Is Blizzard Out of Touch with Its Players?

SBFord

Is Blizzard Out of Touch with Its Players?

To say that Diablo Immortal's announcement during BlizzCon kicked up a hellish storm of backlash is to understate the storm greatly. Many players feel that the mobile announcement without any other news for the beloved IP is showing that Blizzard is out of touch with its hardcore playerbase. To that end, we want to know what YOU think. We've set up a special poll that gives you a chance to vote your conscience and to leave us your thoughts on the subject.

Read the full story here

jdnewell

They announce a mobile game to a large crowd of PC players and are surprised by the reaction.
I would say yes, they are a bit out of touch lol.

acidblood

"Do you guys not have phones" :facepalm:

WhiteLantern

While I agree that the announcement puts them squarely in the "out of touch" category. Creating the game itself does not. Reaching new markets is basic marketing strategy.

mcrippins

"Dear Audience.. we're going to cater to a different audience.. hope you enjoy it!"

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

JeffSpicoli

JeffSpicoli

Don't you people even own cellphones ? ........Blizzcon 2018

Phry

thunderC said:

Don't you people even own cellphones ? ........Blizzcon 2018

I suspect that one will haunt Blizzard for years to come. 

Cuppett5

Mobile phones or handhelds probably are the future of gaming.

cheyane

Cuppett5 said:

Mobile phones or handhelds probably are the future of gaming.

What a dreadful future to look forward to.

JeffSpicoli

Phry said:

thunderC said:

Don't you people even own cellphones ? ........Blizzcon 2018

I suspect that one will haunt Blizzard for years to come. 

Its almost as arrogant as when they said , You think you do, but you don't back in 2016 at blizzcon... And then 2 years later they announce Classic. I suspect in 2 years they will be announcing D4 

SBFord

blueturtle13 said:

"I hate to say it, but what you are seeing is Blizzard not understanding gamers anymore."

"There is nothing wrong with having a mobile version of Diablo. In fact, I would have wanted one as an option"
"But the way it was hinted at, and presented, and the failure of Blizzard management to predict the backlash caught me my surprise. Blizzard used to be really gamer driven".

Mark Kern
Producer Diablo 2

While I don't disagree with his position exactly, that dude will do anything to be noticed, especially when it comes to Blizz. LOL!

Spriggen1337

thunderC said:

Don't you people even own cellphones ? ........Blizzcon 2018

i loved that line!

makes me wonder what type of specs are gonna be needed to play Diablo immortal?!?!?!

not everyone will have flagship 2018 phones!

But then again they havent announced what pay to proceed walls/cosmetics are in game and if it will have stamina or not. for announcing a poopy mobile game they sure are hushed up on that type of stuff!

Aeander

Announcing a mobile game to people who have been waiting 4 (or 6) years for a mainline game? Yes, I'd say that's pretty fucking out of touch.

Xingbairong

WhiteLantern said:

While I agree that the announcement puts them squarely in the "out of touch" category. Creating the game itself does not. Reaching new markets is basic marketing strategy.

Reaching new markets is of course basic strategy, but when you discard the interests of all your current users I don't think it's a good strategy. They are looking for other customers while ignoring the ones they have.
I've been a Blizz fan for probably close to 20 years now, BUT this year I've started to slowly not care anymore.

State of WoW - They have a lot of good ideas, but it appears that they are missing people who can realize them in their full potential, so the current state of the game is "meh".

Heroes of the Storm - In my opinion it's a game that can easily have millions if not tens of millions of users, BUT they don't seem to care to fix their MM system. A lot of new players get put in ranks they don't belong and they get discouraged at the same time the old players are starting to get annoyed and quit. People who check HotS on stream feel like the game isn't that great because even top streamers who are in the Master/GM rank have a ton of "meh" game cause the MM system is really bad.

Overwatch - I guess it's doing good. It's a shooter not really much you can do about it.

Hearthstone - Horrible game, but easy money, so yeah... Don't really want to even talk about this one

Diablo series - In the trash.

Starcraft - underwhelming when you think what this game used to be.

Warcraft series and especially Warcraft 3 ROC/TFT - In my opinion the game that put Blizzard on the spotlight. It has been ignored for so many years and we only get a remastared just now which is sad. I honestly expected a Warcraft 4 announcement. I'm sure that the game would've been a lot more popular than WoW especially with the custom maps fans make. A lot of people used to play Warcraft 3 just for the custom maps - DOTA/TDs/Hero Arenas etc etc....

Asch126

But do you have phones?

MadFrenchie

DMKano said:

"Many players feel that the mobile announcement without any other news for the beloved IP is showing that Blizzard is out of touch with its hardcore playerbase."

Out of touch and choosing to ignore a smaller "hardcore player segement" in favor of a much larger mobile space due to higher potential profitability - are 2 different things.

I don't think that Blizzard is out of touch - they are just profits driven, and I also think it's silly to make a definite conclusion to this question based on a single presentation at Blizzcon.

Out of touch would be - clueless to what's going on - and Blizzard is far from that, sure there are misteps but every company has those.

There is so much more to Blizzard than 1 product, 1 presentation - you are asking if the entire company is out of touch based on one event?

My answer is - no, not even close.

No; if you played through the BfA release, then witnessed this tone deaf announcement, you'd be voting yes on this poll.

Blizzard buys their own hype these days.  That might've been okay when their hype delivered, but it's not delivering anymore like it used to.

Nobody is saying mobile markets won't make Blizzard money.  But you don't scorn the fanbase that built your company.

Scorchien

DMKano said:

Aeander said:

Announcing a mobile game to people who have been waiting 4 (or 6) years for a mainline game? Yes, I'd say that's pretty fucking out of touch.

Even if this was a mistep - how much buzz is being generated for Diablo Immortal? 

The mobile playerbase doesn't care for Blizzards other products and they are finding out about a new mobile game for them right now.

Hmmm.....

Also it's going to be dead easy to win pissed off Blizzard core players back, as soon as they announce D4 - all will be back with open arms.

Out of touch - or more brilliant than we realize?

Exactly , and like i said in an earlier thread not worried about this one bit , could they have alleviated the PR blow ....  yes ..... why didnt they is puzzling a bit ..

           ATVI will be fine with coming projects , also the irony that , most of the people complaining will try/play Immortal .. and Blizz knows that

Sandmanjw

acidblood said:

"Do you guys not have phones" :facepalm:

Can just speak for me...and the answer is no. Have a land line and that is it. But even i know i am in a very small minority.

And the real question is how did people not see the way this was headed when they bought King games?

You think they spent that god-awful amount of money on something they did not intend to expand their library on? The writing was on the wall that they were going mobile.

MadFrenchie

DMKano said:

MadFrenchie said:

Nobody is saying mobile markets won't make Blizzard money.  But you don't scorn the fanbase that built your company.

You do if you know that they will take you back in a heartbeat as soon as you do something nice to them. 

Do you honestly think that Blizzard is losing a significant % of players forever here?

They are not.

Again if this caused a permanent 30% players to never play a Blizzard game again - this would be something worth talking about.

In reality - it's overblown nothing due to the fact of how easy it is for Blizzard to win everyone back.

Is this "it'll be okay if we chase the dollar harder cause the core fanbase will always be there" the same philosophy that worked out so well for Trion?

natpick

DMKano said:

MadFrenchie said:

Nobody is saying mobile markets won't make Blizzard money.  But you don't scorn the fanbase that built your company.

You do if you know that they will take you back in a heartbeat as soon as you do something nice to them. 

Do you honestly think that Blizzard is losing a significant % of players forever here?

They are not.

Again if this caused a permanent 30% players to never play a Blizzard game again - this would be something worth talking about.

In reality - it's overblown nothing due to the fact of how easy it is for Blizzard to win everyone back.

one time i would agree but not now the player base is not happy and many of them are older gamers,who are not stupid and will only put up with so much,ive played blizzard games since they existed,and never known them to be this bad in all things,imho there have lost touch big time.

Ahmy17

The real question is do you have a charger?

Raquis

Raquis

Raquis said:

if you dont like the crap they give you- you are called a troll or a cry baby

Keushpuppy

and Trion doesn't exist any more