Thank you for letting me know that the much awaited Q2 report was released.
Now, take the following with a grain of salt. I am not going to claim to be a financial expert and am actually able to reliably read what's in the report:
But page 9 of the report, which has the segment revenue breakdown:
@ June 30, 2012:
Blizzard revenue was approx. 634 million.
Activison revenue was approx. 373 million.
@ June 30, 2013 (this report):
Blizzard revenue was approx. 224 million.
Activision revenue was approx. 347 million.
The report lists what appears to be a drop of 410 million dollars in revenue from Blizzard from a year ago.
Now as I said I am not going to attempt to draw any finite conclusions from this document. As I said I am not qualified to read this information.
Diablo 3 was released in May 2012, meaning sales would have been at its peak in Q2. The Annual Pass for Warcraft 3 was also in effect, covering from Oct. 2011 - 2012, meaning even if people were not actively playing World of Warcraft, they were still paying for it. This is a huge factor considering WoW usually sees a dip in subscribers during the summer, always has.
In 2013, we had Heart of the Swarm, but expansion packs don't usually sell as well as main titles. Starcraft 2 also does not reach the sales numbers that Diablo 3 does. Blizzard is also facing a dip in subscription numbers in China due to multiple factors; the main one probably being competition with other F2P MMO's (Age of Wushu reportedly has 20m player accounts). This is a major factor considering China comprises 40-60% of WoW's total playerbase. This is likely what spurred the decision for Titan to become F2P. It is rumored that prior to Q2 earnings announcements, it was entertaining a Pay-Per-Month system.
Overall, I don't think they're in any dire situation financially. It's hard to tell with Vivendi pulling out. While Activision Blizzard will gain more autonomy, other companies like Tencent (Chinese megamedia company, owners of Riot) now have stake in the company. It will be interesting to see what happens.
Start @ 13:06
Well he can see the need for better custom mods and fixes to Battle.net.
Yes I know its January 29th but much of what he says is still true today. The scene is clearly not getting enough support from Blizzard.
News from the Q2 Earning Reports earlier today
"Blizzard All-Stars is in wider internal testing and will be talked about more later this year."
Not really much to work off of, but it's good to know there's going to be at least some information coming this year.
@Triceron: Go
Thank you for letting me know that the much awaited Q2 report was released.
Now, take the following with a grain of salt. I am not going to claim to be a financial expert and am actually able to reliably read what's in the report:
But page 9 of the report, which has the segment revenue breakdown:
@ June 30, 2012: Blizzard revenue was approx. 634 million. Activison revenue was approx. 373 million.
@ June 30, 2013 (this report): Blizzard revenue was approx. 224 million. Activision revenue was approx. 347 million.
The report lists what appears to be a drop of 410 million dollars in revenue from Blizzard from a year ago.
Now as I said I am not going to attempt to draw any finite conclusions from this document. As I said I am not qualified to read this information.
But it could make a good discussion. Comments?
Here is the link: http://investor.activision.com/results.cfm
Many multiple factors.
Diablo 3 was released in May 2012, meaning sales would have been at its peak in Q2. The Annual Pass for Warcraft 3 was also in effect, covering from Oct. 2011 - 2012, meaning even if people were not actively playing World of Warcraft, they were still paying for it. This is a huge factor considering WoW usually sees a dip in subscribers during the summer, always has.
In 2013, we had Heart of the Swarm, but expansion packs don't usually sell as well as main titles. Starcraft 2 also does not reach the sales numbers that Diablo 3 does. Blizzard is also facing a dip in subscription numbers in China due to multiple factors; the main one probably being competition with other F2P MMO's (Age of Wushu reportedly has 20m player accounts). This is a major factor considering China comprises 40-60% of WoW's total playerbase. This is likely what spurred the decision for Titan to become F2P. It is rumored that prior to Q2 earnings announcements, it was entertaining a Pay-Per-Month system.
Overall, I don't think they're in any dire situation financially. It's hard to tell with Vivendi pulling out. While Activision Blizzard will gain more autonomy, other companies like Tencent (Chinese megamedia company, owners of Riot) now have stake in the company. It will be interesting to see what happens.
Probably a fair verdict.
I didn't see anything in there about HotS sales though. That's what chiefly interests me.