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Blizzard Has Lost A Large Chunk Of Its Playerbase Despite Increasing Total Revenue | MMORPG.com

SystemSystem Member UncommonPosts: 12,599

imageBlizzard Has Lost A Large Chunk Of Its Playerbase Despite Increasing Total Revenue | MMORPG.com

Activision Blizzard's latest investor report shows that its revenue has increased year-over-year, though that has come with the cost of losing a large chunk of its player base over the last few years.

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  • SylvinstarSylvinstar Member UncommonPosts: 158
    Is there any information as to what percentage of WoW players are NA, SA, EU, Asia, AU etc.? Just curious.
  • foppoteefoppotee Member UncommonPosts: 505
    According to the headline it sounds like even though WoW is losing players those remaining are spending more money. A decline in a game's population I'd think is a negative indicator but as long as profits are rolling-in I doubt Activision/Blizzard are too concerned. I didn't even know whales could be milked. :-)
    enesisxlr8
  • blamo2000blamo2000 Member RarePosts: 1,130
    I'm sure they expect a big bump. I've been waiting a while for BC, and I know others who are too. I played almost the whole life of BC (and WotLK), and I lasted longer in classic vanilla than i did real vanilla. I'm not a big fan of WoW raiding, and vanilla just didn't have end game content to keep me not bored. I have to do a little raiding in BC to get pieces I need for the arena. But I assume BC will keep me through until WotLK, and I that will keep me too.
  • MendelMendel Member LegendaryPosts: 5,609
    Such a drastic drop in customer rates suggests to me a change in how these numbers were/have been reported.



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  • IselinIselin Member LegendaryPosts: 18,719
    They need new IPs.
    Plain and simple.
    But that implies risk. And risk puts Bobby's $200 million bonus next year... at risk.
    :smile:


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  • enesisxlr8enesisxlr8 Member UncommonPosts: 163
    Truly doubt they care as long as they are making money. Only question they would be asking is how can we make MORE money from the customer we still have?

    "Blizzard itself hasn't launched a new IP in close to five years now"

    Company has lost focus on making great games, its all about the $ and the quickest to get it with minimal effort.
    [Deleted User]foppotee
  • TokkenTokken Member EpicPosts: 3,547
    the sky is falling, the sky is falling! But they're still making GOBS of Money? WTF

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  • SandmanjwSandmanjw Member RarePosts: 526

    Tokken said:

    the sky is falling, the sky is falling! But they're still making GOBS of Money? WTF



    Lol ya, they still make tons of cash. People should know by now that that is the the bottom line. As long as they keep raking in the cash...not much will change.

    They make a lot of decisions that people scream about, but it makes them cash. People like to look at WOW sub numbers, but that is something they stopped emphasizing long ago. They are just gravy now. Their cash shop stuff and the expansions box sales are what WOW lives on mostly.

    Call of duty and their KIng branch both had big gains. Their diablo mobile game will make them tons too I bet when it launches.

    Can give ya the next years headlines now...big bonus check for CEO again....
  • WizardryWizardry Member LegendaryPosts: 19,332
    I was just reading a report earlier today that Kotick was set to receive close to 200 million in total bonuses and whatever else he is contracted for.
    Activision obviously sees this as a ridiculous amount so asked him to accept a 50% decrease overall which would still net him around 100 million.
    lower player base is very obvious,i see it in Hearthstone.They make up for it with tons fo cash shop sales.NOTHING within Blizzard is straight FAIR to the consumer,everything has costs and then more ongoing costs that seem to never end.

    So typically you might or USED to buy a game,anywhere from idk 30 -80 bucks.Well NOW you buy games from Blizzard OR free to attain but the ongoing costs are into the several hundred over time,so you can see WHY at Blizzard it has been so rosy and comfortable for all the big shots.
    As to the mention that Classic Wow is partly responsible,i can see that ,i mean reselling the game a second time is like ....lol 4 head.However the Classic idea imo is just dumb and overall i see a trend of Blizzard losing patrons continuing.

    As noted Blizzard has not been making games and what are we going to get incoming...a REHASH of Diablo 2,so a studio that is AFRAID to build new but instead trying to cash in on past success of the IP.The other is Diablo on Mobile...lmao so rather than BETTER gaming they are aiming for the lucrative mobile market,so bump those sales up even more with all the dumbass mobile gamers.

    Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.

  • WizardryWizardry Member LegendaryPosts: 19,332
    I am sure many don't care about how much money the top execs make but what you SHOULD realize is that ALL games are done half asseed,never a solid effort by ANY studios.Well you should then realize that SOME of that over used money on lazy high end execs COULD have been afforded to making better games.
    Also they COULD be far less GREEDY by charging less and lowering costs in their cash shops but NOPE as long as dummies are willing to keep throwing money at them,they will gladly take it and LAUGH at their customers.

    Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.

  • DeserttFoxxDeserttFoxx Member UncommonPosts: 2,402

    foppotee said:

    According to the headline it sounds like even though WoW is losing players those remaining are spending more money. A decline in a game's population I'd think is a negative indicator but as long as profits are rolling-in I doubt Activision/Blizzard are too concerned. I didn't even know whales could be milked. :-)



    Very shortsighted.

    It cost much more to acquire a new customer than it does to keep one. Eventually they are going to need new people, and every month blizzard loses credibility.
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  • NildenNilden Member EpicPosts: 3,916
    This isn't just about losing players. Blizzard lost me as a life long supporter and fan who owns all of their games, who now boycotts them.

    The absolute disregard for the games, the players and everything else they have done. What they did to Warcraft 3. Blitzchung, "do you not have phones?", "You think you do but you don't", firing 800 people in a record year of profits while Bobby Kotick gets millions. Just pure greed.

    It's sad what Blizzard has become.


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  • ashiru_1978ashiru_1978 Member RarePosts: 818
    There is no longer Blizzard.

    There is only Activision B.

    They are greedy, inept in terms of what their players want and they just care about making money. Even if there ends up one player in every game, as long as they pay enough money, they will be OK with it.

    That Ion dude whose brain is probably smaller than a single ion, is just a tool that has the ability to open its mouth and produce sounds through its vocal cords.

    For me WoW died in Cataclysm. The signs of its death started as early as TBC when they started including garbage like flying mounts, space goats flying on space ships, motorbike mounts and airplane mounts. Cataclysm was the final nail in the coffin - what challenge the overworld content of the game had, it was completely erased.

    The new graphics they started working on since WoTLK (Northrend) and CATA and finally in WoD when they updated playable races, so the whole game looks like Disney Pixar movie was another huge mistake. It's the same crap like the art style of Overwatch - each time I see characters expressing emotions with their faces, it feels like I'm about get a brain aneurysm and a seizure at the same time.

    The story of the game stopped making sense, because it was developed around existing gameplay (think time sink) mechanics, that was another huge reason why the game died. It's just like Latino American soap opera telenovela or The Bold & The Beautiful - guy A is friends with guy B, but guy C is pretending to be friends with both guy A and B, but secretly betrays them to appease guy D, but then guy A finds out and confronts guy C and guy C makes amends and becomes a good guy and then all 3 stand up against the evil guy D, who they thought was the prime evil, but in the next episode we find out that guy D was actually the bestest of the goodest guy secretly undercover and deceiving guys A, B and C while manipulating guy C to do his bidding and then to trick them all, but just when we think the mystery is solved, the seemingly unsuspecting guy A reveals himself to be the biggest villain of them all, even tricking guy D who thought he was tricking him in return to think that he doesn't know anything.... and so on. This is literally the story of WoW after Vanilla - when the game turned into a shitshow and nothing made sense anymore.







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  • RexKushmanRexKushman Member RarePosts: 639
    Sounds like they are doing something right, from a business standpoint at least. Less customers to listen to complaints from and more money in their pockets.

    Personally I've never understood the draw of Bliz games, tried wow, diablo and overwatch but they just didn't click for me. Obviously there are people emptying their wallets into the cash shops though so congrats to Acti Blizz.

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  • corrosivechainscorrosivechains Member UncommonPosts: 50
    Interesting they said 7% increase in revenue and not 7% increase in profits. Those are two entirely different things, and with it being such a low percentage that seems more indicative of money they saved from layoffs. I'm betting Kotick is going to be "retiring" at the end of his 2 year contract extension. His 50% pay cut but with stipulations seems to be more and more a "giving you time to get your retirement in order, but you're gone no matter what".
    Gdemami
  • TheocritusTheocritus Member LegendaryPosts: 9,739
    edited May 2021
    "They make up for it with tons fo cash shop sales.NOTHING within Blizzard is straight FAIR to the consumer,everything has costs and then more ongoing costs that seem to never end."

    In the end though, the customers are the ones to blame...They are the ones that can always say no, but they don't. I have never been a fan of Blizzard, but they have mastered how to milk money from their customers and still get them to keep paying.
    Gdemami
  • RexKushmanRexKushman Member RarePosts: 639
    "They make up for it with tons fo cash shop sales.NOTHING within Blizzard is straight FAIR to the consumer,everything has costs and then more ongoing costs that seem to never end."

    In the end though, the customers are the ones to blame...They are the ones that can always say no, but they don't. I have never been a fan of Blizzard, but they have mastered how to milk money from their customers and still get them to keep paying.
    One question I've been thinking about lately is.. Is it really "milking" customers when so many people so eagerly spend their money in the cash shops?  I used to think that yes it was but I've changed my mind. People are clearly putting their money into something that they enjoy. If these cash shops were truly as bad as some people think, and I was one of them, then they wouldn't stay profitable. 

    I dunno, just something I've been thinking about, maybe times have changed enough that these practices are approved of by the majority of gamers.
    Gdemami

  • KyleranKyleran Member LegendaryPosts: 43,435
    FTrunks21 said:
    Lol They brainwashed people to come back for classic and it still didn't work huh? That is because people are stupid. Nobody liked classic. Classic wasn't even that great. I was there from day 1. No idea why people keep talking about classic like it was some god above all. You couldn't play what you wanted. Drops were so rare, it was beyond a job. Grinding like a korean mmo almost, which like 2% of american gamers like. Even now classic isn't like "classic". They already said they changed a lot internally and gave some quality of life stuff.

    Only good thing about classic was there was a lot of people. Best time I ever had being in a guild because we all got to know each other and became friends. People need to get out of here with that "classic WoW is so amazing and was when mmos were at their best" bs. No, no it was not.
    Err, my son and his friends started playing WOW again with Classic's launch and are still playing regularly so apparently "some" people are still on board and they are all looking forward to the BC release.




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  • HengistHengist Member RarePosts: 1,282
    FTrunks21 said:
    Lol They brainwashed people to come back for classic and it still didn't work huh? That is because people are stupid. Nobody liked classic. Classic wasn't even that great. I was there from day 1. No idea why people keep talking about classic like it was some god above all. You couldn't play what you wanted. Drops were so rare, it was beyond a job. Grinding like a korean mmo almost, which like 2% of american gamers like. Even now classic isn't like "classic". They already said they changed a lot internally and gave some quality of life stuff.

    Only good thing about classic was there was a lot of people. Best time I ever had being in a guild because we all got to know each other and became friends. People need to get out of here with that "classic WoW is so amazing and was when mmos were at their best" bs. No, no it was not.


    Nobody liked it, but there were a lot of people.


    Makes complete sense.
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  • Phixion13Phixion13 Member UncommonPosts: 190
    I was a hardcore Blizzard fan ever since original Warcraft and Diablo, went to all the Blizzcon's and even managed to get a tour of their place when D2's expac came out.

    That all changed when Diablo 3 came out. I honestly became jaded and started seeing the writing on the wall. You could warn people about what Blizz was turning into but everyone would call you a naysayer. It really just sucked having such a great company turn into the villain.

    Can their games still be fun? yes. They are no longer of a certain standard, they are no longer player friendly, and they are no longer worth the hype.
    corrosivechainsApridise
  • CuddleheartCuddleheart Member UncommonPosts: 391
    Makes sense. WoW, while obviously lower in player count than at the start of the expansion, it doesn't feel as bad as the drop off in other Blizzard games as of late. The Overwatch player count has noticeably dropped. In certain ranks you can play with or against the same people over and over during prime time in competitive. I'm pretty sure HoTS had just started going into maintenance mode and the MOBA genre player base has shrunk across the board. Hearthstone has seen a considerable decline in popularity in the past three years as well.

    It's been a long time coming and Blizzard is one of the last great publishers to fall from grace. In a world where Bioware, CDPR, and Bethesda fell so hard out of favor, it really is a modern miracle that Blizzard still holds some sort or meaning to gamers still! I'll still try every WoW expansion and I'm gonna buy Overwatch 2, so I guess I'm one of those people...
  • IceAgeIceAge Member EpicPosts: 3,118
    Hm, let's see...what happened in 2018 since the decline :

    1) Mike Morhaime forced to leave Blizzard ..and he's doing it.
    2) The launch of one of the worst WoW X-Pacs in the history ( or is it the worst? ) : BfA.
    3) THE worst Blizzcon in the history of Blizzard, with memorable moments. One of them is "....doncha have phonzz?"

    So, I wonder why the decline? But .. I'm happy they are losing this much players. I said it before and I will say it again : They need to get their shit together, or they can bankrupt. I don't care.

    The declined would of been much worst, if not for the Remakes. I know I paid them $ for them and...I will do it again in 1 month. I shouldn't, but ...this are games ( x-pacs ) I grow up with. They however, lost the ..Blizzard Fanboy in me and that's is SO hard to ...get it back.
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