Tag: Blizzard

Blizzard Messes Up Server Sale, Customers Report Busted Shipments


What could be cooler than owning a server blade from World of Warcraft? Eating a life size elf statue made of rum cake, I suppose. Let’s meet in the middle and agree on receiving that product you paid a fair amount for in a state that is not broken.

If you were lucky enough, you may have gotten on Blizzard’s store back in September to buy a server blade with 100% of the price going toward charity; specifically the Pencils of Promise charity, a global education organization creating schools, programs, and global communities around the common goal of education for all. Those who bought the server blades for the not at all cheap price are starting to receive their product and the results are not great.

Maybe Pencils of Promise should educate Blizzard on how to pack a box. Players are reporting that their servers have been smashed in transit with a common thread being cheap housing and shoddy efforts in ensuring that the server blades don’t bang around in transit.

Several users who were able to get hold of Blizzard support have received a response that the company is figuring out a solution to all of the broken hardware. Unfortunately due to the nature of the item (a collectible piece of retired hardware) it is unlikely that a replacement is in the bag. Unless Blizzard has a heap of server blades sitting around unused, the best they may be able to do is to eat the cost and provide a refund.

I have provided a number of customer notes below. There are a lot more reports of broken blades/cases on the forums.

(Shoutout to Kimset in the Discord for bringing this to my attention)

“I got mine today and it arrived with random pieces of the server floating around inside of the case, giant scuff on the inside of the plastic cover from things rubbing it during shipping, and one of the plastic “pins” or whatever snapped off so the plastic doesn’t actually stay on the server itself and I almost lost the whole thing when taking it out of the box because I didn’t know it was fcked before I even got it. Really bummed after looking forward to receiving this for a long time and missing my chance at one of the original ones.”

“mine arrived broken and scuffed as well. cheapest housing i have ever seen. im starting a return on it now”

“I received mine today on the east coast and it was also damaged. The 2 inside hooks were broken off (seems like a weak point anyway), inside front scratched and one of the acrylic screws was almost broken in half. The cover seems too delicate for the blade imo. The shipping box didn’t seem like it had a rough ride and I agree with the packaging not being sufficient. It may have had a much better chance not assembled with each piece protected separately since my damage seemed to be all on the inside cover. I would like a replacement cover rather than refund and I hope BLizz works that out.”

“I also had mine arrived damaged, the case it self was loose the backing was falling apart just picking it up there was scratches on the case as well and 5 pieces broken and floating inside. I am extremely pissed off that I like others spent over 300 dollars USD for this BS. Who ever works at blizzard that that it was a good idea to just have four very thin foam pieces covering just the corners should be fired. And while some people have responded it’s so easy to just return it I do t want it returned I want a exchange. But I am sure that is almost impossible as these were supposed to be one of a kind collecters editions”

“Mine came broken badly as well. I already submitted a ticket and got blown off by the GM that answered it, so ill try the live chat option but im not optimistic at this point based on reading other peoples struggles as well as my experience with the previous GM. 20 minute queue to talk to someone is kind of ridiculous though…”

“I received mine today. The shipping box is in very good shape and not damaged in the slightest. The server blade cover, with the WoW 15th anniversary logo is intact. But the little plastic tabs on the back side of the cover which hold it on are broken off in pieces and the plastic screws at the other end which hold the cover on are sheared off.”

“welp mine arrived completely broken. the whole housing is cheap and plastic and cracked in shipping. returning”

“Mine arrived. Very underwhelming. Case broken, all plastic screws snapped and mysteriously missing, stand broken. Yay charity. At least the engraving is kinda nice. Just dont look at the underside, some 12 year old glued it on.”

In 2018, Activision Blizzard Got $228 Million From Taxpayers For Existing


If you live in the United States and thought you could get away with not giving Activision money simply by not buying their products, you’re in for a nasty surprise.

ITEP, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, posted a list of 60 companies avoiding all federal income taxes in 2018.

“For decades, profitable Fortune 500 companies have manipulated the tax system to avoid paying even a dime in tax on billions of dollars in U.S. profits. This ITEP report provides the first comprehensive look at how corporate tax changes under the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act affect the scale of corporate tax avoidance. The report finds that in 2018, 60 of America’s biggest corporations zeroed out their federal income taxes on $79 billion in U.S. pretax income. Instead of paying $16.4 billion in taxes at the 21 percent statutory corporate tax rate, these companies enjoyed a net corporate tax rebate of $4.3 billion.”

Activision Blizzard notably started out 2019 with the best results in company history, which they celebrated by firing nearly a thousand workers. While celebrating their major financial success and putting hundreds of people out of work, Activision also wound up claiming a -51% effective tax rate. Yes, Activision got $228 million from US taxpayers simply for existing.

We should all get a ride on Bobby Kotick’s private plane. We helped pay for it after all.

Source: ITEP

Community Concerns: The Importance of Reading Comprehension


Yea, we’re still talking about Blizzcon.

It’s been a while since I talked about the whole nontroversy surrounding Blizzard and the prize pool for World of Warcraft’s Blizzcon tournaments, so I will sum up for those who don’t feel like clicking the link in this paragraph. Blizzard sold digital toys with 25% proceeds going toward a prize pool with a guaranteed minimum of $500k, and some people interpreted this as Blizzard footing $500k and then the toy sale portion being on top of that. In fact, a lot of people with direct financial incentives to the prize pool being bigger happened to think that. Crazy.

One of those people is Shanna Roberts, general manager of the esports team Method. Roberts released a statement yesterday (November 10) to talk about a breakdown in trust between Blizzard and the community because a number of people didn’t correctly read the plain English of the promotion. Roberts claims that Blizzard announced that the $500k minimum would be supplemented by 25% sales from the toys (they didn’t). I’ll put up the plain language of the promotion for your perusal:

“For a limited time, every purchase of the Transmorpher Beacon or Lion’s Pride and Horde’s Might Fireworks, 25% of the proceeds will contribute toward the year’s finals LAN event prize pool for the Arena World Championship (AWC) and the Mythic Dungeon International (MDI) with a guaranteed minimum prize pool of $500,000 USD ($250,000 USD for each event.) Your support will help take the WoW esports prize pool to the next level.”

25% of proceeds contributed toward the year’s finals with a guaranteed minimum of $500k. The misinterpretation is then followed up by conspiracy-level speculation that Blizzard deliberately backtracked on something they never said they would do to ensure that Warcraft’s prize pool wasn’t bigger than any of the other big tournaments which has no logical conclusion and would have absolutely no benefit for Blizzard.

“It is my personal hypothesis that this is exactly what caused the backtracking: Blizzard couldn’t allow AWC or MDI to have bigger individual prize pools than Hearthstone Grandmasters, OW World Cup, or SC2.”

Roberts goes on to complain about how the practice facility was only open for one day and didn’t provide adequate snacks or comfortable chairs, and how the opening rounds were held offline thus preventing players from using the streams to make money because it turns out being a WoW pro player doesn’t pay like a full time job. Who would have thought?

I’m not going to fault Shanna Roberts for doing her job which is to get her team more money.

If she had hired MMO Fallout’s Master Gaming Consultancy since I read the announcement when it came out and could have fully explained it to her and any other esports folks who were confused, this matter might have been resolved pretty quickly and we wouldn’t be here today. I have eleven years experience writing about video games and my flat fee is two grand per month which is frankly a deal since I’m not going to torpedo your business like what happened with that Sunset game.

Otherwise I think I’m done talking about Blizzcon 2019.

Call of Duty, WoW Classic Make Activision Blizzard Mucho Dinero


The success of World of Warcraft Classic could only come as a shock to J. Allen “You think you do but you don’t” Brack, but to the rest of the world the idea that the classic servers brought back a lot of players isn’t surprising in the least.

Activision released their third quarter statements for 2019 and the results are pretty great for them. With sales from Call of Duty BLOPS 4 and WWII still strong and World of Warcraft Classic leading the way, Activision hauled in $1.28 billion dollars compared to $1.51 billion in 2018. World of Warcraft Classic drove subscriptions to its highest quarterly increase in franchise history while Candy Crush somehow continues to grow in revenue. In addition, the launch of Call of Duty Mobile has been a major success in terms of downloads and revenue.

Despite recent controversy, Blizzard has created a good amount of hype with the announcement of Overwatch 2 and Diablo IV at this year’s Blizzcon.

The quarter ends on September 30 and does not reflect any potential consumer reaction to the Blitzchung Hearthstone controversy, nor does it include sales from the latest Modern Warfare title.

Source: Activision report

World of Warcraft Squishing Levels Down To 60


Blizzard is crushing your head.

Blizzcon came and went this weekend and World of Warcraft players received confirmation on a feature that many probably knew was coming months ago. Blizzard officially announced that World of Warcraft will see an arguably much deserved level crunch as the max cap goes from 120 to 60. Current level 120 players will be crunched down to 50 and be able to make their way to the new level cap of 60.

Another positive of this announcement is that alt leveling is supposed to be more user friendly. Alts will be able to level in any zone or through world quests, and while you’ll need to hit level 60 to unlock the ability to align with end-game factions, your alts will be able to take advantage of the faction alignment from the start and begin farming end-game materials earlier.

Enjoy level 120 while it lasts.

Source: Blizzard press release

Blizzcon 2019: Blizzard Eats Humble Pie, Gives Audience What They Want


As I have said over the past couple of weeks, the best thing that Blizzard could do with Blizzcon 2019 is to give the audience what they want.

Blizzcon 2019 is officially upon us and it started with President J. Allen Brack coming out and apologizing for the company’s actions and response to criticism following last month’s Hearthstone Grandmaster controversy. Brack took full responsibility for the company and stated;

“We moved too quickly in our decision-making and then, to make matters worse, we were too slow to talk with all of you,” said Brack. “We didn’t live up to the high standards that we really set for ourselves.”

Outside of the apology, Blizzard gave their fans exactly what they wanted. Wasting no time, Blizzard took its opening ceremony to announce Diablo IV and Overwatch 2, and went even further. There was also a marked absence of any news regarding Diablo Immortal. Confirming the week’s leaks, Overwatch 2 will have a more PVE-focused approach. In addition, players who own Overwatch will be able to play with those on Overwatch 2, ensuring that the two communities will not be fractured.

Nontroversial: Blizzard and the Disappearing Half Million


Now I’m mad at Blizzard just as much as the next guy, which is why this article is going to hurt me more than it does the people who I am about to point out.

Today is October 31, 2019 of the year of Arnold, and that can only mean one thing; it’s time for the internet to do what the internet does best and that’s to deliberately misconstrue a statement in order to justify being outraged at something that the collective net already does not like and has no interest in viewing criticism of with any sort of rationality or objectivity.

Blizzard! They’ve done some crappy stuff lately. Today marks the start of Blizzcon with Overwatch World Cup preliminaries today and the festival really kicking off tomorrow and running through Sunday. One of the highlights of the event are two World of Warcraft tournaments called the MDI and AWC, the Mything Dungeon International and Arena World Championship respectively. Today’s nontroversy surrounds outrage about the wording of the prize pool, specifically that people are coming out and claiming that Blizzard used deceptive tactics to withdraw $500 grand in promised prize money.

In the run up to Blizzcon, Blizzard sold items for World of Warcraft with the following language:

“For a limited time, every purchase of the Transmorpher Beacon or Lion’s Pride and Horde’s Might Fireworks, 25% of the proceeds will contribute toward the year’s finals LAN event prize pool for the Arena World Championship (AWC) and the Mythic Dungeon International (MDI) with a guaranteed minimum prize pool of $500,000 USD ($250,000 USD for each event.) Your support will help take the WoW esports prize pool to the next level.”

The wording is pretty clear; 25% will go toward the prize pool with Blizzard guaranteeing a minimum prize pool of $500k if the collective sales don’t meet that amount. But this is the internet, where outrage is king. Cue Cloud9’s Adam Chan claiming that Blizzard pulled their “base contribution” of $500k.

“Blizzard did not contribute a single cent to the AWC & MDI prize pools this year. They pulled their own ‘base’ contribution of 500k when they realised how well the crowd funding did ($2.64m USD).”

Youtuber and outrage merchant Bellular News, speaking on behalf of the WoW community, claimed that audience expectations looking at practices of companies not-Blizzard would interpret the wording as Blizzard contributing a base $500k and then the amount from the toy sales being added on top of that. He refers to the wording as “ambiguous,” which it isn’t, and he says that it is technically the case, but morally isn’t, which doesn’t make any sense.

He goes on to state that the practice is not industry standard, which it may not be. That doesn’t change the fact that the wording is very clear; The minimum prize pool will be $500k, it does not even imply that Blizzard is putting forward a base of $500k. But when you’re an outrage merchant, you gotta ramp up that hyperbole. He goes on to make numerous nonsense statements like “it goes against the spirit of such a system” which doesn’t mean anything, and how flabbergasted he is and how disrespectful the whole ordeal is to the community! Rabble rabble rabble!

I’ll be frank: There’s no fancy wording at play here, if anything Blizzard is speaking at probably a fourth grade level. Even MMO Fallout’s muse Massively has joined in to take Blizzard to task over “false pretenses.”

Right; here’s two things. Blizzard didn’t withdraw anything, let alone in a stealthy way, and there were no false pretenses. Nothing was ever stated or implied that Blizzard would put forward $500k and the money from those toy sales would be icing on the cake. It simply didn’t happen. It’s also being trumped up by players who have a financial incentive to gin up a faux outrage campaign to shame Blizzard into increasing the prize pool as well as Youtubers whose channels traffic in outrage.

It’s very plain language.

[NM] Nintendo Snubs Blizzard, Ignores Overwatch Switch Launch


After the dismal week that Blizzard has had, it’s hard not to pile on to the company while they are down. In that vein, let’s talk about Nintendo snubbing Overwatch.

To set up this story, Nintendo had a big event planned for Overwatch’s launch on the Switch which was yesterday (October 15). The event in New York City was supposed to be massive, we’re talking hundreds of people showing up with the first 150 having an opportunity to meet and greet various Overwatch voice actors. Very cool. You actually had to RSVP to the event in order to get a chance at meeting the people behind the characters.

And then on October 14, Nintendo cancelled the event with no explanation other than that the event was cancelled by Blizzard with no explanation. Since then Overwatch launched. You wouldn’t know it from reading Nintendo’s social media accounts because the company has just completely ignored that one of the largest games in recent years has come to its system.

Obviously this conclusion takes some extra reading in order to come to, but it strikes us as weird that Nintendo who are insanely eager to showcase any big release on their systems (their Youtube page is covered in launch trailers) would completely ignore the launch of a game as big as Overwatch. No tweets, no trailers, no acknowledgement whatsoever. You’d think Overwatch was some Unity asset flip coming out on the system, but even those get some recognition by Nintendo.

Maybe someone at Blizzard should learn a lesson about hospitality.

 

Blizzard Makes Statement Now That It’s Closing Time On Friday


It’s 8:30p.m. on Friday here in New York, which means the folks at Blizzard HQ in California are about to go home and most Youtubers are probably polishing off their nightly news videos. So much like Daybreak choosing to lay people off, Blizzard naturally picked this as the best time to release their response to the week’s controversy following the suspension of Hearthstone player Blitzchung.

For those who managed to avoid the news completely, Blizzard suspended Blitzchung from the Hearthstone Grandmaster tournament and forfeited his winnings after he made a pro Hong Kong statement during an interview. Both interviewers were fired as well. The firestorm on the internet has been massive with a Blizzard boycott trending on Twitter, players posting their account cancellations/deletion, and a social media campaign that inexplicably saw Mei becoming a front for the Hong Kong movement.

Blizzard President J. Allen Brack has officially commented and the response is exactly what you would expect out of a company hoping nobody will see their statement at 5:30 on a Friday. The statement naturally denies any influence from China or motivation to appease Chinese benefactors. Brack continuously cites the Blizzard mantra “every voice matters” in his statement defending silencing a person based on their political view, and claims that Blitzchung was punished not for his statement but for the “divisive and deliberate way” he expressed it.

Brack also notes that Blizzard will give Blitzchung his winnings and reduce his suspension to six months. The casters are also suspended for six moths. Brack provides absolutely no reason for why the casters were suspended. Activision head honcho Bobby Kotick has remained silent.

And remember; Every Voice Matters at Blizzard*.

Source: Blizzard

*Not every voice matters at Blizzard

Epic Games: We Would Not Ban Political Speech


With Blizzard being tossed into a shallow grave and spat on by the public reaction to it banning and stealing thousands of dollars in prize money over a player expressing support for Hong Kong, it was only a matter of time before other developers showed up and used this opportunity to score some quick PR points. And who else is best to show up to the conversation than Epic Games which is 40% owned by Tencent, a company behind much of the backlash to western companies supporting Hong Kong.

In a statement to The Verge, Epic’s spokesman said:

“Epic supports everyone’s right to express their views on politics and human rights. We wouldn’t ban or punish a Fortnite player or content creator for speaking on these topics,”

Tim Sweeney personally backed this statement on Twitter, expressing “Epic supports the rights of Fortnite players and creators to speak about politics and human rights.”

Source: The Verge