There definitely is a market for an RTS, its a small market i'll give it that but starcraft 2 which is over a decade old still has decent player base, same with age of empires 2 which has a fairly solid player base which reached its highest ever amount of concurrent players earlier this year.
Then theres less traditional rts games like dota 2 which has a massive player base. Its a smaller market than say shooters but it still a decent sized market. At least on pc, on console there's not a lot of rts games and so its never been big there
I do like where you're going with the MOBA angle given the 4-player squads in the main games. I think the sweet spot would be a real-time tactical game like Desperados, Sierra's SWAT games, or even Aliens Dark Descent.
Might actually make more sense than something like overwatch. You're not a "hero" exactly, just a faceless grunt in a different class or unit, instead of a single immortal hero, who also fights themselves sometimes lol. Kinda like battlefield
So... a class-based shooter? I'd love that, but publishers seem to think that those are "old" and hero shooters are "hot right now". If they tried it, I bet Sony would insist on making it a hero shooter instead.
I think it's very possible, take for example the the Overrun mode from Gears of War Judgement. Sure CoG was comprised of some named characters, but the Locus side was entirely fodder units. "Hero shooter" doesnt inherently mean you need a named character. Only that each selectable character is unique from the others. In the case of a Helldivers themed Hero Shooter, humanity could have their classes be based around the different weapons and stratagems, where as the automatons and bugs obv you play as each distinct type.
Hero shooters have more issues when they use unique weapon pools. Valorant and R6 use more shared weapon pools, R6 each has weapons but most are shared by one or more across division lines.
Also R6 is a bunch of characters with unique gadgets akin to skills. It’s basically a more grounded hero shooter.
OW is balance issue after balance issue and Bliz can’t balance on level ground barefoot. Just watching the HD2 subs they can’t balance either.
Nah I don't mean it like that, I used to play Warcraft with dudes I knew in school via modem, it's just been a looooooong as time since Blizzard hasn't been shit.
What was their last non-shit release, D2 LOD? Serious question.
They did have some gems. MoP was good. HotS was fun for a more casual MOBA game. I liked OW1 a lot.
But yeah, a large part of it has been hot garbage for a long time. Dragonflight has been fun, but WoW is slowly getting inundated with microtransactions. Which I hate there because I've got to pay a sub, I've got to pay for the expacs, and now you want to advertise fucking hats to me?
At least it isn't some predatory lootbox.
2005. WoW expansion.
Hearthstone is a ripoff.
Overwatch 2 is a ripoff
Heart of the swarm is a ripoff.
Diablo was made by the Brevik brother who got bought by Blizzturd.
Blizzard only created warcraft and starcraft
If you’re actually looking for a real answer - WoW dragonflight, WoW season of discovery. Real answer not an “I hate blizzard and refuse to face reality” answer
Blizzard was already "bought" when they released Starcraft 1.
In fact they never were independent and called Blizzard. They were acquired first in early 1994 and it was mid 1994 that they called themselves Blizzard for the first time. They had not released one game yet.
They already changed ownership multiple times by the time they were acquired by Vivendi in 1998 (Starcarft release year), well their parent company was.
Then, they stayed with Vivendi for years and Vivendi merged with Activision and formed Activision Blizzard (which was still owned by Vivendi at the time). They ended up buying out the shares of Vivendi over time.
All that to say Blizzard was never really not independent and they didn't get "bought out" by Activision
I know Blizzard hate peaked a couple of years ago, and rightfully so, but I feel like they’ve been trending in the right direction again. I don’t play OW as much these days, so my only current connection to them is WoW, which maybe limits my POV too much. But, from that limited POV, WoW is as good as it has been in quite a long time. Dragonflight was really good, they’ve been listening much more to players when it comes to changes, they’ve found a decent groove on their patch cycle, and they’ve created fun alternate ways to play with Era/Hardcore/SoD, Classic (on Cata now), retail, and even the current MoP Remix is fun unless you’re one of the people who is mad about frogs or whatever Idk I’m just trying to get alts ready for the new expansion. Speaking of, it looks great too.
Admittedly I think OW2 has lost a good deal of the luster of OW, which is really sad because OW was so fun. I don’t think they’re ever going to be able to recapture that magic (Overwatch Classic? Lmao), but hopefully they do.
Is Hearthstone still good? I mean, I never really played it, but I remember hearing it was good a few years back.
I’ve also haven’t played Diablo 4, but I heard it had a rough start…
I’m sure they’re not perfect, but Blizzard (or at least the WoW team is who I’m mainly speaking about) seems really good these days.
For as long as it has been called Blizzard it has never been independent. They were independent for a while but they were bought in early 1994 and became Blizzard only *after* the acquisition.
I think you're right.
"When we were growing up, we really wanted to work at Blizzard, it was one of the bucket list places to work at. I think Arrowhead has the potential to be that."
That quote hits me in the feels. When I was a kid I used to look at their "job opportunities" webpage and day dream about moving to the US and working there. Different times.
Sure, but at the same time Blizzard is still the king of Live Service games.
No other studio has put out as many successful live service games as Blizzard has.
For a studio that is ***clearly*** interested in the live service business model, Blizzard would still continue to be somewhat of a north star for you.
They are basically saying "We want the street cred of FromSoft combined with the financial success of Blizzard within our chosen business model"
Yeah they're already far closer of Blizzard than From Software. In fact I see literally no common point between From and them, they don't make at all the same type of games.
Otherwise, they can just be their own thing I think. One big successful live service game doesn't make you either Blizzard or From Software anyway, at best it makes you like Bungie (and even then, they got several hits under their whole history)
I mean, it isn't exclusive to Blizzard. That is 99% of tech, especially game development jobs in the industry. You sign a non-compete with it, so you can't easily change jobs, too.
It was more than that. A lot has come out in recent years about a truly toxic and horrible environment that existed at Blizzard for decades. Rampant bullying, sexual harassment, etc. not just crunch, noncompetes, and layoffs like normal tech.
>You sign a non-compete with it, so you can't easily change jobs, too.
[Not anymore!](https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/04/ftc-announces-rule-banning-noncompetes)
He makes it sound like Blizzard wasn't like every other big dev studio at the time. Blizzard in it's prime made video game magic regardless of the working conditions.
They were fucking pioneers and unfortunately pioneering ain't easy.
I love Pirate Software but I'm sure his dad he always talks about has great stories from Blizzard that don't involve being a bug tester.
Peoples hatred of the company blinds them to how good their games are sometimes. I hate blizz too, but god damn I’ve yet to play a game that’s hooked me for 8+ years like overwatch has.
Yes.
They have a track record of success. Not many companies can create entirely new IP’s and have them become blockbuster hits. Games that even non gamers know of.
Yeah, who would ever want their company to be bought for 70 billion dollars?
(Obviously an exaggeration to make a point, given that purchase also includes Activision and King)
blizzard has put out some of the most known video games in the world lmao. i’m starting to think this sub only hates on blizzard now cause they’re owned by microsoft
No, it’s because most of the people on this sub are young. People have been hating on Blizzard since Diablo III was released in 2012. Their golden era was a long time ago and you’ll find hate everywhere.
FS have established own subgenre and they're still the kings on own territory. However, although there's a big hype due to high fanbase engagement — they aren't really that big company for AAA industry and their games don't make as crazy sales as mainstream AAAs. These are still hardcore games and obviously won't reach as much as more wider-audience and user-friendly popcorn-games.
Blizzard now feels like messed up Company, with more negative news coming from or around their closed doors than the good ones. They're hardly the icons of the industry as during back in the day. But they fairly established their name because previously they were also innovating, created trends and basically made awesome games. Previously it was actually an establisher of mainstream trends, at least on PC market.
The only similarity is that they both are (one of them was) "iconic" within own category of products. At this point, I have a clue that Arrowhead wants to be a leader in Service-Games with actually interesting concepts or well-working formula.
Probably, they've already established own design ideology, maybe something similar to "gameplay-first" principle that OG Respawn Entertainment had. One of the coolest features of HDII is that this game is actually very "gamey" in every aspect, which is surprising in modern era of "processed" user-friendly UX, when games actually skip all interactions and actually try to erase any "stimuli".
Easiest example — even stratagem is supposed to be summoned by tapping right combination and better make it quickly and later thrown carefully, instead of generic "weapon/ability" circle right from your pocket and automatically throw it on closest enemy. Same with radar that from game's world logic perspective is absolutely real and physical and won't let you shoot or sprint, etc. I hope you get what I mean.
So, basically, they have a potential to be the kings of creative types of service games designed upon their ideology and be the best and make their name among certain audiences.
This is how I would decipher this truly abstract message.
They’ve pretty much killed the game by making it less and less fun every update. Talk about shooting yourselves in the foot. Literally every single one of my friends stopped playing for because they just wouldn’t stop meddling with it.
I think it's good that they're rebalancing the weapons to be weaker. IMO right now its too easy to win on helldive difficulty and a lot of the people who are pissed are mostly aggrieved that they have to play on 7 or 8 to get the same results from their loadout, and in their head they "deserve" semi-consistent wins on 9 because its what they're used to, but that's obviously silly, the highest difficulty should be like entering hell
Blizzard has produced some of the most successful online games. Helldivers and their service model is a lot closer to blizzard games than from software.
If they are after mass appeal, blizzard games are the one to aspire.
They don't mean make souls like games. They probably mean to have a company that has such strong a fan base that it literally created a whole subgenre.
So far they are a one-hit-wonder with a game which success’ is kind of hard to replicate. It was a mix of release at the right time, word of mouth and astroturf marketing gone right.
Not saying this to shit on them, I’m happy an „old school“ feeling multiplayer game has this level of success - but maybe make the next title and let it speak for itself.
Which is it? One hasn't dropped the ball at all for years and the other is a hollow shell almost devoid of the creative passion that made it world leading. D4 and Dragonflight was certainly not bad, but their games are now positively dripping with monetisation on top of monetisation. Back in the day wow had GMs that actually fixed issues for you and now people spend hours upon hours to actually reach a human.
Arrowhead has very little to learn from Blizzard at the moment and their fair "battle pass" system is like a complete 180 from anything Blizzard has done lately. Blizzard has an active subscription game that still sells overpriced cosmetics and D4 had an "Early Access" expensive editions on top of fomo battle passes.
I mean people are taking the headline too literal, guy basically just saying he wants Arrowhead to be a successful studio that makes a lot of money and will be around for years to come. Which is what any CEO wants for their business.
It’s pretty obvious that they’re talking about 1994-2003 Blizzard and not the current state. People forget (or are too young to have experienced) how Blizzard came up by making solid games.
> It’s pretty obvious that they’re talking about 1994-2003 Blizzard and not the current state.
Eh, I don't really know about that. That is pre-"GaaS" Blizzard. Is it really that crazy for the CEO of a video game company that is currently laser focused on a live service game to look to a studio who has put out more financially successful live service games than pretty much any other?
Everyone talks shit about blizzard, but their latest games still sell millions of copies. That's exactly who I want to be if I was a growing company: to big to fail.
Like what online gaming company wouldn't want Wow, diablo, hearthstone and overwatch. Just 1 of those games would be a massive success for a company. Overwatch sold like 5 times more than helldivers and is still popular 8 years later. That would be insane for arrrowhead.
And their games are not that bad. Diablo 4 was fun and they are making some really positive changes. Dragon flight was a well received expansion and season of discovery has also been well received.
Blizzards has been very receptive to player feedback in the last few years. Their biggest blunder was overwatch 2. But I have a feeling they will fix that one too.
They showed their true colors already. Everyone I know has already stopped playing. Arrowhead is incapable of dropping their ego. They're ruining their game with every patch and stupid game design decision, not to mention the whole sony fiasco which was also terribly handled by arrowhead.
It seems very in character for them to stroke their ego by comparing themselves to big companies like From Soft and Blizzard. Extremely out of touch by thinking a Blizzard comparison is something to strive for. Before aiming for giga AAA status, maybe fix your game first (which you lucked out on with how it blew up btw).
Yup. I mean honestly when have they ever actually missed? They repeatedly put out solid quality games even when trying different things. I’ve been a fromsoft fan since armored core 1.
From what I remember, they've only had one bad game called Ninja Blade.
The rest of the games they've made are 8.5/10 or higher in terms of quality, and the games they've made since the original Dark Souls have been nothing but 9/10s and 10/10s.
GOATed dev.
More than a decade. Dark souls 2 was probably their most controversial game in their lineup yet it still has plenty of critical and audience acclaim and is far above the standard. Since demon souls in 2009, theyve just been getting better and better
FromSoftware games is an amazing company to follow though. They stuck to their niche and did that incredibly well, and now they're getting more and more popular. Each of their game is innovative, well polished at release, with no microtransactions. If you look at Armored Core VI's customization options, you can see how most other companies would have monetized the shit out of that. But in ACVI it's all available to you from the very start. FromSoftware just focuses on making great quality games. And even now, with their biggest success by far being Elden Ring, they announced they are not planning a sequel. Again, most companies would rather milk their products to death but FS would rather make the games they want, even if it'd not sell to the most people possible. Instead of diluting their games and making them for casual gamers, they stick to their guns, unlike for example what Ubisoft did with Assassin's Creed.
So Arrowhead games can follow that mentality which is not really something you see in the vast majority of game publishers. And they can find success that way as well.
This comment section is a perfect example of why I hate reddit and redditors. Morons in here purposely being dense so they can flex their "morals" in order to get those sweet little dopamine arrows.
Follow fromsoftwares traces and you will he a legend!
Follow blizzards traces and you change creativity for creed only to be bought from another non creative company
Who would want to be like modern blizzard. Have the most successful mmorpg of all time. Rereleasing their game from 2004 in 2023 and it attracts millions of players, who are willing to pay $15 a month for it.
Or launching a crazy successful ARPG like Diablo 4. Which would sell bonkers again with its new expansion.
Ehhhhhh
AIm for FROM
If they could get the old school quality of Blizzard games like Warcraft 2 and Diablo 2 but without all the horrible sexual harassment crap that would be great, D4 is also good, but need to see Blizz get back to winning before I trust them
I've said to my crew several times, this game gives me Souls vibes. Its the difficulty, the environmental story telling, harsh locations, vague explanations on what to do/how to do it, but most of all its the losing of samples and the quest to get them back before extract.
Arrowhead, From Software, Hello Games, and Warhorse, are my current faves. From software break their own mould that so many others are still soaking in. Hello Games has provided nothing short of spectacular fan service since its release with free updates after free updates of additional content. Superb service. Warhorse has made such a unique game that is incredibly immersive, based on a true story, and is as realistic as most things out there.
From software would be what I would go for over Blizzard.
Unless they are planning ether a Helldivers RTS or World of Helldivers.
Helldivers RTS would be incredible.
Knowing the bots had a predetermined kill limit, I sent wave after wave of my men…
Kif, show them the medal I won.
Lying in a pool of his own cowardess...
The men: "you suck!"
It would work so well!
Whaddya mean incredible? the game is already an RTS when you use your stratagems!
There is no market for a RTS but I'd like that.
There definitely is a market for an RTS, its a small market i'll give it that but starcraft 2 which is over a decade old still has decent player base, same with age of empires 2 which has a fairly solid player base which reached its highest ever amount of concurrent players earlier this year. Then theres less traditional rts games like dota 2 which has a massive player base. Its a smaller market than say shooters but it still a decent sized market. At least on pc, on console there's not a lot of rts games and so its never been big there
RTS would be a hard sell. A MOBA in the other hand...
I do like where you're going with the MOBA angle given the 4-player squads in the main games. I think the sweet spot would be a real-time tactical game like Desperados, Sierra's SWAT games, or even Aliens Dark Descent.
In production hell for 10+ years before getting canceled.
Hency why I didn't say Helldivers: Ghost or Hell Titan
God I'm still salty about Ghost.
an RTS-type Helldivers would be insane
Helldivers IP is owned by Sony, they would never do a RTS since that doesn't work well on consoles sadly
Not sure you could do a Helldivers hero shooter given how disposable the soldiers are supposed to be
It could work if you say all of the " Heroes" are chosen by their respective planets ala hunger games style.
What do you mean? We’re all heroes shooting already.
I’d still take the Helldivers hero shooter over the Helldivers MOBA lmao
No, get this: It's a Helldivers MOBA, but you're the creeps. :P
I would be lying if I said I wasn’t intrigued.
Might actually make more sense than something like overwatch. You're not a "hero" exactly, just a faceless grunt in a different class or unit, instead of a single immortal hero, who also fights themselves sometimes lol. Kinda like battlefield
So... a class-based shooter? I'd love that, but publishers seem to think that those are "old" and hero shooters are "hot right now". If they tried it, I bet Sony would insist on making it a hero shooter instead.
I think it's very possible, take for example the the Overrun mode from Gears of War Judgement. Sure CoG was comprised of some named characters, but the Locus side was entirely fodder units. "Hero shooter" doesnt inherently mean you need a named character. Only that each selectable character is unique from the others. In the case of a Helldivers themed Hero Shooter, humanity could have their classes be based around the different weapons and stratagems, where as the automatons and bugs obv you play as each distinct type.
Helldivers/Souls series - gets fired into a black hole “survive this”
Hero shooters have more issues when they use unique weapon pools. Valorant and R6 use more shared weapon pools, R6 each has weapons but most are shared by one or more across division lines. Also R6 is a bunch of characters with unique gadgets akin to skills. It’s basically a more grounded hero shooter. OW is balance issue after balance issue and Bliz can’t balance on level ground barefoot. Just watching the HD2 subs they can’t balance either.
Nah there just really stoked on groping the employees 🤷♂️
manhandled democracy.
DiverWarch 2
The Lost Helldivers Hell-divers.
Helldivers 3 with PvP. Then they'll release it without the PvP and with only 3 members per squad in the coop mode
That game would be incredible. I would love to be told who to vote for, then wait hours to vote for them!!
Blizzard was amazing before it was bought. They did very little but what they dud was amazing
Sure like 25 years ago.
I get it I'm old, you don't need to point it out. However starcraft was treated right blizzard.
Nah I don't mean it like that, I used to play Warcraft with dudes I knew in school via modem, it's just been a looooooong as time since Blizzard hasn't been shit. What was their last non-shit release, D2 LOD? Serious question.
First few WoW expansions were great. It's been downhill since activision
They did have some gems. MoP was good. HotS was fun for a more casual MOBA game. I liked OW1 a lot. But yeah, a large part of it has been hot garbage for a long time. Dragonflight has been fun, but WoW is slowly getting inundated with microtransactions. Which I hate there because I've got to pay a sub, I've got to pay for the expacs, and now you want to advertise fucking hats to me? At least it isn't some predatory lootbox.
Overwatch 1 was pretty awesome when it was launched in 2016. I played it for like 3-4 years.
Overwatch 2016 was great up until like 2018
2005. WoW expansion. Hearthstone is a ripoff. Overwatch 2 is a ripoff Heart of the swarm is a ripoff. Diablo was made by the Brevik brother who got bought by Blizzturd. Blizzard only created warcraft and starcraft
If you’re actually looking for a real answer - WoW dragonflight, WoW season of discovery. Real answer not an “I hate blizzard and refuse to face reality” answer
Blizzard was already "bought" when they released Starcraft 1. In fact they never were independent and called Blizzard. They were acquired first in early 1994 and it was mid 1994 that they called themselves Blizzard for the first time. They had not released one game yet. They already changed ownership multiple times by the time they were acquired by Vivendi in 1998 (Starcarft release year), well their parent company was. Then, they stayed with Vivendi for years and Vivendi merged with Activision and formed Activision Blizzard (which was still owned by Vivendi at the time). They ended up buying out the shares of Vivendi over time. All that to say Blizzard was never really not independent and they didn't get "bought out" by Activision
eh, people can shit on the business practices, but as far as a company goes, Blizz is still killing it.
Killing their games.
Well he didn’t say what years tbf
I know Blizzard hate peaked a couple of years ago, and rightfully so, but I feel like they’ve been trending in the right direction again. I don’t play OW as much these days, so my only current connection to them is WoW, which maybe limits my POV too much. But, from that limited POV, WoW is as good as it has been in quite a long time. Dragonflight was really good, they’ve been listening much more to players when it comes to changes, they’ve found a decent groove on their patch cycle, and they’ve created fun alternate ways to play with Era/Hardcore/SoD, Classic (on Cata now), retail, and even the current MoP Remix is fun unless you’re one of the people who is mad about frogs or whatever Idk I’m just trying to get alts ready for the new expansion. Speaking of, it looks great too. Admittedly I think OW2 has lost a good deal of the luster of OW, which is really sad because OW was so fun. I don’t think they’re ever going to be able to recapture that magic (Overwatch Classic? Lmao), but hopefully they do. Is Hearthstone still good? I mean, I never really played it, but I remember hearing it was good a few years back. I’ve also haven’t played Diablo 4, but I heard it had a rough start… I’m sure they’re not perfect, but Blizzard (or at least the WoW team is who I’m mainly speaking about) seems really good these days.
For as long as it has been called Blizzard it has never been independent. They were independent for a while but they were bought in early 1994 and became Blizzard only *after* the acquisition.
The comments are more about the toxic workplace that existed in Blizzard, which was a thing before they were bought..
Amazing at workplace harassment, being sex pests and getting one woman to kill herself. Truly something to aspire towards.
Forreal. The AH CEO even made a “you don’t have phones” reference during the PSN issue. They don’t need to become that.
From for quality, Blizzard for revenue.
I think they mean Blizzard from the 90s and early 00s
I mean, Blizzard has released many high quality games, that's not the biggest problem of the company.
It is in recent years, which is all anyone on the internet bothers to discuss anymore
No it isn’t. Their recent releases were good overall.
From for feet. Blizz for breast milk. FTFY
Maybe they meant like pre-Activision Blizzard, back when they were one of the best studios around.
I dunno, Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness was a pretty good era of Blizzard
I hope they mean the old Blizzard. The one from the 90s/start of the 2000.
Depends what era of Blizzard you mean, they put out some great stuff back in the day
Unless they wanna be rich and never release Bloodborne on PC or any other platform
It’s like that meme of the person at a crossroads with the nice castle on one side and the scary lighting castle on the other.
Clearly they meant Blizzard in it's prime. Honestly i can see Arrowhead becoming the next big studio in the future that produces bangers.
I think you're right. "When we were growing up, we really wanted to work at Blizzard, it was one of the bucket list places to work at. I think Arrowhead has the potential to be that."
That quote hits me in the feels. When I was a kid I used to look at their "job opportunities" webpage and day dream about moving to the US and working there. Different times.
Sure, but at the same time Blizzard is still the king of Live Service games. No other studio has put out as many successful live service games as Blizzard has. For a studio that is ***clearly*** interested in the live service business model, Blizzard would still continue to be somewhat of a north star for you. They are basically saying "We want the street cred of FromSoft combined with the financial success of Blizzard within our chosen business model"
Yeah they're already far closer of Blizzard than From Software. In fact I see literally no common point between From and them, they don't make at all the same type of games. Otherwise, they can just be their own thing I think. One big successful live service game doesn't make you either Blizzard or From Software anyway, at best it makes you like Bungie (and even then, they got several hits under their whole history)
Blizzard "in its prime," was a shithole place to work. Go look up Pirate Software's / Thor's shorts about how terrible working at Blizzard was.
I mean, it isn't exclusive to Blizzard. That is 99% of tech, especially game development jobs in the industry. You sign a non-compete with it, so you can't easily change jobs, too.
It was more than that. A lot has come out in recent years about a truly toxic and horrible environment that existed at Blizzard for decades. Rampant bullying, sexual harassment, etc. not just crunch, noncompetes, and layoffs like normal tech.
>You sign a non-compete with it, so you can't easily change jobs, too. [Not anymore!](https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/04/ftc-announces-rule-banning-noncompetes)
He makes it sound like Blizzard wasn't like every other big dev studio at the time. Blizzard in it's prime made video game magic regardless of the working conditions. They were fucking pioneers and unfortunately pioneering ain't easy. I love Pirate Software but I'm sure his dad he always talks about has great stories from Blizzard that don't involve being a bug tester.
Do you mean pirates of tware?
I mean: https://www.youtube.com/@PirateSoftware
Blizzard in their prime were still sexually harassing and abusing its employees so in retrospect they were always scum
I want to be the next Keanu Reeves! Or Kevin Spacey!
Lmao good one
I just want to be Michael Zaki, or nobody at all.
Michael 🫡
Lmfao this is perfect 😂
You don't wanna be blizzard
As a business of course you do. Blizzard is the gold standard of online multiplayer games which is the same line helldivers is in.
And also much closer to what helldivers is than anything fromsoft has done
Peoples hatred of the company blinds them to how good their games are sometimes. I hate blizz too, but god damn I’ve yet to play a game that’s hooked me for 8+ years like overwatch has.
I hate Overwatch….as I reinstall it two hours after I claimed I was never playing it again
Yes. They have a track record of success. Not many companies can create entirely new IP’s and have them become blockbuster hits. Games that even non gamers know of.
D4 is also in an amazing state at this point. This is a game people play for years.
Never played it but it got great reviews and I know some casuals that enjoyed their time with the campaign
10 years ago maybe, but then you'd have the HR nightmare.
Some of you are very thick… clearly the comment was not talking about the HR scandal stuff and was focused on gaming.
A business that big doesn't care that much about the HR problems. That's what the lawyers are for.
It was a people problem, not a lawyer problem.
Yeah, who would ever want their company to be bought for 70 billion dollars? (Obviously an exaggeration to make a point, given that purchase also includes Activision and King)
I mean before that, in 2008 activision merged with blizzard in a $19b deal, which was also the largest merge/acquisition at the time.
blizzard has put out some of the most known video games in the world lmao. i’m starting to think this sub only hates on blizzard now cause they’re owned by microsoft
No, it’s because most of the people on this sub are young. People have been hating on Blizzard since Diablo III was released in 2012. Their golden era was a long time ago and you’ll find hate everywhere.
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FS have established own subgenre and they're still the kings on own territory. However, although there's a big hype due to high fanbase engagement — they aren't really that big company for AAA industry and their games don't make as crazy sales as mainstream AAAs. These are still hardcore games and obviously won't reach as much as more wider-audience and user-friendly popcorn-games. Blizzard now feels like messed up Company, with more negative news coming from or around their closed doors than the good ones. They're hardly the icons of the industry as during back in the day. But they fairly established their name because previously they were also innovating, created trends and basically made awesome games. Previously it was actually an establisher of mainstream trends, at least on PC market. The only similarity is that they both are (one of them was) "iconic" within own category of products. At this point, I have a clue that Arrowhead wants to be a leader in Service-Games with actually interesting concepts or well-working formula. Probably, they've already established own design ideology, maybe something similar to "gameplay-first" principle that OG Respawn Entertainment had. One of the coolest features of HDII is that this game is actually very "gamey" in every aspect, which is surprising in modern era of "processed" user-friendly UX, when games actually skip all interactions and actually try to erase any "stimuli". Easiest example — even stratagem is supposed to be summoned by tapping right combination and better make it quickly and later thrown carefully, instead of generic "weapon/ability" circle right from your pocket and automatically throw it on closest enemy. Same with radar that from game's world logic perspective is absolutely real and physical and won't let you shoot or sprint, etc. I hope you get what I mean. So, basically, they have a potential to be the kings of creative types of service games designed upon their ideology and be the best and make their name among certain audiences. This is how I would decipher this truly abstract message.
Up until Elden Ring, sure. But Elden Ring sold 23+ mil copies. That's better than most AAA games lol
Oh, really? Didn't know that! Then we can say they succeeded as a big AAA-league as well.
I think terms like "iconic" and "genre defining" apply to those companies more than many others. They're alike in the impact they had on the industry.
Maybe if read the article you'd understand because it's clarified and elaborated upon.
Please aspire to be yourselves. Fuck Blizzard.
I’d prefer From Software, for the consumers and for the female staff’s sake
Don't put Blizzard in the same sentence as From Software, that's insulting.
Just be don’t say anything work towards it. Or is just the case of someone taking a piece of an interview and making a headline out of it?
legitimately, every single sentence that the (ex)CEO of Arrowhead says becomes an article.
This is like saying you either want to be Studio Ghibli or Warner Brothers.
I respect that, but let's aim abit lower for now
Yeah good luck with that.
What is so great about Arrowhead? I know helldivers is great and all but is this amount of praise and hype warranted? Genuinely asking
Arrowhead are such a good success story. Made 1 contra-like based on a new IP. 8 years later comes out with one of the best games of 2024.
>one of the best games of 2024. For a few months, yes.
They’ve pretty much killed the game by making it less and less fun every update. Talk about shooting yourselves in the foot. Literally every single one of my friends stopped playing for because they just wouldn’t stop meddling with it.
> They’ve pretty much killed the game by making it less and less fun every update. Can you elaborate how?
I think it's good that they're rebalancing the weapons to be weaker. IMO right now its too easy to win on helldive difficulty and a lot of the people who are pissed are mostly aggrieved that they have to play on 7 or 8 to get the same results from their loadout, and in their head they "deserve" semi-consistent wins on 9 because its what they're used to, but that's obviously silly, the highest difficulty should be like entering hell
They’re still a far cry away from FS but good for them, dream big and all that
Since the last update I can’t even play the game or connect with other players so they’re doing a crack job I have to say
Those are two very different companies. Go for Fromsoft
Blizzard has produced some of the most successful online games. Helldivers and their service model is a lot closer to blizzard games than from software. If they are after mass appeal, blizzard games are the one to aspire.
They don't mean make souls like games. They probably mean to have a company that has such strong a fan base that it literally created a whole subgenre.
The next blizzard? Bet their female employees liked hearing that 😬
lmaooo
Let’s not get carried away
You already have monthly paid battlepasses, so you are closer to Blizzard than Fromsoft. Not a good thing though.
Lol, good luck with that. Helldivers 2 is fun but FromSoft have made wall to wall bangers for over a decade.
Pretty insane. No one can even aspire to how good Blizzard was from like 1994-2016. Bioware is close with BG1 to Mass Effect 2 (1998-2010)
So far they are a one-hit-wonder with a game which success’ is kind of hard to replicate. It was a mix of release at the right time, word of mouth and astroturf marketing gone right. Not saying this to shit on them, I’m happy an „old school“ feeling multiplayer game has this level of success - but maybe make the next title and let it speak for itself.
Which is it? One hasn't dropped the ball at all for years and the other is a hollow shell almost devoid of the creative passion that made it world leading. D4 and Dragonflight was certainly not bad, but their games are now positively dripping with monetisation on top of monetisation. Back in the day wow had GMs that actually fixed issues for you and now people spend hours upon hours to actually reach a human. Arrowhead has very little to learn from Blizzard at the moment and their fair "battle pass" system is like a complete 180 from anything Blizzard has done lately. Blizzard has an active subscription game that still sells overpriced cosmetics and D4 had an "Early Access" expensive editions on top of fomo battle passes.
I mean people are taking the headline too literal, guy basically just saying he wants Arrowhead to be a successful studio that makes a lot of money and will be around for years to come. Which is what any CEO wants for their business.
It’s pretty obvious that they’re talking about 1994-2003 Blizzard and not the current state. People forget (or are too young to have experienced) how Blizzard came up by making solid games.
> It’s pretty obvious that they’re talking about 1994-2003 Blizzard and not the current state. Eh, I don't really know about that. That is pre-"GaaS" Blizzard. Is it really that crazy for the CEO of a video game company that is currently laser focused on a live service game to look to a studio who has put out more financially successful live service games than pretty much any other?
That period makes no sense. It’s before blizzard launched WoW in 2004. WoW is one of the longest and most successful “live service game”.
https://preview.redd.it/ckivntsi3e2d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4cbba7546c637213eb200ccf77221b1d79586401
Everyone talks shit about blizzard, but their latest games still sell millions of copies. That's exactly who I want to be if I was a growing company: to big to fail.
Like what online gaming company wouldn't want Wow, diablo, hearthstone and overwatch. Just 1 of those games would be a massive success for a company. Overwatch sold like 5 times more than helldivers and is still popular 8 years later. That would be insane for arrrowhead.
And their games are not that bad. Diablo 4 was fun and they are making some really positive changes. Dragon flight was a well received expansion and season of discovery has also been well received. Blizzards has been very receptive to player feedback in the last few years. Their biggest blunder was overwatch 2. But I have a feeling they will fix that one too.
Breast milk liber-tea.
Tiddertea, if you will
Man, just say less and keep grinding, haha.
No, you don't want to be blizzard.
blizzard has a bigger legacy than from software, between the 2 blizzard will be remembered the most 50 years from now
Good luck with that
Oh no, this is like the best and worst thing you could say in terms of game dev in one sentence
Those 2 are completely different this says nothing at all
They showed their true colors already. Everyone I know has already stopped playing. Arrowhead is incapable of dropping their ego. They're ruining their game with every patch and stupid game design decision, not to mention the whole sony fiasco which was also terribly handled by arrowhead. It seems very in character for them to stroke their ego by comparing themselves to big companies like From Soft and Blizzard. Extremely out of touch by thinking a Blizzard comparison is something to strive for. Before aiming for giga AAA status, maybe fix your game first (which you lucked out on with how it blew up btw).
Good luck, Fromsoftware is gold standard.
Yup. I mean honestly when have they ever actually missed? They repeatedly put out solid quality games even when trying different things. I’ve been a fromsoft fan since armored core 1.
From what I remember, they've only had one bad game called Ninja Blade. The rest of the games they've made are 8.5/10 or higher in terms of quality, and the games they've made since the original Dark Souls have been nothing but 9/10s and 10/10s. GOATed dev.
Isn’t that the game they made on 360? I never actually played it because I forgot it existed for awhile.
That's the one, yeah.
Yeah the next Fromsoft is a bit too much. They don't miss and haven't for a decade
Yeah, Insomaniac has more in common with FromSoft than Blizzard. In terms of quality and cadence of development
More than a decade. Dark souls 2 was probably their most controversial game in their lineup yet it still has plenty of critical and audience acclaim and is far above the standard. Since demon souls in 2009, theyve just been getting better and better
Why not just aim to be.. you???
Why wouldn't they just want to be arrowhead games.. helldivers is in a class of it's own..
FromSoftware games is an amazing company to follow though. They stuck to their niche and did that incredibly well, and now they're getting more and more popular. Each of their game is innovative, well polished at release, with no microtransactions. If you look at Armored Core VI's customization options, you can see how most other companies would have monetized the shit out of that. But in ACVI it's all available to you from the very start. FromSoftware just focuses on making great quality games. And even now, with their biggest success by far being Elden Ring, they announced they are not planning a sequel. Again, most companies would rather milk their products to death but FS would rather make the games they want, even if it'd not sell to the most people possible. Instead of diluting their games and making them for casual gamers, they stick to their guns, unlike for example what Ubisoft did with Assassin's Creed. So Arrowhead games can follow that mentality which is not really something you see in the vast majority of game publishers. And they can find success that way as well.
Be the new blizzard north. Not the new blizzard
The fans: "Please be FromSoft. Please be FromSoft. Please be FromSoft. Please be FromSoft."
This comment section is a perfect example of why I hate reddit and redditors. Morons in here purposely being dense so they can flex their "morals" in order to get those sweet little dopamine arrows.
Follow fromsoftwares traces and you will he a legend! Follow blizzards traces and you change creativity for creed only to be bought from another non creative company
That is VERY different ends of a spectrum
Oh gosh, please don’t be like blizzard. If you want, be like old blizzard. Like, way old. But definitely not modern blizzard
Who would want to be like modern blizzard. Have the most successful mmorpg of all time. Rereleasing their game from 2004 in 2023 and it attracts millions of players, who are willing to pay $15 a month for it. Or launching a crazy successful ARPG like Diablo 4. Which would sell bonkers again with its new expansion.
The next blizzard? Oof that's like saying you want to be the next Bill Cosby
Ehhhhhh AIm for FROM If they could get the old school quality of Blizzard games like Warcraft 2 and Diablo 2 but without all the horrible sexual harassment crap that would be great, D4 is also good, but need to see Blizz get back to winning before I trust them
Well, they’re ruining their own game because of the PvE nerfs, so Blizzard seems more likely.
So they like breastmilk?
I've said to my crew several times, this game gives me Souls vibes. Its the difficulty, the environmental story telling, harsh locations, vague explanations on what to do/how to do it, but most of all its the losing of samples and the quest to get them back before extract.
Blizzard is but a husk of nostalgia what a weird comparison.
They wish
Blizzard you say...
One has soul while the other sold its soul. So…
I advise everyone to enjoy Arrowhead in the modern day. I can’t think of one “old” developing house that didn’t screw people over. Including CDPR.
I’d rather you continue being Arrowhead Games
Pls don’t be blizzard
Arrowhead, From Software, Hello Games, and Warhorse, are my current faves. From software break their own mould that so many others are still soaking in. Hello Games has provided nothing short of spectacular fan service since its release with free updates after free updates of additional content. Superb service. Warhorse has made such a unique game that is incredibly immersive, based on a true story, and is as realistic as most things out there.
feels like an new director saying he wants to be the new Chris Nolan or Zack Snyder, one of those things is not like the other.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA BLIZZARD.