roguebanshee wrote on Jul 22, 2021, 14:53:

jdreyer wrote on Jul 22, 2021, 14:09:
I really don't understand this decision. How could Blizzard, one of the most revenue-stable game companies out there, have made the decision to ship early because of "financial pressure." It makes no sense.

That's because we're talking about ActivisionBlizzard here and not pre-Activision Blizzard.

The problem with Blizzard over the years is that it has become known for making multimillion dollar success stories, but in the past 5-10 years, it has a problem with extended development cycles. Activision is their bank. They are paying the studio to build great games, but the timelines kept getting pushed. In 2017-2018 timeframe, it became obvious that Blizzard was not going to ship anything over the next year or two, so Activision started to take action. The only real big launch in the last 5-6 years was Overwatch in 2016. They have all this great IP, but when you go 5-6 years with only expansion packs for WoW and a pair of remasters, that's a lot of payroll for almost no income. Their pipeline has been pretty much dry since Overwatch, and OW2 and D4 are still far away from release. If you were bankrolling a bunch of expensive ass developers that havent shipped a AAA game over 5-6 years I'd imagine you'd start to question WTF is going on as well.

That being said, as a customer since D1, it sucks to see this happen, but it starts to make sense. Great things dont last forever.

Orogogus wrote on Feb 23, 2021, 13:33:

Hornet303 wrote on Feb 23, 2021, 13:12:

Fion wrote on Feb 23, 2021, 12:44:
Nice. Day's Gone is supposedly really good.

For anyone wondering why Sony is suddenly starting to release PS4 games on PC, well it's because they are missing out on the biggest game market in the world otherwise. For the last several years in a row now, PC games have outsold all console game sales combined.

I was under the impression this is opposite. Can you link me to any articles giving these details? I've always been interested in platform populations.

I don't think it's true. I believe it's agreed that mobile games have been the leader for the past few years, with PC and console clawing for second place, approximately in a 2:1:1 ratio. Where PC revenues are strong, it's in microtransactions, particularly for free-to-play titles and especially in Asia. One report from last year (the first Google hit for PC vs console sales), talking about 2019:

Despite the growth in PC gaming, consoles still make up a larger portion of the gaming market. Consoles account for 30% of the 2019 global gaming market at $45.3 billion. PCs fall slightly behind with 24% market share or $35.3 billion. Mobile, which we’ll discuss shortly, represents the biggest market with 46% share or $68.2 billion.

Thanks for this. I did some searches and found similar results. I think we all agree Mobile makes up the most. PC has a really high potential, considering pretty much everyone needs to use a PC. Im sure MS is looking to expand into PC because of the population, and Sony is trying to make sure that MS doesnt dominate. I'll be interesting to see if Steam gives up market share to Xbox on PC.

Fion wrote on Feb 23, 2021, 12:44:
Nice. Day's Gone is supposedly really good.

For anyone wondering why Sony is suddenly starting to release PS4 games on PC, well it's because they are missing out on the biggest game market in the world otherwise. For the last several years in a row now, PC games have outsold all console game sales combined.

I was under the impression this is opposite. Can you link me to any articles giving these details? I've always been interested in platform populations.

The Half Elf wrote on Nov 19, 2020, 15:22:

Rhett wrote on Nov 19, 2020, 12:30:
Shadowlands and Black Ops both set new sales records against previous entries, sadly... Shadowlands looks kinda promising, but anything's better than the current expansion at least. Black Ops looks like a big step back though.. not sure why people are buying into it...

Shadowland Pre-patch event..... was..... I don't want to say a complete and utter disappointment, because that would be elevating it way above it's station. The money and dev is all going to Call of Duty Franchise and at this point Blizzard (with or without Covid) is indeed circling the drain.

Blizzard needs to figure a way to buy itself back and get away from Activision before it's too late.

For the sake of conversation, I don't see how Blizzard can survive on its own right now. They need the COD money to help support the development of new games, that don't seem to be coming out anytime soon! It's fucked, but if they don't focus on the cash cow, none of the other cows will get fed and Blizzard is just about out of cows! Is WoW still printing money?

In my mind, Blizzard used to excel at creating games that appealed to everyone. Every Blizzard game was highly anticipated! Now, I don't care about Hearthstone, and I haven't played WoW since the second expansion pack. Overwatch was great, but fell out of love after level 40 or so. So the only thing I'm interested in is either Diablo 4 or potentially some game I'm unaware of. I'm sure Covid is not helping the situation.

Verno wrote on Sep 29, 2020, 12:39:

The PS5 is even worse, shipping with 825GB pre-allocation.

Where did they announce the 825 was pre-allocated?

yawn @ more multiplayer garbage

I do have to wonder why you even bother to devote so much time, with a general disgust of just about everything that is posted. Is there anything in the gaming industry in 2019 that you are fond of, or is everything about pining over days of old?

Muscular Beaver wrote on Aug 5, 2017, 11:58:
I would actually play that game, if it wasnt such a grind/p2w.

Have you done any research? How are considering it P2W? I bought the game in December 2015 and never paid a dime. The grind? If you want new operators and dont want to pay for them, the grind is real.

I've unlocked all but 1 operator by grinding. Honestly, there are operators that I've never played that I unlocked. People having new operators do not have any advantage over the people who have the stock OPs. I personally really like this model. The game gets supported by skins and season passes, but the maps and operators are obtainable for playing a game that I really enjoy. All new maps are playable by everyone.

Cutter wrote on Feb 19, 2016, 14:36:

Peter M. Smith wrote on Feb 19, 2016, 12:31:

Cutter wrote on Feb 19, 2016, 12:22:
Why do they even bother with these bullshit awards ceremonies? Everyone know W3 was the game of the year.

These aren't popularity contests, they're members of the game development industry assessing the works of their peers. You'll see Witcher 3 did win a few awards this year, just not the top spot.

It's entirely about who's buying what. That's all it ever is. If you don't understand that, you're retarded or a shill.

If you're suggesting that its quantity sold (and im pretty sure you are not), than FO4 very likely beat Witcher 3. According to VGChartz.com (and I know, they don't have 100% track record) but even if we round up/down a million units, Witcher is around 5 mil (im sure excluding Steam sales) and FO4 is at @ 10 mil. So even if we pad W3 with 2+ mil, it still isnt close.

I loved W3, and still plan to return to it when I have time. Just started playing F04 and im pleased with the presentation. Atmosphere, and even the graphics are suitable. I have very little to comment on the story as Im only a few hours in.

I respect the fact that DICE is about developers awarding developers. I feel peers often offer the most objective reviews and would carry much more weight with me than any internet game site.

This comment was edited on Feb 19, 2016, 16:36.

I've been reading Blue's for a long time now, and its kinda sad how most of the comments are from the same people that generally hate 90% of the news that gets posted here.

I don't play a lot of fighters but there seems to be some legitimacy behind the release of SF5, and we'll quickly see how many people 'did' ask for the game by voting with their wallets.

I just don't get the negativity. There is a demographic of people that like games that you may not like. I will never buy a sports game (football, hockey, soccer etc..), but I know a lot of people will 'only' buy sports games. That's the great part of life. If everything was the same, and all sites were like the comment section
@ Blues, I guess I'd take up brewing full time as a hobby. At least brewers are pretty fun to hang out with, even if they don't like the same beer I do

Cheers!

Or "maybe" people like a bit of variety in their games. I always liked the vehicle maps, but I never complained about Op Metro when it came across the rotation.

Then I read these online forums and find out that I'm stupid for thinking they're OK. Either that or apparently play it 24x7 to pad my stats, which I know isn't true. I guess I'm a stupid moron, bummer.

MoreLuckThanSkill wrote on Aug 9, 2012, 12:09:
I hate to say it, but I'm still playing Diablo 3 occasionally, no RMAH/GAH use. Act 3 Inferno so far on my barb with a dps/throw build, but need to farm more to really get through that act. Multiplayer with people I've known for 15+ years is still fun, farming solo is a bit boring. But, I can only imagine using the AHs would be even worse, zero feeling of achievement there.

Aside from the whole announcement to an announcement bullshit, hopefully these changes end up being positive. So far the fun aspects of Diablo 3 keep getting nerfed, it seems.

Although just in case, I'll try to actively finish Inferno on my barb now, in case something gets nerfed to pieces soon.

How can this be? Haven't you read on this forum that this game sucks?

Screen looks too bright.. apparently its w/o particle mapping or whatever. There is decent detail in there, but just seems a little cartoony to me. Im sure it will be fixed. It also mentions that the camera is adjustable so you can zoom out further etc.

Not that its rock solid, but perhaps a decent guess at the console version of sales

http://www.vgchartz.com/game/46887/the-witcher-2-assassins-of-kings/

It's sad. I told myself I wont click on the Comments link anymore on this site, but I wanted to see the patch notes. It's almost like clicking on a link in an email that you know that you should just type in the URL yourself.

I started gaming on the PC in the early 80's and still keep up OK with the new releases on both console and PC. Its just sad to be able to predict how many people will post on any D3 news article who bash the living crap out of this game.

I bought D3 on release, Im playing 5-10 hours a week with friends and having a good time along the way. 1/2 way through nightmare right now.

Anyway, it just bums me out that the PC scene is so angry all the time. Its like seeing a spokesman for a certain group on TV representing your group. I just keep saying to myself "we're not all that bad, some people are content".

I suggest they replace the name with ipod touch fat.

Hopefully we'll get some info about Ghost Recon during E3 '10.

What about what blizzard has done with WC3 and pretty much everything since then (non wow)? They provide their own matchmaking and they have done pretty well as far as I know. You can play ranked vs non-ranked as well as use mods. Wonder if IW has thought this far...

Epic fail, yet managed to make $1 million since its public beta release.

Did they fix the camera for the whole NW2 engine, or do you have to get the exp pack to get the new camera?

What is a bit deceiving about the whole Activision Blizzard is that Blizzard really had no control over it. If you go all the way back to pre-WOW days, there was always a big concern of Vivendi selling the games division (including Blizzard) which adds lots of uncertainty.

Now, Vivendi agreed to combine forces. Blizzard really has no control over it, and what you hear from blizzard could be considered marketing spin. This is what happens when youre dependant on your parent company to support the company during all the R&D (development time).

Now with wow, it really comes down to how much money Blizzard has agreed to pay Vivendi on all the transactions. That 75+ million they make a month most likely dosnt go sit in Blizzards pocket. Im sure Vivendi takes their percentage.

Anyway, it should be interesting to see what happens, but I kind of feel its going to be impossible for Blizzard to remain what it was. Whether its good or bad, yet to be scene.