Disclaimer: This is entirely focused on economics and how it relates to WoW. No politics. And please avoid politics in any responses. The Forum Code of Conduct permits that a person like Donald Trump can be talked about as an economic actor, but not as a political figure. Keep that in mind. And I know it’s a longshot to expect random people on the internet to stay on that narrow path, but let’s give it a shot.
So, anyone who has tuned into the news in the last week will know that there is economic turmoil pertaining to tariffs. It’s all developing very fast, so there’s no point in trying to explain the current situation as it is will change in 5 minutes anyway.
But as WoW players, what’s the situation? What’s the fallout? What’s the future?
A Microsoft stock that’s currently getting hammered could lead to layoffs. We’ve seen that before. Would that affect Blizzard?
A European Union that wants to retaliate could impose tariffs on services and tech from the US. Could that impact the video game industry?
Could a WoW production where the scale and size of the product hinges on its popularity and revenue face servere headwind if the world plunges into a recession and people get poorer?
A cultural divide that is beginning to result in boycotts of American products could gain traction. What does that mean for an American company like Blizzard?
I’m curious to hear what thoughts people have on this – as it pertains to World of Warcraft!
For gamers these kind of silly things are the last things that come on their mind .will any one boycott wow because of tarrifs ? No .
Will price of WoW go up ? Not really .
If, hypothetically, the EU commission puts a 20% tariffs on US services, you don’t think Microsoft would pass any of that cost onto their customers? Like us?
On the flip side, could you imagine it going down?
I mean, if people get poorer, then their ability to pay for expensive products will decrease and they’ll gravitate toward more affordable ones. If Blizzard wants to stay competitive in a price-driven market, won’t they have to lower their prices to keep their customers and entice new ones?
For the fans of WoW, sure. But that doesn’t mean every fan can afford the price going forward. Especially in local currencies the cost of WoW can be pretty substantial. And if you’re getting squeezed on your personal finances you’re more likely to cut your monthly WoW subscription before you cut your monthly rent.
It seems unlikely that such great upheaval in the world economy is not going to affect the bottom line of Blizzard and the revenue potential of World of Warcraft.
And usually the budget and investment into the product corresponds with the projected return on that investment. So if Blizzard forecasts that they’re going to make less money from World of Warcraft, then Microsoft will likely give the WoW development team less money to make new expansions with.
If EU slaps “tariffs” aka import tax, it’s the case of EU increasing the price not the MS.
As for value of the stocks, they are inflated with speculations anyway. You are witnessing trillions of dollars disappearing which didn’t actually existed to begin with.
I don’t disagree but people can only be squeezed so much.
In the UK young people are just refusing to work because it’s pointless. Boomers won’t die or retire so promotion is not possible. They also keep wages low by owning houses they paid £400 for, therefore not needing to pay rent and they also get a pension and still get paid from their job.
The system only works if enough people participate. Money doesn’t actually exist and the powers that be can’t get any if they never give any to anyone.
All the same, it’s less (fictional) dollars for Microsoft to distribute to their various businesses to budget around, including Blizzard Entertainment. And when they have less money (fictional or otherwise) they tend to cut costs – usually employees. We’ve seen that before.
I don’t really see how WoW – which has historically flourished under the reign of Bobby Kotick who was consistently able to increase the stock value of Activision Blizzard – is going to flourish as a non-essential business in a Microsoft corporation that is on a downward trend.
Arguably, but as far as the Blizzard Forum Code of Conduct, it actually doesn’t. Because we are absolutely allowed to talk about the business of Blizzard and WoW as a product and the subscription as an expense.
So as long as we don’t stray too far from that, it should be a-okay.
Possibly, esp in the QA and CS departments, which are historically always the first ones to get hit.
Also possible, but unlikely, as videogames are not "tech"in teh sense they´re referring to, but primarily luxury entertainment products, unless OFC a full ban on all US made products is implemented.
If people have less mones in general, there is always the potential for a loss in subscribers, depending on just how much someone has to tighten their belt.
That said, WoW’s price, while overall still comparatively high as videogames go (+/-60€ expansion, + 120€ /year) is still comparatively low in teh grand scheme of things when compared to other hobbies. Sib numbers may not go down significantly in the near term, but expansion sales could potentially take a noticeable hit.
This depends entirely on how true people are to themselves… If someone absolutely boycotta all US products, then OFC WoW is on that list… but many if not most people like to make “exceptions” for things they personally enjoy.
I personaly don´t think it will have a significant impact on Blizzard’s sales in general… where it might be more easily felt is in teh day to day revenue off products like D: Immortal or D4, in WoW´s cash shop when suddenly a 25€ mount is not seeling nearly as well as before because the average player would rather eat for a week, instead.
Yeah I get the angle that WoW as a hobby is cheaper and better value than a lot of other things. But within the gaming market, gamers are gamers and games are games. And if gamers have less money they’re inevitably going to move toward cheaper and more affordable games – unless the expensive games offer a much higher quality experience to justify the higher price.
I feel like we see a bit of that already with the Nintendo Switch 2 announcement and its pricing. Gamers do seem critical of price. Slap tariffs on and…
I think that environment is going to be harder to compete in for Blizzard when gamers have less money in their pockets, than if their pockets are full of money.
I.e. premium products and luxuries tend to do better in a thriving economy than in a struggling one. And that goes without saying. If you’re tight for money you’re not going to buy Beluga Caviar and Champagne for lunch. But you might if you just won the lottery.
But what I also find interesting, is that the subscription cost of WoW has always been fixed to the US dollar. So Blizzard have adjusted the subscription cost in local currency to always reflect the cost in US dollar. But if the plan of the US administration is to try and lower the value of the US dollar, then there is more incentive for Blizzard to retain non-US customers as they pay in local currencies that could potentially be stronger versus the dollar, and therefore worth more after a currency exchange.
Nah. Earnings and speculated value of the company are different things. Earnings being more important obviously.
What Trump is trying to do is to weaken dollar which will make USA exports more competitive.
In theory, price of “raw sub,game time” should to become more affordable when adjusted to ppp. What will MS do i have no idea.
As for EU import tax, well if it’s 20% that translates to 13e becoming 15.6e. It’s not game breaking i would say.
While I believe his motivations are otherwise but won´t go into it here, that only works in a bubble where the importing nation doesn`t levy retaliatory tariffs, which literally every country is already doing or at least preparing for.
There´s an old saying that will I believe will absolutely prove itself true once again: “There are no winners in a trade war, everyone loses”
It’s very hard just to limit this to gaming / Microsoft because of the doom loop that it creates in the wider economic world.
Broadly speaking you can divide this stuff into
things where there is an easy replacement somewhere else (China can buy its soybeans from countries other than the USA)
things where there isn’t an easy replacement (wow springs to mind, IP like microsoft windows etc)
Reputational damage (I’ve built my supply chain or technology base relying on a country (the USA) or a supplier (Microsoft) but screw it, its going to cause me pain but I’m going elsewhere)
Microsoft currently comes off pretty decently in most of those. It’s ‘generally’ hard to replace (you can go for Sony over xbox for example).
The USA doesn’t come off that brilliantly in the above. China will buy its soy beans somewhere else. They will deny the USA its rare earth minerals, the list goes on. And team microsofts success is linked to team USA’s
Reputationally, the USA is fudged. They’ve alienated their allies almost past the point of no return. Just travel to the US is predicted to take a $64bn hit this year because people are saying ‘nop’. Thats tourism jobs going, those people tighten their belts and it knocks on. Now do that in farming / ‘name a sector’ where people choose things other than those originating in the USA.
I don’t know what it means for gaming specifically but this is a MASSIVE self own. Someone said “When America sneezes the world catches a cold and America just cut off its own arm”. Buckle up, its going to be nasty and the USA is not going to come out of this well.
They are already technically at “full employment”. That before they evict all the immigrants picking their crops because they don’t want to do it themselves. It’s frickin laughable to think that Betty in Iowa is aspiring to work 16 hours a day in a sweatshop assembling iphones or shoes.
I’ve not even touched on good economic outlooks craving certainty. I’m not going to invest a billion dollars in the US or anywhere else with the economic world in turmoil, more reason to tighten belts which just feeds the doom loop.
At the moment lots of people are going on with their lives and this isn’t affecting them. It will soon and its going to be ugly. This isn’t hyperbole but if the world stays this path its going to make what COVID did to the economy look mild. And its self inflicted.
Here ends my “totally economics only” rant. Happy to debate points but if the extent of anyones rebuttal is “you’re wrong lol” just save your breath, bookmark this and come back in 6 months.
I think it’s a very reasonable thought process in broad terms.
From a gaming perspective I wonder how this will play out.
I can easily see European gamers turn more toward Sony and Nintendo and Japanese games, simply because emotions toward America get entangled in the video games themselves. But at the same time, a game like Call of Duty which is as American as it gets, is also just super popular because it’s a great game.
But we have seen European companies like Ukrainian 11 Bit Studios (This War of Mine, Frostpunk) and GSC Game World (S.T.A.L.K.E.R) get increasingly popular because gamers wish to support them because of the war.
And we saw gamers try to distance themselves from Atomic Heart because of its associations with Russia.
It’s hard to think that American games aren’t going to get swallowed up in that same soup of emotions when the President acts as he does.
And even from a WoW perspective, it feels like Blizzard’s reliance on microtransactions and monetization schemes is seen as an increasingly greedy corporate business practice that rubs people the wrong way, but where we have so far tried to accept it as the way of things, like a lemon being sour.
I have a hard time imagining anything but that sentiment turning even more sour when players begin feeling like it’s one thing to get screwed over financially, but it’s another thing to get screwed over financially by an American company.
That global brand Blizzard has feels like it has a rough time ahead of it, because it is so closely associated with America, and there’s very little appetite for the American brand right now.
But we’ll see.
I don’t think that’s true.
The notion that people who quit WoW because of its costs have nowhere to go is a bit far-fetched when the gaming market consists of thousands upon thousands of games. People obviously just go play something else that looks cool and is more affordable.
Blizzard absolutely do not have a monopoly on the gaming market or a certain segment of gamers. Blizzard’s ups and downs with regards to retaining their own customers in recent years is testament to the fact that they are in fact in fierce competition with other game companies.
And that fierce competition is there because the gaming market has been stagnant since coming out of the COVID boom, so companies can’t just rely on a constant stream of more customers popping out of nowhere now. If they want to grow as companies they have to take customers from other companies. That’s a dog eats dog market and it’s certainly going to be interesting to see how Blizzard competes in that market – even more so when we factor in what’s going on right now in the news.
Maybe, maybe not. It depends on competency of the people in charge.
For an example: And let’s be real here, EU automakers have no chance against Chinese EVs. Those import taxes on American things (significant percentage of which are non-essential services) can be used to stimulate automakers and save those jobs.
Yes, super theoretical, but that is what we dealing with currently.