According to the news on March 8, Blizzard World of Warcraft officially said, "The first game based on the Warcraft universe designed for mobile platforms is being prepared, and we will share more details with you in May." In addition, the official also said that the development team will release the next expansion pack and related news on April 19.
We should have heard of the birth of the "Warcraft" mobile game. Earlier than last year, Activision Blizzard made it clear in its fourth-quarter earnings report that two Warcraft IP-derived mobile games were under development. Although there is not much news about these two new games, only that the two products are currently in different stages of development, but they have successfully aroused the players' eagerness for warcraft mobile games.
However, the official statement used "The first game in the Warcraft Universe" instead of "World of Warcraft" as mentioned in the Activision Blizzard conference call at that time, which means that the Upcoming Warcraft mobile game that will "bloom" in May may be different from what the majority of players imagined, in other words, its category may not be limited to MMORPG.
Not limited to MMOs, but what else can it be?
It should be noted that in addition to the MMORPG of "World of Warcraft (WOW)", there is also the RTS of "WAR", and there are also rumors that the product being developed may be an AR game with Pokemon Go. In this regard, Gamelook believes that Activision Blizzard is very likely to put MMORPG on the table of the mobile game market.
Players prefer MMO
First of all, "WOW" has amazing influence and player coverage, which can be appreciated only from the classic nostalgic service data opened in China in 2019: the national service million is online at the same time, the subscription volume in August increased by 223% year-on-year, and the Blizzard stock price rose by 20% in the same period, and the development team can rely on its experience to better pass on the classic IP;
Secondly, thanks to such a huge customer base and influence, the production of new mobile games as MMORPG is definitely the expectation of the public.
Of course, since the news at that time said that two Warcraft IP derivative mobile games were in development, we had reason to believe that the new products that Activision Blizzard would unveil in May may also be SLGs, RTS, and even MOBA. On the one hand, the series of IP content to SLG as the foothold is quite appropriate, and the user age portrait and the category track is also very close, in the direction of RTS they not only have successful experience to learn from, such as "Red OL" to the mobile game market, while Activision Blizzard has its own mature product "WAR3" behind it.
But if you think about it, the experience of manipulating RTS on the mobile end through fingers or handles is definitely not good, so can the Warcraft mobile game learn from COC - use the card mechanism to create a more mobile-friendly RTS game? Therefore, the author does not rule out the possibility that it is RTS.
On the other hand, in terms of activision Blizzard's planned Warcraft product line and the current popular game genre, there are not many options they can choose from: FPS and tactical competition classes are naturally incompatible with the IP worldview, with Hearthstone entrenched in the TGC card track before and MOBA Heroes of the Storm.
Just in view of the current situation of Heroes of the Storm, is it possible for Activision Blizzard to change its thinking, reinterpret it with a mobile terminal, or create a new product as a lesson from the past? It is possible, but the probability is low.
Eat a long and a wise, the player's polarization
The official announcement that the game news is definitely a big positive in the eyes of netizen players, but for Activision Blizzard, the situation is particularly embarrassing.
Players have said that whether the new game can be played in a lifetime is an unsolved mystery.
Among them, there are many old IP players for Activision Blizzard's deep love and hatred, the most critical reason is that Activision Blizzard repeatedly jumped tickets, ignoring the needs of players to lead to the occurrence of "wolf coming" situation, living up to the expectations and enthusiasm of players.
To take the most classic example:
The story takes place on the eve of Blizzard Carnival, the highlight of the year in 2018, and because Blizzard has not made any weighty new games in the past year and the maintenance and operation of its games is also poor, this has made the player community quite critical of this. Blizzard, who is at the moment of "life and death", revealed that the carnival will announce the news of the new game "super shock", which has aroused the appetite of the vast majority of players.
"Diablo 3" designer Wyatt Cheng announced a sino-US cooperation "Diablo 3" mobile game "Diablo: Immortal" as the finale of the opening ceremony. When a player reporter asked whether the work planned to be listed on the PC side, Wyatt Cheng went straight into the pit, saying that there was no plan for the PC side, and the audience immediately booed.
At this time, Cheng should not have reacted, and then said a classic quote of "shaking the ancient and the present":
“Do you guys not have phones？ (Don't you have a cell phone?) ）”
So soon after, someone printed this sentence of cultural shirts, and the sales were still good.
In fact, there is nothing wrong with this sentence, especially for Activision Blizzard, which is willing to enter and open up the emerging mobile game market, but we can still see from the side that Activision Blizzard's "stubbornness" has led to ignoring the players' ideas - players from the eager expectation of a high-quality PC game to being sent by a mobile game with "fried cold rice" behavior, the mood of expectation can be described as a plummet. What's more, players are told that Activision Blizzard doesn't understand players' opinions.
Now it seems that this passage is a microcosm of the contradiction between Blizzard and the player.
Of course, the reproduction of classic IP on the mobile terminal can be described as a top priority for those old players who are eager to recover their original youthful memories, which also makes the entire many player reviews gradually show a polarized trend. However, is Activision Blizzard really the "megalomaniac" in the eyes of players?
Perhaps not, the former Blizzard has a keen sense of the market, such as they launched the battle net that led the times at that time, like to explore new and interesting game genres, but success or failure, these continuous success experiences also make Blizzard seem to be more inclined to lead the market rather than cater to, resulting in "Blizzard Daddy teaches you to play games" In more than a decade, its meaning has also undergone a complete change.
Then its capital pressure has become more and more obvious with the merger with Activision and the departure of Vivendi, and the above case is the tip of its iceberg. Of course, Activision Blizzard's habitual repeated jumps, in addition to their pursuit of quality, also show that their poor, as usual management ability is difficult to balance the schedule and quality as before.
In short, it is still the "stubborn" Blizzard that once was, but times have changed.
In the eyes of Blizzard players
However, after Microsoft's $68.7 billion acquisition, their situation may change. In other words, everything has the potential to move in a better direction.
Blizzard after Microsoft's acquisition
On January 18, Microsoft announced that it would acquire U.S. game giant Activision Blizzard for $95.00 per share for $68.7 billion, the largest acquisition in Microsoft's history.
Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick said: "Looking ahead, with Microsoft's scale and resources, we will be better able to grow existing IP, launch new potential IP, and unlock the rich game library we have accumulated for more than 40 years." Our 370 million players and great workplaces around the world remain our focus. For investors, our recently announced deal is the culmination of three decades of exceptional returns for shareholders. ”
Microsoft's acquisition is not a master key for Activision Blizzard, but at least it solves the problem of money, and also solves the dilemma for the recent troubles of Activision Blizzard, while Microsoft can create a better environment for Activision Blizzard, they need to seize the opportunity to implement the thinking and ideas they have been forced to achieve in the best and most appropriate form.
In short, changing the boss does not mean that you can make a product that meets the expectations of players, so in terms of the production quality of the game, it cannot be helped by others except for self-crossing, and the first mobile game based on the "Warcraft" universe that will be exposed in May may be explained, or whether the strength of the current mood of the action Blizzard and the belief in saying goodbye to the past self are firm.
Let's wait and see.
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