blizzard Activision Blizzard Investor Call - Q2 2017

[Stan 5,027]

Quarterly results of the Activison Blizzard Investor Call are here and Blizzard reached a new all-time record of Monthly Active Users (MAUs)!

Here are some interesting highlights of the Q2 Investor Call. Full presentation can be found here.

Blizzard

• Q2 MAUs are at 46 million (up 38% Y/Y)
• MAUs have more than doubled since early 2015.
• Blizzard experienced strong participation with in-game content for Overwatch, Hearthstone and Diablo III.

Diablo III

• The Necromancer was embraced by the player community.

Hearthstone

• Hearthsone MAUs rose to an all-time record, fueled by the new expansion, Journey to Un'Goro.

Overwatch

• Overwatch MAUs have risen every quarter since the game launched and rose to a new all-time high in Q2.
• Anniversary event drove strong engagement and record participation in customization items.
• Uprising's PvE-mode was well-received with record play-time.

World of Warcraft

• World of Warcraft time spent grew Y/Y and Legion continues to outperform Warlords of Draenor.

(Source)

[Nantarios 18]

I wish they informed us with actual numbers of players for each game like they did in the past. End of MoP and WoD decimated steady WoW population, but I doubt that numbers of players in Legion are something to be ashamed for.

[Haemir 4]

21 minutes ago, Nantarios said:

I wish they informed us with actual numbers of players for each game like they did in the past. End of MoP and WoD decimated steady WoW population, but I doubt that numbers of players in Legion are something to be ashamed for.

I think the issue with that was whenever there was a drop of any kind it fueled the "Is WoW DEAD?!?!?!" machine, which i doubt was helping the game much

[Dustintime 7]

I don't think WoW will ever die...at least in the next five years. Unless they do something stupid again, like pandas.

[HenrySteinway 20]

1 hour ago, Dustintime said:

like pandas

the best expansion ever

[Dustintime 7]

The content and storyline and the items they added during pandaland were awesome, but the new playable class, not so much.

[Sanaka3 0]

8 hours ago, Dustintime said:

I don't think WoW will ever die...at least in the next five years. Unless they do something stupid again, like pandas.

More like if they will be foolish enough to make WoD 2.0. MoP was like going a bit too far from the roots, but not a bad expac.

[Tri 138]

19 hours ago, Haemir said:

I think the issue with that was whenever there was a drop of any kind it fueled the "Is WoW DEAD?!?!?!" machine, which i doubt was helping the game much

^This. I honestly got fed up with it. Every time some new mmo came out ZOMG ITS THE WOW KILLER WOW DEAD LUALULAULZULZULZUZLZL and then 4 months later it went free to play >_>.

To all other accounts mmo's can survive on a small but dedicated fan base for years. I do believe the everquest 2 servers are still up as well as some ultima ones. Servers are relatively cheap and you can still make profit with only X000 people still subscribing and that. I do agree legion probably bolstered wows active playerbase substantially but i'd rather not know the numbers then have every other thread on other sites only talking about active sub numbers. 

 

[Demenzel 29]

15 hours ago, Dustintime said:

The content and storyline and the items they added during pandaland were awesome, but the new playable class, not so much.

Agree, i made a panda, just to have one, but wasnt a great idea.... on the other side, in that time Kung Fu Panda was a boom, or something like that, and kids love it (I love it to, and i'm not a kid), and as expc was a good one, beter that cata (and WOD, beter that WOD without a doubt),  the story progress was excelent, and had a lot of flavor.... but had a lot of pandas too... 

[CyberDVonaven 82]

Odd that they have notes about the other games in Blizzard's current library, but nothing about how HOTS is doing. I guess it's included in the general 'Blizzard' category. It would be nice to know how our favorite game is doing in comparison to the other Blizzard titles revenue wise. Especially since the release of 2.0 in comparison to it's revenue before the changes made. I would personally like to know that kind of thing. I don't mind the whole loot chest thing to much. What I do have a problem with is the changes they also have made to the weekly sale items. For the last several months before the change to '2.0' I would look forward to the 50% off sale items each week. I got into the habit of getting 1 of the under $5 skins on sale. Now, on the other hand, the sale items each week are not worth the value they were before. Since they only sale individual skin tones for the same prices you would get all 3 variations of the skin before 2.0. So now I'd be VERY hard pressed to spend ANY money on any of the sale items since I value for the price just isn't there like it once was.

Also before 2.0 on the third week after a new hero was released they would put that hero into the free to play hero rotation for that week. At that point the new hero was more understood in the meta and his gold cost had gone down to 10k the previous week. Giving everyone a chance to try the new hero out for free, I assume, also lead to seeing more people purchase them as a result of playing and enjoying them. Now it's 2 months before a newer hero gets that week of being a free-to-play rotation hero. Like for example Stukov just got to be in that free week rotation THIS week for the first time since his release. So it would seem that now the previously new hero will get a free week of play for everyone the week after the release of a currently new hero.

And since I'm on the topic of items for sale. I don't understand how they think it's a good idea to have taken away many skin options that were available for purchase before 2.0 that now are no where to be seen in the game in any way unless you already owned them before the change to 2.0. (examples; Arthas and Kerrigan's Vampire skins, Valla's Vampire Hunter skin, Abathur's Skullathur skin, Eyepad mount). Most of the skins that have vanished in that way are ones that they will likely make only available for purchase during seasonal events. Which I find to be a very anti-consumer new practice since they were previously able to be bought for real money at any time before 2.0 and would even be in the 50% off sale items sometimes. Only skin they did that with before were the Christmas ones. Every time any of my friends sees the Sylvanis Sugar Plum Fairy skin they mention how good it looks and how they would love to buy that one if they could. So skins like that should be available year round (or at least 3 months out of the year minimum) to purchase but only for gems/real money. Since they are looking to make money on them you can't forge them with shards. I'd be perfectly ok with that compared to them not being anywhere in the game at all except MAYBE for one month a year. I don't see how taking them away all together is a better thing sales wise then just making some skins and mounts gems only purchases in-game. Or they could even make skins like those legendary only drops in purchasable loot chests year round. Boosting sales with the gamble of getting those super rare items in real money only chests bundles. 

But I've ranted long enough. Any opinions on this whole thing from anything else. I know I kinda went off my main topic I started with but this seems like a good thread to do this in since it's all about sales and such.

[Dustintime 7]

I think that mindset is where they went wrong, Demenzel. WoW started trying to cater to younger people and get "everyone" included in everything, even high end content, which serious players really didn't like. After that, it wasn't the same as before. They seem to be trying to make things easier all the time. If that keeps up, I think it will eventually die a slow death.

[MvonTzeskagrad 11]

On 14/8/2017 at 10:54 PM, Dustintime said:

I don't think WoW will ever die...at least in the next five years. Unless they do something stupid again, like pandas.

Pandaren, far from being detrimental, was actually pretty welcomed by community. And MoP lore was surprisingly deep and had a lot of impactful moments.

It outperformed Cataclysm (pretty bland in some terms, and with Thrall doing absolutely everything until we got fed up with the Green Supersaiyan), and absolutely beat Warlords of Draenor (after an amazing start we realized they released a expansion that was only half made for some reason).

However, with (I guess, as I have'nt seen spoilers on what happens in Argus), Sargeras and the Legion defeated, there is not that much place for more expansions. So far we have left the Naga and the Old Gods thing, and after that maybe the final battle against the beings that created the Old Gods (some inmensely powerful void entities). I think they are deciding to end the stuff, but to make it in a couple of years and getting a fuckton of cash in the process (wich is nice in this case).

Edited August 15, 2017 by MvonTzeskagrad

[Valks 2,373]

On 8/15/2017 at 8:02 PM, CyberDVonaven said:

And since I'm on the topic of items for sale. I don't understand how they think it's a good idea to have taken away many skin options that were available for purchase before 2.0 that now are no where to be seen in the game in any way unless you already owned them before the change to 2.0. (examples; Arthas and Kerrigan's Vampire skins, Valla's Vampire Hunter skin, Abathur's Skullathur skin, Eyepad mount).

I believe this is to rework skins/update them. Not 100% sure, but I think skins that were previously removed were reintroduced with different colour variants/slight changes etc.