For those of you who thought my earlier discussion of the value of subscriptions versus one-time sales was somehow an attack on Diablo, this Motley Fool article could help educate you a bit.
"Activision Blizzard has moved to a subscription model, which provided more than a third of its revenue in the most recent quarter."
and here's a recent statement of the Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick talking about adding subscription fees to the Call of Duty franchise and that applies to all of their current franchises that include free multiplayer.
"There was a time when we thought sponsorship or advertising was a big opportunity but what we realised is that when our customers are paying $60 on a game or a subscription fee, they don't really want to be barraged with sponsorship or advertising.
"So, being very respectful of our audiences, unless it's something really authentic that enhances the game experience we're generally not going to include something [like that] in a game."
Games still matter
As important as we've seen a revenue model be, big-name games still matter in the developers' fight for gaming eyeballs. In this arena I think Take-Two has the best content with stalwarts like Grand Theft Auto, Civilization, and the new Red Dead Redemption. Creating new innovative ways to shoot thugs and start gangs is not a problem for Take-Two.
Activision Blizzard still relies heavily on older brands but has a slight advantage over EA with solid brands including Guitar Hero, DJ Hero, Call of Duty, Starcraft, and World of Warcraft. It also recently added Halo developer Bungie, who should be able to do big things now that the Xbox shackles from Microsoft are off. Electronic Arts still relies too much on the EA Sports brand that has lacked the ability to reinvent itself for years.
even if it fails to remember Diablo III, its something quite relevant.
Nobody was arguing with you that one-time game sales is better than monthly subscriptions. We all know that monthly revenue is better. People were arguing against you because of the over-emphasis of diablo's sales effects on wow's subscriptions. You claimed that half of wow subscribers wouldcancel them to play diablo and that because of this diablo will not be released. Nobody is saying that diablo's sales will be betterthan months of cntinual revenue. People just think that diablo's sales will not impact wow's subscriptions as much as you thought. Even when Diablo is released millions will still play wow.
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i argued mostly because other game sales (single player or MMOs from other companies) would have the same impact on the WoW subscriptions (for some time at least, as it happened in the past). every company tries to get a slice of the cake. and even if WoW manages to survive for the next 2, 3 or 4 years it will eventually die off (most likely before the next gen MMO from Blizzard) and people will move to other games.
Diablo III would only mean profit for Blizzard and will keep players interested in the company with another amazing game
For those of you who thought my earlier discussion of the value of subscriptions versus one-time sales was somehow an attack on Diablo, this Motley Fool article could help educate you a bit.
"Activision Blizzard has moved to a subscription model, which provided more than a third of its revenue in the most recent quarter."
thank you gheed2010 for implying, either on purpous or deliberatly, that i or others need to be educated. i do however applaude your resolve in repededly stating the same topic over and over again, in almost every thing you post. I highly doubt however, or flat out refuse to beleiv, that diablo is some how a reaserch project that will never be released and have high hopes for it coming out in 2011. although i realize that i could be compleately wrong, i doubt it.
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maby the matrix was made by the robots to make everyone think it was a retarted idea?
+ ever notice how the matrix kinda blends with the terminator to make one 6 part super movie!
You claimed that half of wow subscribers wouldcancel them to play diablo and that because of this diablo will not be released.
Really? Please link to this quote.
You had said :
I'll make it simple for you. You're the village milkman, that owns a dozen cows. You know that some of your customers will always be too lazy to milk their own cows, but some won't. You make $10,000 a month in revenue selling your milk. Would it make sense to sell most of your cows for $40,000, if it meant that revenue might drop to $5000 month?
I replied by saying your analogy was wrong for many reasons, one which was the amount of loss in monthly sales (half). You did not refute this total. By this, I assume you think half of wow players will be canceling their subscriptions to play wow. If you did not, then you grossly exaggerated a false number to try to prove your point. You decide which you did.
Also, at your idea that diablo is just a R&D project to keep talent in-house is rediculous. This game has been announced and shown too publicly for this idea. The amount of negative PR they would get if they never released this game would be rediculous. This company already has a bad image about this situation and such a huge title being canceled would cement this negative reputation of blizzard. The negative reprocussions of this would be much more detrimental than the loss in te few canceled subscriptions from this games release. You should really understand how this business works before claiming such bold and far out ideas.
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he's obviously not a hero, he's hated for his opinions (some of which are about as off as yours that Diablo III is a research/project) but he does have the brains to go with what the people want and that's what i linked
hell, your 44 years old... shit. are you like the guy from the south park episode about wow. ya know hes got like amillion empty rockstars and he wears a rollerblade wrist gaurd for his carpltunnel and he spends his off hours shatering kids hopes and dreams for the future... is that you. its cool though your probably gunna die of old age soon and the rest of us will live on to enjoy diablo...i guess.
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maby the matrix was made by the robots to make everyone think it was a retarted idea?
+ ever notice how the matrix kinda blends with the terminator to make one 6 part super movie!
If Diablo takes some customers from WoW, Blizzard is satisfied the customer is quitting to play a different Blizzard game.
Why would they be satisfied? They traded a steady $200+ annually for a one-time $40+, with, maybe, another $30 or too if an XP is released. That would be a disaster. That's why, as the article says, they're moving towards subscriptions.
"Activision Blizzard has moved to a subscription model, which provided more than a third of its revenue in the most recent quarter."
enjoy
also from the OP article i'd like to quote:
even if it fails to remember Diablo III, its something quite relevant.
Find any Diablo news? Contact me or anyone else on the News team
Diablo III would only mean profit for Blizzard and will keep players interested in the company with another amazing game
PS. not gonna talk off topic again in this thread
Really? Please link to this quote.
thank you gheed2010 for implying, either on purpous or deliberatly, that i or others need to be educated. i do however applaude your resolve in repededly stating the same topic over and over again, in almost every thing you post. I highly doubt however, or flat out refuse to beleiv, that diablo is some how a reaserch project that will never be released and have high hopes for it coming out in 2011. although i realize that i could be compleately wrong, i doubt it.
+ ever notice how the matrix kinda blends with the terminator to make one 6 part super movie!
You had said :
I'll make it simple for you. You're the village milkman, that owns a dozen cows. You know that some of your customers will always be too lazy to milk their own cows, but some won't. You make $10,000 a month in revenue selling your milk. Would it make sense to sell most of your cows for $40,000, if it meant that revenue might drop to $5000 month?
I replied by saying your analogy was wrong for many reasons, one which was the amount of loss in monthly sales (half). You did not refute this total. By this, I assume you think half of wow players will be canceling their subscriptions to play wow. If you did not, then you grossly exaggerated a false number to try to prove your point. You decide which you did.
Also, at your idea that diablo is just a R&D project to keep talent in-house is rediculous. This game has been announced and shown too publicly for this idea. The amount of negative PR they would get if they never released this game would be rediculous. This company already has a bad image about this situation and such a huge title being canceled would cement this negative reputation of blizzard. The negative reprocussions of this would be much more detrimental than the loss in te few canceled subscriptions from this games release. You should really understand how this business works before claiming such bold and far out ideas.
Find any Diablo news? Contact me or anyone else on the News team
To other posters, sorry if differentiating between allegories and reality is difficult. Let me know if I can help.
+ ever notice how the matrix kinda blends with the terminator to make one 6 part super movie!
Why would they be satisfied? They traded a steady $200+ annually for a one-time $40+, with, maybe, another $30 or too if an XP is released. That would be a disaster. That's why, as the article says, they're moving towards subscriptions.
Find any Diablo news? Contact me or anyone else on the News team
just found why i said Kotick was hated lmao
yet still he showed he'd do what the customers wanted. and that happened just this week
Keep those bloody trolls out of this forum please
Diablo thanks God for creating obesity and ugliness.