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The fact that Blizzard is in a position to throw a 'Con' each year shows that their games and lore are way more highly valued then most games companies. Could y

The fact that Blizzard is in a position to throw a 'Con' each year shows that their games and lore are way more highly valued then most games companies. Could you imagine fans paying $230 to visit to an EA exclusive convention each year? Not gonna happen with their reputation. Blizzard is at real risk of losing this community they've fostered for the last 20+ years

entropea 7y ago
> Blizzard is at real risk of losing this community they've fostered for the last 20+ years I'm reminded of that image of people in a Call of Duty boycott on Steam, playing Call of Duty. Blizzard will lose some money over the next couple of weeks, but aren't at a real risk of anything. https://kotaku.com/what-modern-warfare-2-boycotters-are-playing-5403286 https://kotaku.com/what-modern-warfare-2-boycotters-are-play...
- colmvp 7y ago
  Maybe. Hearthstone has been on a downward trend for the last 1.75 years as evident by their quarterly reports over that time period which state the game has had a decline of active users and revenue. They’ve even started to monetize previously non-monetized product offerings but it didn’t result in the game out-earning previous expansions released in the same time of the year. I doubt the current scandal has helped the numbers recover.
- minimaxir 7y ago
  That Call of Duty meme has long since been discredited. https://www.resetera.com/threads/so-you-posted-the-boycott-modern-warfare-2-steam-group-picture.110009/ https://www.resetera.com/threads/so-you-posted-the-boycott-m...
  - entropea 7y ago
    >Does that mean that only these 19 people of 833 were playing Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 at the time? Probably not. There are defnitly more people that played it despite being in the group. It could very well be possible that people in the group not in this picture all played Modern Warfare 2 at the time. However, this picture doesn't show it. Not really.
  - dmix 7y ago
    Without seeing the other 17 pages this isn't really discredit it either... they were just as likely to look the same as not. Slacktivism is a very predictable phenomenon today. I'm seeing plenty of examples of it in both the Blizzard threads today.
golergka 7y ago
Hardly a unique thing. Last WG fest got 200k attendees, for example. https://eng.belta.by/society/view/wargaming-fest-tanker-day-expected-to-gather-over-200000-participants-from-28-countries-123225-2019/ https://eng.belta.by/society/view/wargaming-fest-tanker-day-...
- jacobush 7y ago
  Not very common though.
maxsilver 7y ago
I agree that Blizzard is risking their community with their moves, but I don't think the financials of their games/IP are that important. Lots of cons get thrown each year, with games / lore / ip that aren't particularly highly valued. All you really need is a strong community, and the con works. That's it. Great IP helps, but isn't necessary. I follow Warframe, for example, which is just one game from one studio and their IP is is only worth like ~10% the financial value of Blizzard. Despite this, Warframe has their own convention every single year, that sells out every year. People pay $50 - $300 for tickets to that (plus lodging/airfare/etc). They invested in their community, and it paid off. EA could easily throw a convention every year, even just with a single game, if they had invested in building a community around it. For example, "Anthem-con" could be a yearly event, if Anthem hadn't shipped incomplete and left to fade away.
- Pfhreak 7y ago
  See also stuff like Paradox's con and MechCon.
friendlybus 7y ago
You say that like reputation matters. Bethesda has a reputation for buggy messes and actively sought to burn customers with fallout 76. The game companys' reputation is part of the product, you get to play the game of hating on EA. If you charged $230 for a con that exaggerated some drama around how bad EA is (or whatever), you'd likely sell tickets. Most large companies can afford to and do throw cons, I don't know ticket prices though. Blizzard isn't about the older generation anymore. That is dying off naturally. They have built a new set of products for kids.
Razengan 7y ago
I for one stopped playing any Blizzard games long ago and had not even heard about Blizzard for years expect during the "Do you guys not have phones?" fiasco and now this. Memes about their incompetence seem to be the only way they get any publicity anymore.
tracerbulletx 7y ago
They deserve to have lost it already, the company that built up that loyalty is dead.
CamelCaseName 7y ago
Blizzard owns its IP whereas EA licenses it. Fans are paying much, much, more than $230 to attend NBA, NFL, FIFA, etc. games.

entropea 7y ago

> Blizzard is at real risk of losing this community they've fostered for the last 20+ years I'm reminded of that image of people in a Call of Duty boycott on Steam, playing Call of Duty. Blizzard will lose some money over the next couple of weeks, but aren't at a real risk of anything. https://kotaku.com/what-modern-warfare-2-boycotters-are-playing-5403286 https://kotaku.com/what-modern-warfare-2-boycotters-are-play...

colmvp 7y ago
Maybe. Hearthstone has been on a downward trend for the last 1.75 years as evident by their quarterly reports over that time period which state the game has had a decline of active users and revenue. They’ve even started to monetize previously non-monetized product offerings but it didn’t result in the game out-earning previous expansions released in the same time of the year. I doubt the current scandal has helped the numbers recover.
minimaxir 7y ago
That Call of Duty meme has long since been discredited. https://www.resetera.com/threads/so-you-posted-the-boycott-modern-warfare-2-steam-group-picture.110009/ https://www.resetera.com/threads/so-you-posted-the-boycott-m...
- entropea 7y ago
  >Does that mean that only these 19 people of 833 were playing Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 at the time? Probably not. There are defnitly more people that played it despite being in the group. It could very well be possible that people in the group not in this picture all played Modern Warfare 2 at the time. However, this picture doesn't show it. Not really.
- dmix 7y ago
  Without seeing the other 17 pages this isn't really discredit it either... they were just as likely to look the same as not. Slacktivism is a very predictable phenomenon today. I'm seeing plenty of examples of it in both the Blizzard threads today.

golergka 7y ago

Hardly a unique thing. Last WG fest got 200k attendees, for example. https://eng.belta.by/society/view/wargaming-fest-tanker-day-expected-to-gather-over-200000-participants-from-28-countries-123225-2019/ https://eng.belta.by/society/view/wargaming-fest-tanker-day-...

jacobush 7y ago
Not very common though.

maxsilver 7y ago

I agree that Blizzard is risking their community with their moves, but I don't think the financials of their games/IP are that important. Lots of cons get thrown each year, with games / lore / ip that aren't particularly highly valued. All you really need is a strong community, and the con works. That's it. Great IP helps, but isn't necessary. I follow Warframe, for example, which is just one game from one studio and their IP is is only worth like ~10% the financial value of Blizzard. Despite this, Warframe has their own convention every single year, that sells out every year. People pay $50 - $300 for tickets to that (plus lodging/airfare/etc). They invested in their community, and it paid off. EA could easily throw a convention every year, even just with a single game, if they had invested in building a community around it. For example, "Anthem-con" could be a yearly event, if Anthem hadn't shipped incomplete and left to fade away.

Pfhreak 7y ago
See also stuff like Paradox's con and MechCon.

friendlybus 7y ago

You say that like reputation matters. Bethesda has a reputation for buggy messes and actively sought to burn customers with fallout 76. The game companys' reputation is part of the product, you get to play the game of hating on EA. If you charged $230 for a con that exaggerated some drama around how bad EA is (or whatever), you'd likely sell tickets. Most large companies can afford to and do throw cons, I don't know ticket prices though. Blizzard isn't about the older generation anymore. That is dying off naturally. They have built a new set of products for kids.

Razengan 7y ago

I for one stopped playing any Blizzard games long ago and had not even heard about Blizzard for years expect during the "Do you guys not have phones?" fiasco and now this. Memes about their incompetence seem to be the only way they get any publicity anymore.

tracerbulletx 7y ago

They deserve to have lost it already, the company that built up that loyalty is dead.

CamelCaseName 7y ago

Blizzard owns its IP whereas EA licenses it. Fans are paying much, much, more than $230 to attend NBA, NFL, FIFA, etc. games.