chsdbacks Page 881
Page 881
"The Blizzard of the past is dead; the Blizzard of today is just an empty shell."
Deng Hui took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down, but seeing the rough graphics and endless bugs on the screen, his anger was reignited.
He pointed to the game screen, his tone laced with sarcasm and helplessness.
"Look at this, is this Blizzard's 'sincerity' towards us? 168 yuan for this? It's not even as good as the original! I was praising Blizzard in my livestream yesterday, and today I've been slapped in the face!"
He paused.
His tone suddenly turned somber.
"To be honest, I'm really sad. Warcraft 3 is more than just a game to me; it's my youth. How could Blizzard release such a remastered version?"
Some people in the live chat comforted him.
"Don't be sad, Brother Hui. Blizzard is not the Blizzard it used to be."
"Not all manufacturers are loving; Blizzard has long since fallen from grace."
"Don't you know? Blizzard's founder was ousted two years ago."
Deng Hui shook his head with a wry smile after seeing these comments.
"There is no harm without comparison."
"Yesterday's Spark Remastered Games Festival was a true gamer's carnival. There was a port of God of War 3, a remaster of Heroes of Might and Magic 3, and also Rise of the Dragon and Caesar."
"I'm really confused. Resetting the game isn't like asking you to develop a new game. Is it really that difficult?"
As he spoke, he opened the Spark gaming platform.
I opened the page for Rise of Dragons 2.
The game's promotional video immediately appeared on the screen, with exquisite graphics, smooth animation, and a vibrant city; every frame showed the development team's dedication.
"I suddenly remembered the headline news I saw on GamerSky today: the remastered version is the best way to see a developer's attitude."
"People used to say that Capcom was just rehashing old ideas and that Starfire liked to scavenge for junk, but the fried rice that Capcom makes is really delicious, and Starfire really treasures the junk that others don't want!"
"Warcraft 3 has a much larger global fanbase than games like Rise of the Dragons, Caesar, or even Heroes of Might and Magic, right?"
"The results of it?"
What did Blizzard give us? What did Starfire give us?
Deng Hui pointed at the screen, his voice growing more and more excited as he spoke.
"Spark not only reset the game, but also started a new game during the reset process because of new ideas."
"Although these new games aren't large in scale, every detail shows their respect for the players. Then look at Blizzard, haha, what else can they do besides make money?"
Someone in the live chat joked about it.
"Brother Hui, are you switching sides to Xinghuo?"
Deng Hui smiled and replied.
"I'm not a faction-based player; I only care about the quality of the game. I'll support whoever puts their heart into making games. Blizzard used to be a god in my eyes, but now, they don't even deserve to be called human!"
He closed WEGAME and opened the Dragon Rising remastered version on the Spark platform.
"Brothers, let's change today's live stream plan. We won't go to Azeroth this time. We played the second game yesterday, so let's go into the original Rise of the Dragons today."
When saying this.
Deng Hui suddenly saw several comments on the screen.
Three years ago, if someone had said that Chinese manufacturers could crush Blizzard, no one would have believed it.
[Let alone three years, even two years ago, even the most fervent Spark fans couldn't have imagined today. Times have truly changed.]
"Times have really changed..."
~~~
Activision Blizzard headquarters.
Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard.
Bobby is a legend as the CEO of this global company.
He has served as CEO of Activision Blizzard for over 20 years. However, it should be noted that his career path extends from Activision to Activision Blizzard, as Blizzard Entertainment was previously a company acquired by Activision.
In other words, Bobby Kotick has little to do with the globally popular Blizzard game IP; he is merely an heir.
at the same time.
For a long time, although Activision and Blizzard merged, the two companies operated separately.
Until 2018, when Blizzard's founder and CEO, Mike Morhaime, lost power in an internal power struggle and was ousted from Activision Blizzard.
Bobby then gained complete control of Activision Blizzard.
However, while this is good news for Bobby, it may not be good news for Blizzard, or even for Activision Blizzard as a company.
Beneath the surface of calm, many projects, especially those of Blizzard, have undergone numerous changes.
For example, the Warcraft III remastered version.
If someone observes closely, they will find that the Warcraft III remastered version that Blizzard demonstrated at BlizzCon in 2018 and the Warcraft III remastered version that was finally presented in 2020 are completely different things.
One factor contributing to this is the departure of Blizzard's founder.
After leaving the company, Mike himself said that the combination of Blizzard and Activision was a mistake.
Regardless of whether it was a mistake or not, what Bobby wanted was to oust Blizzard's founder and seize sole power.
Chapter 554 The Mistake is Spark
Without competitors, Blizzard's key figures left one by one.
In 2018, the producer of Hearthstone left the company, and in 2019, the producer of Overwatch left the company. Of the original 27 management members of Blizzard's founding team, only three remain.
The departure of these Blizzard executives finally made Bobby the legitimate CEO of Activision Blizzard.
He has more resources at his disposal and greater power.
Bobby felt great, but that feeling lasted until this year.
Things have gradually changed. In the past two years, Activision Blizzard has basically relied on Call of Duty and Warcraft III to keep the company afloat commercially.
Furthermore, Activision Blizzard's reputation has gradually declined since Bobby took sole control.
From the famous "Don't you have a phone?" meme at BlizzCon to the operation of Overwatch, the company has made a series of mistakes on an IP that could almost be considered to have had a perfect start.
This hugely popular game from 16 disappeared from the scene after only two or three years, and the promised Overwatch 2 was incredibly disappointing.
Players complained about the decline in game quality and accused the company of only caring about making money while neglecting the core experience of the game. However, Bobby considered these voices to be nothing more than insignificant noise.
However, with the release of Warcraft III Remastered, these "noises" gradually coalesced into a force that could not be ignored.
Players' disappointment spread rapidly on social media, and Activision Blizzard's stock price began to be affected.
Although Bobby remained convinced that his business strategy was correct, the atmosphere within the company became increasingly tense.
In an interview after leaving the Warcraft 3 remaster team, a member stated that the failure of the remaster was not due to the development team's incompetence, but rather to the company's senior management's poor decisions regarding budget and resource allocation.
In an effort to cut costs, management reduced the project's development time and funding, preventing the team from completing the game as originally planned.
Some unusual things also happened within the company, the stock price fell, and investors began to distrust him.
This series of upheavals all happened in just two or three days, and Bobby clearly felt a sense of turmoil, although these upheavals did not directly affect his CEO position.
However, it has come to the point where it must be dealt with.
Therefore, Bobby had to step in and chair the company's executive meeting to address the crisis.
of course.
To resolve the crisis, we must first understand what the current crisis is. So, the meeting quickly moved on to the source of this crisis.
How are the sales of Warcraft 3 Reforged?
As Bobby asked his question, the atmosphere in the meeting room became somewhat awkward.
As everyone knows, the current situation of Warcraft 3 Remastered is not quite right, but Bobby's words cannot be ignored, and one of the executives swallowed hard.
"First-day sales... were pretty good, exceeding expectations. However... player reviews... were terrible."
"Bad? How bad?"
Bobby's tone was ambiguous, neither good nor bad.
"The user rating on Metacritic is only 0.5."
The executives' voices grew increasingly softer.
"0.5 points?"
Bobby paused for a moment, although he had roughly guessed before the meeting that the Warcraft III remake wouldn't receive very good reviews...
No, to be precise, Bobby guessed that the reputation might collapse even before the release.
During the two years of development, he was both integrating Blizzard's personnel and cutting a significant portion of the budget.
In internal decision-making, he repeatedly mentioned that what is needed for this kind of remake is efficiency, to make the game within the time limit, as for reputation.
It's not the first thing to consider when developing this type of game.
but...
"0.5 points!?"
That's outrageous! What does 0.5 points even mean?!
This is a website that scores a perfect 10 out of 10. 0.5 even breaks the historical record, making it the game with the lowest player rating in gaming history, bar none.
Therefore, even though Bobby was somewhat prepared, he was still taken aback when he heard the news.
"How could it be so low!?"
How could it be so low? Goodness, that's a rather profound question.
Upon hearing Bobby's question, the executives in the conference room were also stunned. Wait, boss, you're the CEO of Activision Blizzard! Why are you acting like you just heard the news?
Are you also a member of the British Cabinet? Do you only watch the news on TV?
Several high-ranking officials exchanged glances. Under normal circumstances, this question would not be difficult to answer, given that it was a classic game that had once sold tens of millions of copies.
There are also countless users of pirated software.
This IP has reached at least hundreds of millions of players worldwide, and in their memories, Warcraft III was simply awesome and amazing.
Many players who bought pirated copies back then are just waiting to buy the game. It's no exaggeration to say that the Warcraft 3 remastered version has extremely high expectations worldwide.
This expectation is even stronger in this timeline, thanks to the release of remastered games like Heroes of Might and Magic III by Spark, than in the previous life.
The problem is that the higher the expectations, the greater the disappointment; the deeper the love, the more intense the hate.
It's already quite good that Activision Blizzard didn't give you a 0 out of 10 for what they've released so far.
But these things obviously cannot be said here.
An executive cautiously interjected.
"This time the situation might be a little different. Spark's remastered game festival... their game quality is very high, and players are comparing our remaster to theirs. The public opinion is very unfavorable to us."
It is well known that when a battle is lost, it is better to exaggerate the enemy's strength than to examine one's own shortcomings.
However, Bobby did not take the opportunity to back down.
"Spark? That Chinese company? They're just picking up some old relics that nobody wants and reheating leftovers. What impact can they have on us?"
"However, compared to Spark's high-quality remastered version, we..."
The executive wanted to say something more, but Bobby waved him off.
"enough!"
Bobby suddenly stood up, placed his hands on the table, and leaned forward.
“I don’t need to listen to these excuses. You know better than I do what 0.5 points means. This is clearly a malicious attack on us.”
"I don't need you to tell me what's going on with Xinghuo right now. What I want is to find out who's maliciously attacking us! Do you understand? Go and speak out in the media! This is malicious negative feedback!"
"This is a smear campaign against Activision Blizzard. Do you understand what a smear campaign is? If you can't even handle this small matter, then get out!"