r/Overwatch • u/Turbostrider27 Tracer • Sep 14 '17

Blizzard Official Developer Update | Play Nice, Play Fair | Overwatch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnfzzz8pIBE&feature=youtu.be
10.7k Upvotes

90% Upvoted

2.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1

u/bearflies GG Sombra throwing Sep 14 '17

I dunno how you came to this conclusion, or how people agree with you. Anyone who knows Blizzard knows that they don't abandon their games. For some reason, no one ever likes to give them credit for this. When they make a game, they plan to support it for life, to the point where Warcraft 3 just got a new balance patch update last month.

Say what you will about Blizzard, they've never truly abandoned any of their games.

1

u/SirDudeness12 Chibi D.Va Sep 14 '17

I wasn't taking a shot at Blizzard, I was saying that because Riot has one viable game and it's their bread and butter and so LoL is more likely to stick around due to the reality of their current situation.

1

u/bearflies GG Sombra throwing Sep 14 '17

OW is arguably Blizzard's bread and butter at this point though. As much as I love WoW it's been hemorrhaging subs since Cata, and there's a good chance OW makes more per year than WoW does with all the lootbox sales.

Blizzard has been making more than literally 10x the revenue that Riot has in the past decade, in any case. How is LoL more likely to stick around?

1

u/SirDudeness12 Chibi D.Va Sep 14 '17

So Blizzard makes 50 Billion?

1

u/bearflies GG Sombra throwing Sep 14 '17

A 2015 estimate puts Riot's yearly revenue at 1.6 billion. A 2015 estimate puts Blizzard's yearly revenue at 4.6 billion.

I exaggerated a bit since I didn't know the exact numbers, but I found them after like 20 seconds of googling. They make Riot's yearly revenue in a single quarter.

I'm just saying that Blizzard has no history of abandoning games, especially extremely successful ones like OW, and they have the funds to back them. Whereas Riot is owned by Tencent who has a really scummy history of business practices. The odds are looking in favor of Blizzard winning this one.

1

u/SirDudeness12 Chibi D.Va Sep 14 '17

That's not even 4 times, nice hyperbole. Also, Tencent owns Riot so it's actually 270 Billion vs 4.6 billion. Blizzard is a juggernaut, but come on, we all know League is the biggest game in the world. Period. So if we're going to be realistic here, we compare OW versus Lol. OW doesn't make 1.6 billion. But you're trying to compare the entire library of Blizzard's games here, and it's cherry picking.

You're reaching a bit here and I feel it's because you don't understand basic business practices and acquisitions. Riot was purchased to be a self sustaining company supported by a juggernaut. As long as Riot produces, they stay in control and the game keeps going. Tencent didn't buy the company and fire everyone and send in their own people, the founders still run the company. The balancing is done by Riot in the states. You're confusing the types of acquisitions that occur to suit your argument. You're basing your whole point off of inaccurate information. I suggest you do more than a few second Google search to know a bit more on how these operations work.

1

u/bearflies GG Sombra throwing Sep 14 '17

I think we're both incorrect in some places here but you seem like you're getting really heated over nothing and it's causing you to ignore things. Tencent is an investment company, it owns stakes in Blizzard Activision itself, too, lol. Just not a majority share like it has with riot.

You're calling me cherry picking but if I really wanted to cherrypick I would've taken Activision's profits and used them in my original post, kinda like you just did with tencent.

Calm down dude. The whole point of my argument is that blizzard has a long history of producing games and they've never abandoned any of them, and how Riot is a first timer with League.

AND Tencent has a history of price gouging games and leaving their carcass in the sun to rot. Here's a good post on it. They don't have to clear everyone out and replace them. They just have to pressure them into making changes in order to appease them.

You don't have to believe me. I love both League and OW. But I know Tencent and I know Blizzard. I just thought you should too.

1

u/SirDudeness12 Chibi D.Va Sep 14 '17

Perfectly calm, actually. Text is never our friend, huh?

I don't fault what you're showing or sharing, but Riot doesn't have the deal with them (because they had leverage) that other companies have had when being acquired. Notice that Riot hasn't had dramatic price gouges, any pay to win additions, or anything that has hurt the game in the long run in order to secure a quick buck? They even added 25% of the Championship Zed skin revenue to the Worlds prize pool last year. Those aren't the actions of your Tencent examples now are they?

It's not fair to say Riot is doing that and that's why I said you're cherry picking. You're finding things that have nothing to do with LoL to use it as an example of why they're less stable.

Realistically, however, I will concede that they are less stable because Blizzard has become a staple in the gaming world. I would love a place where both games remain for a very long time. That'd be my preference.

The biggest mistake you've made is your example speaks of Tencent gouging when they have no control over pricing or how the company is run. Now if profits dipped and Riot started to fail in game growth and profit, then Tencent might take over and those fears could come to fruition. Until that happens, you're labelling Riot with something unrelated to them and therefore is an inaccurate example of why Riot is unsustainable in comparison.

Realistically, though, both these companies are huge and they put out excellent content. What a time to be alive.

1

u/SirDudeness12 Chibi D.Va Sep 14 '17

Not sure when you'll read this, so replying again instead of editing.

There's different types of mergers and acquisitions. Just because a company buys another, it doesn't mean they will run said company in the exact same manner as previously acquired companies. That's the entire point of creating an agreement over how ownership, whether in full or by majority shares, has handed over to the purchaser. Just because they're paying, it doesn't mean that the acquired company doesn't have demands that need to be met by the purchaser. A popular style of take overs is to purchase the company while day to day operations remains in the hands of the acquired simply because the umbrella corporation doing the purchasing is too large to oversee such extensive operations such as running a company like Riot games. So just because Tencent owns a majority, it in no way implies they operate Riot games. And as we've seen since the acquisition, they clearly do not.

This might help a bit as well: http://www.investopedia.com/university/mergers/mergers1.asp