Sean Halliday of Pixel Gate writes:
''2014 is a big year for video games. After all, it’ll be be the first full year of the next generation. But for one company, it could be a massive year. Blizzard are seemingly ready to assault 2014 with expansions for two of their biggest franchises, as well as two new games that are already generating a huge buzz.
Blizzard’s biggest money spinner, World of Warcraft, is set for a new expansion in the shape of Warlords of Draenor. With subscription numbers dwindling, but still remaining more than respectable, it seems Blizzard are more than happy to breathe new life into their mammoth MMORPG.''
Microsoft has 'let Blizzard be Blizzard' following the acquisition of the veteran developer according to World of Warcraft's executive producer.
Diablo 4 storefront being a cash grabbing shitshow does unironically attest to that, kudos.
Microsoft needs to be guiding Blizzard to be what it USED to be, not allowing it to continue to be the greedy bastardization of itself that it has become.
Okay i will be interested if they become old Blizzard but might as well be dead.
They will never be old blizzard. Most of all the OG's left from developers to those on the top (even some decision making folks left).
Shame most of the people that made Blizzard what they were, have already left a while ago.
I was about to say this. How can they be blizzard when they're no longer blizzard from yesteryear?
Exactly. Blizzard hasn’t been Blizzard for a long time.
Oh how the mighty have fallen.
Were you expecting Microsoft to hire everyone that had left Blizzard long before they purchased the company...
Microsoft has let the Blizzard company they purchased continue to be the Blizzard company they purchased.
Wow, PassNextquestion,
You fully understand what that saying means, unlike some people on here who just have to say negative garbage talk.
When someone says, "Just let *blank* be *blank*, "they are just letting them operate how they operate.
It's pretty much how Sony "let Bungie be Bungie."
This comment section is full of outright haters, but you have to "let N4G be N4G"
I don't think people commenting are necessarily blaming MS for anything here, this is just collective longing for what Blizzard/Vivendi was before Activision's meddling.
Former Blizzard president Mike Ybarra recently suggested an interesting concept that has sparked a debate among gamers - the idea of being able to tip developers after completing a game.
If I had a 100% way to be sure that this money would go to a fund or a reserve dedicated only to the guys who develop the games, be them designers, artists, programmers and so on, I could think about it.
But we all know that this 'tip' would only end up in a publisher's CEO pocket to buy a new yacht, so, no, I ain't tipping anyone anytime soon on this industry
Exactly these companies were raising money for good causes and gamers were donation and come to find out they are keeping a good chunk of be pie
Yeah tip your developer, 5% proceeds go to developer, 95% to the publisher or whoever. Isn't tipping for staff not making minimum wage? How about they just pay their developers properly and like you know, give them fair bonuses? Too much to ask from Blizzard these days, Kotick saw to that and is now laughing all the way to the bank.
It's the t**ts at the top looking at ways to cut devs wages and get the players to tip them like waiting staff, and I'll guarantee a percentage is skimmed and kept by Activision Blizzard. This is 100% for shareholder and CEO playouts.
I have to agree with this. On the surface tipping devs sounds like a great idea, but in the end it leads to pay cuts and subsidization of pay. Tips then become an expectation or the devs “can’t make a living.” Lastly, especially in the US, tip culture has gotten out of control, and it serves as an excuse not to properly pay employees. Sounds good but doesn’t end well.
@ Popsicle
I think your right on the nose with how much tipping has become rampant. Instead of it being a relationship directly between the customer and the developer or employee, it now has a middle man ingrained in the system. DoorDash is one example. It ends up becoming a metric where the company can measure 'just how much more money you are willing to part with' before raising the price on the main product.
Uh so they’re trying triple dip or more we buy the game that they’re already withholding/cutting content for dlc we was told that season pass would help the developers thrive we felt for it.
Now on top of all that plus their sales bonus they want tips enough is enough whatever happens to you create/built a good game get a bonus for sales milestones you care about your game and community we reward you with more sales not for doing 3/4 of a game then save the other 1/4 for dlc and passes after
Very well said. If it was possible to send the money to either the developer or some organization for the betterment of gaming, sure. But we all know that will not be the case.
No, it would go to those on the top. They will still fire developers, have a bunch of microtransactions, raise prices of games and so on.
So they eventually don't pay their workers and depend on our tips to pay them like the case with waiters!
That kind of practice is only normal in the states, as far as I know anyway, what a backwards system
Ireland is literally the first stop across the pond and we don't have a tipping culture. The only establishments here that would expect a tip are the tourist haunts that Americans visit. Other than that, you might tip in a restaurant as a sign of gratitude for great service and waiting staff would be paid a full wage anyway.
Is this a joke? How about the big wigs giving up some of their pay for their hard working developers.
Blizzard and NetEase have announced that Blizzard's games will return to mainland China under a new publishing agreement.
Hopefully Diablo 3 Reaper of Souls wont suck like Diablo 3 did
Heroes of the the Storm will be the best multiplayer game of 2014.
I don't see why it would be. Starcraft 2, while still an amazing game, has failed to compete with LoL and Dota 2 in the e-sports scene, and HotS has not been the success it was supposed to be.
WoW is steadily declining, which is to be expected, after a very long and solid run.
Hearthstone is doing well, I'll certainly give them that.
Heroes of the Storm does not have the passion and huge fanbase that LoL has, or the strategic depth or developer support that Dota 2 has. Blizzard has also given some really confusing comments about this game, and their focus on making it an e-sport. It does not seem like they have any real plans of that as of yet, which is scary cause that should've been a major focus during development.
Diablo 3 is for all intents and purposes - outside sales-numbers, a giant failure, nothing more to be said, the game is garbage.
I used to love Blizzard, and I've played both SC1 and SC2 for thousands of hours, among with several of their other games, and I must say that Blizzard in terms of game quality, have never been at a lower point than what they are now.
warcraft 4 rts needs to happen!
starcraft 2 multiplayer is absolutely perfect - balanced, amazing, and outstanding in every way, shape and form
there does not exist on this earth a multiplayer adversarial game that takes more skill or precision
it is the benchmark that all other e-sport wannabe games must be held to
and all so far have come up drastically short
except starcraft 1 and warcraft 3 of course
i hope not.
I hope they crash and burn because they have become scumbags after activision merger.
And this is coming from a guy whose one of the most favorite games of all time is wc3 TFT.