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More High Profile Blizzard Esports Staff Set To Leave

Forum Index > SC2 General
66 CommentsPost a Reply
1 2 3 4 Next All
geokilla
Profile Joined May 2011
Canada8244 Posts
June 02 2019 21:59 GMT
#1
https://www.dexerto.com/esports/sources-high-profile-blizzard-staff-leave-morale-problems-678944

Found this on Reddit yesterday and was surprised this didn't get posted on TL.
Facebook Twitter Reddit
Nakajin
Profile Blog Joined September 2014
Canada8989 Posts
Last Edited: 2019-06-03 00:34:30
June 02 2019 22:52 GMT
#2
Ouch if Kim Phan leaves too it's another bad oment for us, she has been at the head of the boat for a long time and she seemed like one of the last who had an interest in brand/community protection.

Pretty sure the whole Hots debacle wouldn't have happen if she wouldn't have been on maternity leave.

On a related note, I wouldn't be surprise if we see esport in general get dowsise in the comming year/months, no one is looking healty (aka most of it is not profitable) and the economy won't stay on the up forever.
Writerhttp://i.imgur.com/9p6ufcB.jpg
WGT-Baal
Profile Blog Joined June 2008
France3417 Posts
June 02 2019 23:49 GMT
#3
it s sad to see Kim Phan leave, she has done a great job for the community.
Horang2 fan
digmouse
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
China6330 Posts
June 03 2019 02:03 GMT
#4
At this point, savor whatever you have in this year's WCS.
TranslatorIf you want to ask anything about Chinese esports, send me a PM or follow me @nerddigmouse.
JimmyJRaynor
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
Canada17035 Posts
Last Edited: 2019-06-03 03:08:51
June 03 2019 03:05 GMT
#5
On June 03 2019 07:52 Nakajin wrote:
Ouch if Kim Phan leaves too it's another bad oment for us, she has been at the head of the boat for a long time and she seemed like one of the last who had an interest in brand/community protection.

meh, losing an esports person at a video game company is like an NFL team losing a wide receiver. If the QB and the offensive line sucks the wide receiver doesn't matter.

Blizzard has been hemorrhaging active users for 2 years. They are down to 32 million active users. It doesn't matter what the esports people do if no new games are coming out and the current games have content that is not keeping the current user base interested.

The way things are going it doesn't matter what Kim Phan does. Stopping the bleeding at Blizzard depends on the teams of game makers building great new games.
Ray Kassar To David Crane : "you're no more important to Atari than the factory workers assembling the cartridges"
geokilla
Profile Joined May 2011
Canada8244 Posts
June 03 2019 03:19 GMT
#6
On June 03 2019 12:05 JimmyJRaynor wrote:
Show nested quote +
On June 03 2019 07:52 Nakajin wrote:
Ouch if Kim Phan leaves too it's another bad oment for us, she has been at the head of the boat for a long time and she seemed like one of the last who had an interest in brand/community protection.

Blizzard has been hemorrhaging active users for 2 years. They are down to 32 million active users. It doesn't matter what the esports people do if no new games are coming out and the current games have content that is not keeping the current user base interested.

The way things are going it doesn't matter what Kim Phan does. Stopping the bleeding at Blizzard depends on the teams of game makers building great new games.


I disagree. If you look at CS:GO and LoL, both games are still extremely popular to play and watch right now. There's new professional players entering into the scene, there's constant patches to the game (for LoL) where new champions are released or balance is changed, and just overall there's a lot more action from the developers. Whereas with SC2, the only thing that changed from an esports perspective are the map pool.

I can't say much about the other esports since I don't watch or play them, but isn't Dota and Fortnite also extremely popular? I thought they both have a very active and healthy esports scene?
pvsnp
Profile Joined January 2017
7676 Posts
June 03 2019 03:24 GMT
#7
On June 03 2019 11:03 digmouse wrote:
At this point, savor whatever you have in this year's WCS.


Hey, look on the bright side. If WCS gets disbanded soon, the Korean scene won't collapse after all the pros got drafted.
Denominator of the Universe
TL+ Member
JimmyJRaynor
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
Canada17035 Posts
Last Edited: 2019-06-03 03:30:59
June 03 2019 03:27 GMT
#8
On June 03 2019 12:19 geokilla wrote:
Show nested quote +
On June 03 2019 12:05 JimmyJRaynor wrote:
On June 03 2019 07:52 Nakajin wrote:
Ouch if Kim Phan leaves too it's another bad oment for us, she has been at the head of the boat for a long time and she seemed like one of the last who had an interest in brand/community protection.

Blizzard has been hemorrhaging active users for 2 years. They are down to 32 million active users. It doesn't matter what the esports people do if no new games are coming out and the current games have content that is not keeping the current user base interested.

The way things are going it doesn't matter what Kim Phan does. Stopping the bleeding at Blizzard depends on the teams of game makers building great new games.


I disagree. If you look at CS:GO and LoL, both games are still extremely popular to play and watch right now. There's new professional players entering into the scene, there's constant patches to the game (for LoL) where new champions are released or balance is changed, and just overall there's a lot more action from the developers. Whereas with SC2, the only thing that changed from an esports perspective are the map pool.

I can't say much about the other esports since I don't watch or play them, but isn't Dota and Fortnite also extremely popular? I thought they both have a very active and healthy esports scene?

how big was Blizzard's esports team in 1999? it didn't exist.

Make the game great like Brood War and the esports will follow.
Make an above average to very good game like Overwatch and people will move on a couple of years after the game is released.
Ray Kassar To David Crane : "you're no more important to Atari than the factory workers assembling the cartridges"
geokilla
Profile Joined May 2011
Canada8244 Posts
June 03 2019 03:32 GMT
#9
On June 03 2019 12:27 JimmyJRaynor wrote:
Show nested quote +
On June 03 2019 12:19 geokilla wrote:
On June 03 2019 12:05 JimmyJRaynor wrote:
On June 03 2019 07:52 Nakajin wrote:
Ouch if Kim Phan leaves too it's another bad oment for us, she has been at the head of the boat for a long time and she seemed like one of the last who had an interest in brand/community protection.

Blizzard has been hemorrhaging active users for 2 years. They are down to 32 million active users. It doesn't matter what the esports people do if no new games are coming out and the current games have content that is not keeping the current user base interested.

The way things are going it doesn't matter what Kim Phan does. Stopping the bleeding at Blizzard depends on the teams of game makers building great new games.


I disagree. If you look at CS:GO and LoL, both games are still extremely popular to play and watch right now. There's new professional players entering into the scene, there's constant patches to the game (for LoL) where new champions are released or balance is changed, and just overall there's a lot more action from the developers. Whereas with SC2, the only thing that changed from an esports perspective are the map pool.

I can't say much about the other esports since I don't watch or play them, but isn't Dota and Fortnite also extremely popular? I thought they both have a very active and healthy esports scene?

how big was Blizzard's esports team in 1999? it didn't exist.

Make the game great like Brood War and the esports will follow.
Make an above average to very good game like Overwatch and people will move on a couple of years after the game is released.


I haven't followed esports till after the release of SC2, but what does 1999 have to do with anything? Outside of Korea, I would guess esports didn't really took off until 2010s?
JimmyJRaynor
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
Canada17035 Posts
Last Edited: 2019-06-03 03:46:02
June 03 2019 03:45 GMT
#10
Without a great game the "esports team" is irrelevant.
Ray Kassar To David Crane : "you're no more important to Atari than the factory workers assembling the cartridges"
Waxangel
Profile Blog Joined September 2002
United States33493 Posts
Last Edited: 2019-06-03 05:58:32
June 03 2019 04:09 GMT
#11
On June 03 2019 07:52 Nakajin wrote:
Ouch if Kim Phan leaves too it's another bad oment for us, she has been at the head of the boat for a long time and she seemed like one of the last who had an interest in brand/community protection.

Pretty sure the whole Hots debacle wouldn't have happen if she wouldn't have been on maternity leave.

On a related note, I wouldn't be surprise if we see esport in general get dowsise in the comming year/months, no one is looking healty (aka most of it is not profitable) and the economy won't stay on the up forever.


Well, I'd not read into THAT particular aspect any more deeply than the article itself states: morale is low at Blizzard. Whether or not this is good or bad for esports/SC2 in particular is dubious. The more worrying aspect is that traditional sports personnel have been brought in to oversee esports at Blizzard, and that "the focus has become commercializing the esports titles instead of making good programs for the community." One might look at this negatively for a game such as StarCraft II which has limited esports popularity (despite its growth) compared to the biggest titles.
AdministratorHey HP can you redo everything youve ever done because i have a small complaint?
Solar424
Profile Blog Joined June 2013
United States4001 Posts
June 03 2019 04:17 GMT
#12
Who would've thought that Activision would kill Blizzard from the inside? Stop making games the dedicated fans want, make more lootboxes and Call of Duty!
lechatnoir
Profile Joined November 2016
391 Posts
June 03 2019 05:54 GMT
#13
Well that's not good even *if* it wasn't directly about our esport. Low morale in a company is poison.
Vutalisk
Profile Joined August 2016
United States680 Posts
June 03 2019 07:50 GMT
#14
Not even surprised by a little bit. Activision-Blizzard has been in a bit of rough shape financially. Revenue and stock performances have been underwhelming to say at least. Executives changes, cut HOTS and etc certainly don't help with morale. I know a long-time recruiter at Blizzard jumped the ship recently as well.
ZenithM
Profile Joined February 2011
France15952 Posts
Last Edited: 2019-06-03 08:05:15
June 03 2019 08:03 GMT
#15
Heroes of the Storm was such a weird idea in the first place. It would be like Blizzard announcing a Battle Royale game right now. Blizzard should go back to making good and ambitious games and worry about the eSports extra shit after. But no, instead we get Diablo Immortal :D.
digmouse
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
China6330 Posts
June 03 2019 08:06 GMT
#16
On June 03 2019 13:17 Solar424 wrote:
Who would've thought that Activision would kill Blizzard from the inside? Stop making games the dedicated fans want, make more lootboxes and Call of Duty!

Ironically, this year's Call of Duty ditched season pass and added full cross platform multiplayer, something the community has been asking for years.
TranslatorIf you want to ask anything about Chinese esports, send me a PM or follow me @nerddigmouse.
Pandemona *
Profile Blog Joined March 2011
Charlie Sheens House51493 Posts
June 03 2019 08:08 GMT
#17
Wouldn't read to much into Esports is ending for Blizzard, but its that the direction they are going in is clearly an interesting one with this Fox Sports guy at the helm. WoW and SC2 will be in dire shape Esport wise if Kim goes imo as she seems to be (and trying to) getting them at the forefront.

Biggest issue for them as well is keeping the talent they have, so many big companies out there now to compete with and they can just try and get jobs with competitors. Hope Blizzard take note and try to change other areas instead of Esports areas.
ModeratorTeam Liquid Football Thread Guru! - Chelsea FC ♥
Pandain
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
United States12989 Posts
June 03 2019 08:35 GMT
#18
If Kim is leaving you know something is fucked up
Anc13nt
Profile Blog Joined October 2017
1557 Posts
June 03 2019 08:45 GMT
#19
I think PC game market has bigger competition than in the past which is why Blizzard is having some problems recently. I hope they can get out of this hump soon.
GreasedUpDeafGuy
Profile Joined August 2018
United States398 Posts
June 03 2019 08:48 GMT
#20
This is gonna end up another vulture capitalism story a la sears and toys r us
Cant catch me. You're wasting your time
1 2 3 4 Next All
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