No, Blizzard is not currently on suicide watch.
No, Blizzard is not currently on suicide watch.
Earning quick profits often reduces motivation to improve creative skills. When pressure comes from investors to generate more revenue next quarter, would you continue the same tasks you previously skipped, or would you focus on the established sources of income?
It seems like you're wondering if the success of Call of Duty's microtransaction model might influence other Blizzard games to adopt similar approaches. The outcome is uncertain, but it will depend on how things develop over time.
It's expected that a fool and his money will part ways. The only similarity between Overwatch lootboxes and gambling is that both rely on random chance. Real gambling captures your attention with huge potential wins. Overwatch lootboxes offer skins and voice lines you'd already get through regular play. Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm are free to play, letting you enjoy everything without spending money. Lootboxes make sense since developers need revenue. It's not the company's responsibility if someone lacks self-control.
It’s as if you’re unaware that World of Warcraft operates as a subscription-based service with microtransactions and has a strong presence on Twitch. Blizzard is acceptable. Don’t forget Overwatch is thriving and Hearthstone remains popular even among users over 35. As someone noted, Activision and Blizzard are the same entity, producing titles like Call of Duty and Candy Crush—everyone over 35 loves them. Any concerns you have are unfounded. Diablo Immortals isn’t the company’s conclusion. Black Ops lacking a campaign doesn’t signal its demise. These are large corporations that manage stable operations and withstand significant challenges.
Honestly, I didn’t enjoy them at all. From their games I mainly played Hearthstone, which is free and really liked, but it doesn’t support 21:9 aspect ratio. I reached out on Facebook several times about this problem, but they just ignored it and didn’t even try to reply. They seem to be active there too, but never responded to my comments. I also checked their forum about the 21:9 support request and found nothing from the developers. Eventually, I gave up and asked for a feature option to disable emotes permanently. The game already lets players turn them off manually at the start of each match, but I wanted to make it completely automatic. It’s frustrating when players mock you with silly emotes after you lose a few matches, especially when you’re trying to stay competitive. I thought it would be simple for them to add this in options, but they kept ignoring my requests. Reaching out to Blizzard about it was another loss—no answers at all. I don’t respect companies that don’t care about their players. I’ve stopped playing that game and am now enjoying other titles from developers who actually listen to feedback.