Have we Witnessed the Death of Blizzard?

Izkimar

Is the Blizzard of old dead? I certainly believe so, and I feel that they have been dead/dying for a long time now. Imo, it was a slow rot that could be noticed starting to take place a decade or so ago. Since the acquisition of Blizzard by Activision in 2008, we have seen a steady shift in company philosophy. This shift also made it's way into their development principles, and the intended goals of gameplay mechanics. 

I made a video covering the topic in depth: 

What do you think? 

Albatroes

Hasnt Blizzard been "dying" for a decade now?

Asch126

The Blizzard of old has been dead for years now.

Izkimar

Albatroes said:

Hasnt Blizzard been "dying" for a decade now?

I specifically said I wasn't stating that in a financial sense. 

Quizzical

Betteridge's Law of Headlines says "no".

Izkimar

Quizzical said:

Betteridge's Law of Headlines says "no".

Are we human?

Quizzical

Izkimar said:

Quizzical said:

Betteridge's Law of Headlines says "no".

Are we human?

That's not a headline, and so Betteridge's Law of Headlines does not apply.

tawess

The counter question will be...

Is there any scenario where it would not be "dead".

The gaming sphere has changed... A LOT since the Blizzard of old... Change that has forced many companies to either conform or scale down. 

There is really no way to avoid it. Blizzard has always been a company that thrived on change and adaptation. 

So.. do tell... Why a company who made their entire MO to adapt and improve... Should stay conservative and monolithic just to appease a subset of CUSTOMERS...? 

So yeah.. Blizzard of old is dead.. but so is everything else of old... So.. why is water wet? 

Theocritus

In what capacity?

Wow- has slowed down after many expansions but still at the top of MMOs

Hearthstone- one of the top CCGs

Diablo franchise still going strong

Overwatch-one of hte top in its genre

Izkimar

Quizzical said:

That's not a headline, and so Betteridge's Law of Headlines does not apply.

It could have been the headline. 

Izkimar

Theocritus said:

In what capacity?

Wow- has slowed down after many expansions but still at the top of MMOs

Hearthstone- one of the top CCGs

Diablo franchise still going strong

Overwatch-one of hte top in its genre

In terms of actually making high quality games that offer compelling gameplay experiences. 

Quizzical

Izkimar said:

Quizzical said:

That's not a headline, and so Betteridge's Law of Headlines does not apply.

It could have been the headline. 

If you had a strong argument that we had witnessed the death of Blizzard, your thread title would not have ended in a question mark.

d_20

In spirit yes, but the body remains. 

We will see about next year's Blizzcon. Should be interesting.

rojoArcueid

Craptivision is performing hardcore necrophilia on Blizzard.

RIP.

BitterClinger

Yeah, like I stated in my video on the subject, the Blizzard created by PC gamers is dead. Blizzard Entertainment is Activision and Activision is a wannabe Electronic Arts. I own every PC game created by Blizzard Entertainment. I've purchased three EA games in the last 20 years and ZERO games from Activision. I have a feeling my Blizzard purchases will follow suit in the future.

Quizzical

I think that the most recent Activision game I've bought was River Raid.  Nothing against them, really; they just haven't made anything that I thought looked interesting since then.

BitterClinger

Quizzical said:

I think that the most recent Activision game I've bought was River Raid.  Nothing against them, really; they just haven't made anything that I thought looked interesting since then.

LOL! Okay, I should clarify, I did buy several Activision games on the Atari 2600.

Asch126

Theocritus said:

In what capacity?

Wow- has slowed down after many expansions but still at the top of MMOs

Hearthstone- one of the top CCGs

Diablo franchise still going strong

Overwatch-one of hte top in its genre

WoW's only at the top because no one makes MMOs anymore, not because it's still amazing.
Hearthstone is one of the top CCGs for the same reason, there's barely anything else.
Diablo franchise going strong......were you stuck in a bunker these past few months?
Overwatch? Ah yes, that game that has been bleeding so many players that Blizzard felt the need to give it constant discounts, free weekends, free weeks and even throw it in the Humble Bundle in a desperate attempt to get more players. Need i also mention the fact a LOT of the top streamers have been leaving? Going super strong indeed my friend.

Really, have you been under a rock lately or are you simply one of the drones that thinks Blizzard can do no wrong? Humor me and say the former because the fact you legit think Diablo is still going strong after the gigantic controversy with Diablo Immortals points at the latter.

Izkimar

Quizzical

If you had a strong argument that we had witnessed the death of Blizzard, your thread title would not have ended in a question mark.

That point is absolutely idiotic. It ends in a question mark because it's posed as a question to spark discussion. I actually make a 34 minute argument as to why I think old Blizzard is dead, but whatever. 

gervaise1

If the OP's "Blizzard of old" question related to the company that created Diablo, Warcraft, Wow then ….. dead? …… no changed? … certainly. 

If the OP's "Blizzard of old" question was about how Blizzard operated under Vivendi - which suggested some level of autonomy from Activision and comments like "it will release when its finished" then dead? …….. yes.


Blizzard today is a part of Activision Blizzard. Name on the door, very much involved in setting policy, profit margins and release dates. This (modern) Blizzard does what it is told, probably to a fixed budget and releases game when told - ready or not. 

tawess

Asch126 said:

Theocritus said:

In what capacity?

Wow- has slowed down after many expansions but still at the top of MMOs

Hearthstone- one of the top CCGs

Diablo franchise still going strong

Overwatch-one of hte top in its genre

1: WoW's only at the top because no one makes MMOs anymore, not because it's still amazing.
2: Hearthstone is one of the top CCGs for the same reason, there's barely anything else.
3: Diablo franchise going strong......were you stuck in a bunker these past few months?
4: Overwatch? Ah yes, that game that has been bleeding so many players that Blizzard felt the need to give it constant discounts, free weekends, free weeks and even throw it in the Humble Bundle in a desperate attempt to get more players. Need i also mention the fact a LOT of the top streamers have been leaving? Going super strong indeed my friend.

1: No one makes MMO´s any longer... Maybe.. But there are still plenty who could take the throne that have yet to do so. =P

2: There is a metric ton of card games out there with Gwent being one of the strongest. Not to mention that Pokemon ha shad  a online app for a very long time. 

3: True.. People are hissy.. But if it did not have such a strong community, nobody would have cared. And like it or not most of that strong community will pick up D4. 

4: Bleeding players.. Probably.. But it also have the worlds most established e-league. So i think they will be doing fine on that front. Also even if the are bleeding players time to get in to a game during prime time is still counted in seconds, mostly sub minute even at off-peak. 

So i´d say theo´s claims stand... Unless you have actual proof that is. 

Izkimar

Asch126 said:

Theocritus said:

In what capacity?

Wow- has slowed down after many expansions but still at the top of MMOs

Hearthstone- one of the top CCGs

Diablo franchise still going strong

Overwatch-one of hte top in its genre

WoW's only at the top because no one makes MMOs anymore, not because it's still amazing.
Hearthstone is one of the top CCGs for the same reason, there's barely anything else.
Diablo franchise going strong......were you stuck in a bunker these past few months?
Overwatch? Ah yes, that game that has been bleeding so many players that Blizzard felt the need to give it constant discounts, free weekends, free weeks and even throw it in the Humble Bundle in a desperate attempt to get more players. Need i also mention the fact a LOT of the top streamers have been leaving? Going super strong indeed my friend.

Really, have you been under a rock lately or are you simply one of the drones that thinks Blizzard can do no wrong? Humor me and say the former because the fact you legit think Diablo is still going strong after the gigantic controversy with Diablo Immortals points at the latter.

I'm not sure about Overwatch as I don't follow it really, but everything else you said is pretty spot on. What has Blizzard made in recent years?

• A severely disappointing D3, large departure from it's predecessors. 
• Hearthstone "A me too game"
• HoTS although I play it casually from time to time, "another me too game"
• Overwatch, which was definitely successful. However, I feel it is still kind of blemished by the fact that it is the pivot of the ashes of Project Titan. 
• Handful of mediocre WoW expansions, with Legion arguably being the best of them. 
• Am I missing something?

Looks like a long list of mediocrity, especially if you're judging by Blizzard standards. 

Hariken

They have been dead to me for a long time. Just like EA and now even Bethesda. All done with AAA game companies getting money from me.

TheScavenger

First it was EA

And EA was like "NO ONE IS WORSE THAN ME! I AM THE GREATEST EVIL OF THE LAND"

And EA ruled with an ironfist, buying out and shutting down many companies with their evil acts

After years of turmoil...

Blizzard was like "HELLLLLL NO! I AM THE GREATEST EVIL! DONT YOU HAVE A PHONE?"

EA went "YOU THINK YOU WANT THAT BUT YOU DONT"...but wait that was blizzard pretending to be EA

And then bethesda came from out of the blue and went

"GUYS SORRY TO DISAPPOINT BUT I'M THE GREATEST EVIL!"

EA and Blizzard laughed at the tiny scrawny bethesda compared to them

bethesda released fallout 76

ea and blizzard went "YOU ARE THE KING OF US ALL!"

And that is how the companies vied to be the #1 most evil company.

But then obsidian came and slaughtered the evil bethesda, with cheers across the land. Leaving but EA as king of evil.

tawess

@Izkimar I respect that you feel that Blizzard is not for YOU any more. But that is not the same as it being "dead" or producing mediocrity. 

Both HS and HotS very much follow Blizzards core idea of making fun and easy to access games based on popular genres. That has not changed as far as i am concerned. Overwatch, apart from lacking a solid story mode is actually pretty brilliant. 

Grunty

What i think is that you're advertising your Youtube channel.