The first impact of Chris Metzen's hiring as a Special Executive Something-or-other by Blizzard has been felt, and it is somewhat underwhelming.
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| Sorry kids, this is a facsimile. From the Blizzard store. |
Yes, it's a limited edition print of Grom Hellscream signed by Chris Metzen.
Sorry, it's already sold out.
I have to imagine some marketer at Blizzard is counting the profit from these cash store items, thinking that this is like shooting fish in a barrel. Or to put it another way, there will always be whales around in Blizzard's space, which also explains the success of Diablo Immortal.
I always liked him. Not feeling the hate :) Atheren
ReplyDeleteI guess I'm jaded about it all, given that the first measurable impact to his hiring was to pad the Blizzard bottom line with a cash shop item.
DeleteI also follow enough sports to know that re-hiring an older coach who is coming back to your team after they'd left/retired/fired/whatever does not always work so well. If your team is really good but just needs a spark to make them great is one thing, but taking a development staff that has been gradually decimated over the years and then expecting that one hire will turn it all around... No, I'm not feeling that.
It's not that he's bad personally, but there's a culture baked into WoW now that basically needs far more than just Metzen to turn it around. I presume that the Retail crowd will be excited, thinking that they're going to get another Legion, but everything I've heard and seen so far is that people who are voting with their wallets and login times prefer the Classic Trio.
At the very least there needs to be a culture change at Blizzard, and with the Microsoft purchase slowly falling into place I expect that the change that will come will not be what people want. Microsoft will want a win on their bottom line, not necessarily a win for gamers. And, unfortunately, that likely means more mobile games that mine Blizzard IP.
He doesn’t seem like a guy who would have come up with the promotion himself. Likely those wily guys in marketing…Atheren
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