Hello everyone, this is the positive shock game, I am the positive shock little brother who loves to eat melons.
In the blink of an eye, it is the time of the 2021 inventory, to talk about the worst game company of the year, Blizzard said that he was the second, and no one dared to compete with him for the first.
According to the assessment of some financial institutions, between July and November 2021 alone, under the influence of some series of tumultuous operations by Blizzard, it directly caused Activision Blizzard's stock price to plummet by 35%, causing its market valuation to fall from $72 billion to $45.6 billion, evaporating $26.4 billion out of thin air, converting into 168.1 billion yuan!
Don't blow or black say that the money earned by the little brother in this life is not much worse than Blizzard's loss this year!
So, the question is, what kind of cruel and unreasonable operations did Blizzard do during this year to lose so much money? Today, the little brother will take you back to review!
Big news at the beginning of the year? Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4 are postponed
As the saying goes, the collapse of most things often starts with a small thing, as early as the beginning of February this year, Blizzard began to work, clearly indicating that "Overwatch 2" and "Diablo 4" will not be launched in 2021, these two games have yet to be polished.
It is no exaggeration to say that the appearance of this earnings report has set a "rotten" main tone for the Blizzard in 2021.
The beginning of the collapse! Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan resigned
After spending half a year in peace, Blizzard exposed a shocking melon at the end of April, and Jeff Kaplan, the director of Overwatch, broke up with Blizzard executives because he was suspected of overworking overtime to develop "Overwatch 2", and voluntarily announced his resignation from the company and quit Blizzard, where he had been working for 19 years.
（Jeff Kaplan）
Scandal exposed! Blizzard CEO runs away with a bucket
Just after the "Overwatch" director ran away, Blizzard experienced a period of personnel changes, and it was also because of job adjustments and other reasons that some employees participated in the anonymous reporting of discrimination in Blizzard's workplace.
Finally, at the end of July, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard on the grounds that there was a strong "fraternity" culture within the company, and there was bullying and sexual harassment of female employees.
Alex Afrasiabi, the former creative director of World of Warcraft (the elder brother who left in June this year), was reported for sexually harassing a number of female employees in public at the company, and the management's negligence toward him was only at the level of verbal criticism, and did not really restrain him.
（Alex Afrasiabi）
At first, Blizzard's attitude toward the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing lawsuit was extremely tough, firmly denying that he had sexism and sexual disturbances in the workplace, which caused the anger of some feminist groups, who called on multiple players to protest in the Game of Warcraft.
Surprisingly, as the investigation deepened, Blizzard had far more scandals than the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing, feminist groups, and gamers could have imagined! A large number of executives and designers were involved, which made Jeremy Feasel, the chief designer of World of Warcraft, stand up and take the lead in the strike demonstration.
During this period, a number of key members such as Luis Barriga, director of Diablo 4, Jonathan LeCraft, designer of World of Warcraft, and Jesse McCree, chief designer of Blizzard, also chose to leave.
Seeing that things are getting bigger and bigger, J. Blizzard, who has been the CEO of Blizzard and the former production director of World of Warcraft since 2018, has been working as a member of the Blizzard. Allen Brack chose to "bucket run" in early August, with Jen Oneal and Mike Ybarra becoming Blizzard's co-CEOs.
Finally, in September, Activision Blizzard announced that it would pay $18 million in damages to victims of discrimination, temporarily quelling the storm of discrimination in the workplace.
(J. Allen Brack)
The new president takes the lead in punching women? A large number of game NPCs are harmonized!
As the saying goes, the new official took office three fires, after the new female president Jen Oneal took charge of Blizzard, under her leadership to engage in the "wind of female fist", suspected that the designers of all Blizzard game projects have started a three-month long self-examination rectification action, "Overwatch" classic hero McRae was changed to Cassidy, "World of Warcraft", "Hearthstone" A large number of NPCs, the task text was modified to "gender equality" direction, Blizzard's some female NPCs modeling, standing drawings have been added to a cloth.
Even the charms that have always charmed men, under the leadership of this sister, have a new model for players to choose their own gender, and the first male charm in the history of the game was born!
Most incomprehensibly, Jen Oneal submitted his resignation to Blizzard on November 3 after becoming co-CEO in early August.
Then some netizens pulled out that in addition to the Blizzard game,000 women's boxing, the sister also contributed to blizzard's unpaid grant of up to $1 million to the International Women's Games Organization, of which she is a board member.
At the same time, Jen Oneal's excessive boxing skills also forced a group of veteran employees, including Lead Producer, the chief producer of Diablo Immortal, to leave.
Oh, yes, and this sister also canceled this year's Blizzard Carnival.
(Jen Oneal)
Puncturing the ceiling in one fell swoop? Eight thousand blood book Activision Blizzard CEO leaves!
Under the influence of a series of fan operations this year, not to mention Blizzard employees, even the Activision R&D team of the brother department next door can't look at it anymore.
Therefore, they launched a "10,000 people's blood book" campaign on the Internet, petitioning Activision Blizzard executives to dismiss Activision Blizzard's current CEO Bobby Kotick on workplace discrimination, core personnel loss and other behaviors, and everyone said that this brother hid all problems and hoped that the company's directors and shareholders could kill their relatives in righteousness.
While Blizzard executives retained their trust in Bobby Kotick, the outbreak of the incident was the last straw that crushed the camel, and Activision Blizzard shares fell to their 19-month lowest level, a drop of as much as 35%.
（Bobby Kotick）
At the same time, Activision Blizzard was also blacklisted by some game practitioners, and in the case of Bobby Kotick's failure to step down, the TGA founders explicitly rejected Activision Blizzard's participation in the 2021 TGA Awards Ceremony.
In short, if Blizzard can't make a change in 2022, it could easily be a flop.
The little brother has something to say: because Blizzard has too many outrageous riots this year, hindered by the problem of length, the little brother has not been able to detail the "Hearthstone" mercenary deception kryptonite incident, "Diablo 2 remake" swallow archive, "World of Warcraft" TBC nostalgic suit Kelsas BUG gate, "World of Warcraft" official service abstract plot and a series of other big wordless events, welcome to add in the comment area.
A startling question: Who do you think can still save Blizzard?