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Since its announcement in late 2016 OWL has been listed by ATVI as a "strategic initiative". This is a nice way of saying it is losing money. OWL tickets this year have fallen in price to $11 USD from $20 USD last year. Lots of empty seats when I briefly checked out a few OWL games last week. When I play OW I don't see many people wearing the OWL All-Access Pass skins.
On a per capita basis interest in the league in Canada is highest of all countries. Surprisingly, South Korea is 17th. Canadian interest will decline as the weather gets better.
I suspect OWL will continue to be a "strategic initiative" for ATVI for the rest of 2019. Blizzard has the lowest operating margins of any ATVI Division. Its going to be interesting to see if top OWL people get replaced in the remainder of 2019... or if top people leave on their own.
![[image loading]](https://i.imgur.com/RvzpVcf.jpg)
Blizzard must make some big, bold moves in the next year to stop OWL's continual decline.
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On February 20 2019 00:26 Manit0u wrote:I wonder what will EA do if Anthem flops (as it seems it'll happen). They did get a bit of leeway with Apex success but I'm not sure how long that will last since BR is becoming a pretty stale genre that's reaching the point of fatigue. Edit: Also, there's a really good video about why so many companies are failing right now (despite the title it's not really about SJWs and PC): + Show Spoiler +Edit: To clarify (so hopefully no one else gets banned), the guy in the video speaks about the lack of coherence and core principles within companies, which leads to failure. Watch the video for the specifics if you want but I think the guy is making some really good points by analyzing Lucas Film/Disney from a business-owner perspective.
Seems like this guy is paraphrasing Covey's words and passing them off as his own. But yea, does Lucasfilm not have a mission statement like other companies? Hell even my car mechanic, who runs the most jury-rigged shop, has a copy of his hanging near the front entrance.
On February 21 2019 08:02 JimmyJRaynor wrote:Since its announcement in late 2016 OWL has been listed by ATVI as a "strategic initiative". This is a nice way of saying it is losing money. OWL tickets this year have fallen in price to $11 USD from $20 USD last year. Lots of empty seats when I briefly checked out a few OWL games last week. When I play OW I don't see many people wearing the OWL All-Access Pass skins. On a per capita basis interest in the league in Canada is highest of all countries. Surprisingly, South Korea is 17th. Canadian interest will decline as the weather gets better. I suspect OWL will continue to be a "strategic initiative" for ATVI for the rest of 2019. Blizzard has the lowest operating margins of any ATVI Division. Its going to be interesting to see if top OWL people get replaced in the remainder of 2019... or if top people leave on their own. + Show Spoiler +Blizzard must make some big, bold moves in the next year to stop OWL's continual decline.
Do you think OWL will make it to a third season?
+ Show Spoiler +
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On February 21 2019 14:01 riotjune wrote:
Do you think OWL will make it to a third season?
i think so. i can't see ATVI putting more money into it until both OWL and Overwatch itself starts growing again.
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thanks for the link.
Re: The "Kotick Origin Story".
circa 1983 : This is the "Apple Lisa". .. I believe this was the first computer with a mouse. it includes a 5.25" floppy drive. Kotick refers to the 5.25" floppy drive as a "64K Floppy". I suspect this is incorrect. I think the 1983 5.25" floppy held 725K based on the large # of pirated games on a single 5.25" disk.
![[image loading]](https://i1.wp.com/www.mac-history.net/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/lisa2.jpg?resize=567%2C375)
most CEOs of multi-billion dollar companies are grandmasters at "image control" ... listening to Kotick in action is a real treat.
I wouldn't go so far as to say Kotick is an outright LIAR in this interview, however, he is really stretching the truth as far as it can be stretched. He is a grandmaster of image control and framing a narrative.
I can break down Kotick's "extensive truth stretching" in this interview if someone wants it.
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Now ArenaNet is planning for Mass Layoffs. This would never have happened if Jeff Strain had stayed and created a new IP there instead of leaving and created another company.
ArenaNet, the studio behind the popular online games Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2, informed employees today that it is planning big layoffs, according to a person who is there. Although ArenaNet did not give out exact numbers, and they may not yet be finalized, rumors floating around the studio signal that a significant number of people will be let go.
Songyee Yoon, the CEO of Korean publisher NCSoft West, which owns ArenaNet, e-mailed employees this afternoon with the news. “Our live game business revenue is declining as our franchises age, delays in development on PC and mobile have created further drains against our revenue projects, while our operating costs in the west have increased,” she wrote. “Where we are is not sustainable, and is not going to set us up for future success.”
Yoon added that the company plans to “cut costs across the organization” and restructure across the board, merging ArenaNet and NCSoft’s publishing divisions in the process. “The restructuring, cost-cutting, and strategic realignments are all being done to secure our tomorrow and to provide the foundation that will allow us to grow and acquire,” she wrote.
Later this afternoon, ArenaNet CEO Mike O’Brien plans to meet with staff to discuss the layoffs further.
Around 400 people work at ArenaNet, and for the past few years they’ve been working on a number of unannounced projects, according to one person familiar with goings-on at the company. However, that person said, slow development progress combined with a lack of new games in 2018 and 2019 has led to a financial squeeze. ArenaNet’s last release, the Path of Fire expansion for Guild Wars 2, launched in September 2017.
This news comes in the wake of widespread cost-cutting measures at NCSoft. Last September, NCSoft shut down Wildstar developer Carbine Studios, and earlier this year it began plans to reduce staff at the mobile studio Iron Tiger. In its financial earnings call earlier this week, NCSoft reported an annual decline in PC revenue.
When reached by Kotaku earlier today, an NCSoft representative declined to comment.
Source
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On February 22 2019 07:58 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:Now ArenaNet is planning for Mass Layoffs. This would never have happened if Jeff Strain had stayed and created a new IP there instead of leaving and created another company. Show nested quote +ArenaNet, the studio behind the popular online games Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2, informed employees today that it is planning big layoffs, according to a person who is there. Although ArenaNet did not give out exact numbers, and they may not yet be finalized, rumors floating around the studio signal that a significant number of people will be let go.
Songyee Yoon, the CEO of Korean publisher NCSoft West, which owns ArenaNet, e-mailed employees this afternoon with the news. “Our live game business revenue is declining as our franchises age, delays in development on PC and mobile have created further drains against our revenue projects, while our operating costs in the west have increased,” she wrote. “Where we are is not sustainable, and is not going to set us up for future success.”
Yoon added that the company plans to “cut costs across the organization” and restructure across the board, merging ArenaNet and NCSoft’s publishing divisions in the process. “The restructuring, cost-cutting, and strategic realignments are all being done to secure our tomorrow and to provide the foundation that will allow us to grow and acquire,” she wrote.
Later this afternoon, ArenaNet CEO Mike O’Brien plans to meet with staff to discuss the layoffs further.
Around 400 people work at ArenaNet, and for the past few years they’ve been working on a number of unannounced projects, according to one person familiar with goings-on at the company. However, that person said, slow development progress combined with a lack of new games in 2018 and 2019 has led to a financial squeeze. ArenaNet’s last release, the Path of Fire expansion for Guild Wars 2, launched in September 2017.
This news comes in the wake of widespread cost-cutting measures at NCSoft. Last September, NCSoft shut down Wildstar developer Carbine Studios, and earlier this year it began plans to reduce staff at the mobile studio Iron Tiger. In its financial earnings call earlier this week, NCSoft reported an annual decline in PC revenue.
When reached by Kotaku earlier today, an NCSoft representative declined to comment. Source
This is quite sad. I've been a huge fan of the GW series and supported it as much as I could all the way through (buying all expansions, doing microtransactions etc. - hell I think I own like 3 copies of each GW1 game/expansion). Unfortunately the masses were not ready for genre-redefining stuff they did in GW2...
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On March 05 2019 01:37 Manit0u wrote:Show nested quote +On February 22 2019 07:58 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:Now ArenaNet is planning for Mass Layoffs. This would never have happened if Jeff Strain had stayed and created a new IP there instead of leaving and created another company. ArenaNet, the studio behind the popular online games Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2, informed employees today that it is planning big layoffs, according to a person who is there. Although ArenaNet did not give out exact numbers, and they may not yet be finalized, rumors floating around the studio signal that a significant number of people will be let go.
Songyee Yoon, the CEO of Korean publisher NCSoft West, which owns ArenaNet, e-mailed employees this afternoon with the news. “Our live game business revenue is declining as our franchises age, delays in development on PC and mobile have created further drains against our revenue projects, while our operating costs in the west have increased,” she wrote. “Where we are is not sustainable, and is not going to set us up for future success.”
Yoon added that the company plans to “cut costs across the organization” and restructure across the board, merging ArenaNet and NCSoft’s publishing divisions in the process. “The restructuring, cost-cutting, and strategic realignments are all being done to secure our tomorrow and to provide the foundation that will allow us to grow and acquire,” she wrote.
Later this afternoon, ArenaNet CEO Mike O’Brien plans to meet with staff to discuss the layoffs further.
Around 400 people work at ArenaNet, and for the past few years they’ve been working on a number of unannounced projects, according to one person familiar with goings-on at the company. However, that person said, slow development progress combined with a lack of new games in 2018 and 2019 has led to a financial squeeze. ArenaNet’s last release, the Path of Fire expansion for Guild Wars 2, launched in September 2017.
This news comes in the wake of widespread cost-cutting measures at NCSoft. Last September, NCSoft shut down Wildstar developer Carbine Studios, and earlier this year it began plans to reduce staff at the mobile studio Iron Tiger. In its financial earnings call earlier this week, NCSoft reported an annual decline in PC revenue.
When reached by Kotaku earlier today, an NCSoft representative declined to comment. Source This is quite sad. I've been a huge fan of the GW series and supported it as much as I could all the way through (buying all expansions, doing microtransactions etc. - hell I think I own like 3 copies of each GW1 game/expansion). Unfortunately the masses were not ready for genre-redefining stuff they did in GW2...
What made GW2 stick out? I heard it had slightly more open world stuff going for it compared to other MMOs but then nothing else reached me. Didn't really seem to stick out a lot when not playing it or really being into MMOs. There never seemed to be a reason to actually care about that game enough to give it a try.
Star Wars: The Old Republic has that it is a decent single player game going for it and gets talked about due to that. It also has the Star Wars brand. Fell off quickly.
FF14 has the FF brand and generally just positive press over the years (after re-launch). Tons of other MMOs using brands to push initial interest as well, Elder Scrolls online is going well now on that. Then long term success depends on the game itself of course.
Though as I understand it GW2 is among top 5 of MMOs currently? So not doing badly at all.
Any new MMO that launches needs to have a selling point. Don't think GW2 really succeed in pushing one I found memorable or interesting. Most big titles that launches now has graphics as selling point since they can use engines 5+ years newer than what built the older games. They all run into the problem of not having 5+ years of content built though.
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On March 05 2019 03:46 Yurie wrote:Show nested quote +On March 05 2019 01:37 Manit0u wrote:On February 22 2019 07:58 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:Now ArenaNet is planning for Mass Layoffs. This would never have happened if Jeff Strain had stayed and created a new IP there instead of leaving and created another company. ArenaNet, the studio behind the popular online games Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2, informed employees today that it is planning big layoffs, according to a person who is there. Although ArenaNet did not give out exact numbers, and they may not yet be finalized, rumors floating around the studio signal that a significant number of people will be let go.
Songyee Yoon, the CEO of Korean publisher NCSoft West, which owns ArenaNet, e-mailed employees this afternoon with the news. “Our live game business revenue is declining as our franchises age, delays in development on PC and mobile have created further drains against our revenue projects, while our operating costs in the west have increased,” she wrote. “Where we are is not sustainable, and is not going to set us up for future success.”
Yoon added that the company plans to “cut costs across the organization” and restructure across the board, merging ArenaNet and NCSoft’s publishing divisions in the process. “The restructuring, cost-cutting, and strategic realignments are all being done to secure our tomorrow and to provide the foundation that will allow us to grow and acquire,” she wrote.
Later this afternoon, ArenaNet CEO Mike O’Brien plans to meet with staff to discuss the layoffs further.
Around 400 people work at ArenaNet, and for the past few years they’ve been working on a number of unannounced projects, according to one person familiar with goings-on at the company. However, that person said, slow development progress combined with a lack of new games in 2018 and 2019 has led to a financial squeeze. ArenaNet’s last release, the Path of Fire expansion for Guild Wars 2, launched in September 2017.
This news comes in the wake of widespread cost-cutting measures at NCSoft. Last September, NCSoft shut down Wildstar developer Carbine Studios, and earlier this year it began plans to reduce staff at the mobile studio Iron Tiger. In its financial earnings call earlier this week, NCSoft reported an annual decline in PC revenue.
When reached by Kotaku earlier today, an NCSoft representative declined to comment. Source This is quite sad. I've been a huge fan of the GW series and supported it as much as I could all the way through (buying all expansions, doing microtransactions etc. - hell I think I own like 3 copies of each GW1 game/expansion). Unfortunately the masses were not ready for genre-redefining stuff they did in GW2... What made GW2 stick out? I heard it had slightly more open world stuff going for it compared to other MMOs but then nothing else reached me. Didn't really seem to stick out a lot when not playing it or really being into MMOs. There never seemed to be a reason to actually care about that game enough to give it a try. Star Wars: The Old Republic has that it is a decent single player game going for it and gets talked about due to that. It also has the Star Wars brand. Fell off quickly. FF14 has the FF brand and generally just positive press over the years (after re-launch). Tons of other MMOs using brands to push initial interest as well, Elder Scrolls online is going well now on that. Then long term success depends on the game itself of course. Though as I understand it GW2 is among top 5 of MMOs currently? So not doing badly at all. Any new MMO that launches needs to have a selling point. Don't think GW2 really succeed in pushing one I found memorable or interesting. Most big titles that launches now has graphics as selling point since they can use engines 5+ years newer than what built the older games. They all run into the problem of not having 5+ years of content built though.
For GW2 you had several things that separated it from other titles:
1. The questing: There were no real fetch quests in there. You just get to the quest area (general vicinity), which lists various stuff you can do, you do any of it you fancy (don't have to do it all) and fill the bar - when you do, the quest is over and you get the reward (no need to go to any quest giver). Most of the quests also have multiple stages (especially the open world ones) which vary depending on player activities and how successful they are at things. It's way more interesting that "fetching 20 bird feathers" over and over again.
2. The exploration: You actually get quite a bit of exp just exploring. Finding vistas also leads to some of the most amazing looks at the world you've ever seen. There's also plenty of hidden puzzles and content that doesn't show up on the map and completing those gives you a super duper reward.
3. The teaming: Outside of instances there is no grouping. All the players are automatically grouped together if they're nearby and encounters scale up or down according to that. And everyone gets the rewards so there's no KSing and stuff.
4. The skills: Those are tied to the weapons you're using. Swap out your weapon(s) and you swap your skillbar (can be done mid-combat).
5. The story: Maybe not as technically advanced as in SWTOR (not fully animated) but you have a solid, branching storyline where your choices affect the world around you. Also, the entire world feels alive (just get to a group of NPC's and listen to their conversations, I've literally stopped for hours taking some stuff in).
6. The classes: There is no typical triumvirate in GW2 (tank, healer, dps) since every class can be geared to fill almost any role and since all of them have a strong self heal and everyone can revive you don't really need dedicated team members doing that.
I wouldn't worry too much about the graphics. ArenaNet is very well known for their super high quality art design and the worlds they create are just awesome. I believe I went up to level 40 just by exploring shit and doing some casual questing. Virtually no grind involved.
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On March 05 2019 01:37 Manit0u wrote:Show nested quote +On February 22 2019 07:58 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:Now ArenaNet is planning for Mass Layoffs. This would never have happened if Jeff Strain had stayed and created a new IP there instead of leaving and created another company. ArenaNet, the studio behind the popular online games Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2, informed employees today that it is planning big layoffs, according to a person who is there. Although ArenaNet did not give out exact numbers, and they may not yet be finalized, rumors floating around the studio signal that a significant number of people will be let go.
Songyee Yoon, the CEO of Korean publisher NCSoft West, which owns ArenaNet, e-mailed employees this afternoon with the news. “Our live game business revenue is declining as our franchises age, delays in development on PC and mobile have created further drains against our revenue projects, while our operating costs in the west have increased,” she wrote. “Where we are is not sustainable, and is not going to set us up for future success.”
Yoon added that the company plans to “cut costs across the organization” and restructure across the board, merging ArenaNet and NCSoft’s publishing divisions in the process. “The restructuring, cost-cutting, and strategic realignments are all being done to secure our tomorrow and to provide the foundation that will allow us to grow and acquire,” she wrote.
Later this afternoon, ArenaNet CEO Mike O’Brien plans to meet with staff to discuss the layoffs further.
Around 400 people work at ArenaNet, and for the past few years they’ve been working on a number of unannounced projects, according to one person familiar with goings-on at the company. However, that person said, slow development progress combined with a lack of new games in 2018 and 2019 has led to a financial squeeze. ArenaNet’s last release, the Path of Fire expansion for Guild Wars 2, launched in September 2017.
This news comes in the wake of widespread cost-cutting measures at NCSoft. Last September, NCSoft shut down Wildstar developer Carbine Studios, and earlier this year it began plans to reduce staff at the mobile studio Iron Tiger. In its financial earnings call earlier this week, NCSoft reported an annual decline in PC revenue.
When reached by Kotaku earlier today, an NCSoft representative declined to comment. Source This is quite sad. I've been a huge fan of the GW series and supported it as much as I could all the way through (buying all expansions, doing microtransactions etc. - hell I think I own like 3 copies of each GW1 game/expansion). Unfortunately the masses were not ready for genre-redefining stuff they did in GW2...
2 years ago GW2 was the 3rd biggest player on MMORPG genre and very recommended. Not sure if anything changed, stopped following. It's just old and probably microtransactions are not doing as good as they would believed. All in all ArenaNet haven't done anything big(new game) in the past years and the lay offs should have been expected IMO.
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I would have loved to fall in love with GW2. Unfortunately I didn't. Played around 40 hours. Just wasn't my game. Can't explain. Same with Wildstar
Can't believe nobody mentioned the Nexon sell yet. EA and Amazon are interested. Numbers mentioned are around 9 billion dollars
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Diablo 1 is now on GoG. So guess the drive for battle.net is over?
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Whoa that came out of nowhere, nice
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It's nothing they want to invest in supporting so it's not on battle.net. Like making sure it runs fine, there are no problems with graphics etc. I actually wanted to buy it a few months ago but it turned out blizzard just put the .iso somewhere on the net for free.
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Yeah offloading any needs for support for the oldest of their library just makes sense. I doubt that Blizzard is making much money on warcraft 1 and 2 sales.
I remember that mechwarrior 4 was released for free on the internet when they got the funding to start making mechwarrior games again.
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I support any company that is trying to bring back games about giant robots and make them cool. It is why I am putting up with Anthem and love that new Mech Tactics game. When Michael B. Jordan wants to push to have Platinum make the Gen Lock video game, I'll be there for that shit even if it is sort of trash.
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On March 08 2019 01:48 Yurie wrote:
Diablo 1 is now on GoG. So guess the drive for battle.net is over?
Insta-buy from me 
Edit: Killed The Butcher and got Torn Flesh of Souls. Was a good day 
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WCS
