Every blizzard game is dead or in process of dying because of their marketing strategy.
Right now they put all the money on heavy marketing campaigns to create hype and when the initial sells stop they let the game/expansion die and jump to the next big release. They did this with warlords, with bfa, with diablo 3, with stacraft 2, with overwatch… etc.
They live from hyped players who think “this time it’s not gonna be a disappointment” and after all the hype… they get disappointed.
Activision doesen’t mind if Blizzard dies, game industry right now is that way, they just lose another competitor. As long as blizzard games can give some fast money they won’t let the company sink, but eventually all players will get tired of the constant disappointments and stop buying anything from Blizzard.
WoW lives from fans, this game has no new players since mop, i’d assume 99% of the players who play wow retail or classic rn started playing in the 3-4 first expansions years ago. Blizzard lives from the fan’s hope and even the biggest fan will eventually get tired of being deceived and disappointed.
Did you watch the Steve Jobs video about marketing it’s pretty good.
Marketing can only do so much, if the game is trash it’s trash.
Take for example no man’s sky vs fallout 76, both had a very rocky start, but one of them took the path of improvement, the other took the path of marketing.
Basically i would put this as developer vs marketing team, we can clearly see which one brought the best overall result.
We can safely assume that no amount of marketing is gonna save fallout 76, not only that, but they took the wrong path and choose marketing and short term money over long term health of the game, development, and long term profits.
As a result, fallout 76 will be a failed game, that will put a blemish on bethesda image, for many years to come, and probably will never fully recover.
Is short, if you don’t know wtf you are talking about, let’s the people who know what they are doing do the talking. Because if the product is bad, no amount of marketing will save it, and will actually have the opposite effect, all of that for some short term profits.
The expansion cycle WoW has had since cataclysm really feels like blizzards solution to meeting hard deadlines. Now that ready when it’s ready™ doesn’t fit in with their financial schedule they don’t seem to have time to do systems updates at the same time that they create an enjoyable expansion for the playerbase so we get a systems overhaul expansion every other expansion now.
Blizzard are lucky that their core base aren’t jaded yet and we’re easy to forgive and forget whenever they put something good in front of our faces again. Don’t think it has a lot to do with marketing strategy, it’s not like they would say “here’s a turd of an expansion everyone, enjoy”. Of course they’d hype up anything they make as if it was their magnum opus.
Nah… Nothing will kill WoW. MMOs are too expensive to make from scraps… they bring too little money to make from scraps and their world is too small while making from scraps so even if someone will make a decent MMO then we will quit it in few months.
WoW have steady fanbase, people that return to play new expansion and maintenance & development costs are not THAT big for Blizzard.
What does this mean? That even if WoW will turn into biggest trash in universe then it still will not die. This game achieved cockroach status.
(Maybe after few DECADES when technology will change and people will be full diving into virtual realiries )
Marketing can only take things so far. Without a good product marketing will only bring in sales initially and then they will die out.
A good product needs good marketing to make it visible.
They are intertwined and cannot function properly without balance.
Unfortunately companies started to rely more on marketing and discredit good product development because it’s cheaper.
Fortunately society is starting to change and is demanding better and better quality products for their coins. Companies who will improve their products will survive. Those who are stuck in the marketing mindset will die out.
But right there you are describing the nature of marketing, not just Activision/Blizz, but worldwide. You hype a product, the product sells, you either plough the revenue back into the product, or use it to maintain the product and set up new avenues for revenue, or as in most cases, you do a mix of both. you see it in the Auto industry, in finances, in commerce between nations, the aeronautic industry, communications, computing, everywhere.
Lets take an example from industry. The Boeing 747 was first built in 1968, and began active commercial flights in 1970. That is -Half a Century- ago. 50 years! What did Boeing do with the profits? A lot of them went into tweaking the 747, and a lot of them went into side projects, newer Passenger jets to fill other roles. They kept marketing the 747, low key, because hey, it was successful, they didn’t need to market it so much as when it first came out, their newer airframes however, they needed to advertise, to market. They still spend money on it, of course, and make improvements, because a 50 year old avionics system just would not cope with modern air transport requirements. Now if a gaming company does badly, their game flops. If an aviation company does badly, people die (As we see with the 737 MAX). The marketing strategy remains the same, because that is the quintessential nature of marketing, it is all about the new stuff. You see it everywhere.
Ermm, As a PLC with shareholders I imagine they would mind very much if Blizzard dies, given they are the same corporate entity, it means shareholders would lose confidence, profits would sink, stock prices for shares would sink in value. I imagine Activision care a great deal about it. It is a successful franchise.
Eventually is a long time, unless there is some significant revolution in gaming technology, beyond what we currently see.
Bizarre comment to make. I can absolutely state with 100% certainty that you are incorrect. I know of at least seven people who started playing circa WoD, and 2 who started in Legion. Not many, but to say it has had no new players since MoP is therefore objectively false.
I highly doubt that.I very much doubt that. I would be fascinated on seeing your calculations with proof of this.
True, apart from that weird Jellyfish, Turritopsis Dohrnii, which whilst it can die by being killed, is functionally immortal and never dies of old age…
I’ve never seen a WoW advertisement anywhere since like WotLK, I know some must be somewhere but I don’t see them. I don’t think all their money is going there lol.
That’s not really good advertisement though imo, people watch streams specifically for WoW, so they’re only advertising the game to people who already know about it and are interested in it.
