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Jason Schreier: Activision Blizzard financial report makes it clear that they have lost all interest in StarCraft
- Thread starter Futabaisthebest<3
- Start date
It's hard to take reviews of online-only games at face value. A lot of those reviews are fresh, just opened the box, and played for a couple days reviews. Most of the cracks in these games don't show up until later when players get a grasp of the game. Sometimes the faults are day 1 (Anthem). A lot of outlets don't look back and readjust their reviews either. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense overall. I don't think anyone can argue Diablo 3 RoS deserves an 88. I don't think anyone would voluntarily take that position and debate it as it's an obviously wrong position to have as the glaring problems regarding trade, builds, pvp, itemization, etc have been thoroughly discussed and widely known to be just... bad. It'd be nice if reviewers took a month or 2 before putting out reviews for these types of games, but that's not possible as they rely on clicks for income. The biggest issue Diablo 3 faced critically is the error login during release. Not many even talked about the abhorrent inferno mode, the fact that people cheesed it by killing jars in act 4, or that wasps 1 shot almost everyone. There were plenty of issues that didn't really get light of day until later.
Battle for Azeroth has a 79 metacritic. Warlords of Draenor has 87. Hmmmm
Yeah LoL pretty much came and ate their lunch in Korea and everywhere.
Yeah, totally. This company who sold 10 million+ copies of almost every game it's ever made and had the most successful MMO of all time and had existed for almost 20 years when it merged with Activision was totally unsustainable. Acting like they were just a middling company until WoW is totally revisionist. They sold like 20+ million copies of Diablo 2. You have no idea how they would have ended up without the Activision merger, but to act like they were on a sinking ship is just ludicrous. Also, Diablo 3 sucked so bad its sold over 30 million copies. What a flop.
People still play Diablo 3. People still play Diablo 2 for crying out loud. This is another instance of theism forum thinking it represents the gaming community at large. People don't like D3 on Era so obviously it was a flop and no one plays it. Its certynot at its peak, like it was when RoS released, but they game is almost 10 years old and hasn't received a significant update in 5+ years. It still sold 30 million copies and it is completely asinine to act like a game that sold 30 million is a failure in any sense of the word. This is as ridiculous an argument as the people on Era trying to act like Red Dead Redemption 2 was a failure. D3 was a huge success.
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blizzard is slow to update. the online landscape is different now. need faster updates with content. mike morhaime didn't see this and neither did any of the other leaders hence slow ass updates even to this day. activision now has to step in and put some sense into them. it's a shame but it's clear the old leadership was stuck in the year 2004
A lot of what the fucks going on in here by what I'm guessing are a lot of people that don't play or watch Starcraft.
GSL vs the World is coming up: https://liquipedia.net/starcraft2/2019_GSL_vs._the_World
GSL season 3 starts up again in like 10 days.
WCS Fall is in a month Qualifiers going through out August.
Nation Wars starts at the end of September.
Hopefully Blizzard doesn't just murder it behind the shed.
GSL vs the World is coming up: https://liquipedia.net/starcraft2/2019_GSL_vs._the_World
GSL season 3 starts up again in like 10 days.
WCS Fall is in a month Qualifiers going through out August.
Nation Wars starts at the end of September.
Hopefully Blizzard doesn't just murder it behind the shed.
Cancelling a game, then not name dropping the franchise that doesn't have anything in development is a far cry from losing interest. 2K didn't talk about Borderlands for a long time, and now it's all they're talking about. Same with Mafia. Aren't there also remasters available and upcoming for SC titles?
This seems to be finding a story where one doesn't exist.
This seems to be finding a story where one doesn't exist.
Hi
I see where your coming from, but give Jason a little credit. He knows alot of people and alot of things. He has reported on what a mess current Blizzard is with them having canceled their last 3 announced games and refocusing down to 3 IP is not something they will course correct for a very long time.
And Borderlands is a bad example because everyone's known it was coming since before battleborn even flopped.
I see where your coming from, but give Jason a little credit. He knows alot of people and alot of things. He has reported on what a mess current Blizzard is with them having canceled their last 3 announced games and refocusing down to 3 IP is not something they will course correct for a very long time.
And Borderlands is a bad example because everyone's known it was coming since before battleborn even flopped.
I mean isn't Activision getting fined a billion euros in back taxes right now for tax dodging? They need all the money they can get right now.
Blizzard has canceled an internally developped game in the first steps of the project. Every company does this.
Which Announced games has Blizzard canceled besides "WarCraft - Lord of the Clans" (24 years ago) and "StarCraft - Ghost" (15 years ago)?
There's no credit to be given, he's basing his whole take on Activision's statement.
I started Zerg last year after replaying the original + Brood War and then Wings of Liberty on Hard, grinding out all campaign achievements.
I dropped Heart of the Swarm halfway through my 3rd planet, and I cannot bring myself to continue. That story is just pure tripe.
I think multiplayer focused RTS games are in a tough spot right now. It takes way longer to feel like you aren't complete crap in SC2 than it does in many other online games like LoL and Dota. Like fighting games, not feeling limited by one's own ability to even input what they want to do takes a lot of practice. 1v1 is also a harder sell than team based games, since a loss is purely on the player which can scare newer players off.
As for why it has had waning success long term, during Wings of Liberty (and again later on during Heart of the Swarm) the balance at a professional level was problematic which made for less exciting tournaments. Combine that with the game still being $60 as League grew massively in 2011-2012 and they really let what was the top esport (aside from maybe Brood War in Korea) just be overtaken. Some people have also mentioned Blizzard's ironfisted approach to licensing tournaments which certainly didn't help. The game is in a good place right now in terms of playing and spectating, but it's now in a hugely saturated esports market making growth difficult. I honestly think the game still graphically holds up and I think most gameplay improvements could be accomplished in SC2 as it is, making a potential SC3 a really hard sell. Not being suited to console or to having microtransactions also really makes any future Starcraft (RTS, anyway) way less appealing to Activision since they seem to only care about making insane amounts of money off of the few games that they do produce.
It makes me sad because SC2 was the reason I built a gaming PC in 2010 and even through the flaws it's got awesome multiplayer and plenty of Arcade maps to play.
As for why it has had waning success long term, during Wings of Liberty (and again later on during Heart of the Swarm) the balance at a professional level was problematic which made for less exciting tournaments. Combine that with the game still being $60 as League grew massively in 2011-2012 and they really let what was the top esport (aside from maybe Brood War in Korea) just be overtaken. Some people have also mentioned Blizzard's ironfisted approach to licensing tournaments which certainly didn't help. The game is in a good place right now in terms of playing and spectating, but it's now in a hugely saturated esports market making growth difficult. I honestly think the game still graphically holds up and I think most gameplay improvements could be accomplished in SC2 as it is, making a potential SC3 a really hard sell. Not being suited to console or to having microtransactions also really makes any future Starcraft (RTS, anyway) way less appealing to Activision since they seem to only care about making insane amounts of money off of the few games that they do produce.
It makes me sad because SC2 was the reason I built a gaming PC in 2010 and even through the flaws it's got awesome multiplayer and plenty of Arcade maps to play.
Right, they love money so they're dropping this game.
It's a shame the esports part was handled so poorly, maybe it could have been bigger than Dota. It's definitely more fun to watch.
Weird to cancel a Starcraft FPS when a new genre might be what that series needs to see a boost? Similar to how WoW isn't an RTS but was huge all the same.
Dunno though, I don't run a billion dollar company that acts like it's broke.
Dunno though, I don't run a billion dollar company that acts like it's broke.
They love a return on investment (ROI) which is equal to or greater than a smiling project. SC is PC only so ROI will be much lower than a game which is on consoles as well.
Capital will be diverted to the project with the highest ROI.
The franchise is dead. It's going to be dead for at least 10 years. Why 10 years? Because I don't have faith in Blizzard developing a Starcraft game that isn't an RTS, and I don't think Starcraft will be their next RTS anyway. They might have to hit that Warcraft 4 panic button.
For years we felt like Mike Morhaime was on our side. He's gone now. And I wonder if J. Allen Brack's lack of enthusiasm for Starcraft is what got Starcraft: Battlefield (greenlit by Morhaime) to get cancelled anyway in favor of getting Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4 out the door quicker.
Yes. The future is bleak for SC fans. I expect mobile game spinoffs until an actual game gets released.
Completely anecdotal I know, but I played the first part, then the second and third parts took ages to be released and completely lost all interest by that point.
Don't know if this is one of the reasons why SC2 didn't succeed as they expected it to.
Don't know if this is one of the reasons why SC2 didn't succeed as they expected it to.
SC2 not blowing the fuck up in South Korea at the time of release (I expected a megaton release with insane marketing and events and a record number of people calling in sick to work) was absolutely baffling.
I was living in the country at the time and it seemed like a sure fire phenomenon.
Instead, it came and went like a fart in the wind. It was so, so odd.
I was living in the country at the time and it seemed like a sure fire phenomenon.
Instead, it came and went like a fart in the wind. It was so, so odd.
I would feel something if I didn't remember that blizzard's complacency on balance and fuckery with the tournament scene in sc2 killed my interest in the game during the Heart of the Swarm, swarm host/broodlord era.
I moved to dota a game that has a much better grip on balance than any blizzard title I've played so far.
In years of dipping in and out of blizzard games I can safely say I personally can't stand their balance philosophies. Their games to me just do not survive on extended plays. In comparison I'm way more in tune to how CS Go and Dota look at these kind of things. I say this as someone that played a shit ton of wings of liberty but in retrospect it was mostly because of friends not the game itself.
I moved to dota a game that has a much better grip on balance than any blizzard title I've played so far.
In years of dipping in and out of blizzard games I can safely say I personally can't stand their balance philosophies. Their games to me just do not survive on extended plays. In comparison I'm way more in tune to how CS Go and Dota look at these kind of things. I say this as someone that played a shit ton of wings of liberty but in retrospect it was mostly because of friends not the game itself.
This makes me so sad. Starcraft is easily one of my favorite IPs ever, and I have very fond memories of both of them. Competetive sc2 really is unique and awesome in so many ways. Here's to hoping it means more "there's no starcraft plans as of now" rather than starcraft being dead.
If it wasn't for private investors like AfreecaTV/GSL, Dreamhack, ESL, TakeTV and etc. you would see far less tournaments every year.
When Blizzard pulls out due to Activision, you will probably still have those privately organized tournaments like GSL, Nation Wars, Home Story Cup, OlimoLeague and etc, but anything bigger like WCS and Dreamhack will probably go away, unless people crowdfund it like other tournaments.
After reading this news and remembering what happened to Heroes of the Storm, I wouldn't be surprised at all, if this was actually the last official Blizzard WCS season. I would be pretty sad about it, though.
Welcome to large corporations.
I was part of a training position TruGreen rolled out in 2011. Had 2 weeks of training seminars out of state where the constantly talked about how important training will be going forward. How long term thinking this initiative was. Every branch had a training coordinator that was going to be essential to onboarding all new employees, year round quality control follow ups in the field, customer complaint resolutions, as well as a central safety coordinator.
The whole goal was to improve customer retention, lower accidents, and improve Net Promoter Scores. 4 months later the position was canned for lack of ROI.
It seems unlikely to me that the Blizzard of today will create the next big hit in the veins of Hearthstone, Overwatch or WoW.
It's sad how far they've fallen.
It's sad how far they've fallen.
Blizzard is going worse and worse, which makes me really sad as I used to be a huge Blizzard fan.
-Diablo III is OK, but not as good as we expected from Blizzard and the launch was bad
-Overwatch was great at launch, but the way Blizzard develops meaningful content for the game is so slow, and some decisions like forcing 2-2-2 compositions are implemented too late, the game is not what it used to be that's sure
-Hearthstone was great at launch too, but I got bored really fast ast the meta for some seasons is quite boring
I really miss the Blizzard that created games with lenghty, epic SP modes, the Blizzard that made great RTS games. Maybe it's just me, I don't care about card games, MOBA or other popular genres.
-Diablo III is OK, but not as good as we expected from Blizzard and the launch was bad
-Overwatch was great at launch, but the way Blizzard develops meaningful content for the game is so slow, and some decisions like forcing 2-2-2 compositions are implemented too late, the game is not what it used to be that's sure
-Hearthstone was great at launch too, but I got bored really fast ast the meta for some seasons is quite boring
I really miss the Blizzard that created games with lenghty, epic SP modes, the Blizzard that made great RTS games. Maybe it's just me, I don't care about card games, MOBA or other popular genres.
I volunteer.
It's excellent. Problems with D3: The story's cheesy trash and the soundtrack doesn't live up to D2. The soundtrack is the part of this that I actually care about, too. Go figure.
Good things about D3 post RoS: The gameplay loop is great, the itemization is fun, the game is gorgeous as ever, and it plays like a polished-ass dream, like it has since day 1.
D3 RoS is a great game and I wouldn't have dumped some 1100 odd hours into it if it weren't.
What the fuck is Valve going to do with Starcraft. They have enough high quality IP sitting dormant as is.
I was a massive Blizzard fan - Starcraft is in my top 5 of all time. Warcraft 2 ToD, Starcraft 2 (all 3 of them) and Warcraft 3 are some of my favourite games too.
It saddens me to say that there's nothing on the horizon for me. With the exception of the Warcraft 3 remaster!
It saddens me to say that there's nothing on the horizon for me. With the exception of the Warcraft 3 remaster!
Incorrect. I am basing my take on what I know about what's currently happening at Blizzard. Starcraft 2 and Starcraft Remastered are still in semi-active development (occasional updates and new co-op commanders), but that's it.
Activision are dicks. I hate everything they've done to Blizzard over the last year or so. I feel for all the staff that lost their jobs in activisions greedy reach for even more profit for it's shareholders. They're killing communities that have been built up over 20 years. :(
I've put around 1000 hours into the game as well since release, but let's be honest, there are more issues with D3 than just the story and soundtrack. The linearity of quests, the pointless grinding from lvl. 1 to 70, the lack of true build variety to clear endgame content, the inexplicable desire to balance all the classes even though there's no PvP and the leaderboards are seperated by classes, limited trading.
They make D3 a poor imitation of D1 and D2's legacy.
that tells you all you need to know about the value of the metacritic average
