|
On May 09 2013 10:36 Alryk wrote:Show nested quote +On May 09 2013 06:30 USvBleakill wrote:On May 09 2013 06:22 Jinky wrote:
HotS just came out. Why are people worried about LotV? Because people are afraid that it will get cut and never comes. At the start of SC2 it was planned to release hots 6-9 month after Wol. And now its not even in the long term plans. I think Titan will just WoW 2. Yea they are saying its a new universe and stuff but no company with a brain wouldn´t make a sequel of such an insane successful product. I believe warcraft 4 is the planned sequel to WoW, is it not? Also: HotS was supposed to come out in 2012 originally, not 6-9 months after WoL. The original time from was always 2010-2012-2014. (90% sure about this at least)
I wonder if they plan to develop Wc4. Where will it fit in the storyline of WoW? I mean, Blizz will continue to make WoW expansions (or WoW 2) with continuous storyline because the game is a freakin gold mine. The only time-slot Wc4 might occupy might just be reallly really far after the age of WoW, which doesnt sound appealing for fans
|
On May 09 2013 11:25 Zarahtra wrote:Show nested quote +On May 09 2013 11:04 Wildmoon wrote:On May 09 2013 06:22 Integra wrote:
WOW lost another 1.3 million subs and is down to *only* 8 million now. Not really surprising. That game is like decade old already. What surprising is it hasn't downed to like 1m yet. WoW just has such good backstory(which admittedly they are actively trying to destroy), so other MMOs have a real hard time competing with that. Also WoW was really the first MMO to truly *make it*, so atleast for me it feels like "home" so to say. I'm byfar the most comfortable when playing WoW compared to other MMOs, even if it is only a shadow of itself at best. I ofcourse cannot confirm this on a larger scale, but atleast friends of mine from WoW seem to follow a similar pattern. If we fx. compare I'd most certainly say Rift is a better/cooler game than WoW, yet I just felt there was something missing, which I could always just best explain by "It's not WoW".
People shit on WoW all the time, and while it definitely is atrocious compared to 10 years ago with vanilla and TBC (which was easily the best expansion), it was an innovator and continues to be, even if it is terrible.
Not many games had the amount of endgame and multiplayer potential that WoW had/has. I played WoW from 2005-2011, and during TBC, I was completely into the game and raiding and PvP and newly added Arenas (which are a joke now (remember when it was e-sport?)). Other MMO's followed suit and tried to copy WOW's model, but everytime came up short.
Rift was hyped a bit, and I played the beta, but it was missing something. The combat didn't seem to flow very well.
Guild Wars 2 was fun for 10 levels, but only having the ability to use 10 spells at one time was faceroll heaven when you got the optimum move rotation down. Plus there was NO ENDGAME AT ALL.
The only MMO that I feel even comes close to having the same community potential and has so much to offer is MAPLESTORY :D Shits fun, yo.
I feel as though the MMO genre is really suffering right now because all the games are really the same product, but with most of them containing some, but not all, elements of MMORPGs that WoW pretty much revolutionized.
As for ActiBlizzard, gogo for them. They just released HotS and they were successful with it. I feel as though the 60+40(?) dollar price-tag to get the game is turning people away from trying it. Hell, I feel like bundling WoL and HotS for 40$ might bring more people in, but they would have to go even lower than that to reap as much benefit as possible.
|
On May 09 2013 11:51 vult wrote:Show nested quote +On May 09 2013 11:25 Zarahtra wrote:On May 09 2013 11:04 Wildmoon wrote:On May 09 2013 06:22 Integra wrote:
WOW lost another 1.3 million subs and is down to *only* 8 million now. Not really surprising. That game is like decade old already. What surprising is it hasn't downed to like 1m yet. WoW just has such good backstory(which admittedly they are actively trying to destroy), so other MMOs have a real hard time competing with that. Also WoW was really the first MMO to truly *make it*, so atleast for me it feels like "home" so to say. I'm byfar the most comfortable when playing WoW compared to other MMOs, even if it is only a shadow of itself at best. I ofcourse cannot confirm this on a larger scale, but atleast friends of mine from WoW seem to follow a similar pattern. If we fx. compare I'd most certainly say Rift is a better/cooler game than WoW, yet I just felt there was something missing, which I could always just best explain by "It's not WoW". People shit on WoW all the time, and while it definitely is atrocious compared to 10 years ago with vanilla and TBC (which was easily the best expansion), it was an innovator and continues to be, even if it is terrible. Not many games had the amount of endgame and multiplayer potential that WoW had/has. I played WoW from 2005-2011, and during TBC, I was completely into the game and raiding and PvP and newly added Arenas (which are a joke now (remember when it was e-sport?)). Other MMO's followed suit and tried to copy WOW's model, but everytime came up short. Rift was hyped a bit, and I played the beta, but it was missing something. The combat didn't seem to flow very well. Guild Wars 2 was fun for 10 levels, but only having the ability to use 10 spells at one time was faceroll heaven when you got the optimum move rotation down. Plus there was NO ENDGAME AT ALL. The only MMO that I feel even comes close to having the same community potential and has so much to offer is MAPLESTORY :D Shits fun, yo. I feel as though the MMO genre is really suffering right now because all the games are really the same product, but with most of them containing some, but not all, elements of MMORPGs that WoW pretty much revolutionized. As for ActiBlizzard, gogo for them. They just released HotS and they were successful with it. I feel as though the 60+40(?) dollar price-tag to get the game is turning people away from trying it. Hell, I feel like bundling WoL and HotS for 40$ might bring more people in, but they would have to go even lower than that to reap as much benefit as possible.
I believe the fact that WoW is constantly changing itself every xpac is what keep it popular. If Blizzard stayed with same pattern in vanilla or BC then it would have lost a lot more subs than this.
|
On May 09 2013 11:51 vult wrote:Show nested quote +On May 09 2013 11:25 Zarahtra wrote:On May 09 2013 11:04 Wildmoon wrote:On May 09 2013 06:22 Integra wrote:
WOW lost another 1.3 million subs and is down to *only* 8 million now. Not really surprising. That game is like decade old already. What surprising is it hasn't downed to like 1m yet. WoW just has such good backstory(which admittedly they are actively trying to destroy), so other MMOs have a real hard time competing with that. Also WoW was really the first MMO to truly *make it*, so atleast for me it feels like "home" so to say. I'm byfar the most comfortable when playing WoW compared to other MMOs, even if it is only a shadow of itself at best. I ofcourse cannot confirm this on a larger scale, but atleast friends of mine from WoW seem to follow a similar pattern. If we fx. compare I'd most certainly say Rift is a better/cooler game than WoW, yet I just felt there was something missing, which I could always just best explain by "It's not WoW". People shit on WoW all the time, and while it definitely is atrocious compared to 10 years ago with vanilla and TBC (which was easily the best expansion), it was an innovator and continues to be, even if it is terrible. Not many games had the amount of endgame and multiplayer potential that WoW had/has. I played WoW from 2005-2011, and during TBC, I was completely into the game and raiding and PvP and newly added Arenas (which are a joke now (remember when it was e-sport?)). Other MMO's followed suit and tried to copy WOW's model, but everytime came up short. Rift was hyped a bit, and I played the beta, but it was missing something. The combat didn't seem to flow very well. Guild Wars 2 was fun for 10 levels, but only having the ability to use 10 spells at one time was faceroll heaven when you got the optimum move rotation down. Plus there was NO ENDGAME AT ALL. The only MMO that I feel even comes close to having the same community potential and has so much to offer is MAPLESTORY :D Shits fun, yo. I feel as though the MMO genre is really suffering right now because all the games are really the same product, but with most of them containing some, but not all, elements of MMORPGs that WoW pretty much revolutionized. As for ActiBlizzard, gogo for them. They just released HotS and they were successful with it. I feel as though the 60+40(?) dollar price-tag to get the game is turning people away from trying it. Hell, I feel like bundling WoL and HotS for 40$ might bring more people in, but they would have to go even lower than that to reap as much benefit as possible.
Innovative? In what sense? All they do is take the best ideas from other games and implement them well with a community that's not very easy to take away. Everyone in that community has old friends that play, guilds, and it's not easy for them to get into a new mmo without the community. Not to say that there have been very well made MMO's anyways, hopefully the Elder Scrolls one does good job.
People need to put those "subscription" numbers into perspective, most of that 8-12 million is NOT the $15 a month subscriber. A lot of it is from the Asian community where logging on for 30 cents and an hour is considered a subscriber.
|
If you guys really want to have an idea of Blizzard's future plans, it might be best to go through their 10-k statement.
It's usually talked about in the Risk section where they elaborate on any potential market risks and plans to deal with such risks:
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/718877/000104746913001506/a2213119z10-k.htm
Here are a few quotes from their 2012 10-k released in mid-February 2013, I felt like showed their main focus:
"A significant portion of our revenues has historically been derived from products based on a relatively small number of popular franchises and these products are responsible for a disproportionately high percentage of our profits. For example, our four largest franchises in 2012—Call of Duty, Diablo, Skylanders and World of Warcraft—accounted for approximately 83% of our net revenues, and a significantly higher percentage of our operating income, for the year. We expect that a limited number of popular franchises will continue to produce a disproportionately high percentage of our revenues and profits. Due to this dependence on a limited number of franchises, the failure to achieve anticipated results by one or more products based on these franchises may significantly harm our business and financial results."
"A substantial portion of our revenue and profitability depends on the success of our Call of Duty franchise in the first-person action game category. If we do not maintain our leadership position in this category, our financial results could suffer..... To remain a leader in the first-person action game category, it is important that we continue to develop new games in the Call of Duty franchise that are favorably received by both our existing customer base and new customers. A number of software publishers have developed and commercialized, or are currently developing, first-person action games which pose a threat to the popularity of Call of Duty, and we expect new competitors to continue to emerge in the first-person action category. If consumer demand for Call of Duty games declines and we have not introduced new first-person action games or added other sources of revenue, our financial condition could suffer"
" A substantial portion of our revenue and profitability depends on the success of our Skylanders franchise in the "toys to life" game category. If we do not maintain our leadership position in this category, our financial results could suffer. "
" A substantial portion of our revenue and profitability depends on the subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game category. If we do not maintain our leadership position in this category, our financial results could suffer. "
This isn't to say they don't care about Warcraft or Starcraft, just that it's part of a smaller focus as compared to the games explicitly mentioned and focused upon in risk factors.
|
Warms my cockles when Wallstreet underestimates the non-WoW part of Blizzard. It'll be interesting to see the longevity of each of these franchises. CoD is looking like another Rock Band/Guitar Hero milked until market saturation. WoW will fall to the next Blizz MMO IP, those loyal to Warcraft are dropping like flies (1.3 million in 3 months) so the new demographic is just there for quick easy MMO content. But Starcraft will have a culture outside of the game, albeit in less numbers for now. Esports is an X factor at the moment, but it's going to exponentially increase, whether or not Starcraft will be at the crest is yet to be determined.
|
LotV isn't mentioned because everyone knows it's coming already and it's going to take at least 2 years to make.
|
On May 09 2013 06:30 USvBleakill wrote:Show nested quote +On May 09 2013 06:22 Jinky wrote:
HotS just came out. Why are people worried about LotV? Because people are afraid that it will get cut and never comes. At the start of SC2 it was planned to release hots 6-9 month after Wol. And now its not even in the long term plans.
Seriously? Blizzard would have had to have been retarded to release HotS 6-9 months after WoL...
The Pros were even wanting them to delay HotS even more, as they didn't want to have to switch over...
It's not like they'd earn more money off of it if they released it sooner, in fact the opposite is probably true.
Absolutely no reason for that. LotV will come out. Nobody should question that.
|
On May 09 2013 11:25 Zarahtra wrote:Show nested quote +On May 09 2013 11:04 Wildmoon wrote:On May 09 2013 06:22 Integra wrote:
WOW lost another 1.3 million subs and is down to *only* 8 million now. Not really surprising. That game is like decade old already. What surprising is it hasn't downed to like 1m yet. WoW just has such good backstory(which admittedly they are actively trying to destroy), so other MMOs have a real hard time competing with that. Also WoW was really the first MMO to truly *make it*, so atleast for me it feels like "home" so to say. I'm byfar the most comfortable when playing WoW compared to other MMOs, even if it is only a shadow of itself at best. I ofcourse cannot confirm this on a larger scale, but atleast friends of mine from WoW seem to follow a similar pattern. If we fx. compare I'd most certainly say Rift is a better/cooler game than WoW, yet I just felt there was something missing, which I could always just best explain by "It's not WoW".
See for me it's the opposite. MMOs seem all pretty similar to me, so why would I bother playing another one when I'm already so familiar/invested in WoW.
|
On May 09 2013 06:30 USvBleakill wrote:Show nested quote +On May 09 2013 06:22 Jinky wrote:
HotS just came out. Why are people worried about LotV? Because people are afraid that it will get cut and never comes. At the start of SC2 it was planned to release hots 6-9 month after Wol. And now its not even in the long term plans.
when WoL was released they stated they were aiming for 1 expansion per year.
Shortly, after WoL was released they said it'd take 18 months for HotS.
When was it 6-9 months? when Brood War was out?
WotLK took a year.
Activision views Starcraft as a "risk averse" fall back position should WoW and CoD stop producing the ridiculously high numbers it produces.
Also, Strategy Titles of all stripes have higher loyalty levels than non Strategy titles.
C&C has a gang a zombified zealots that devour anything C&C...
same iwth CoH
SimCity,
etc etc.
Starcraft is a "strategic investment" by Blizzard and its Mike MOrhaime's favourite game.
Thank God Morhaime is a game maker.. and not a lawyer or accountant.
|
|
|
|
|
|
EPT
