Blizzard - Why They're Hated

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that they have become one of the most hated names in the industry there have been so many potential reasons to dislike blizzard that even their biggest supporters the ones who love their games the most and want to see them succeed have been feeling let down which I think makes this a perfect subject for my Series where I try to explain the hatred behind some of the most widely hated companies so for this video I put together a list of reasons that I believe best explain the negative perception that has been surrounding blizzard third the company was started in the early 1990s when three friends who had recently graduated from UCLA formed a new company called silicon and synapse I guess named after the building blocks of a computer and the human brain but you have to be really smart to understand that so they briefly changed it to chaos Studios to reflect their chaotic development process but since that name was already taken and they would have to pay for it they changed it again to Blizzard originally they ported existing games to other platforms but transitioned into developing their own games like the Lost Vikings and rock and roll racing I want to make it clear that the only time that blizzard has ever been independently owned is during those first 3 years before they started any of their iconic franchises meaning for 30 plus years now blizzard has shifted around under the control of various large companies in 1994 they were acquired by Davidson and Associates the makers of the educational children's computer game math blaster for $6.75 million shortly after they had their B big break when they released Warcraft Orcs And humans kicking off their first major franchise in the following years way more people started playing multiplayer online computer games and blizzard became widely known for making some of the most Innovative bestsellers that were typically fantasy roleplaying and strategy based in 1996 Davidson and Associates was bought by CU International a shopping club company who also bought Sierra online the following year CU merged with HFS who oddly enough was the owner of popular Hotel franchises rental car companies and real estate agencies after another year they sold the division that included blizzard and Sierra to vendi a large conglomerate from France where they stayed until 2008 when vendy's games and entertainment segment merged with Activision creating Activision Blizzard and leading me to the first reason on my list and maybe the most impactful Activision there's a lot that could be said about this but Activision of course is another video game publisher behind other major Fran frises that also tends to receive a lot of criticism Bobby cotic is the person responsible for Reviving Activision in the early 1990s and growing it into the multi-billion dollar company that it is today he is one of the more controversial figures in the industry to say the least widely known for his money-making approach to video games where he seems to Value profits and shareholder returns far more than providing the player with a fun experience that is the perception anyway I've made a whole video about why Activision is hated if you want more details but when they combined with blizzard in 2008 fans were rightfully skeptical about how things would be affected and looking back on the situation I think it's safe to say that things have changed following the merger Bobby KK was named the CEO of the overall company and over time has become increasingly involved in the blizzard side of the business many of the key figures from blizzard have since stepped down from their positions including two of the co-founders in 2018 and 2019 that were serving as president and chief development officer over this time blizzard has made some controversial decisions that you have to suspect were influenced by Bobby cotic and the Activision Executives quick examples would be in 2010 they received backlash when they announced that everyone would have to start using their real names in the forums in 2014 there was more backlash when they introduced an option to buy a character boost in World of Warcraft along with other in-game purchase options throughout their titles everything on my list takes place after the merger so not to put all the blame on Activision but they have had a major influence over blizzard to a point where most of the fans will tell you that it almost feels like an entirely different company when compared to before however I do want to say that things have been changing yet again in October of 2023 Microsoft completed their 69 billion doll acquisition of Activision Blizzard a lot happening there but it means that blizzard is now under the control of an even larger Company still attached to Activision but Bobby cotic is no longer in charge of it so we'll have to wait and see what all of that means for blizzard but it could mean some changes next up on my list I'm going to have to say the Diablo Immortal incident oh my goodness the blizzard fans that are watching I'm sure you already know about this all too well so I'll go fast but it has to be mentioned it was so bad for the reputation and visibly aggravated many of their biggest supporters Diablo is one of their most popular series going back to 1997 when Diablo 3 was released in 2012 it set a record for PC games by selling 3.5 million copies with within 24 hours so by 2018 people were anxiously anticipating the announcement for Diablo 4 at BlizzCon their big convention that they hold every year that's the big announcement everyone was expecting instead they announced Diablo Immortal a mobile game that would not be playable on PC and that crowd was so disappointed we don't have any plans at the moment to do uh PC remember these are some of the biggest fans that they have the ones who were attending their convention the big quote that everyone remembers is when he responded by saying do you guys not have phones clearly a poor response because a lack of phone ownership was not the reason everyone was disappointed just an embarrassing incident that is potentially reflective of the company losing Touch of what the players want from their games like in the cases of battle for Azeroth or Warcraft 3 reforged going back to the list while the first two reasons were more about the games and the direction of the company the rest of it is going to be a little more serious Blitz Chung is a professional Hearthstone player from Hong Kong after a match he had in Taiwan while he was being interviewed in a live broadcast he used his platform to show support for the protest happening in his country he went all out by wearing protective gear that was associated with the protesters and shouting a phrase that translates to liberate Hong Kong revolution of our times lizard claimed that he violated one of their rules that basically said that you can't say or do things that are offensive or controversial so they penalized him for it they suspended him for a year and made him forfeit his prize money and many people saw this as being unfair saying that blizzard was censoring free speech and only using that rule as an excuse to cover up the fact that they were protecting their business interests in China considering 12% of the revenue was coming from the asia-pacific region things got crazy this has to be the biggest backlash that they had ever experienced they lost sponsors US senators spoke out against it there was a popular hashtag going around boycott blizzard there was a huge protest at the following BlizzCon Mark Kern who had led the team who created World of Warcraft cancelled his subscription to the game and spoke out passionately against the ban having lived in Hong Kong when he was younger ultimately blizzard gave Blitz Chung his prize money back and reduced the ban to 6 months but my goodness this was a bit of a turning point where a lot of people strongly started hating blizzard next up layoffs have been pointed to as yet another reason to dislike blizzard and obviously sometimes layoffs are necessary but for blizzard it's been more of the conditions surrounding the layoffs and the frequency of them that has been criticized in 2012 they had their first ever major set of layoffs it was 600 people following their first ever major decline in subscriptions to World of Warcraft in 2019 they laid off 800 employees while recording record profits and increasing dividends two years later it was reported that Bobby KK was receiving a $200 million bonus that seems to have actually been about a quarter of that in the form of company stock and then in 2024 Microsoft laid off 1,00 employees within their entire video game division which included blizzard keep in mind it is a complex issue that you may want to explore deeper but when people keep seeing headlines about more layoffs but High profits and executive bonuses it leads to negative opinions about blizzard and on top of that the employees have had other issues with the company involving deadlines and salaries and toxic workplace envirment that leads me to the final reason on my list that I'm just going to call inappropriate behavior seriously Activision Blizzard has been accused of just about any type of wrongdoing in the workplace that I could even imagine racial discrimination bullying sexual harassment pregnancy discrimination the list continues the California Department of Fair Employment and housing concluded that female employees were subjected to a frat boy workplace culture that included drinking and harassment and that promotions were unfairly denied to women and that they weren't paid as much as the men at 2013 employee nicknamed his hotel room the Cosby suet the SEC charged that the company didn't collect and assess the reports of misconduct properly there is a lawsuit from parents of a former female employee that is no longer with us anymore in 2021 The Wall Street Journal published an article alleging that Bobby KK knew about a lot of the stuff that was happening there have been multiple times where the employees staged walkouts in protests again I could be here for the next hour outlining all of the allegations against Activision blizzard since 2021 so I encourage you to look into it on your own to get the full story there have been actions taken to improve the situation but it's hard to recover from something like that what I'm trying to convey here is that it very much appeared to be a toxic if not dangerous place to work especially for women and obviously that has negatively impacted the Public's perception of them let me know in the comments how do you feel about blizzard I'm going to guess that the most common response will be that you used to really like them but so much has happened and you want hold on but you're just getting tired and disappointed tell me if that's the case or if you still like them or if you have high hopes for improvement in the future do you think blizzard can restore their reputation and return to being one of the most beloved names in the industry and what would they have to do to make that happen and any other thoughts you have about Blizzard Entertainment or anything else I discussed in this video leave them in the comments I'd like to hear what you have to say stamps.com is today's sponsor and it is perfect timing because postage rights just increased yet again and stamps.com has the best discounts in the industry the kind of rates that you cannot find anywhere else like up to 89% off USPS and UPS it is convenient too because all you need is a computer and a printer I've been doing it from my home for quite some time now and I have to say no plans on going back to the post office for 25 years stamps.com has been indispensible for over 1 million businesses allowing them to print postage from anywhere they do business so they can mail out checks invoices legal documents books or anything else yeah running a business can require a lot of 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Channel: Company Man

Views: 141,067

Keywords: Blizzard, Activision, World of Warcraft, Overwatch, Diablo, Video Games, Hearthstone, Business, Hated, Company

Id: 92zQ6sXgwpc

Length: 12min 32sec (752 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 20 2024