Or "Some French Guys Own Blizzard".
If you check out the official forums on the World of Warcraft sub-site of Battle.net, you'll probably find a thread all about what I'm going to post here, and in no particular chronological order.
So those who keep up with the news of Blizzard already know that BlizzCon '12 is not happening this year. While that sucks, I am also glad because it gives me extra time to prepare for BlizzCon '13... If it's worth attending. Here's to hoping they have some really awesome Titan stuff prepared for then, or maybe another cool easter egg the community has yet to dig up.
Then there was the news of Blizzard laying off 600 people worldwide (which created a domino effect with a few small developers, forcing them to lay people off as well), and mostly in customer service. That means GMs and Tele-center reps, as well as a few other slots. I was personally shocked to hear the news, even if it wasn't exactly something to be unexpected. After having lost about two million subscribers to WoW during Cataclysm, something scary like this wasn't far behind. Activision-Blizzard also hired a new CFO shortly before the layoffs.
Need I mention the WoW Annual Pass?
And of course, there is the Blizzard Store having released their in-game pets and mounts that you can buy with real money, with one pet in particular that can be sold on the Auction House for in-game gold. They slowly began putting these things into the game in Wrath and have ramped up since Cataclysm, the newest being a shiny asian-style dragon mount that doesn't really fit anywhere in the game (though I suppose that will change with Mists).
Two days ago Blizzard announced their revamp of the Scroll of Ressurection system, designed to bring back players whose accounts had been inactive since March 4th of this year. With the new SoR... Well, here:
The SoR thing has been around for a long time, and it's no surprise that such a thing was redone after seeing how poorly Cataclysm did when compared with the expansions before it.
We also can't forget the cutting of the World of Warcraft magazine, which might have been the first sign (albeit small) that finances over at Activision-Blizzard weren't doing that great even though finance was never stated when they called it quits. Finance is always an issue.
The main thing to remember here is that Activision-Blizzard is a company, owned by another company called Vivendi, headquarted in Paris, France. I have to remind myself sometimes that Blizzard isn't just Blizzard Entertainment anymore, it's attached to another entity which are both underneath a giant 'international media conglomerate' which isn't going have the heart that Blizzard by itself has had in dealing with its holdings. Both Activision and Blizzard were started by nerds, for nerds, and I'm sure either by themselves would be more than willing to lose a few profits for the community if they had to. The problem is that the Activision and Blizzard Entertainment of 30 and 20 years ago (respectively) have grown up quite a bit, and Vivendi has owned Blizzard for the better part of that 20 years. The point is, the bigger a company gets, the more robotic it gets, and the passion that started it in the first place gets swallowed up by corporate grind and money.
Have a look at the Activision-Blizzard Wiki. (Wiki, I know, sue me.) The three key people it lists aren't people from the hometown of Blizzard Entertainment. The first guy is a french businessman named Jean-Bernard Levy, and the second guy is Michael J. Griffith (who has no Wiki but can be looked up here), and Robert Kotick from Activision - President and CEO of Acti-Blizz. Supposedly Kotick's down with pushing the 'independent developer', but you can never really tell with those business-suity guys. It gets a bit scary when you read on his page his supposed quotes... especially the 'exploiting' part. Knowing this, when reflecting back on what just World of Warcraft has gone through in the past year, not looking at any other games underneath the Acti-Blizz umbrella... Well, I personally just get a sinking feeling. If the top guys at Vivendi tell Acti-Blizz to create profit and trim fat, the top guys at Acti-Blizz are going to turn to their lower people and tell them to get to it. The lower guy representing the Blizzard arm of the company is Mike Morhaime, and he did his best to gracefully let the WoW community know what was up with the layoffs, as well as reassure everyone that everything is okay.
But is everything really okay (with Warcraft)? I respect Blizzard Entertainment, it's the guys sitting above them I'm worried about.
If you check out the official forums on the World of Warcraft sub-site of Battle.net, you'll probably find a thread all about what I'm going to post here, and in no particular chronological order.
So those who keep up with the news of Blizzard already know that BlizzCon '12 is not happening this year. While that sucks, I am also glad because it gives me extra time to prepare for BlizzCon '13... If it's worth attending. Here's to hoping they have some really awesome Titan stuff prepared for then, or maybe another cool easter egg the community has yet to dig up.
Then there was the news of Blizzard laying off 600 people worldwide (which created a domino effect with a few small developers, forcing them to lay people off as well), and mostly in customer service. That means GMs and Tele-center reps, as well as a few other slots. I was personally shocked to hear the news, even if it wasn't exactly something to be unexpected. After having lost about two million subscribers to WoW during Cataclysm, something scary like this wasn't far behind. Activision-Blizzard also hired a new CFO shortly before the layoffs.
Need I mention the WoW Annual Pass?
And of course, there is the Blizzard Store having released their in-game pets and mounts that you can buy with real money, with one pet in particular that can be sold on the Auction House for in-game gold. They slowly began putting these things into the game in Wrath and have ramped up since Cataclysm, the newest being a shiny asian-style dragon mount that doesn't really fit anywhere in the game (though I suppose that will change with Mists).
Two days ago Blizzard announced their revamp of the Scroll of Ressurection system, designed to bring back players whose accounts had been inactive since March 4th of this year. With the new SoR... Well, here:
Once your friend accepts your scroll and pays for at least 30 days of game, you unlock your choice of the following rewards:
- A Free Spectral Gryphon
for an Alliance character
- Or a Free Spectral Wind Rider
for a Horde character
And, to enable you and your friend to play together in Cataclysm’s newest content, any friend who accepts your Scroll will also receive the following epic benefits:
- A single character immediately boosted all the way to level 80
-- DING!
- A FREE upgrade to Cataclysm
-- regardless of your friend’s original box level
- An optional FREE character move
-- to your realm and faction so you can play together
- 7 FREE days of game time
-- available immediately
A few other prerequisites apply -- such as a free upgrade to a Battle.net account for players who haven’t played since 2009 or earlier -- so be sure to check out the FAQ below for full eligibility details.
The SoR thing has been around for a long time, and it's no surprise that such a thing was redone after seeing how poorly Cataclysm did when compared with the expansions before it.
We also can't forget the cutting of the World of Warcraft magazine, which might have been the first sign (albeit small) that finances over at Activision-Blizzard weren't doing that great even though finance was never stated when they called it quits. Finance is always an issue.
The main thing to remember here is that Activision-Blizzard is a company, owned by another company called Vivendi, headquarted in Paris, France. I have to remind myself sometimes that Blizzard isn't just Blizzard Entertainment anymore, it's attached to another entity which are both underneath a giant 'international media conglomerate' which isn't going have the heart that Blizzard by itself has had in dealing with its holdings. Both Activision and Blizzard were started by nerds, for nerds, and I'm sure either by themselves would be more than willing to lose a few profits for the community if they had to. The problem is that the Activision and Blizzard Entertainment of 30 and 20 years ago (respectively) have grown up quite a bit, and Vivendi has owned Blizzard for the better part of that 20 years. The point is, the bigger a company gets, the more robotic it gets, and the passion that started it in the first place gets swallowed up by corporate grind and money.
Have a look at the Activision-Blizzard Wiki. (Wiki, I know, sue me.) The three key people it lists aren't people from the hometown of Blizzard Entertainment. The first guy is a french businessman named Jean-Bernard Levy, and the second guy is Michael J. Griffith (who has no Wiki but can be looked up here), and Robert Kotick from Activision - President and CEO of Acti-Blizz. Supposedly Kotick's down with pushing the 'independent developer', but you can never really tell with those business-suity guys. It gets a bit scary when you read on his page his supposed quotes... especially the 'exploiting' part. Knowing this, when reflecting back on what just World of Warcraft has gone through in the past year, not looking at any other games underneath the Acti-Blizz umbrella... Well, I personally just get a sinking feeling. If the top guys at Vivendi tell Acti-Blizz to create profit and trim fat, the top guys at Acti-Blizz are going to turn to their lower people and tell them to get to it. The lower guy representing the Blizzard arm of the company is Mike Morhaime, and he did his best to gracefully let the WoW community know what was up with the layoffs, as well as reassure everyone that everything is okay.
But is everything really okay (with Warcraft)? I respect Blizzard Entertainment, it's the guys sitting above them I'm worried about.
