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The Steve Jobs quote on why Xerox failed [1] strikes again. The finance people have taken over Acti-Blizzard and they've been coasting for 10+ years on their or

by cletus 5y ago

The Steve Jobs quote on why Xerox failed [1] strikes again. The finance people have taken over Acti-Blizzard and they've been coasting for 10+ years on their original franchises. All we have is annual CoD releases and Blizzrad coasting on their old properties where Blizzrd hasn't had a significant original release in 10+ years. This effort seems like it's part of the ruthless approach to controlling costs that slowly strangle a company from within. I believe WoW is the #2 property (after CoD) at Acti-Blizzard and it's clearly changed from one of delivering a game to simply extracting as much money as possible from each customer much like how almost all mobile games do. The state of California's complaint is bad. I mean really bad. The fact that 3-4 different people from AB all released different statements in the last week should tell you exactly how bad it is. That's classic panic mode. There should only be one. This latest move tells you the company believes it will blow over and they're looking to do the minimal required to appease the detractors and get back to business as usual without having to pay people more or pay out a bunch of lawsuits. Honestly, the heads of J Allen Brack and Bobby Kotick in particular should roll over this lawsuit. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlBjNmXvqIM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlBjNmXvqIM EDIT: commenters have noted (correctly) that I overlooked Overwatch. This was a significant release but it seems to also have waned in popularity and Overwatch 2 is inextricably going in some weird PVE direction. Other than that you have a poor received Diablo sequel, a series of lackluster to bad WoW expansions, a disastrous Warcraft 3 remaster and complete abandonment of the RTS genre that propelled them to success in the first place. WC3 Reforged ("Refunded") was significant in that it was not only underwhelming and plagued with problems it made the original game worse with a forced download and loss of functionality. The most significant change however was Blizzard not wanting a repeat of missing the MOBA boat with Dota 2 by adding a condition that all the IP for third-party maps belong to Blizzard, completely killing that ecosystem.

__john 5y ago
> Blizzrd hasn't had a significant original release in 10+ years A quick search tells me that Overwatch has 6M players, which seems significant.
- LeSaucy 5y ago
  A note that Jeff Kaplan the director of the title resigned in May. He was heavily involved from its inception and throughout the development of Overwatch 2, and was a huge part of the community.
  - Fordec 5y ago
    As a former Overwatch player, you're right. But my (so far glad to say mostly unfounded) fear is that Jeff "Tigole Bitties" Kaplan was part of the problem we're seeing play out the past few weeks.
    - plorkyeran 5y ago
      So far Kaplan hasn't shown up as even an incidental participant in any of the photos or group chats, and hasn't been named as someone who brushed off requests for help. The Titan team that he lead prior to it turning into OW was by all reports a toxic mess for totally unrelated reasons, though.
    - scrollaway 5y ago
      What were you doing when you were 19 that's any better than calling yourself tigole?
      - Fordec 5y ago
        At 19? Getting an engineering degree and all the hours of work that entailed while avoiding getting roped into MMOs by classmates as if it was Corrupted Blood.
        scrollaway 5y ago
        We're all very proud of you.
        Fordec 5y ago
Panoramix 5y ago
Damn, I'm not an Apple fanboy but that soundclip by Jobs makes so much sense; I've seen that play out like a hundred times. Here's a related one by a former IBM CEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cHVgA2tgWI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cHVgA2tgWI
- kazen44 5y ago
  it resonates so closely with this[0] excellent article by berthubert. [0] https://berthub.eu/articles/posts/how-tech-loses-out/ https://berthub.eu/articles/posts/how-tech-loses-out/
vkou 5y ago
If the adults in the room have 'taken over' Acti-Blizzard, it wouldn't have been ran like a frathouse. The reality is that over the years, Activision has kept their hands off their golden goose, and that the company's rot originates with the original management team. Notice how most of the harassment, and the retaliation that followed took place under the leadership of Mike Morheim (And that he's been personally called out for the latter.)
bhelkey 5y ago
> The finance people have taken over Acti-Blizzard and they've been coasting for 10+ years on their original franchises. All we have is annual CoD releases and Blizzrad coasting on their old properties where Blizzrd hasn't had a significant original release in 10+ years. Hearthstone was release March 11, 2014. Overwatch was released May 24, 2016. Both of these were hugely popular titles.
cratermoon 5y ago
> hasn't had a significant original release in 10+ years. Let's talk about Heroes of the Storm. Not as a counter to your argument, but as a perfect illustration of your points. First thing to know is that HotS started out as a Starcraft II arcade game. It uses the Starcraft II engine. Nothing new there. Next, for those who don't know, HotS is a MOBA. Just like DotA (and DOTA 2), and League of Legends. DotA was a mod of Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, created by the community. League of Legends is a standalone game inspired by DotA. In HotS, all the player heroes are Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo heroes. It's free-to-play. After a brief legal spat with Valve over rights to the name DotA and Blizzard trademarks, the two companies settled. It's a decent game, but it's just repackaging Blizzard assets for a type of game that emerged out of Blizzard in the first place. To me, HotS is exactly the sort of thing a company coasting on its franchise would release. Epitaph: AB completely abandoned the game three years after release, to the complete surprise of the small esports community that had grown up.
johnnyanmac 5y ago
>This latest move tells you the company believes it will blow over and they're looking to do the minimal required to appease the detractors and get back to business as usual without having to pay people more or pay out a bunch of lawsuits. it doesn't unless you know the exact peopel hired are the union busting ones. It sounds like this is their HR consultants. People really need to read past their title. This is a century old firm that has been on all sides of the fence for a signifigant part of American history. They don't have an agenda to regress society (no more than the legal system does).

by cletus 5y ago

__john 5y ago

> Blizzrd hasn't had a significant original release in 10+ years A quick search tells me that Overwatch has 6M players, which seems significant.

LeSaucy 5y ago
A note that Jeff Kaplan the director of the title resigned in May. He was heavily involved from its inception and throughout the development of Overwatch 2, and was a huge part of the community.
- Fordec 5y ago
  As a former Overwatch player, you're right. But my (so far glad to say mostly unfounded) fear is that Jeff "Tigole Bitties" Kaplan was part of the problem we're seeing play out the past few weeks.
  - plorkyeran 5y ago
    So far Kaplan hasn't shown up as even an incidental participant in any of the photos or group chats, and hasn't been named as someone who brushed off requests for help. The Titan team that he lead prior to it turning into OW was by all reports a toxic mess for totally unrelated reasons, though.
  - scrollaway 5y ago
    What were you doing when you were 19 that's any better than calling yourself tigole?
    - Fordec 5y ago
      At 19? Getting an engineering degree and all the hours of work that entailed while avoiding getting roped into MMOs by classmates as if it was Corrupted Blood.
      - scrollaway 5y ago
        We're all very proud of you.
        Fordec 5y ago

Panoramix 5y ago

Damn, I'm not an Apple fanboy but that soundclip by Jobs makes so much sense; I've seen that play out like a hundred times. Here's a related one by a former IBM CEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cHVgA2tgWI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cHVgA2tgWI

kazen44 5y ago
it resonates so closely with this[0] excellent article by berthubert. [0] https://berthub.eu/articles/posts/how-tech-loses-out/ https://berthub.eu/articles/posts/how-tech-loses-out/

vkou 5y ago

If the adults in the room have 'taken over' Acti-Blizzard, it wouldn't have been ran like a frathouse. The reality is that over the years, Activision has kept their hands off their golden goose, and that the company's rot originates with the original management team. Notice how most of the harassment, and the retaliation that followed took place under the leadership of Mike Morheim (And that he's been personally called out for the latter.)

bhelkey 5y ago

> The finance people have taken over Acti-Blizzard and they've been coasting for 10+ years on their original franchises. All we have is annual CoD releases and Blizzrad coasting on their old properties where Blizzrd hasn't had a significant original release in 10+ years. Hearthstone was release March 11, 2014. Overwatch was released May 24, 2016. Both of these were hugely popular titles.

cratermoon 5y ago

> hasn't had a significant original release in 10+ years. Let's talk about Heroes of the Storm. Not as a counter to your argument, but as a perfect illustration of your points. First thing to know is that HotS started out as a Starcraft II arcade game. It uses the Starcraft II engine. Nothing new there. Next, for those who don't know, HotS is a MOBA. Just like DotA (and DOTA 2), and League of Legends. DotA was a mod of Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, created by the community. League of Legends is a standalone game inspired by DotA. In HotS, all the player heroes are Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo heroes. It's free-to-play. After a brief legal spat with Valve over rights to the name DotA and Blizzard trademarks, the two companies settled. It's a decent game, but it's just repackaging Blizzard assets for a type of game that emerged out of Blizzard in the first place. To me, HotS is exactly the sort of thing a company coasting on its franchise would release. Epitaph: AB completely abandoned the game three years after release, to the complete surprise of the small esports community that had grown up.

johnnyanmac 5y ago

>This latest move tells you the company believes it will blow over and they're looking to do the minimal required to appease the detractors and get back to business as usual without having to pay people more or pay out a bunch of lawsuits. it doesn't unless you know the exact peopel hired are the union busting ones. It sounds like this is their HR consultants. People really need to read past their title. This is a century old firm that has been on all sides of the fence for a signifigant part of American history. They don't have an agenda to regress society (no more than the legal system does).