WTF,we pay this marketing team big money and this is all they got?
    So my assumption like everything in life is that as long as the money keeps rolling nobody questions anything.
    That of course would mean VERY poor management,especially if things all of a sudden went south for Blizzard.However myself and likely everyone else can clearly see that Blizzard is in no current state to worry about possibly going downhill,they can still sell sand to a desert camel.



    Saying "30 million gamers are playing our game, so you should play our game too" is a tried and tested marketing strategy. It is a low cost, high impact, high return marketing strategy. And guess what? IT WORKS! Which is why every game company with a best selling or otherwise popular title uses it. League of Legends? "Millions of people play our game, so you should too". World of Warcraft? "Millions of people play our game, so you should too." Destiny? "Millions of players play our game, so you should too!" Call of Duty? Diablo 3? Battlefield? Mass Effect? The list goes on and on and on. Even games with far fewer players than "millions" will leverage the crowd appeal of player numbers. Take a look at... well... basically every popular or semi-popular game on the market, and you will see a marketing strategy that at one point or another leverages sales, concurrent users, number of accounts, or some other easy-to-digest metric to leverage or falsely communicate relative popularity to consumers in order to push them towards the product or service.

    Any marketer worth their salt is going to propose a popularity driven campaign based on easy-to-sell metrics, because it's cheap, it's easy, and... it works. That isn't to say it's the only element of the Blizzard marketing machine though, is it? Because it isn't.
  • dotdotdashdotdotdash Member UncommonPosts: 485
    edited April 2017


    Then you did the worse thing imaginable, and started to feel good about it being socially acceptable, and now we got what we got, a bunch of games made for the lowest of the low, just to make sure no one gets left behind hahaha. 




    But that's not what we have though, is it? We have a diverse gaming industry, with games that appeal to pretty much every demographic a person could possibly belong to, ranging from the simple yet addictive mobile games made for the simple and easily addicted, to the tediously complex strategy games made for lonely and disenfranchised arm-chair Hitlers. You've got Call of Duty, but then you've got Arma. You've got SimCity, but then you've got Cities: Skylines. You've got Civ, but then you've got Europa Universalis. You've got Diablo, but then you've got Path of Exile. You've got Elite Dangerous, but then you've got Eve Online. You've got Skyrim, but then you've got Dark Souls.


    The most complicated and difficult games that have ever been made are being released today, and are reaching huge audiences BECAUSE of the success and social acceptability of gaming in today's world.


    You can be bitter all you like, but you're bitterness is viewed through rose-tinted glasses that warp the past and present into a work of pure, unadulterated fiction.
  • TintagilTintagil Member UncommonPosts: 214
    Well I'm glad for OW's success. The game may not be for everyone, but it is certainly for me. I'm a huge fan, and can't wait for the OW League, and whatever new content they have in store.
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