Hello everyone, this is Warcraft Weekly.
[Warcraft Weekly] is mainly composed of three parts: "Warcraft Events", "Warcraft Competitive Product Dynamics" and "Warcraft Game Update".
Let's take a look at the recent Warcraft news that is not unhappy!
【Warcraft Event】
Blizzard's new president has been announced, and he will directly focus on Warcraft WCL
Recently, Microsoft announced the appointment of Johanna Fares as the new president of Blizzard Entertainment, who joined Activision in 2018 as the head of the Call of Duty eSports division, and was later promoted to the general manager of Call of Duty IP.
It is worth mentioning that Zhang Dong, the former head of NetEase, seems to be familiar with the new president, and said below the comment area: "This young lady graduated from Harvard University, which once again proves that you must have a good education to be a president now, please play less games and study hard."
Judging from Johanna Faries's resume, she is also a big contributor to turning COD from the brink of bankruptcy to a sales volume of more than 10 million, and it is very right to save Blizzard, which is currently exhausted.
At present, this sister's execution is also very strong, and she directly arranged for the staff to put "Warcraft 1", "Warcraft 2" and "Diablo 1" on the battle network, which can be regarded as cutting a wave of nostalgic players' leeks for Microsoft.
Subsequently, according to the official disclosure of WCL, Johanna Fares paid attention to a number of Warcraft plug-in producers and strategy authors on the first day of launch, including WCL, and it seems that she is also particularly interested in optimizing the balance of Warcraft's class.
Blizzard's financial report was announced, and the national service contributed at least 30%!
The mystery of the national service revenue that has been going on for more than a year has finally come to an end, and it turns out that Blizzard is really inseparable from NetEase!
Recently, Microsoft released its quarterly financial report, and the project leader conducted a cost accounting on the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, and found that the operating Activision Blizzard suffered a loss of 437 million US dollars, or about 3.137 billion yuan, in the first quarter.
You must know that Calderick bragged before, saying that Activision Blizzard made 10.6 billion a year, but now the revenue in the first, second and fourth quarters is only 6.69 billion together, and the ghost believes that they can earn 3.91 billion in the third quarter. So the question is, why is this money less?
The answer is obvious, it is Caldecott's goods, which closed the national service, caused Blizzard to lose more than a billion, made the annual bill not match, and Microsoft began to lay off employees.
In this regard, Zhang Dong, the former head of NetEase, said that if calculated according to the net profit, the net profit contribution of the national service accounts for at least 1/3 of Blizzard's total!
In other words, Microsoft is now in a hurry to open the Blizzard national server more than players, so that they can earn hundreds of millions of dollars more, and now it is the most promising episode of the reopening of the national server.
The trademark of the World of Warcraft national service was thawed, and the overseas uncle party said that it would return immediately
After the dust settled on the news of Microsoft's layoffs, some netizens found that many Blizzard game national service trademarks such as "Hearthstone", "Overwatch", and "Heroes of the Storm", which were originally frozen, had been unfrozen.
As for the latest thawed "World of Warcraft" and Battle.net will also resume on February 9, Chinese New Year's Eve, which confirms from the side that Blizzard China is indeed gradually promoting the progress of the reopening of the national server, we can play the "World of Warcraft" national server as early as February 9, if they are really ready to reopen.
At the same time, Jez Corden, the editor-in-chief of windows central, which mainly reports Microsoft and Xbox news, also became an uncle in his personal blog show, saying that Microsoft has repaired the relationship between NetEase and Blizzard, and the reopening of the World of Warcraft national server is already a sure thing, as for the new agent, it is naturally NetEase.
This also requires the cancellation of the pre-order of the carnival statue, and the compensation of Blizzard's monthly card
At BlizzCon 2023, Blizzard exhibited a 36-centimeter statue of the Black Dragon Prince Lacio and opened pre-orders in nearby malls for $350.
However, with the emergence of events such as Microsoft's layoffs and the closure of the carnival, a large number of players who pre-ordered the statue have received refund instructions and compensation from Blizzard's official.
Now, the product is now removed from the Blizzard store, and pre-orders will receive a full refund as well as an email with 30 days of World of Warcraft playtime compensation. It is estimated that it is possible that this statue production project was swept into the garbage heap along with BlizzCon, so it was impossible to deliver the goods to the player on time.
【Warcraft Competitive Product News】
The first scam in 2024! "Kunfar" national test changed to a limited internal test
"Kunfar", which is determined to create the largest map in the MMO online game industry, had an extremely bad test problem during the first test announcement on Steam on January 30. The game has been changed from a national test to a limited internal test, and players participating in the test need to sign a confidentiality agreement, and the game's screen and gameplay cannot be revealed, which has caused many players to complain.
At the same time, judging from the pictures revealed by some of the test participants, the special effects of this game are really not good, full of light pollution and ion effects, and it looks like an unfinished product. We were skeptical that the production team would have the ability to finish it and go live in 2024.
All in all, the game is still a long way from surpassing World of Warcraft.
The most conscientious New Year's event!Guild Wars 2 gives away a mysterious tribute for free
The MMORPG magical epic masterpiece "Guild Wars 2" has recently launched Spring Festival-related activities, players only need to complete the Tyria Dragon Year Battle series of tasks, complete daily check-ins, and world boss crusades to obtain the mysterious tribute needed to make the legend, which is known as the most conscientious New Year's event.
In addition, the Flame Quest DLC, the Dragon's Desperation DLC, and the Deluxe Edition DLC will all open for a limited time at the lowest discount, and the game store will also give players a full discount coupon with a total value of 2,250 yuan, which can be used by players to purchase Divine Beast Mount Skins, Mount Adoption Certificates, and a large number of one-off skins.
Whether it is a white prostitute party or a player who is ready to consume a wave, this wave of "Guild Wars 2" New Year's event is indeed a "conscience" in place.
The cross-server strategic plan of "Sword Network 3" was launched
After the maintenance on February 26, "Sword Network 3" will open the monthly card recharge function in all point card regions, and players in all regions and servers can flexibly choose to recharge point cards or monthly cards according to their own needs. After all servers in the region are unified into a monthly card, the original cross-region transfer price of 300 yuan for different billing modes will be reduced to 120 yuan (i.e., cross-region transfer of services in the same billing mode).
In addition, the cross-server Great World strategic plan will be officially launched on February 26th! In the first half of this year, "Sword Network 3" will gradually open cross-server secret chat, cross-server friend channel, and cross-server room chat functions, in addition, the cross-server secret realm recruitment function will also be launched, that is, everyone can team up with players from other servers to challenge more difficult secret realms. Among them, the cross-server recruitment function of the Jiulao Cave Secret Realm will be the first to open in the first half of this year.
To be reasonable, as a veteran MMORPG online game that still insists on charging for point cards, "Sword Network 3" can do the dual mode of charging for point cards + monthly cards is really rare, everyone play and cherish it.
【Warcraft Game Update】
The Spring Festival mount is on sale!50,000 gold coins can be done at one time
Recently, "World of Warcraft" officially launched the content about celebrating the Spring Festival, players can go to the Star Song in the Moonlight Glade and spend 50,000 gold coins to get the custom appearance of this Lunar New Year's mount.
Unlike normal mounts, the mount has a complete set of customizable Chinese New Year-style exterior displays, which shows that Blizzard is still quite attentive to it.
The only regret is that the national server is not yet available, and Chinese players will not be able to get this mount in-game, and it is unknown if Blizzard will consider adding it to the Trade Post rewards in the future.
For the first time in 20 years, Blizzard seized the Warcraft G group
Recently, Blizzard released a blue sticker to severely condemn the behavior of G/DKP in "World of Warcraft", and announced to all players: If anyone engages in G group in Exploration Season, GM will give a title gift package.
According to Blizzard's blue sticker, starting with the second phase of World of Warcraft exploration, they will launch a strict dungeon detection system to prevent players from taking loot with gold or contribution points and disrupting the normal gameplay experience of other players. While the G/DKP distribution system has been popular in World of Warcraft for over two decades, Blizzard believes that it is an unhealthy way to socialize and one of the triggers for real money trading and GZS problems.
It's worth mentioning that Blizzard has made it clear that their monitoring mechanism works both inside and outside the dungeon, and players can't circumvent it by trading in advance. If you are lucky, it is very likely that you will be permanently sealed of your account, and I hope that players can consciously regulate their behavior.
In this regard, whether it is foreign players or domestic players, most people feel that Blizzard has a problem with their brains. Because there is no way to prevent the G group, can you stop the gold coin trading, can you also stop other people's transactions outside the game?
Therefore, as long as there is market demand, there will be a G group system, and if you want to change it, Blizzard will change the group pickup mode by itself, what is the matter with the G group?
Of course, the Season of Exploration is just a pilot, and Blizzard is not sick enough to shut down all G groups, so those who play in nostalgic and official clothes don't have to worry.