Can any WoW refugees explain the exodus to XIV to me?

[Jojoya]

Also where is this rumor of WoWfugees joining en mass even coming from? The latest Bancho Census in of itself showed that we only retain a solid 410k concurrent players with 200k this time around being new or returning players with the 80k we lost last time not even fully returning? We got 60k back at best, though thats not too bad in terms of bringing people back.

The Bancho census is still dependent on players hitting certain MSQ milestones as far as I know. Unless a new player is rushing to hit level cap as fast as possible, it's going to take them a while to start hitting those specific milestones. I've met several new players that have been so distracted by side content that they've fallen behind on MSQ progression (one is level 67 but just unlocked Forelands in MSQ, another is 61 and still hasn't done Praetorium yet).

As long as there are enough players for SE to keep operating the game and adding new content, does it really matter?

I think it's very telling that not only have most of the founders of Blizzard left, but also Bungie are ending their partnership with Activision (Blizzard are still partnered with Activision).

Bungie is not part of the Activision Blizzard holding company. It's always been an independent studio contracting Activision to publish the games they create. Now they're established enough they're going to publish on their own.

That's very different from the relationship between Activision and Blizzard, which are separate companies joined under one holding company. It's still disappointing that Activision is finally pushing out the creation oriented executive forces at Blizzard to replace them with business oriented executives but not surprising. It always happens when the numbers people think they know what consumers want more than the creative people do.

[Penthea]

Bungie is not part of the Activision Blizzard holding company. It's always been an independent studio contracting Activision to publish the games they create. Now they're established enough they're going to publish on their own.

I'm well aware that the nature of Bungie's partnership is quite different to the merger of Activision and Blizzard. I was more referring to how the timing of Bungie's departure is very interesting considering the progressively bad state of Blizzard. It heavily implies that both have a poor relationship with Activision.

I just read that Bungie have partnered with Netease, a chinese mobile company, but it's to create a new game for/with them. Not to have them involved in Destiny. Likely Bungie will use funds from that partnership for Destiny 3.

I honestly think we might be watching the end of Blizzard. They can't leave Activision as easily as Bungie because they're Activision-Blizzard. Bungie was never Activision-Bungie. The fact that most of Blizzard's founders have left leads many to think that they either gave up fighting Activision for power over Blizzard, or they're waiting for Blizzard to lose a tremendous amount of value to buy it back. Maybe both. But even if they do buy it back I don't know if Blizzard can recover. They were already showing signs of dismissing community feedback long before we saw any hints that Activision were digging their claws into them.

[KaivaC]

I'm well aware that the nature of Bungie's partnership is quite different to the merger of Activision and Blizzard. I was more referring to how the timing of Bungie's departure is very interesting considering the progressively bad state of Blizzard. It heavily implies that both have a poor relationship with Activision.

I just read that Bungie have partnered with Netease, a chinese mobile company, but it's to create a new game for/with them. Not to have them involved in Destiny. Likely Bungie will use funds from that partnership for Destiny 3.

I honestly think we might be watching the end of Blizzard. They can't leave Activision as easily as Bungie because they're Activision-Blizzard. Bungie was never Activision-Bungie. The fact that most of Blizzard's founders have left leads many to think that they either gave up fighting Activision for power over Blizzard, or they're waiting for Blizzard to lose a tremendous amount of value to buy it back. Maybe both. But even if they do buy it back I don't know if Blizzard can recover. They were already showing signs of dismissing community feedback long before we saw any hints that Activision were digging their claws into them.

I'm not as well-versed with WoW, but I am familiar with their other major IPs going back to Diablo and Starcraft. I don't think the end of the Blizzard name is here, per se, but it's clear that they are a husk of their former shells. The name will stay because it still carries significant value, but Blizzard as we know it is long gone. Blizzard will likely stay in much the same vein that Treyarch Studios and Infinity Ward will stay, because those names still hold value.

[Penthea]

I'm not as well-versed with WoW, but I am familiar with their other major IPs going back to Diablo and Starcraft. I don't think the end of the Blizzard name is here, per se, but it's clear that they are a husk of their former shells. The name will stay because it still carries significant value, but Blizzard as we know it is long gone. Blizzard will likely stay in much the same vein that Treyarch Studios and Infinity Ward will stay, because those names still hold value.

The Blizzard brand will likely stay, but the place it holds in the gaming industry is already falling. We're watching the end of their reign.

• WoW has had unaddressed problems for several expansions in a row. Too many to list. The short version is Blizzard blatantly ignore community feedback and take loyalty for granted. Players are leaving because they're sick of waiting for improvement and watching repeated mistakes.
• Diablo 3 has suffered from a lack of content for several years. It's a great game but no matter how good a game is you eventually get fed up of the same thing. Announcing Diablo Immortal as solely on mobile is a kick in the teeth to the die-hard Diablo fanbase that has existed for 20 years who always played the series on pc. It shows that Blizzard either do not care about or do not understand their audience.
• Heroes of The Storm has had Esports focus stripped away and they have moved devs from there to another game. It has also gotten a tremendous amount of criticism for micro transactions, specifically towards event bundles. For example you have to buy the whole bundle even if you only want one item.
• There have been surveys asking players how they would feel if Esports was removed from Hearthstone. This looks quite similar to what has recently happened with HOTS.
• Overwatch, like Diablo 3, is a great game suffering from a lack of content and players are getting bored. I hear it also has long-time unaddressed balance issues. The recent reveal of Soldier 76 being gay is being labelled as empty virtue signalling. Likely because players want content. Not a sexuality reveal that has zero impact on gameplay.
• I think Starcraft is the only franchise that hasn't yet had anything superbly worrying happen to it. Judging from the rest it looks like it's only a matter of time.

I think we can all agree that the above list is very alarming.

Personally I find it hard to believe we're watching anything but Blizzard's downfall. Almost every game is suffering from some form of neglect. When I quit WoW it was because of WoW. I continued to play HOTS and Diablo until recently. However some of my friends who quit in 2018/19 have said they're leaving Blizzard as a whole behind. They're looking at the state of all their games and have lost hope.

Blizzard the brand may stick around but the quality they became known for has been slipping for years and it's showing no signs of stopping.

I really hope Blizzard will recover and return to maintaining the great reputation they were known for, but it seems unlikely. Their relationship with Activision is much more complex than a mere partnership. They can't just leave like Bungie did.