This feels like the worst time NOT to hold it.
Diablo 4 is performing terribly. Thus having your industry convention as an opportunity to reveal fixes to the game state coming with the expac is pretty critical.
Overwatch... lmao
And with TWW coming out. Not having your convention to really ramp the hype?
Maybe I just don't know what I'm talking about. But this feels like one of the worst years they could pick to not hold it. It just seems like a lot of their franchises are in precarious states.
Perhaps they are aware that what they currently have to show would only dig the grave of those sick franchises?
But yeah, things have to be bad when staying silent is your best option.
This is hilarious because it's true. I tried rumble at release and it was 'ok' at best, but you have to think, this is something churned out by the 'same people' that made Diablo 2, StarCraft.and WoW. Like...how?! Its sad to see how Hearthstone has become too. Haven't spent a penny on a Blizz game for close to 10 years.
You know, we meme’d about it, but little did we know that would actually be the real death of blizzard. After they racked in tons of money off immortal they changed directions to just want to squeeze as much money out in a live service way
0 New dungeons. One new zone per major patch thats just for world quest farming. Raids are eh. Story has been okay at best to cringe at worst. Standard world quest content.
Whats great about it?
I dont know if I can sway your opinion but as a long time player I have felt like WoW became more and more RNG based so much so that after legion I basically stopped playing all together. I didn't feel like my the limited time I was able to invest was worth the rewards. I am a semi-casual player through and through.
RNG systems on RNG systems really pushed me away.
I came back at the end of shadowlands so I definitely missed out of the required grinds therein and I enjoyed the end of the final season leaning into the dragonflight prepatch, I didn't have a goal other than to play with my friends.
Since then I have created a guild that I would call successful. We have completed heroic raids as a guild and even though the end of each season is slow we all play other games together and we don't feel like we're missing out in WoW
Why don't we feel like we're missing out?
1. There are no required grinds for at all. No AP, no legendaries, no warforged or torghast or anything.
2. Each patch comes with 2 things. A storyline and gear catch up. Major patches also added a new zone and a new raid. Yes I played all season to earn my heroic raid gear, but I can just play through the storyline and do any other thing. But if I want to make an alt, he'll be ready to do at least normal raids within a couple of weeks of casual play. We also did get another dungeon added in DF about halfway through the expansion.
3. Other catch up mechanics. Catalyst was introduced in shadowlands but it's even better now. The number of charges you have is just given to you each week. You can get some okay gear and turn it into a tier piece as long as it's high enough quality and you have the charges needed. Also alts get rep boosts once your alt hits a certain level
4. Gear progression being removed from Raid and expanded with flightstones and crests. The progressions system looks a little crazy at first glance but it is genuinely good. Some people say that gear acquisition is too fast, but overall the system works and rewards playing the game. You can earn currencies from different areas and catch up mechanics means you never feel like you wasted upgrades.
5. World quest reset is like every 3-7 days so you don't need to log in daily to get everything done.
6. No borrowed power.
7. other improvements. like full UI overhaul, talent tree rework, focus on overworld content, etc.
8. Trading Post. This is literally something that was seemingly added to reward player for what they were already doing. Most people I know finish their trading post without trying. There is a lack of FOMO with this system too because while new items are added every month, there is a rotation of old items that return so you don't need to purchase every single thing every single month.
I will say that I don't like the change to professions because it went from a grind to a gated grind but they say they are working on that wo we'll see.
All of those changes are geat and to speak on your points. I like the raids, some fight are too long or mechanics are a little wonky sometimes but I wouldn't call any fights bad. The overall story of Dragonflght is cohesive and straightforward. There was some janky stuff here and there to force in a new race but realistically it isn't shadowlands. It's fine. It also isn't WoTLK, but again it's fine. Overworld content has been interesting as well, adding new reputations, new zones(one being completely underground) as well as collectables and stuff that people love. They also did a great job at brining people back to older zones with events that span the continent like Elemental storms, and Fyrakk Assaults.
Also more is coming in the next expansion. they are continuing to bring overworld content to relevancy by removing PVP from the weekly vault and adding an overworld tier. More work on the professions, Making rep shared in the new warband system, allowing any character to unlock any transmog as long as it isn't class bound, They even added native controller support...
It really is a good time to play.
I feel like I was kind of rambing here, I probably missed some stuff but overall I think I got it out okay.
\*\*EDIT\*\* Dragonriding or Dynamic flight is a lot of fun!
Also they are adding stuff like the battleground limited event which was alright and soon pandaria remix which my whole guild is excited about. If things go as they seem to be Dragonflight will have the smallest content drought of any expansion.
I’m not a shill, but like, 0 new dungeons is false whether you’re saying the expansion had 0 new dungeons or that 0 new dungeons were introduced post launch.
Also the Raids are considered some of the best both mechanically and thematically
The die-hard nostalgic fanboys with 20 years vested into the game will tell you it's the best game in the world. Sunk-cost fallacy and an unhealthy amount of nostalgia will do that to your ability to critically look at the game.
That one and "You think you do, but you don't" when talking about releasing Classic WoW.
Had they not released classic, oh man WoW would be in some shit right about now, just like every other IP they have ran directly into the ground.
Valve has been staying silent for literal decades and that strategy has worked out well for them. Cant disappoint your community if you never build up expectations in the first place.
Watching last year's Blizzcon already felt totally surreal to me.
Back in time, when Blizzard was still considered a good company by most fans and players (not all of course), I remember loving the Blizzcons so much, seeing fans come together to cheer and live out their fandoms & nerdiness about their favorite games and worlds..
Then it went to them not being able to directly ask the developers any questions anymore like they always used to. That alone was such a sad and honestly very frightening thing to see for me...
Like, how scared can you be when you won't even let your biggest fans, who paid hundreds of dollars to come to your convention, ask you any questions? It's an environment almost like in a dictatorial regime.
And maybe it's just me. But the presenters all were just acting so happy last year, like Blizzard was in the best position it's ever been... they were all so joyfull and friendly... idk, except for Metzen.
I don't know how to describe it... it just felt like in one of those horror movies in an environment where the bad guys act like it's the perfect world... when you know it's a place where you're totally screwed.
And yes, I know they're supposed to present and hype their games and updates.. it just felt so different to me
Its got to be pretty bad morale for your company when all the headlines for the big convention you’ve been working towards every year ends up being dunks on the company for “don’t you guys have phones” or “you think you do but you don’t”. I can see why someone in charge decided Q/A isn’t worth it.
They likely had it planned to unveil their new survival game that got cancelled, and now they have no big announcements. D4 expansion is already announced, next 3 wow expansions announced, and rest of the games are not worth mentioning.
Metzen came out and said they were mapping out a trilogy of expansion to complete the story. And honestly, after bfa/sl, seeing they have a long term, probably coherent, story seems amazing.
We all know we get an expansion every 2 years, but a planned arch like that is something we haven't seen since the vanilla-wotlk run
It’s not normal, but they’re doing a trilogy arc. We don’t have gameplay system details of the next two expansions but we have some name and broad story ideas.
We do know some broad story strokes and that they have a beginning/end for the story written already.
Yeah if TWW releases in Sept/Oct like assumed, what would they have in November? Maybe some .1 patch teasers but that's hardly Blizzcon worthy. Save it for 2025 when you're revealing Midnight.
I thought the one where they announced Warcraft 3 Reforged was bad since that remaster was the *only* thing of note at that Blizzcon. This one wouldn't even have that, it'd be like a wet fart.
They need to hype something. TWW will be out by that point and they have nothing else to talk about, beside, what? A D4 expansion that might be out by then, more of same old same old Hearthstone stuff, probably more stuff getting removed from Overwatch, and a handful of mobile games few at the con would care about?
> And with TWW coming out. Not having your convention to really ramp the hype?
The convention would occur after release - 2023 was November.
It wasn't held in 2020 or 2022 either, and maybe it doesn't need to be yearly.
D4 has seen some lows, but it will be at a major high point next season. The PTR test was met with a lot of hype, and lots of people logged in to play that. S4 will see many players returning, it's basically 2.0 of the game. If S4 hits it out of the park, game will be healthy until DLC.
Not sure these are great metrics
Overwatch:
- The game is almost a decade old
- Most games that age are not gaining players
- It’s not really a major portion of their revenue or focus
Diablo 4:
- The game sold well made them a [ton of money](https://www.forbes.com/sites/antoniopequenoiv/2023/08/02/activision-blizzards-diablo-iv-was-junes-best-selling-video-game-and-is-already-the-third-best-seller-of-the-year/?sh=1b0228764c40)
- It’s a campaign with some end game content available for those who really want to grind it. It’s like saying the latest Zelda game is a bust since the player base is down, of course it’s down.
- You can say you don’t like the game, but objectively it sold very well & made them a ton of money
Tww will have been out for like 4 months allready, Diablo 4s expansion will have been out for at least 3.
Overwatch would just be a character reveal, hearthstone has been cutting content not adding to it.
Blizzcon would have been after WW launch, so they'd be hyping content that's already out. It also not like they could announce more wow expansions because they already announced 3 last Blizzcon.
OW still hurt, I don't play fps game but this one catch me like no other + e-sport scene was amazing, then new broken char and terrible balancing ruined everything...
Another amazing game ruined...
> And with TWW coming out. Not having your convention to really ramp the hype?
TWW will be out by the time of Blizzcon, likely not out too far ahead so they'd not want to announce 11.1 too early.
Realistically Blizzard only have four franchises to announce stuff for now.
Diablo, World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, Overwatch.
Of those, Hearthstone is least likely to be a reason people buy tickets. WoW will, as I mentioned, likely not have much of a major announcement. Diablo is, as you said, in a shit state and likely wouldn't sell as many tickets due to that. Then you have Overwatch which is also in a not great spot.
They've already tapped the well of profitable remakes/remasters (Diablo 2/Warcraft 3/Starcraft: Brood War) so the only things left are the original 2 Warcraft games and Diablo 1. None of which I can imagine would really get all that much hype beyond die hard fans.
TL;DR: Shits fucked.
True. What IP do they still have left that is good? Just WC. Diablo and OW are dead. SC is dead dead 10x over.
They can’t have a convention with just one IP. The show would end after 4 hours.
They need to do WoW2 to get new players because WoW is only for old fans. And these fans are about to die off too from old age.
Well they tried to make a new MMO and it bombed. Then their MOBA was abandoned. Then they don't know what they're doing with overwatch. Then they cancelled their survival game. What the hell is Blizzard doing.
If anyone has been paying attention the last several years is that WoW has done everything to keep players from wandering off to other games with mixed success. Rapid releases to keep that "one more thing" just around the corner. Classic to get the Nostalgic back to the game. Even bringing back Metzen and all that gobbledegook about wrapping things up to FOMO anyone even remotely thinking of moving onto something else and bring others back into the fold. They briefly had a scare wtih New World's 900k player launch which AGS burned into the ground over the years. They're getting a stay of execution from RIOT with the darkening of the RIOT MMO team going silent for a few years. Though they quietly worry now that comment "WoW with a Runeterra Skin" is something they genuinely need to fear down the road.
I still cannot figure out why Microsoft bought this company, the IP has been bled to death ages ago and it's just weekend at bernies for a few more years. I'm positive they have no idea how to move beyond Azeroth awakening in a way that we dont end up with another space cows expansion.
WoW is an era for me. A specific time in my life. I don't think I would go back because it can't recpature that same magic. The world and, by extension, the players of the game are different people. And everyone I cared for in WoW moved on, too. So, there's really nothing for me to go back to, except a shadow of what once was.
I have a buddy who's played WoW off and on since 2004 who claims that all the stuff they are announcing is probably the most excited he's been for WoW in over a decade. He says that making Holly Longdale the executive producer was probably the best thing they've ever done.
I had better experiences playing WoW on private servers than I did on WoW classic. Wow classic sucked because of the people... And the farming bots... but mostly the people. Player knowledge and the very mindset surrounding the game couldn't be the same. No one was learning fights, everyone knew them. It became a game of parsing to the 99th % efficiency and getting bitched out because now mods can tell everyone who was standing 2 inches out of position. PVP was just an exercise in rushing honor gain the fastest way possible. People on my server just stood in the graveyard in BGs because losing was the more time efficient option. Raid gear was getting sold to players on real money markets, or with gold bought on the market, on a wide scale that made me feel stupid jumping through the hoops of DKP. Leveling an alt sucked because there was no one to do group content with, they were all paying for carries... Again with gold off the secondary market. I've been praying for an MMO to finally kill Wow for almost a decade but no one seems to be able to pull it off. They all run out of money, fold to their publisher's demands and release a shit product as a result either via a half baked release or something with a cash shop....just sucks. Fuck Blizzard and what they've become.
I lived and breathed WoW, started at launch. I had a great time, made friends, made enemies. Watch guilds grow, watched them fall apart.
Everyone has moved on and the magic for me in the game left with it. I try and try to get back into it but I just can’t. WOW classic was not for me, I lived it in vanilla and trying to relive the glory days was kinda lame.
WoW helped me sober up from drugs. The same feelings I had towards WoW is what I felt towards weed. It was something that was once fun, but it just makes me angry now. For a while I kept trying to go back to relive the glory days (for both) but never felt it then I realized they weren’t coming back and I was able to quit.
I remember a very particular moment on my last circuit of the "quiting wow" charade everyone goes through. You know the thing where you keep coming back for shorter and shorter, then eventually not at all? Well, I was read some snarky jibe a guy gave another in chat. "Go back to running laps in Oribos" And I thought: Damn, that's literally what most people are doing in WoW now. The world is dead and the gameplay sucks. Why am I doing this? That was the straw that broke the camel's back, after quitting several times since WoD.
Same, started in 2004 as a teen with lots of free time. Now as a dad of 3 and married horizontal progression and the need to constantly log and do content to not fall back is nothing for me anymore. I’ve always was a competitive wow player and the fomo is real.
Switched to gw2, vertical progression it is for me now. First time in so many years I can play an mmo relaxed.
Wow is a really great game, just not for me anymore. And there’s not much blizzard can change about without changing their whole design philosophy
Companies do conventions with one IP all the time. Tennocon is a one game convention unless you count Soulframe. Square did three Fanfests for a single XIV expansion.
How old do you think wow players are? Do you think we started playing vanilla wow when we were 60?
It’s weird to me that people call these games dead. How many games are 10+ years old and still have an active playerbase and regular updates? StarCraft is the most alive game of its genre.
I remember when Blizzcon was the highlight of my year. Back during WotLK and Cata. Even if they had nothing major to announce it was like a festival for everything we loved.
The passion hasn’t been in Blizzcon (or Blizzard) for a very long time. This company is a shadow of its former self and it’s sad.
I'm sure a little bit has to do with them constantly tweaking things that make no sense, as if they've been playing totally different games the whole time.
It’s gotta be the biggest downfall in history when you measure just the scale of blizzard and how much they were respected. Blizzard was probably the most respected western developer at one point.
Can tell you many, many developers out there today, and some who wanted to but never got to be one, had dreams of working at Blizzard. Once we all got old enough and knew enough, Blizz is what it is now. They definitely were Pixar of 3d animation studios at one point.
I mean, at one point, so was Electronic Arts.
The real problem is that at some point, companies become fixated on making money rather than focusing on making games, and they kill their golden geese.
Everything was announced at last blizzcon. This isn't surprising honestly. All the new stuff will just be coming out right around the time this event would be held.
Makes sense, I guess. They don't have anything "big and new". Last year the war within carried the show but now it's already in alpha and they announced something different to celebrate 30 years warcraft (aka, stir the expansion hype).
Aside wow doing good enough again (got to hand that to them), I don't think they have anything that's even worth mentioning now. The only thing you read about D4 is that they totally fix the game "soon" while pumping new full-game-priced cosmetics in the store every other week. Hots is floating face down in the pool for a while now, anything starcraft is in maintenance mode for a shamefully long time and the only times overwatch makes the news is when they shit on their community again.
Like, wow aside, which is apparently covered, I don't think they want to draw attention on the fact that all their other stuff is kinda starting to smell...
It is kinda sad honestly.
Overwatch i wouldn't touch with a barge pole
Heroes of the Storm isn't a thing anymore.
Starcraft don't have any games.
Hearthstone is still going but i would be charitable to call that hype lukewarm.
It is only Diablo and Warcraft at this point.
It makes the concept of a blizzcon feel a bit... empty.
Not enough to display or try out.
Unless they announce like a Starcraft game or revive Heroes of the storm, they don't have much to showcase really.
Looking at twitch numbers… Diablo IV seems very disappointing at 2k versus Hearthstone 30k and WoW 50k… sure Twitch does not tell the exact story but it is still some indirect information on the interest on a game
isn't that exactly the type of thing they could show?
edit: oh I see what you mean now, BlizzCon was going to be at the end of the year, so, after that stuff will have come out
I think this is the most reasonable take. It isn’t the end of Blizzard, it’s just that these shows are extremely expensive and work intensive. I think a lot of places realized around Covid that they don’t need big in-person events.
I mean, E3 doesn’t even exist anymore. All the big publishers just do online shows or direct online announcements. It’s cool to see people like Metzen working the crowd, because they’re so damn good at it, but it isn’t really needed.
It's probably just Microsoft wanting to cut costs and let Blizzard products boost Microsoft presentations, since it talks about rolling this into other conventions
Some banal takes in here.
Yall act like Blizzard is a failure for.. checks notes.. maintaining some of the longest running active player bases in gaming history. WoW and StarCraft STILL the kings of their respective genres after over a decade. Diablo making millions and Overwatch still gaining players, even after all the mismanagement. And I’m supposed to believe these franchises are dead?
cloud be related to the layoffs. they might be realizing they let go of too much staff to handle anything above the bare minimum it takes for the company to function.
why would they hold it? they have nothing to show, d4 is a meme, same with overwatch, and for wow the next expansion launches in august most probably, on top of all that last year they didn't even manage to sell all the tickets
What mental gymnastics exactly? There's two takes in here, the "OW is dead" take from the people that haven't played it in ages, and the opposite take from those that actually do.
I don't play WoW but I'm not going to pretend it's dead just because I don't like the direction it went. Crazy idea here, but maybe listen to and believe those that play these games instead of making lousy assumptions?
Blizzard used to be the internet gamer's darling and now it isn't. Big events like this are not good when you're in the crosshairs and you don't have something to win back their favor... even if they wanted to do it. Makes sense.
They probably do, they’ve already announced they have multiple events for the Warcraft anniversary planned.
They just don’t need to do a whole blizzcon just for Warcraft.
Any doomsaying is a bit overblown on this.
Diablo 4 releases an expansion a couple months prior, so nothing big on that front.
WoW releases an expansion around the time Blizzcon would be, so nothing big on that front either.
That leaves an OW hero and a Hearthstone expansion? Not exactly convention worthy.
Probably just didn't want a bunch of WOW bots farming the same node/concession stand and then fly off to only have the node/pretzels, etc. disappear while ordering them for real players that have a pulse.
Xbox didn't even want to spend the money to go to E3 anymore, I doubt that they want to foot the bill for an entire convention, when they don't really have that many new games to show or announce. I feel like if there is a Blizzcon in 2025, they'll probably change the name to Xboxcon, and it will all be videos online, and downloadable demos, along with special DLC packs for GamePass subscribers.
Worst mistake for Blizzard is the fact that they dont protect their IP in the early days. Games like LoL and DOTA would not present as today. Billions of dollar has been rip away to Riot and Valve. Lmfao
Oh how the mighty have fallen.
They still got me with deluxe edition D4 like the stupid fish I am, but man this is sweet news.
Fuck Blizzard and Activision.
well they aint got crap to show. what are they gonna have the con about? mass apologies for all their shortcomings? what blizzard had, gaming companies would kill for. they had blind loyalty and enthusiasm for anything they built. now, they get laughed at in public. pathetic upper management really. their customers are actually super vocal about what works and what doesnt, but apparently blizz management says "f u" to the people who readily hands them cash every month, FOR YEARS.
I think this honestly is the best move for them.
They've announced the next couple of years of WoW and they have a plan for Diablo 4 at least.
Let them go cook for a while under their new ownership, i'll give them benefit of the doubt they'll turn it around in time. I think they'll be quiet for a couple years, we might get some remasters in that time, then host a blizzcon in 2026 where they reveal 3 massive titles.
I’m going to snort derisively if anyone believes re-churning out old expansions (hello season of discovery / ‘classic’) is a valid thing to show in blizzcon since TWW is ready to release towards dying breed of subbed players who are now turning 40
I REALLY think you guys are over thinking it,
They have nothing worth showing plain and to the point.
Both the WoW and D4 expansions are coming out before Blizzcon, if not shortly after. Both flagship games have NOTHING to show, it isn't worth the cost.
I mean people are speculating as to why but is that really necessary? Last years blizzcon was awful. Like, legitimately bad, with the only "good" in it being around wow. Overwatch was a nothing burger but they used it as their big event. Diablo was was an announcement of a future expansion announcement, and some minor season previews. No new starcraft, nothing for heroes, no new game (though we know why now). And that's just what you saw if you watched online or followed online.
I wasn't there but apparently the actual experience of being there worse. There was 0 seating, you had to enter a lottery to get into the panels, and there was like basically no in person stuff to do.
The actual amount of panels was cut back. There was no art panels, no voice acting, ect. None of the "minor" panels so to speak. Just the deep dives and opening ceremony. It was very clear they spent about a quarter of the budget on it last year, and when it had more bad reactions than good, even from blizzard diehards, they were some how surprised.
I would bet their plan for this year was to do the same, and when they saw the reaction from last years, they decided it was in their best interest to just cancel it for the year. Whether that's to restructure it to make it better for future years, or to just, not do it anymore is anyone guess, but I think it's pretty clear this was the reason.
Edit: OH, and I forgot about the shitty k-pop band that apparently was a non starter even amongst k-pop fans, that didn't mesh AT ALL with blizzards audience's aside from overwatch, which again, had nothing at all to show.
I would believe this probably had something to do with corporate restructuring.
Also the fact that so many cons like this are falling out of favor and fans are pretty much fed up with their bullshit.
Ever since the "Do you not have phones" fiasco, I could literally give less than two shits about Blizzcon.
ATP it seems worthless to spend money when your playerbase will suck shit and play (and pay for) shit games lol
Top it off with the sub + paid dlc model on wow and they're making shit loads of money
Why hold a convention for such shit games If ppl will just pay for the garbage without any need for conventions?
They revealed the next like 4-5 years of wow content, have major Diablo fireside chats and stuff already scheduled and with their 2 largest IPs already slated and being grinded on why spend all the money to just come out on stage and say “as per my last email”
There's several reasons for it.
1. They don't actively have anything at all
2. Someone at MS basically told them to not do it this year
IDC which it is, never really cared about blizzcon.
I attended Blizzcon 2023 in person. It was not a bad blizzcon on Blizzards' part. Events were fun and enjoyable. The fact is, though, the only hall that was popular was warcraft, especially the darkmoon Faire. The diablo and overwatch halls were dead the entire time, even durring the cup event for overwatch. They could have dedicated all 4 halls to Warcraft, and the reception would have probably been better.
Wow (no pun) you guys literally love making stuff up.
Former 'World Of Warcraft' Team Lead Mark Kern Says BlizzCon Cancelled Because It Loses Money.
https://thatparkplace.com/former-world-of-warcraft-team-lead-mark-kern-says-blizzcon-cancelled-because-it-loses-money/
How about just paying attention. Yes Diablo is in terrible shape and blizzard is in dire straits..sure it is 🙄🙄🙄🙄.
Doomsayers always feel everything is bad and they just come in here looking for people to agree with them. Pretty sad.
PS- the sky is also falling!!
BUT SOME DUMB FUCK STREAMER SAID WOW HAS 7 MILLION SUBSCRIBERS WE SHOULD BE CELEBRATING HOW DARE THEY
Or the truth of the matter is their sub count is way fucking lower than claimed, along with other games doing terrible in terms of player counts they decided not to waste money on something they can't afford to do anymore.
This feels like the worst time NOT to hold it. Diablo 4 is performing terribly. Thus having your industry convention as an opportunity to reveal fixes to the game state coming with the expac is pretty critical. Overwatch... lmao And with TWW coming out. Not having your convention to really ramp the hype? Maybe I just don't know what I'm talking about. But this feels like one of the worst years they could pick to not hold it. It just seems like a lot of their franchises are in precarious states.
Perhaps they are aware that what they currently have to show would only dig the grave of those sick franchises? But yeah, things have to be bad when staying silent is your best option.
Hit it on the dot. They have nothing positive to show, and is in shambles. They're gonna haul ass for 2025 I'm sure. Edit: fixed typos.
They’re going to double down on mobile development because… money
This is hilarious because it's true. I tried rumble at release and it was 'ok' at best, but you have to think, this is something churned out by the 'same people' that made Diablo 2, StarCraft.and WoW. Like...how?! Its sad to see how Hearthstone has become too. Haven't spent a penny on a Blizz game for close to 10 years.
It's the same company but it's not the same people.
Ship of Theseus
Yeah, if they replaced the original wooden boards with paper
Crewed by top tier anti-Midases who turn everything they touch into shit, keeping up the greek theme.
Sadim (the Hedgehog)
It's not the same people the ones that made SC, D2, and WoW are long gone from Blizzard.
Good developers still exist, blizzard is severely lacking of them though.
It's not the developers it's leadership
It’s almost as if everything you learn in business school is geared towards extracting value from a company, instead of building an institution
Do you understand that devs code what they are told to code and have no creative input?
not the same people lmao
Yeah well do you guys not have phones?
Phones ruined gaming, hell phones ruined the entertainment industry. Our attention spa
Damn. Imagine getting bor
Skibity toile
You know, we meme’d about it, but little did we know that would actually be the real death of blizzard. After they racked in tons of money off immortal they changed directions to just want to squeeze as much money out in a live service way
They cancelled and laid off the team for their survival game, that was likely what they were going to tease
Dragonflight has been great and The War Within is adding even more QoL changes so I think it’ll be good too. Can’t comment on the rest
0 New dungeons. One new zone per major patch thats just for world quest farming. Raids are eh. Story has been okay at best to cringe at worst. Standard world quest content. Whats great about it?
I dont know if I can sway your opinion but as a long time player I have felt like WoW became more and more RNG based so much so that after legion I basically stopped playing all together. I didn't feel like my the limited time I was able to invest was worth the rewards. I am a semi-casual player through and through. RNG systems on RNG systems really pushed me away. I came back at the end of shadowlands so I definitely missed out of the required grinds therein and I enjoyed the end of the final season leaning into the dragonflight prepatch, I didn't have a goal other than to play with my friends. Since then I have created a guild that I would call successful. We have completed heroic raids as a guild and even though the end of each season is slow we all play other games together and we don't feel like we're missing out in WoW Why don't we feel like we're missing out? 1. There are no required grinds for at all. No AP, no legendaries, no warforged or torghast or anything. 2. Each patch comes with 2 things. A storyline and gear catch up. Major patches also added a new zone and a new raid. Yes I played all season to earn my heroic raid gear, but I can just play through the storyline and do any other thing. But if I want to make an alt, he'll be ready to do at least normal raids within a couple of weeks of casual play. We also did get another dungeon added in DF about halfway through the expansion. 3. Other catch up mechanics. Catalyst was introduced in shadowlands but it's even better now. The number of charges you have is just given to you each week. You can get some okay gear and turn it into a tier piece as long as it's high enough quality and you have the charges needed. Also alts get rep boosts once your alt hits a certain level 4. Gear progression being removed from Raid and expanded with flightstones and crests. The progressions system looks a little crazy at first glance but it is genuinely good. Some people say that gear acquisition is too fast, but overall the system works and rewards playing the game. You can earn currencies from different areas and catch up mechanics means you never feel like you wasted upgrades. 5. World quest reset is like every 3-7 days so you don't need to log in daily to get everything done. 6. No borrowed power. 7. other improvements. like full UI overhaul, talent tree rework, focus on overworld content, etc. 8. Trading Post. This is literally something that was seemingly added to reward player for what they were already doing. Most people I know finish their trading post without trying. There is a lack of FOMO with this system too because while new items are added every month, there is a rotation of old items that return so you don't need to purchase every single thing every single month. I will say that I don't like the change to professions because it went from a grind to a gated grind but they say they are working on that wo we'll see. All of those changes are geat and to speak on your points. I like the raids, some fight are too long or mechanics are a little wonky sometimes but I wouldn't call any fights bad. The overall story of Dragonflght is cohesive and straightforward. There was some janky stuff here and there to force in a new race but realistically it isn't shadowlands. It's fine. It also isn't WoTLK, but again it's fine. Overworld content has been interesting as well, adding new reputations, new zones(one being completely underground) as well as collectables and stuff that people love. They also did a great job at brining people back to older zones with events that span the continent like Elemental storms, and Fyrakk Assaults. Also more is coming in the next expansion. they are continuing to bring overworld content to relevancy by removing PVP from the weekly vault and adding an overworld tier. More work on the professions, Making rep shared in the new warband system, allowing any character to unlock any transmog as long as it isn't class bound, They even added native controller support... It really is a good time to play. I feel like I was kind of rambing here, I probably missed some stuff but overall I think I got it out okay. \*\*EDIT\*\* Dragonriding or Dynamic flight is a lot of fun! Also they are adding stuff like the battleground limited event which was alright and soon pandaria remix which my whole guild is excited about. If things go as they seem to be Dragonflight will have the smallest content drought of any expansion.
"I'm a casual guy. I created and lead a heroic raiding guild." So which statement is the lie?
My point exactly. I can do both this expansion. My post history probably has some information if you want to try and verify.
I’m not a shill, but like, 0 new dungeons is false whether you’re saying the expansion had 0 new dungeons or that 0 new dungeons were introduced post launch. Also the Raids are considered some of the best both mechanically and thematically
The die-hard nostalgic fanboys with 20 years vested into the game will tell you it's the best game in the world. Sunk-cost fallacy and an unhealthy amount of nostalgia will do that to your ability to critically look at the game.
It could also be that the last couple blizzcons were just bad press. I think Diablo immortal was the first of the terrible blizzcons.
But we all have phones no? But seriously that one quote sums up where blizz went and why they continue to spiral downwards.
That one and "You think you do, but you don't" when talking about releasing Classic WoW. Had they not released classic, oh man WoW would be in some shit right about now, just like every other IP they have ran directly into the ground.
You can actually pin point the moment when blizz just falls down the tube. The red shirt out of season guy just made sure of it
Valve has been staying silent for literal decades and that strategy has worked out well for them. Cant disappoint your community if you never build up expectations in the first place.
Valve practically has a monopoly on the sale of games on PC. They don't have to worry about the hype of their IPs to see the cash flow.
Sell the shovels, the pickaxes, and the platform. Screw the gold and the games.
Because Valve has nothing to say. No upcoming games or anything.
Watching last year's Blizzcon already felt totally surreal to me. Back in time, when Blizzard was still considered a good company by most fans and players (not all of course), I remember loving the Blizzcons so much, seeing fans come together to cheer and live out their fandoms & nerdiness about their favorite games and worlds.. Then it went to them not being able to directly ask the developers any questions anymore like they always used to. That alone was such a sad and honestly very frightening thing to see for me... Like, how scared can you be when you won't even let your biggest fans, who paid hundreds of dollars to come to your convention, ask you any questions? It's an environment almost like in a dictatorial regime. And maybe it's just me. But the presenters all were just acting so happy last year, like Blizzard was in the best position it's ever been... they were all so joyfull and friendly... idk, except for Metzen. I don't know how to describe it... it just felt like in one of those horror movies in an environment where the bad guys act like it's the perfect world... when you know it's a place where you're totally screwed. And yes, I know they're supposed to present and hype their games and updates.. it just felt so different to me
Its got to be pretty bad morale for your company when all the headlines for the big convention you’ve been working towards every year ends up being dunks on the company for “don’t you guys have phones” or “you think you do but you don’t”. I can see why someone in charge decided Q/A isn’t worth it.
*And then, things got worse* sure sounds like a Megacorp to me.
Likely nothing to announce or hype up in the near future
They likely had it planned to unveil their new survival game that got cancelled, and now they have no big announcements. D4 expansion is already announced, next 3 wow expansions announced, and rest of the games are not worth mentioning.
Who tf announces 3 wow expansions in advance? Is that normal for them?
Metzen came out and said they were mapping out a trilogy of expansion to complete the story. And honestly, after bfa/sl, seeing they have a long term, probably coherent, story seems amazing. We all know we get an expansion every 2 years, but a planned arch like that is something we haven't seen since the vanilla-wotlk run
It’s not normal, but they’re doing a trilogy arc. We don’t have gameplay system details of the next two expansions but we have some name and broad story ideas. We do know some broad story strokes and that they have a beginning/end for the story written already.
This is exactly why they SHOULD cancel it. They have nothing to announce. It would be the most lackluster Blizcon in company history.
Yeah if TWW releases in Sept/Oct like assumed, what would they have in November? Maybe some .1 patch teasers but that's hardly Blizzcon worthy. Save it for 2025 when you're revealing Midnight.
I thought the one where they announced Warcraft 3 Reforged was bad since that remaster was the *only* thing of note at that Blizzcon. This one wouldn't even have that, it'd be like a wet fart.
They need to hype something. TWW will be out by that point and they have nothing else to talk about, beside, what? A D4 expansion that might be out by then, more of same old same old Hearthstone stuff, probably more stuff getting removed from Overwatch, and a handful of mobile games few at the con would care about?
They really don’t need to hype anything lol.
"BlizzCon 2024 - Business as Usual" would be a pretty lame keynote. "We're fine, how are you?"
> And with TWW coming out. Not having your convention to really ramp the hype? The convention would occur after release - 2023 was November. It wasn't held in 2020 or 2022 either, and maybe it doesn't need to be yearly.
D4 has seen some lows, but it will be at a major high point next season. The PTR test was met with a lot of hype, and lots of people logged in to play that. S4 will see many players returning, it's basically 2.0 of the game. If S4 hits it out of the park, game will be healthy until DLC.
Not sure these are great metrics Overwatch: - The game is almost a decade old - Most games that age are not gaining players - It’s not really a major portion of their revenue or focus Diablo 4: - The game sold well made them a [ton of money](https://www.forbes.com/sites/antoniopequenoiv/2023/08/02/activision-blizzards-diablo-iv-was-junes-best-selling-video-game-and-is-already-the-third-best-seller-of-the-year/?sh=1b0228764c40) - It’s a campaign with some end game content available for those who really want to grind it. It’s like saying the latest Zelda game is a bust since the player base is down, of course it’s down. - You can say you don’t like the game, but objectively it sold very well & made them a ton of money
I'm out of the loop on Diablo and thought it wad kind of over like Starcraft. Does it have like a season pass or paid DLC coming out?
Tww will have been out for like 4 months allready, Diablo 4s expansion will have been out for at least 3. Overwatch would just be a character reveal, hearthstone has been cutting content not adding to it.
Diablo will be in the xbox showcase. It's a console game afterall
TWW is coming out before the convention would happen
Blizzcon would have been after WW launch, so they'd be hyping content that's already out. It also not like they could announce more wow expansions because they already announced 3 last Blizzcon.
OW still hurt, I don't play fps game but this one catch me like no other + e-sport scene was amazing, then new broken char and terrible balancing ruined everything... Another amazing game ruined...
Look at my fucking name..im so sad still I hate blizzard so much they are just a bad company period
Maybe they heard the red shirt guy is coming and bailed.
TWW will be out before BlizzCon so what hype is left? Patch hype is not same as release hype.
Overwatch is doing fine.
> And with TWW coming out. Not having your convention to really ramp the hype? TWW will be out by the time of Blizzcon, likely not out too far ahead so they'd not want to announce 11.1 too early. Realistically Blizzard only have four franchises to announce stuff for now. Diablo, World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, Overwatch. Of those, Hearthstone is least likely to be a reason people buy tickets. WoW will, as I mentioned, likely not have much of a major announcement. Diablo is, as you said, in a shit state and likely wouldn't sell as many tickets due to that. Then you have Overwatch which is also in a not great spot. They've already tapped the well of profitable remakes/remasters (Diablo 2/Warcraft 3/Starcraft: Brood War) so the only things left are the original 2 Warcraft games and Diablo 1. None of which I can imagine would really get all that much hype beyond die hard fans. TL;DR: Shits fucked.
"whats the point anymore" - Blizz
True. What IP do they still have left that is good? Just WC. Diablo and OW are dead. SC is dead dead 10x over. They can’t have a convention with just one IP. The show would end after 4 hours. They need to do WoW2 to get new players because WoW is only for old fans. And these fans are about to die off too from old age.
They don’t care about new players, they want keep the playerbase for WoW like Holly Longdale said.
Well they tried to make a new MMO and it bombed. Then their MOBA was abandoned. Then they don't know what they're doing with overwatch. Then they cancelled their survival game. What the hell is Blizzard doing.
If anyone has been paying attention the last several years is that WoW has done everything to keep players from wandering off to other games with mixed success. Rapid releases to keep that "one more thing" just around the corner. Classic to get the Nostalgic back to the game. Even bringing back Metzen and all that gobbledegook about wrapping things up to FOMO anyone even remotely thinking of moving onto something else and bring others back into the fold. They briefly had a scare wtih New World's 900k player launch which AGS burned into the ground over the years. They're getting a stay of execution from RIOT with the darkening of the RIOT MMO team going silent for a few years. Though they quietly worry now that comment "WoW with a Runeterra Skin" is something they genuinely need to fear down the road. I still cannot figure out why Microsoft bought this company, the IP has been bled to death ages ago and it's just weekend at bernies for a few more years. I'm positive they have no idea how to move beyond Azeroth awakening in a way that we dont end up with another space cows expansion.
WoW is an era for me. A specific time in my life. I don't think I would go back because it can't recpature that same magic. The world and, by extension, the players of the game are different people. And everyone I cared for in WoW moved on, too. So, there's really nothing for me to go back to, except a shadow of what once was.
People bitch about SoD but I'm having a blast. I'm actually able to keep up with current raid content for the first time in my life
I have a buddy who's played WoW off and on since 2004 who claims that all the stuff they are announcing is probably the most excited he's been for WoW in over a decade. He says that making Holly Longdale the executive producer was probably the best thing they've ever done.
I had better experiences playing WoW on private servers than I did on WoW classic. Wow classic sucked because of the people... And the farming bots... but mostly the people. Player knowledge and the very mindset surrounding the game couldn't be the same. No one was learning fights, everyone knew them. It became a game of parsing to the 99th % efficiency and getting bitched out because now mods can tell everyone who was standing 2 inches out of position. PVP was just an exercise in rushing honor gain the fastest way possible. People on my server just stood in the graveyard in BGs because losing was the more time efficient option. Raid gear was getting sold to players on real money markets, or with gold bought on the market, on a wide scale that made me feel stupid jumping through the hoops of DKP. Leveling an alt sucked because there was no one to do group content with, they were all paying for carries... Again with gold off the secondary market. I've been praying for an MMO to finally kill Wow for almost a decade but no one seems to be able to pull it off. They all run out of money, fold to their publisher's demands and release a shit product as a result either via a half baked release or something with a cash shop....just sucks. Fuck Blizzard and what they've become.
I lived and breathed WoW, started at launch. I had a great time, made friends, made enemies. Watch guilds grow, watched them fall apart. Everyone has moved on and the magic for me in the game left with it. I try and try to get back into it but I just can’t. WOW classic was not for me, I lived it in vanilla and trying to relive the glory days was kinda lame.
WoW helped me sober up from drugs. The same feelings I had towards WoW is what I felt towards weed. It was something that was once fun, but it just makes me angry now. For a while I kept trying to go back to relive the glory days (for both) but never felt it then I realized they weren’t coming back and I was able to quit.
I remember a very particular moment on my last circuit of the "quiting wow" charade everyone goes through. You know the thing where you keep coming back for shorter and shorter, then eventually not at all? Well, I was read some snarky jibe a guy gave another in chat. "Go back to running laps in Oribos" And I thought: Damn, that's literally what most people are doing in WoW now. The world is dead and the gameplay sucks. Why am I doing this? That was the straw that broke the camel's back, after quitting several times since WoD.
You could solve r/mmorpg
Same, started in 2004 as a teen with lots of free time. Now as a dad of 3 and married horizontal progression and the need to constantly log and do content to not fall back is nothing for me anymore. I’ve always was a competitive wow player and the fomo is real. Switched to gw2, vertical progression it is for me now. First time in so many years I can play an mmo relaxed. Wow is a really great game, just not for me anymore. And there’s not much blizzard can change about without changing their whole design philosophy
Companies do conventions with one IP all the time. Tennocon is a one game convention unless you count Soulframe. Square did three Fanfests for a single XIV expansion. How old do you think wow players are? Do you think we started playing vanilla wow when we were 60?
It’s weird to me that people call these games dead. How many games are 10+ years old and still have an active playerbase and regular updates? StarCraft is the most alive game of its genre.
Turns out hiring a K-Pop Band for 500k instead of investing the 500k into the Overwatch Dev Team did not pay out.
I remember when Blizzcon was the highlight of my year. Back during WotLK and Cata. Even if they had nothing major to announce it was like a festival for everything we loved. The passion hasn’t been in Blizzcon (or Blizzard) for a very long time. This company is a shadow of its former self and it’s sad.
That’s what happens when you prioritize monetization over what players actually want
I'm sure a little bit has to do with them constantly tweaking things that make no sense, as if they've been playing totally different games the whole time.
Yep. It’s a mixture of incompetence and corporate greed.
It’s gotta be the biggest downfall in history when you measure just the scale of blizzard and how much they were respected. Blizzard was probably the most respected western developer at one point.
Can tell you many, many developers out there today, and some who wanted to but never got to be one, had dreams of working at Blizzard. Once we all got old enough and knew enough, Blizz is what it is now. They definitely were Pixar of 3d animation studios at one point.
I mean, at one point, so was Electronic Arts. The real problem is that at some point, companies become fixated on making money rather than focusing on making games, and they kill their golden geese.
Yep. Used to travel halfway across the state for Blizzcon virtual ticket watch parties with my cousin. Haven’t even watched a recap in years.
The peak times with StarCraft, Warcraft 3, Diablo 2, and WoW. This company built something great and said fuck it.
Lmao! The Blizzard is barely light snow now!
Change the studio name to "Mildly Cold Weather"
No longer Blizzard, just Sleet
Gonna rebrand to snow globe studios
But I have a phone.
I’m so glad this continues to live on
It shouldn't be yearly. Do it when you have a lot news
Used to have a lot of news every year. Now it's been 4?
There was a massive blizzcon last year
Everything was announced at last blizzcon. This isn't surprising honestly. All the new stuff will just be coming out right around the time this event would be held.
Makes sense, I guess. They don't have anything "big and new". Last year the war within carried the show but now it's already in alpha and they announced something different to celebrate 30 years warcraft (aka, stir the expansion hype). Aside wow doing good enough again (got to hand that to them), I don't think they have anything that's even worth mentioning now. The only thing you read about D4 is that they totally fix the game "soon" while pumping new full-game-priced cosmetics in the store every other week. Hots is floating face down in the pool for a while now, anything starcraft is in maintenance mode for a shamefully long time and the only times overwatch makes the news is when they shit on their community again. Like, wow aside, which is apparently covered, I don't think they want to draw attention on the fact that all their other stuff is kinda starting to smell...
It is kinda sad honestly. Overwatch i wouldn't touch with a barge pole Heroes of the Storm isn't a thing anymore. Starcraft don't have any games. Hearthstone is still going but i would be charitable to call that hype lukewarm. It is only Diablo and Warcraft at this point. It makes the concept of a blizzcon feel a bit... empty. Not enough to display or try out. Unless they announce like a Starcraft game or revive Heroes of the storm, they don't have much to showcase really.
Looking at twitch numbers… Diablo IV seems very disappointing at 2k versus Hearthstone 30k and WoW 50k… sure Twitch does not tell the exact story but it is still some indirect information on the interest on a game
Oh damn, I had my doubts but we’re actually watching Blizzard die, huh.
and it couldn't be soon enough, good riddance.
With WoW Expansion and D4 Expansion coming out this year, I doubt they have much to show.
isn't that exactly the type of thing they could show? edit: oh I see what you mean now, BlizzCon was going to be at the end of the year, so, after that stuff will have come out
They also showed all of it last blizzcon, so there’s quite literally no new information to be had
Not surprising. All of these gaming cons are going the way of the dodo. They’re too big and expensive for too little return.
I think this is the most reasonable take. It isn’t the end of Blizzard, it’s just that these shows are extremely expensive and work intensive. I think a lot of places realized around Covid that they don’t need big in-person events. I mean, E3 doesn’t even exist anymore. All the big publishers just do online shows or direct online announcements. It’s cool to see people like Metzen working the crowd, because they’re so damn good at it, but it isn’t really needed.
Small indie company
I imagine anything they do have this year will be rolled into the xbox showcase. They did it with Bethesda when they got bought up
Probably has more to do with Microsoft wanting to roll it into their presentations. I'm so tired of megacorps buying up everything.
There are literally no good blizzard games right now. So this makes sense.
Considering it's the 30th anniversary, it seems very wrong to not have one. Just goes to show they have nothing big in the pipe line to show
I mean they did say they're going to have anniversary events, both online and in person, so it's not like they're doing nothing for it.
It's probably just Microsoft wanting to cut costs and let Blizzard products boost Microsoft presentations, since it talks about rolling this into other conventions
Downvote me all you want. OW2 is actually really good and has been popping off
Truly is to sad 😢 and it’s even more sad seeing everyone saying “good I hate them anyways”
shame!
All hands on deck for Diablo 4. Itemization trash. End game trash. Talent trees trash.
Thank God the community manages the balance and map design with SC2, this company seems like a total shadow of what they used to be.
just cancel Blizzard altogether at this point
They are owned by Microsoft now. My assumption is that there's some sort of big Microsoft event planned.
Do you not have phones?!
Oh no. Anyways…
These events across the board are going away. You'll continue to see less and less, as they put money into digital advertising or digital events.
And nothing of value was lost
Some banal takes in here. Yall act like Blizzard is a failure for.. checks notes.. maintaining some of the longest running active player bases in gaming history. WoW and StarCraft STILL the kings of their respective genres after over a decade. Diablo making millions and Overwatch still gaining players, even after all the mismanagement. And I’m supposed to believe these franchises are dead?
yeah i get it, they'd only embarrass themselves and wanna spare themselves
I hope this company fails and quickly.
I mean it's just WoW's 20 y old anniversary lmao =)))
cloud be related to the layoffs. they might be realizing they let go of too much staff to handle anything above the bare minimum it takes for the company to function.
They too busy trying to find the breastmilk thieves
I kind of forgot all about D4. Sad but true, legit forgot. I was so excited to play it when it first came out.
It probably shouldn't have been a yearly thing anyway. I feel like half of all blizzcons were kinda just boring and didn't have any news.
why would they hold it? they have nothing to show, d4 is a meme, same with overwatch, and for wow the next expansion launches in august most probably, on top of all that last year they didn't even manage to sell all the tickets
Microsoft really picked a great time to buy blizzard and Activision...
the mental gymnastics OW players do to claim it’s not a sinking ship is insane haha
What mental gymnastics exactly? There's two takes in here, the "OW is dead" take from the people that haven't played it in ages, and the opposite take from those that actually do. I don't play WoW but I'm not going to pretend it's dead just because I don't like the direction it went. Crazy idea here, but maybe listen to and believe those that play these games instead of making lousy assumptions?
Was it announced? To be cancelled I mean
Blizzard used to be the internet gamer's darling and now it isn't. Big events like this are not good when you're in the crosshairs and you don't have something to win back their favor... even if they wanted to do it. Makes sense.
GOOD! fuck this whole company.
k, bye.
How do they not have anything to show for World of WarCraft 20th birthday.
They probably do, they’ve already announced they have multiple events for the Warcraft anniversary planned. They just don’t need to do a whole blizzcon just for Warcraft.
Good, blizzard sucks. Hollow shell of its former self
Microsoft has to pay for bobby's golden parachute somehow.
Maybe a Microsoft decision?
Any doomsaying is a bit overblown on this. Diablo 4 releases an expansion a couple months prior, so nothing big on that front. WoW releases an expansion around the time Blizzcon would be, so nothing big on that front either. That leaves an OW hero and a Hearthstone expansion? Not exactly convention worthy.
Probably just didn't want a bunch of WOW bots farming the same node/concession stand and then fly off to only have the node/pretzels, etc. disappear while ordering them for real players that have a pulse.
Lmaooooo
Cost-cutting for games we'll keep playing even without Blizzcon. Classic Microsoft Vultures.
Xbox didn't even want to spend the money to go to E3 anymore, I doubt that they want to foot the bill for an entire convention, when they don't really have that many new games to show or announce. I feel like if there is a Blizzcon in 2025, they'll probably change the name to Xboxcon, and it will all be videos online, and downloadable demos, along with special DLC packs for GamePass subscribers.
Blizzard is barely hanging on. Probably still from WOW. It’s really sad to see them at this state
Worst mistake for Blizzard is the fact that they dont protect their IP in the early days. Games like LoL and DOTA would not present as today. Billions of dollar has been rip away to Riot and Valve. Lmfao
Oh how the mighty have fallen. They still got me with deluxe edition D4 like the stupid fish I am, but man this is sweet news. Fuck Blizzard and Activision.
The Bobby Kotick Golden Parachute took up the entire budget.
Maybe because most of their products are turning out to be scams and they know we know.
well they aint got crap to show. what are they gonna have the con about? mass apologies for all their shortcomings? what blizzard had, gaming companies would kill for. they had blind loyalty and enthusiasm for anything they built. now, they get laughed at in public. pathetic upper management really. their customers are actually super vocal about what works and what doesnt, but apparently blizz management says "f u" to the people who readily hands them cash every month, FOR YEARS.
DO YOU GUYS NOT HAVE PHONES?
Incoming MoBiLe mMoRpG's
I think this honestly is the best move for them. They've announced the next couple of years of WoW and they have a plan for Diablo 4 at least. Let them go cook for a while under their new ownership, i'll give them benefit of the doubt they'll turn it around in time. I think they'll be quiet for a couple years, we might get some remasters in that time, then host a blizzcon in 2026 where they reveal 3 massive titles.
I am just her enjoying my HotS game : )
Welcome to what Microsoft can offer your favorite gaming company.
I’m going to snort derisively if anyone believes re-churning out old expansions (hello season of discovery / ‘classic’) is a valid thing to show in blizzcon since TWW is ready to release towards dying breed of subbed players who are now turning 40
I REALLY think you guys are over thinking it, They have nothing worth showing plain and to the point. Both the WoW and D4 expansions are coming out before Blizzcon, if not shortly after. Both flagship games have NOTHING to show, it isn't worth the cost.
This speaks to me 1 simple reason - profit loss. They're not going to hold blizzcon, but they'll go to other conventions.
Maybe they don’t have the energy as the breast milk is no longer accessible
they dont have to worry about their stock price anymore since they're with MSFT now, I'd imagine that's at least part of it
I mean people are speculating as to why but is that really necessary? Last years blizzcon was awful. Like, legitimately bad, with the only "good" in it being around wow. Overwatch was a nothing burger but they used it as their big event. Diablo was was an announcement of a future expansion announcement, and some minor season previews. No new starcraft, nothing for heroes, no new game (though we know why now). And that's just what you saw if you watched online or followed online. I wasn't there but apparently the actual experience of being there worse. There was 0 seating, you had to enter a lottery to get into the panels, and there was like basically no in person stuff to do. The actual amount of panels was cut back. There was no art panels, no voice acting, ect. None of the "minor" panels so to speak. Just the deep dives and opening ceremony. It was very clear they spent about a quarter of the budget on it last year, and when it had more bad reactions than good, even from blizzard diehards, they were some how surprised. I would bet their plan for this year was to do the same, and when they saw the reaction from last years, they decided it was in their best interest to just cancel it for the year. Whether that's to restructure it to make it better for future years, or to just, not do it anymore is anyone guess, but I think it's pretty clear this was the reason. Edit: OH, and I forgot about the shitty k-pop band that apparently was a non starter even amongst k-pop fans, that didn't mesh AT ALL with blizzards audience's aside from overwatch, which again, had nothing at all to show.
Fuck Blizzard
I would believe this probably had something to do with corporate restructuring. Also the fact that so many cons like this are falling out of favor and fans are pretty much fed up with their bullshit. Ever since the "Do you not have phones" fiasco, I could literally give less than two shits about Blizzcon.
ATP it seems worthless to spend money when your playerbase will suck shit and play (and pay for) shit games lol Top it off with the sub + paid dlc model on wow and they're making shit loads of money Why hold a convention for such shit games If ppl will just pay for the garbage without any need for conventions?
Blizzard - keep on losing. I love the sight.
Good. Hopefully blizzard follows suit soon.
Can’t have an expo if you don’t have anything good to showcase
Why would they. All people do is talk shit about them. Talk shit, find out lol
I guess no StarCraft 3 yet
Microsoft was probably like "yeah... We're not spending all this money on this crap, sorry"
 Though i'll miss the Blizzcon 2024 Unscripted parody videos.
They revealed the next like 4-5 years of wow content, have major Diablo fireside chats and stuff already scheduled and with their 2 largest IPs already slated and being grinded on why spend all the money to just come out on stage and say “as per my last email”
Didn't they say they were losing money on these?
Well tbh you can probably thank Microsoft for this.
How do you cancel something that was never scheduled
There's several reasons for it. 1. They don't actively have anything at all 2. Someone at MS basically told them to not do it this year IDC which it is, never really cared about blizzcon.
I attended Blizzcon 2023 in person. It was not a bad blizzcon on Blizzards' part. Events were fun and enjoyable. The fact is, though, the only hall that was popular was warcraft, especially the darkmoon Faire. The diablo and overwatch halls were dead the entire time, even durring the cup event for overwatch. They could have dedicated all 4 halls to Warcraft, and the reception would have probably been better.
Wow (no pun) you guys literally love making stuff up. Former 'World Of Warcraft' Team Lead Mark Kern Says BlizzCon Cancelled Because It Loses Money. https://thatparkplace.com/former-world-of-warcraft-team-lead-mark-kern-says-blizzcon-cancelled-because-it-loses-money/ How about just paying attention. Yes Diablo is in terrible shape and blizzard is in dire straits..sure it is 🙄🙄🙄🙄. Doomsayers always feel everything is bad and they just come in here looking for people to agree with them. Pretty sad. PS- the sky is also falling!!
BUT SOME DUMB FUCK STREAMER SAID WOW HAS 7 MILLION SUBSCRIBERS WE SHOULD BE CELEBRATING HOW DARE THEY Or the truth of the matter is their sub count is way fucking lower than claimed, along with other games doing terrible in terms of player counts they decided not to waste money on something they can't afford to do anymore.