Blizzard Business Model

[Inkidu]

I'm probably the only person who give a care, or who's actually looked  at Blizzard's apparent business strategy. It's fairly dangerous if it catches on too. Blizzard produced W.O.W. I'm certain that's where a large majority of their cash income resides. With W.O.W. backing all their RnD they can totally produce whatever they want.

I don't care if Wings of Liberty is good or bad, or if Diablo 3 is good or bad. I'm pointing out that Blizzard hasn't produced anything new since W.O.W. and that's technically not new. They don't have to come out with anything new either. Their name will sell whatever they damn well want.

Have you noticed that all Blizzard games aren't focused on building appeal or getting new fans but making money? I'm all for that to a point. You've got to make money, but you can't neglect the creative side of things. Eventually their model is going to collapse. They'll someday be those guys who released several updates of Star Craft or Diablo. W.O.W. will eventually end. Immortal appeal is rare and usually takes hundreds of years.

I used to like Blizzard but when I realized they weren't really doing anything new. They bored me. Seriously all their games are to make money in multiplayer. They've not got the gall or the inclination to make anything purely single player. Though they do have the money.

[Serephino]

I still remember when people were pissed when Diablo 3 came out and it was very WoWish. 

I don't like Blizzard at all.  My boyfriend used to sing their praises, but then they started making money.  They didn't do anything about the farmer problem because the farmers were paying for their accounts.  And when they started stealing accounts Blizzard didn't try that hard to help you because they figured if you lost your account you would go buy I knew one. 

In summary; they were a good company before they started getting rich and famous.  Now all they see is dollar signs. 

[Wolfy]

I'm probably the only person who give a care, or who's actually looked  at Blizzard's apparent business strategy. It's fairly dangerous if it catches on too. Blizzard produced W.O.W. I'm certain that's where a large majority of their cash income resides. With W.O.W. backing all their RnD they can totally produce whatever they want.

I don't care if Wings of Liberty is good or bad, or if Diablo 3 is good or bad. I'm pointing out that Blizzard hasn't produced anything new since W.O.W. and that's technically not new. They don't have to come out with anything new either. Their name will sell whatever they damn well want.

Have you noticed that all Blizzard games aren't focused on building appeal or getting new fans but making money? I'm all for that to a point. You've got to make money, but you can't neglect the creative side of things. Eventually their model is going to collapse. They'll someday be those guys who released several updates of Star Craft or Diablo. W.O.W. will eventually end. Immortal appeal is rare and usually takes hundreds of years.

I used to like Blizzard but when I realized they weren't really doing anything new. They bored me. Seriously all their games are to make money in multiplayer. They've not got the gall or the inclination to make anything purely single player. Though they do have the money.

So you're saying WoW will be around for hundreds of years?

It's good to know my Azeroth counter part will out live me by miles....now if only we could invent a technology to transfer our minds into computers...

[Drow Denizen]

One thing to keep in mind is that Blizzard is not the same company it used to be. The division that produced all the Diablo series (Blizzard North) was closed down and is now defunct. This was when Blizzard became ActivisionBlizzard, owned by Vivendi SA - that's big business, look them up.

So it's not at all surprising that Blizzard's single-minded focus seems to be on profit and milking popular cash-cow franchises, they're not an independent studio any longer, they're owned by a huge corporation that bought them to make money, not to make games.

[meikle]

You don't need to come out with new stuff when every product you release is amazing.

I mean, I'm pretty sure the complain in the OP is "Blizzard is doing more of what made them rich in the first place!"  Well, yeah, they're a business.

[The Golden Touch]

You don't need to come out with new stuff when every product you release is amazing.

I mean, I'm pretty sure the complain in the OP is "Blizzard is doing more of what made them rich in the first place!"  Well, yeah, they're a business.

+1

[oraphi]

I don't play any of the these games really but I'm a bit confused on a point.  It's fairly well known (even to a very casual gamer like me) that Blizzard has been working on a new MMO that they claim is a totaly new IP, it seems unlikely that you wouldn't of heard of it by now if I have.  They're pretty well known for being very slow  and tight lipped in development so the lack of details doesn't in the least mean it's not being made.

[meikle]

I don't play any of the these games really but I'm a bit confused on a point.  It's fairly well known (even to a very casual gamer like me) that Blizzard has been working on a new MMO that they claim is a totaly new IP, it seems unlikely that you wouldn't of heard of it by now if I have.  They're pretty well known for being very slow  and tight lipped in development so the lack of details doesn't in the least mean it's not being made.

These are true!  There've been rumors of a new MMO, at least, but Blizzard is really good at keeping things secret:  StarCraft 2 had been in development for years before anyone outside of Blizzard knew about it, and Blizzard has released all of four games in the past decade (not counting expansions!): Diablo 2, WarCraft 3, World of WarCraft, and StarCraft 2.

So, in the past ten years, Blizzard has made: two sequels that were true to their roots (Diablo II, StarCraft II), one sequel that changed things up from it's predecessor (WarCraft 3's small-group, hero-focused RTS is much different from WarCraft II before it), and one entirely new thing in a genre that they'd never worked on before (World of WarCraft).  The argument that they refuse to try new things is kind of silly with that in mind!

[Ryven]

*wouldn't mind a StarCraft MMO* >.>

[Aiden]

*wouldn't mind a StarCraft MMO* >.>

Fuck yea!


I would be a Son of Korhal or maybe from the Kel-Morian worlds!

[The Golden Touch]

Geeks.  ^ ^

[Ryven]

Fuck yea!


I would be a Son of Korhal or maybe from the Kel-Morian worlds!

Dark Templar all the way.

[Inkidu]

You don't need to come out with new stuff when every product you release is amazing.

I mean, I'm pretty sure the complain in the OP is "Blizzard is doing more of what made them rich in the first place!"  Well, yeah, they're a business.

I would hardly call anything Blizzard makes "amazing" the A word I was looking for was addictive. I have never once looked at a Blizzard game and thought, "Wow, this changes the landscape of the medium."

And a new MMO besides. "Well guys! We at Blizzard don't have to make anything of redeeming value. We have the perfect recipe for an MMO. It will make money regardless." I don't see how an MMO is going to be innovative. So much of it is standardized. MMO's are the NASCAR of the video game world. I can guarantee some things on it. A it's going to follow fairly standard MMO stereotypes. B. It's going to be geared for a long slow grid to milk real money, and C. It's going to be a step or two behind anything non-MMO.

Now I'm not one of those people who says, "I just don't get MMOs." I used to be but now I see the appeal, and everything appealing with an MMO besides other humans playing is unappealing. I have played a ton of MMOs and none of them are any different than any other. Sure some are deeper, and I use that word with a feathery tongue, but mostly it's people who shell out money who'll win because no one actually dead-set on playing the game will win.

[meikle]

I see the appeal, and everything appealing with an MMO besides other humans playing is unappealing

edit: actually, i'm just going to leave out here.  your premise is self-contradictory!  you can conclude anything from that! :p

[Inkidu]

edit: actually, i'm just going to leave out here.  your premise is self-contradictory!  you can conclude anything from that! :p

Actually, no it's not. It's not explained. There are several factors to which I believe an MMO is considered appealing besides playing with other people. There is for example, questing. I just think that every other aspect of an MMO that might be found appealing is, to myself, unappealing. The quests of MMOs are usually ranked into fetch this or kill that. Some people find enjoyment in building characters with perfect stats or what have you. I find that unappealing. It's hard for me to describe what might be found appealing because I find them so bland, but I'm hardly contradicting myself.

[Brandon]

Its a well known fact that Blizzard keeps a very tight lip on the games it develops. See for yourself: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/5/23/

More seriously, its not he same company as the guys that made starcraft and diablo (the first blizzard games I played). While they still focus on taking their time to polish games to a mirror shine there just doesnt seem to be the same passion for quality and enjoyable games as their golden days.

As time progresses, and assuming their business model doesnt change, I think WoW will continue to loose subscribers (its had a hard time keeping them as is) and open up room for other MMORPGs. There were already some that came close to drawing away WoW players (warhammer and Aion for example) but due to either stupid mistakes, lack of content, or both they fell through.

[Geeklet]

I would hardly call anything Blizzard makes "amazing" the A word I was looking for was addictive. I have never once looked at a Blizzard game and thought, "Wow, this changes the landscape of the medium."

And how often do you see a game from ANY company, not just Blizzard, make you say that exact same thought. While there have been some games that offer nice new little features, I personally can probably only count on one hand games that have done something truly amazing and new.

[Neophyte]

Agreed. I can only think of a few off hand (Legend of Zelda:OoT, Pokemon, Sonic, Super Mario Brothers) that changed the way gaming works. THen again, WoW did that as well, by forcing everyone in the business to take their stance on patching and updating that it changed MMO's forever. No one can look at WoW and the MMO world and say that things haven't changed from the days of Everquest

[Brandon]

Um I hate to burst your bubble but Everquest, probably the original popular MMORPG, was doing patch fixes and updating before WoW was even in development.

Granted I have not kept up with wow since I quit right after Burning crusade so there may be elements that Im unaware of but I dont recall one original element of the game. Its much like halo in the sense that it took all those good ideas from other games and blended them together in one seemless mesh. Everything it has done has been done before and better

[meikle]

and better

what games did what wow does better than wow does it?

[Jude]

That depends on how you define WoW.  If you truly believe the product contained therein to be of a generally high quality, then I don't know if any other game can be said to be "better" than WoW.  Now, if you believe WoW is successful because it's an MMORPG that sells lowest common denominator crap to the mass-market audience by reducing tedium and depth associated with other options, then yes, I'd agree that WoW is probably the best MMORPG on the market in that capacity.

[Pumpkin Seeds]

Blizzard’s business model seems to be making millions while spending little.  That is the basic dream of any company that is designed to make money, which Blizzard is a money making company.  Not quite sure where any confusion can be found in their model or success.  Large profits, minimal overhead.  Very simple business strategy.

As for new games, they just released Wings of Liberty which was one of the fastest selling titles in history.  If you are going to judge them as a business then they are probably the best gaming company out there.

[Brandon]

what games did what wow does better than wow does it?

As in what aspect? Im saying the individual aspects that make up WoWs gameplay have all been taken from somewhere else, in most cases other games that did it better. The only thing wow did was take all those ideas and combine them into a seemless mesh. If you would like me to list every aspect in WoWs gameplay and make note of how it was done better in another game then my answer is no. Thats just to much work. However if you want to picka  single aspect of the game for me to review in comparison to other games then I can do that

[meikle]

As in what aspect? Im saying the individual aspects that make up WoWs gameplay have all been taken from somewhere else, in most cases other games that did it better.

everything is just an amalgamation of things that came before.  you can't say "this thing, if you pick it apart into all its smallest pieces, does all of this tiny things worse than things before it" because what you have when you look at it like that is not the actual product.

for example: hybrid cars?  bicycles did fuel efficient travel first, and better!  horse and buggy did travel first, and tbh that doesn't cost twenty grand out of pocket, so that's a laugh at the economically superior point.  and gas cars do the point a to point b quickly thing ... more quickly.  and let's be honest: tires?  monster trucks did tires before hybrids even existed and there's no way you can beat monster truck tires.  so i mean, hybrids?  what a joke.  all these things have been done before, and better!

but hybrids do them all at once, and are the best at doing all of it at once.  the total is greater than the sum of its parts and all that.

If you truly believe the product contained therein to be of a generally high quality, then I don't know if any other game can be said to be "better" than WoW.

Now, if you believe WoW is successful because it's an MMORPG that sells lowest common denominator crap to the mass-market audience by reducing tedium and depth associated with other options, then yes, I'd agree that WoW is probably the best MMORPG on the market in that capacity.

If you think that WoW is a good game, then it is the best at what it does.
If you think that WoW is not a good game (because it is less tedious than other games?), then it is still the best at what it does.

Hum!

Also, I like the peer-down-your-nose attitude in this post.  Just because you don't like a thing doesn't make you a classier person than people who do. :p

[Chris Brady]

what games did what wow does better than wow does it?

Most other MMOs, actually.  The issue is that Blizzard has Warcraft on its side.  See, they created a brand recognizable with their humourous and quirky little inserts in the original series.  And adding pop culture references in the MMO just helps them.

But mechanically, WoW is a MESS.  It's got memory leaks in just about every major city that they never fixed, and until Cata (Which is essentially World of Warcraft 2) there's at least 7 instances/dungeons that the never finished and which they're finally doing something with with this expansion.  Also, as for Diablo 3 copying WoW, I am going to laugh REALLY HARD at ANYONE who says that.  Because WoW copied Diablo TWO.

Oh, you ask?  How so?  Well, for example, and I'm going to pick on the class that shares the most with it:  The Warrior.  You mean to tell me that Thunderclap isn't like the stomp?  Or the various Shouts that the Warrior gets?  Or even MORE obvious, Patch 3.x.x's new Fury Ability for Warriors to use a two handed weapon in EACH HAND, isn't a direct rip from the Diablo 2 Barbarian??

And let's take the Paladin.  The Auras sound pretty durned familiar, don't they.  Kinda like the Auras the D2 Paladin had right?  But nah, must be a direct rip from WoW to use in Diablo 3.  Where there ISN'T a Paladin in the game...

WoW, sadly, is a bog-standard MMO with low resolution graphics, minimal animations (Each race has the SAME special power animations, usually one for melee, and two for casters, no matter what class you choose, except for the Rogue's Mutilate) and buggy gameplay.  But because it has a Brand backing it, and one they know how to market exceedingly well, they'll keep making money.

Besides, their best teams left years ago.  Blizzard North, and the team of excellent balancers that broke off and made ArenaNet and Guildwars.