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Activision Blizzard History
Vilidin
Member Posts: 8
Was just on mmo champ and seen this link to a article looking over history of Activision / Activision Blizzard.
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=128252
Nice to see how they run things over there 
Comments
Hmmm...interesting read. I had no idea.
My favorite response to the post:
"Over 500 employees fired due to 'modest' Starcraft 2 sales"
"Blizzard files lawsuit against own parent company"
"ATVI drops 70% to an all time low"
"Kotick found dead in his own home"
ahh.. the perfect world.
"Over 500 employees fired due to 'modest' Starcraft 2 sales"
"Blizzard files lawsuit against own parent company"
"ATVI drops 70% to an all time low"
"Kotick found dead in his own home"
ahh.. the perfect world.
"Over 500 employees fired due to 'modest' Starcraft 2 sales"
"Blizzard files lawsuit against own parent company"
"ATVI drops 70% to an all time low"
"Kotick found dead in his own home"
ahh.. the perfect world.
"Over 500 employees fired due to 'modest' Starcraft 2 sales"
"Blizzard files lawsuit against own parent company"
"ATVI drops 70% to an all time low"
"Kotick found dead in his own home"
ahh.. the perfect world."Over 500 employees fired due to 'modest' Starcraft 2 sales"
"Blizzard files lawsuit against own parent company"
"ATVI drops 70% to an all time low"
"Kotick found dead in his own home"
ahh.. the perfect world.
Still shocks me that people cannot grasp that Blizzard is a seperate company from Activision and just share a holding name for stock holder/investment reasons.
Bobby.K does not run Blizzard or make decisions for them, cus Activision (a seperate company from blizzard) does or says something it does not mean... bah I feel I am wasteing my time.
And it still shocks that most people dont grasp just how GREEDY blizzard is.
'In the meantime Blizzard introduces more and more pay-for features to World of Warcraft, like the Name Change for 10$, Character Re-Customization for 15$, the Character Transfer for 25$, Faction Change for 30$, Blizzard Mobile is getting made for stupid phone sounds and pictures: http://mobile.blizzard.com/ , a mount for 25$, several pets, additional protection with the Blizzard Authenticator, so youll be safer against hackers for 6.50$ instead of for free or the latest, an Internet interface for the World of Warcraft AH called the Remote Auction House as a Subscription-based service for cash (2.99$/month).
' Id have no problems with ANY of this if it looked like some of this money went into the development of the game, but it obviously doesnt. They keep simplifying many aspects of the game to make it easier to develop content for (Paladins and shaman for both sides, simplified stat systems, smaller raids, 10 and 25 man raids dropping same loot for cata, removal of tradeskill specializations, no more class specific content, etc) yet where is this content?
Sure they patch in rather large updates, but this was stuff that should have been included with WotLK. WotLK launched with one raid zone which wasnt even new, and 2 small encounters. They stagger the release to keep people from getting too bored so their too small dev teams can work on content that should have been done long ago.
WoW is one of the few major MMOs without player housing or guild halls (could be wrong but I know LotRO, EQ2, DAoC, and EQ all have at least one or the other...hell even f2p games like Runes of Magic have (free) housing) yet instead theyll develop the mobile AH so they can squeeze more money out of people.
It amazes me how little WoW has done for how much they take in.
How DARE a company want money?! WHAT MONSTERS! THIS IS AN OUTRAGE.
It still shocks me how annoying you WoW bashers can get. Blizzard has done a lot with WoW, and this latest expansion isn't making things easier for them, but for the players. Simplifying stats makes it easier to prioritize the stats you need most instead of having 12 different things to worry about. Blizzard is pretty much going through the entire old content and cleaning things for fresher content, redoing ever piece of gear for the stat changes, balancing existing classes, etc, etc, etc. How often in F2P games do you get massive new content like you do in WoW?
You aren't ever forced to get a realm transfer, race change, name change or authenicator, its all completely optional and in no way impacts regular gameplay. I really don't see why so many people complain about all that stuff to begin with.
In WoW you dont get massive new content either, you buy it in an expansion. For the bucketloads of money blizzard make imo you get very little free content. and dont come with the later raids as thats all part from unreleased expansion content.
In many sub games you get veteran rewards or like Guild Wars (f2p even) vanity pets for you characters b'day etc
in wow you get nothing for free.
So in that view you GET more content in F2P then in WoW
Lol'd at "bucketloads", I make enough money in an hour to buy a WoW expansion.
It still shocks me how annoying you WoW bashers can get. Blizzard has done a lot with WoW, and this latest expansion isn't making things easier for them, but for the players. Simplifying stats makes it easier to prioritize the stats you need most instead of having 12 different things to worry about. Blizzard is pretty much going through the entire old content and cleaning things for fresher content, redoing ever piece of gear for the stat changes, balancing existing classes, etc, etc, etc. How often in F2P games do you get massive new content like you do in WoW?
You aren't ever forced to get a realm transfer, race change, name change or authenicator, its all completely optional and in no way impacts regular gameplay. I really don't see why so many people complain about all that stuff to begin with.
They are redoing existing content instead of creating new content. Every MMO that releases major expansions creates NEW content for mid levels. WoW has yet to do this. I like the idea of cataclysm though, but they should at the very least create an alternative for Outlands and Northrend, we'll see if they do this.
Im also talking about things like simplifying spell power into one category, or making say enh shaman and hunters want the same exact gear. They say its more convenient for players, but in reality its to make their lives easier.You're aware they're completely revamping 1-80, aswell as making tons of new zones for 80-85, yes?
and the point is?
How dare a company charge money! I live in my mothers basement and cannot work because I have aspergers, this is an outrage!
should try another insult that 1 gets rather old
Funny because the 500MB plus patches every several months beg to differ, and my 16.6GBinstall size (without the updates in the directory) also laughs at you. WoW is a massive game with an amazing amount of content to get into.
Blizzard is not greedy. You do not have to pay anything else except for the money subcription fee. No way does any of the extra's give you a free pass to get through the game quicker like EXP potions, larger bag sizes, buffs, skill point resets, etc.
16.6 GB? That's all? My AoC install is 29.1. Amateurs. Blizzard can't even get the bloat right!
I fail to see how the amount of money Blizzard brings in and you pay for expansions correlate into an lol. Unless your laughing at yourself for making them rich and getting little content in return?
You're aware they're completely revamping 1-80, aswell as making tons of new zones for 80-85, yes?
They are NOT completely revamping 1-80. Outlands is being untouched and so far nothing suggests northrend will be touched either. Some zones from 1-60 are getting major revamps, some are getting minor. We dont know the extent of the revamps.Again, I actually like the idea of Cataclysm. I think its a pretty cool idea. However in a game that desperately needs new content its kind of disappointing seeing it FINALLY be done at the expense of old content.
This is a game where people are almost required to roll alts to keep interested. This will make those alts great fun from 1-60 the first two times, but man 60-80 is going to be PAINFUL. As beautiful a zone as nagrand is Im ready to shove the giant rock elemental dude up nesingwary's rear, tie him up with obsidian warbeads and jump him up to the bird nest and then fly up to the highest island and jump off and end it all.
Do NOT even attempt to say blizzard isnt greedy. The Celestial Steed is pure greed. They could be WORSE for sure, but they are the worst of the major MMO companies (SoE, Turbine, Mythic, NCSoft, etc) in terms of milking money out of its subscribers despite already making the msot money per subscriber off their product.And those 500MB patches? thats the rest of the content we paid for with WotLK. And dont call WoW massive. Its almost 6 years old. Everquest I after 5 years was MASSIVE (and their expansions through Planes of Power were of as high quality as anything Blizzard has put). Everquest II, same age as WoW, is significantly bigger.
I understand WoW puts a lot of effort into what content they put out, but compared to other games of its genre WoW is by no means massive.
Heh, interesting article in the OP. I knew some of the stuff but not everything that was mentioned in the article.
The poster of the article did a lot of research and information gathering, impressive.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
i wish blizzard would buy back themselves from activision (blizzard doesnt need activision .)activison just hurt blizzard reputation.
This is a most excellent find. I follow a lot of news, but I never catalogue and organize them for keepsakes. I'd be interested, for example, to learn the history from 2002-2007. I didn't get involved with gaming news until around 2005.
We know a LOT went down with the core people to all of Blizzard's projects leaving to make Runic, and A.Net, amongst other studios. I'd be interested in learning all the reasons why in chronological order.
Oh, and
" March 30, 2010: In a "Activision Blizzard restructuring move", the above often quoted CFO (Chief Financial Officer) Thomas Tippl is, according to Massively and the L.A. Times put in charge as COO (Chief Operations Officer) of the "Blizzard business unit", with Mike Morhaime directly reporting to him. "
Looks like black on white to me, that Blizzard's precious Morhaime is on a leash to produce finances, not products. Reference 'a culture of thrift' from a previous date.
That is exactly right, and we're not saying NO to save WoW, because it is already a lost cause. We are saying NO to dissuade the next group of greedy suits who decide to emulate Blizzard and Cryptic, etc.
We can prevent some of the future games from spewing this crap, but the sooner we start saying no, the better the results will be.
So - Stand up, pull up your pants, and walk away.
- MMO_Doubter
"If I'd asked my customers what they wanted, they'd have said a faster horse." - Henry Ford
OMG a company wanting to make money, wow breaking news!!!.
In other news Vivendi has owned Blizzard for like 15 years.
In other news Vivendi bought a controlling stake in Activision
In other news. Activision and blizzard are both owned by Vivendi
In other news Blizzard is an attonimous studio, that answers wholelly to Vivendi like it has for 15 years.
In other news The world is going to come to an end in 2012.
oh wont somebody please think of the children.
Heh.
I guess a point can be made that there's nothing wrong with companies as a EA or Activision, or while we're at it, with the invest companies and banks that stood at the base of the economic crisis letting it happen while they were making their profit, or with an Enron, or BP. All companies doing their business, trying to maximize their profit, nothing wrong with it.
Profit is the lifeblood of every company. If their personnel, materials and other resources would be free, they wouldn't need to make profit maybe, but as it stands, they need to make a profit to pay their people, pay off hired services and bought resources, and basically just to keep running.
While a point can be made that large companies like EA and Vivendi should just go about their business the way they've done up till now, companies as Enron and banks like a Morgan Sachs show that there's a wide range and huge differences in how far companies are willing to go and in what they've no qualms in sacrificing in their intent to maximize their profit.
The news article, interesting points it brings up. But more interesting I find how posters in this thread - and others - only want to see the bad stuff about a company or MMO or only see the good things of 'their' MMO or company and ignore all arguments that don't support that onesided viewpoint, resulting in polarized debates. Looks much like how fans support 'their" football or baseball team.
Usually the truth is somewhere in the middle, sometimes more to the left, sometimes more to the right, but never purely black or purely white.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."