$1B Overwatch Revenue drives Activision-Blizzard to Record Q1 2017 Results

Zarathustra[H]

Zarathustra[H]

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In their quarterly earnings report for Q1 2017 yesterday evening, Activision-Blizzard announced a record quarter with $1.7B in revenues. A large part of this success has been credited towards Overwatch which has generated more than $1B in revenues and attracted over 30 million registered players worldwide in the less than a year it has been on the market. Overwatch is thus now Activision-Blizzard's 8th billion dollar franchise.

I have to admit that I don't quite understand why. I tried the game a few months ago during a free weekend and found it to be too fast, too twitchy, lacking in story, and requiring too much suspense of disbelief to be fun. I guess that goes to show that different people have different tastes. Personally, I've always been the type of player who goes for the games with high levels of realism and believe-ability.


  • Blizzard’s revenues from in-game content grew more than 25% year-over-year, driven by revenues from World of Warcraft in-game content and continued strength of Overwatch customization items.
  • Activision expects to release a new content offering for Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 fans, Zombies Chronicles, on May 16, 2017. The remastered collection of the franchise’s most beloved Zombies content will be available first on PlayStation 4.
  • King’s first-quarter gross bookings per paying user grew for the 7th quarter in a row to a new record. The Candy Crush™ franchise showed continued stability with mobile bookings up quarter-over-quarter. Also, King has entered into a promising publishing partnership with PlayStudios to enter the social casino genre.
 
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More of a Sims kinda guy? That's more realistic, spend most of your day working, sleeping, or cleaning the house in a video game.
:p

I liked overwatch, fire it up now and then and can play for a couple hours easily. Became my go-to multiplayer shooter after call of duty just didn't do it for me the last two times. Battlefield one was good, but i dunno something felt missing that I loved from BF4 but can't quite put my finger on it.
 
Cyraxx said:
Overwatch? I LOOOOOVE Team Fortress 3!!!
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So do I, really shows that while tf2 was (and still is) awesome people really wanted an updated version, I'm glad Blizzard managed to try out a new IP and genre and succeeded
 
Ragenrok said:
So do I, really shows that while tf2 was (and still is) awesome people really wanted an updated version, I'm glad Blizzard managed to try out a new IP and genre and succeeded
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Blizzard has officially gone down the shitter. I used to be able to depend on them for new cutting edge with amazing story lines. Now they just recreate other peoples IP.

Hearthstone: Card game equivalent of magic the gathering in game form
Overwatch: Team Fortress 3
Heroes of the storm: DOTA

lt's just sad and pathetic. It's very clear that Activision has been nothing but horrible for them.
 
Cyraxx said:
Blizzard has officially gone down the shitter. I used to be able to depend on them for new cutting edge with amazing story lines. Now they just recreate other peoples IP.

Hearthstone: Card game equivalent of magic the gathering in game form
Overwatch: Team Fortress 3
Heroes of the storm: DOTA

lt's just sad and pathetic. It's very clear that Activision has been nothing but horrible for them.
Click to expand...


It does seem a bit disappointing, but as long as the strategy works for them, making them billions, I can't see them shifting gears.

They are a business after all.

I feel they are adopting the Hollywood Film Industry formula. New innovative ideas are too risky, because they can flop and you can lose millions. Instead lets focus on tried and true ideas.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
It does seem a bit disappointing, but as long as the strategy works for them, making them billions, I can't see them shifting gears.

They are a business after all.

I feel they are adopting the Hollywood Film Industry formula. New innovative ideas are too risky, because they can flop and you can lose millions. Instead lets focus on tried and true ideas.
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I guess. I partially blame micro transactions (e.g. Buy a costume for your character for 0.99 cents). Otherwise, what is making them billions with Overwatch?

World of Warcraft on the other hand was entirely original, and it also came with a monthly fee. I would figure that Overwatch revenue paled in comparison.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
I have to admit that I don't quite understand why. I tried the game a few months ago during a free weekend and found it to be too fast, too twitchy, lacking in story, and requiring too much suspense of disbelief to be fun. I guess that goes to show that different people have different tastes. Personally, I've always been the type of player who goes for the games with high levels of realism and believe-ability.
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Sorry Z, you're getting old just like the rest of us.
 
WoW was very much a collection of ideas from many other MMO's.

It had some good original ideas though.
 
Cyraxx said:
World of Warcraft on the other hand was entirely original, and it also came with a monthly fee. I would figure that Overwatch revenue paled in comparison.
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Huh,

And here I was under the impression that World of Warcraft was just a Blizzard copy of EverQuest.

Then again I've never played either (I don't do the fantasy genre) so I could be wrong.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
Huh,

And here I was under the impression that World of Warcraft was just a Blizzard copy of EverQuest.

Then again I've never played either (I don't do the fantasy genre) so I could be wrong.
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Never thought of it like that, but I never played EQ.

All the land, story, characters, etc... coincided with the story of the Warcraft series.

I guess you can say it's a copy of EQ in that it's an MMO, but that's like saying Unreal is a copy of Call of Duty if you're simply basing it on what type of game genre it is.
 
Cyraxx said:
Never thought of it like that, but I never played EQ.

All the land, story, characters, etc... coincided with the story of the Warcraft series.

I guess you can say it's a copy of EQ in that it's an MMO, but that's like saying Unreal is a copy of Call of Duty if you're simply basing it on what type of game genre it is.
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It's all high fantasy, it's derivative of Tolkien. As for the MMO element. There were plenty of MMO's before World of Warcraft with nearly the same mechanics. Anarchy Online was one of them which shares elements very similar to WoW including camera elements and action bar/macros.
 
You guys should give OW a fair shake. I was sure that I was going to hate it, and then I got hooked.
 
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Oh lord no, it wasn't a copy of EQ.

EQ (which I played in a 'world first' guild for years) was an incredibly time consuming, obscure, and player hostile experience. People enjoyed it, but only because god-damn-it when you accomplished something, you really did. We did things a dozen people in the world did. But honestly, the entertainment for hours spent - no, not great. the fun was really in going through shared trauma with a set of people you liked.
Hours, days, WEEKS camping a rare spawn for some item or quest you need... yeah, tedious beyond belief.

WoW you could jump in, do quests (and actually by yourself if you wanted), have some fun, log out, and not be brutalized for it. The base game and first expansion were fantastic.

Overwatch is what it is. It's a team based shootybang with good balancing and an incredible level of polish. If you don't like a fast paced shootybang, sure, it's not for you. But it really does excel at doing what it tries to do.
Except for capture the flag. That... not done well.
 
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NickJames said:
WoW is full of pop culture references.
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I still play actually. I enjoy the mmo feel, but can't seem to get into any other ones. Its like staying with someone that isn't that good for you but there is that comfort zone you just don't want to leave either lol.

I like the pop culture stuff, gives you a chuckle from time to time.
 
Cyraxx said:
Blizzard has officially gone down the shitter. I used to be able to depend on them for new cutting edge with amazing story lines. Now they just recreate other peoples IP.

Hearthstone: Card game equivalent of magic the gathering in game form
Overwatch: Team Fortress 3
Heroes of the storm: DOTA

lt's just sad and pathetic. It's very clear that Activision has been nothing but horrible for them.
Click to expand...


Storyline in an non-single player game? This is not the type of game that caters to what you Zarathustra want, "...too fast, too twitchy, lacking in story, and requiring too much suspense of disbelief to be fun."

Overwatch was DESIGNED the be fast, twitchy, and have minimal story. It's like saying that The Sims or Clash of Clans are bad games because it doesn't have a story or are too slow. Those are not games that are designed for you.

If you thought that Blizzard EVER made original games then you are a fool. They just made games BETTER than others not make original games.
Warcraft = Command & Conquer etc
Diablo = Legend of Zelda etc
Starcraft = Warcraft
World of Warcraft = Everquest
Hearthstone - Magic the Gathering
Overwatch = Team Fortress 3
Heroes of the Storm = DOTA (which was made with a Blizzard map editor)
 
Gameplay > x1000 more than story for me in games. Blizzard nails that for me , I read a book for story.
 
I've been in a game rut for a while thanks to BF1 that I finally decided to pick up Overwatch this week. I have to say that so far I've been having a blast. Matches are fairly short which works great for me since my gaming time is limited. Runs smoothly on my rig on high. I can see why us doing well on sales.
 
Gasaraki_ said:
Storyline in an non-single player game? This is not the type of game that caters to what you Zarathustra want, "...too fast, too twitchy, lacking in story, and requiring too much suspense of disbelief to be fun."

Overwatch was DESIGNED the be fast, twitchy, and have minimal story. It's like saying that The Sims or Clash of Clans are bad games because it doesn't have a story or are too slow. Those are not games that are designed for you.

If you thought that Blizzard EVER made original games then you are a fool. They just made games BETTER than others not make original games.
Warcraft = Command & Conquer etc
Diablo = Legend of Zelda etc
Starcraft = Warcraft
World of Warcraft = Everquest
Hearthstone - Magic the Gathering
Overwatch = Team Fortress 3
Heroes of the Storm = DOTA (which was made with a Blizzard map editor)
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Okay to clarify a bit:

Warcraft came out BEFORE command and conquer. That said, it obviously was inspired by Dune 2 mechanics + Warhammer lore.
You can try and say Diablo was a knockoff of Zelda, but I really think it's a stretch. It really felt fresh when it came out. I can't think of much of anything like it when it came out. I think it broke more new ground than anything else they've done. With every other game they've done, you can point to an obvious predecessor, but between an action RPG in an isometric view, a very dark theme, random level generation, real-time combat with stats, it really kind of stands out as kickstarting the action RPG genre. It figures that almost everyone involved is not longer at Blizzard.

Also you have the lost vikings and blackthorne.
 
I've been a fan of Blizzard games for a long time (since 1994). I've always tried to like FPS games but they rarely held my interest long enough to finish. I've had more fun playing Overwatch than I've had playing a game since the launch of WoW.
 
Like them or not, if Blizzard is considering making a game in a particular genre, they do a bang up job.

They also have the cash to spare to outright *cancel* a project after millions spent in development if they can't get it working to their standards.

I like the Hearthstone anecdote which basically can be summarized: "We were kicking around a CCG game idea and we knew we were onto something when we devs kept staying late at work to play the test builds".
 
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PhaseNoise said:
Oh lord no, it wasn't a copy of EQ.

EQ (which I played in a 'world first' guild for years) was an incredibly time consuming, obscure, and player hostile experience. People enjoyed it, but only because god-damn-it when you accomplished something, you really did. We did things a dozen people in the world did. But honestly, the entertainment for hours spent - no, not great. the fun was really in going through shared trauma with a set of people you liked.
Hours, days, WEEKS camping a rare spawn for some item or quest you need... yeah, tedious beyond belief.
Click to expand...


uhhhhhhhh, were you even around for vanilla wow. That sounds EXACTLY like wow before their first expansion.
 
Cyraxx said:
Blizzard has officially gone down the shitter. I used to be able to depend on them for new cutting edge with amazing story lines. Now they just recreate other peoples IP.

Hearthstone: Card game equivalent of magic the gathering in game form
Overwatch: Team Fortress 3
Heroes of the storm: DOTA

lt's just sad and pathetic. It's very clear that Activision has been nothing but horrible for them.
Click to expand...

lol wot?

HotS I can maybe understand, as it's a simplified version of DotA....but MOBA is a genre, they all have the same general mechanics and HotS is different enough.

As someone that has played a lot of tabletop, hearthstone is definitely it's own beast in that regard. It's just as much different from MtG as Yu-Gi-Oh, Pokemon, and other card battle games.

By your logic, any game that's the same genre as another game is a "ripoff".

OverWatch definitely stands out on its own from TF2 (a 10+ year old game), and was blizzards attempt at recovering assets from the stalled MMO they were attempting to create (project Titan).

Blizzard has shifted their focus with the times, people are more interested in competitive games with high skill ceilings, quick multiplayer matches, and a professional esport following. Just like all their other games, they have pulled this off with great success, and I doubt that's going to change anytime soon.
 
Blizzard has actually put out quite a bit of backstory for Overwatch if you want to look for it. There was a large number of videos released as well as a series of blizzard comics you could read that do a good job of flushing out the characters as well as the back story. How much story does a team based shooter need? Where would you fill in more story on a non single player game? large cut scenes between matches? Most games / movies and books are based on something that came before in the same genre and what it boils down to is does it add something new and is it fun.
 
I played the original team fortress and tf2 and don't really get the comparison to overwatch, maybe from a very basic view of "it's an fps with healers and turrets" but that is a very, very vague comparison. The IP is completely original. OW started as a new mmo called Titan and they scrapped the mmo in favor of an arena shooter. The story of Overwatch is massive and incredibly deep, they simply don't bog you down with it and give you straight gameplay.

Overwatch is the first fps since the original Tribes that really compelled me to play competitively. It's difficult, and it doesn't hold your hand and it punishes you if you are bad at it.
 
Overwatch is a decent enough game. I only play it socially and even then it gets pushed to the back of the bus quite often so I can play other stuff, but it's not a bad game.
 
Gasaraki_ said:
If you thought that Blizzard EVER made original games then you are a fool. They just made games BETTER than others not make original games.
Warcraft = Command & Conquer etc
Diablo = Legend of Zelda etc
Starcraft = Warcraft
World of Warcraft = Everquest
Hearthstone - Magic the Gathering
Overwatch = Team Fortress 3
Heroes of the Storm = DOTA (which was made with a Blizzard map editor)
Click to expand...

You missed the fact that Warcraft was released a year before C&C. Starcraft was very similar to Warcraft 1/2, but different and better. Also, Blizz made both games so technically, they started with original :D

As far everything else, you could say this about any game released today. In essence, what games are 100% original anymore?

What I dont get is everyone is comparing OW to what could have been TF3 and shitting on them for it. Everyone wanted TF3 but it was never created. Blizzard creates a game that "could be" comparable and very entertaining and they get shit on for it. Maybe Valve should have created the fuckin game then, dont you think? In the end, lots of haters in this thread.

The beauty of gaming is there is something for everyone. I dont enjoy MMORPG gaming but it does not mean that WoW, EQ, or whatever other game is shitty. Seems people tend to forget this ;) Now, if you want to talk shit on a game, go visit that Chris Roberts scandal thread where they keep creating ships while doing blow off of the hookers chest that you paid for :D
 
ChedWick said:
uhhhhhhhh, were you even around for vanilla wow. That sounds EXACTLY like wow before their first expansion.
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Yes, I was a (raiding) player from launch day until midway through pandaland when I tossed in the towel.

EQ was dramatically more painful.
 
Darunion said:
:p

I liked overwatch, fire it up now and then and can play for a couple hours easily. Became my go-to multiplayer shooter after call of duty just didn't do it for me the last two times. Battlefield one was good, but i dunno something felt missing that I loved from BF4 but can't quite put my finger on it.
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Same here. BF2, 2142, BF3, BF4 fan (didn't play OG Battlefield, too busy with Tribes and Tribes2) but I just can't get into BF1, no explanation either.

Overwatch gameplay is pretty darn good. Ignore the cartoon stuff, focus on the gameplay. Its pretty tight.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
I found it to be too fast, too twitchy, lacking in story, and requiring too much suspense of disbelief to be fun.
Click to expand...

Yeah, screw all those fun games like Quake, Unreal Tournament, Doom, Tribes, Goldeneye, HalfLife, Call of Duty, Counterstrike, Titanfall, TF2, and the like.

If you can't understand why people are enjoying a game that brought in a BILLION dollars in revenue, the problem is with you, not the game.
 
doz said:
You missed the fact that Warcraft was released a year before C&C. Starcraft was very similar to Warcraft 1/2, but different and better. Also, Blizz made both games so technically, they started with original :D

As far everything else, you could say this about any game released today. In essence, what games are 100% original anymore?

What I dont get is everyone is comparing OW to what could have been TF3 and shitting on them for it. Everyone wanted TF3 but it was never created. Blizzard creates a game that "could be" comparable and very entertaining and they get shit on for it. Maybe Valve should have created the fuckin game then, dont you think? In the end, lots of haters in this thread.

The beauty of gaming is there is something for everyone. I dont enjoy MMORPG gaming but it does not mean that WoW, EQ, or whatever other game is shitty. Seems people tend to forget this ;) Now, if you want to talk shit on a game, go visit that Chris Roberts scandal thread where they keep creating ships while doing blow off of the hookers chest that you paid for :D
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It's because people still think it's "cool" to be edgy and shit on a large company simply because they're a large company that made something similar to something else rather then form a personal opinion on new things, or they just simply think "if I dont like this type of game it's garbage!!'. Like already stated Blizzard makes high quality games, they may not be the most advanced or complex games but what they do, they do very well.

There are hundreds of places that sell burgers and donairs in my city but maybe a handful that can do it well. I don't shit on a new restaurant that opens up and tries to do this simply because there's already other restaurants all over doing it, I pray to god they do it well so I have another place to get something I already love with a different spin or flavour on it.

If people wanna cry that its already been done then they can stick to the old school games and let us enjoy better revisions of it.

Cyraxx said:
Blizzard has officially gone down the shitter. I used to be able to depend on them for new cutting edge with amazing story lines. Now they just recreate other peoples IP.

Hearthstone: Card game equivalent of magic the gathering in game form
Overwatch: Team Fortress 3
Heroes of the storm: DOTA

lt's just sad and pathetic. It's very clear that Activision has been nothing but horrible for them.
Click to expand...

See above ;)
 
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so I love this game. not enough to buy into the DLC (boxes / loot). My partner? hook line and sinker... several times. so I can totally see why is #1 for them.


this coming from the guy who still has a WOW sub but has not logged in for for the last 3 months.. and owns. every. fucking. blizzard. game.
 
Ragenrok said:
It's because people still think it's "cool" to be edgy and shit on a large company simply because they're a large company that made something similar to something else rather then form a personal opinion on new things, or they just simply think "if I dont like this type of game it's garbage!!'. Like already stated Blizzard makes high quality games, they may not be the most advanced or complex games but what they do, they do very well.

There are hundreds of places that sell burgers and donairs in my city but maybe a handful that can do it well. I don't shit on a new restaurant that opens up and tries to do this simply because there's already other restaurants all over doing it, I pray to god they do it well so I have another place to get something I already love with a different spin or flavour on it.

If people wanna cry that its already been done then they can stick to the old school games and let us enjoy better revisions of it.



See above ;)
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Blizzard knows how to print money, I don't think there's been much debating that. I can't speak for Overwatch, since it doesn't look like my kind of game, but I can also say some aspects of their production have definitely shifted. Mostly tone and writing. Their older stuff had a grittier feel to it and I was a little more interested in the story. It wasn't anything amazing, but enjoyable. Diablo 1 had a FANTASTIC tone and the original Starcraft really had a good atmosphere also. Warcraft 1 and 2 were just a step away from Warhammer aesthetics. Flash-forward and everything they touch has gone to this cartoon-ish aesthetic that suits some games more than others. While it definitely had issues, Wings of Liberty was the last game they made that had halfway decent writing and tone. The writing on Diablo 3 and Heart of the Swarm was outright painful. I'm not expecting Shakespeare from a game about killing aliens and demons, but if it's so bad it makes me cringe, that's not good.

Still, their gameplay and polish has more or less held up in other areas, so they'll likely be around forever.
 
tetris42 said:
Blizzard knows how to print money, I don't think there's been much debating that. I can't speak for Overwatch, since it doesn't look like my kind of game, but I can also say some aspects of their production have definitely shifted. Mostly tone and writing. Their older stuff had a grittier feel to it and I was a little more interested in the story. It wasn't anything amazing, but enjoyable. Diablo 1 had a FANTASTIC tone and the original Starcraft really had a good atmosphere also. Warcraft 1 and 2 were just a step away from Warhammer aesthetics. Flash-forward and everything they touch has gone to this cartoon-ish aesthetic that suits some games more than others. While it definitely had issues, Wings of Liberty was the last game they made that had halfway decent writing and tone. The writing on Diablo 3 and Heart of the Swarm was outright painful. I'm not expecting Shakespeare from a game about killing aliens and demons, but if it's so bad it makes me cringe, that's not good.

Still, their gameplay and polish has more or less held up in other areas, so they'll likely be around forever.
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agreed, I really do miss the gritty feel of diablo but they took an obvious art style with D3 that while I didn't like nearly as much didn't stop it from being a good game overall. D3 was pegged as a good hack n slash clink and looter game and it delivered on that very well, I know a few of my friends love the way D3 looks and while I disagree with them on that i still think the game was well made and fun to play
 
Cyraxx said:
Blizzard has officially gone down the shitter. I used to be able to depend on them for new cutting edge with amazing story lines. Now they just recreate other peoples IP.

Hearthstone: Card game equivalent of magic the gathering in game form
Overwatch: Team Fortress 3
Heroes of the storm: DOTA

lt's just sad and pathetic. It's very clear that Activision has been nothing but horrible for them.
Click to expand...

I haven't spent a dime on a Blizzard game since D3. I don't see that trend changing anytime soon, which makes me kinda sad.
 
People seem to forget that Blizzard made HoTS to showcase the power of the updated SC2 map builder engine/arcade system. It was the fan base that begged them to make it into a full stand alone game.
 
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