Blizzard Says No to Console Cash-in Games

[ThreeKneeNick]

Says no to console game cash ins.

Says the company that, if you want to change a feature such as your horns or gender, you'll have to pay $25. Or, if you're friends have the gull to start playing on a different server (or if you meet new people who play), you're going to have to pay $25 to change servers. Are they Alliance, and you're Horde? That one runs you $30. Hey, lets not forget. Tauren players are SO 2006. Want to play a Troll? $25. I'd also like to mention the ingame pets, which will run you $15 per pet (but they throw snowballs, so its ok). Or if you want a shinier version of a horse, you guessed it, $25.


All fairly legitimate things, that customer service usually does for free (or a very low cost, such as $10 for a faction change/race change). This is the company that make money by milking its customers already. They are legitimately killing Diablo 3 just to make a few extra dollars (because who wants balance).

Now you're gonna tell me you have integrity for not making shitty console ports?

You, sir, have grapefruit sized balls.

nearly all the things can be achieved by simply rerolling a character, infact i'd argue that its probably more beneficial too because that way you are forced into contact with more of the server you are joining. The rest of the things like novelty pets and mounts are extras (you can get regular ones for in game cash) and make no difference to the gameplay, just giggle to yourself every time you see that somebody spent real money on a sparkle pony.

If i may barge in here, do you think that if starting from scratch was a viable option for most players, the price for a server change wouldn't be $25 because it wouldn't be able to compete? It would be closer to $5. They know that players don't want to lose their progress so they put that ridiculous price there. The pets and sparkle ponies and similar i agree on with you.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

Bliz net big brother says otherwise.....

 

[kurokenshi]

Sooo... why exactly are they stuffing Diablo III with always online DRM?

So modders, dupers and other cheaters as well as gold farmers wouldn't ruin the multiplier economy.
Also from there various comments I dont think they are as concerned with DRM as much as not wanting to waste money including local host server software in the client software when most of the population is permanently online anyways.

I have internet(1mb ADSL) at home it is slow, let me put it to you this way a 1 minute video on Youtube takes 15-20 minutes to load. I am not joking! Diablo 3 is no longer on my gaming wishlist.

OT: So Acti-Blizzard still plans on cashing in on the console?

 

[Lord_Gremlin]

Says no to console game cash ins.

Says the company that, if you want to change a feature such as your horns or gender, you'll have to pay $25. Or, if you're friends have the gull to start playing on a different server (or if you meet new people who play), you're going to have to pay $25 to change servers. Are they Alliance, and you're Horde? That one runs you $30. Hey, lets not forget. Tauren players are SO 2006. Want to play a Troll? $25. I'd also like to mention the ingame pets, which will run you $15 per pet (but they throw snowballs, so its ok). Or if you want a shinier version of a horse, you guessed it, $25.


All fairly legitimate things, that customer service usually does for free (or a very low cost, such as $10 for a faction change/race change). This is the company that make money by milking its customers already. They are legitimately killing Diablo 3 just to make a few extra dollars (because who wants balance).

Now you're gonna tell me you have integrity for not making shitty console ports?

You, sir, have grapefruit sized balls.

I've noticed that I've been applauding instinctively while reading your post^^

 

[The_Emperor]

Blizzard milk the playerbase for everything they are worth, screw you Blizzard I'm not talking to you no more!

 

[PingoBlack]

All fairly legitimate things, that customer service usually does for free (or a very low cost, such as $10 for a faction change/race change).

Without even debating the reasons why it makes sense to limit server and faction transfers because of the game itself ... What company does the services you listed for free?

Sony? NCsoft? Turbine? EA-BioWare? Trion? Funcom?

EDIT: Strangely enough ... none of these companies are cross platform either. Trion might be among first to develop a cross platform MMO.

 

[El Luck]

Says no to console game cash ins.

Says the company that, if you want to change a feature such as your horns or gender, you'll have to pay $25. Or, if you're friends have the gull to start playing on a different server (or if you meet new people who play), you're going to have to pay $25 to change servers. Are they Alliance, and you're Horde? That one runs you $30. Hey, lets not forget. Tauren players are SO 2006. Want to play a Troll? $25. I'd also like to mention the ingame pets, which will run you $15 per pet (but they throw snowballs, so its ok). Or if you want a shinier version of a horse, you guessed it, $25.


All fairly legitimate things, that customer service usually does for free (or a very low cost, such as $10 for a faction change/race change). This is the company that make money by milking its customers already. They are legitimately killing Diablo 3 just to make a few extra dollars (because who wants balance).

Now you're gonna tell me you have integrity for not making shitty console ports?

You, sir, have grapefruit sized balls.

How does not wanting to make shitty console ports apply to charging for various non-essential additions to an mmo?

Don't get me wrong I agree that some of those charges are ludicrous (except for the pointless horns and gender one but thats a conversation for another time) I just can't see how one equates to the other

 

[Mouse_Crouse]

"We don't believe you can make a Starcraft-style RTS and make it great - Blizzard great - on console,"

I just find this funny because of Starcraft 64. If you can't make good console Starcraft games, why make them at all?

 

[AndyFromMonday]

Blizzard exemplifies everything that is wrong with major PC developers and PC gaming in general. Developers are to busy milking their customer base rather than creating a good game.

 

[rembrandtqeinstein]

Actually the WiiU touchpad will make the perfect interface for a console RTS. And the Halo
Wars interface wasn't bad at all.

But seriously it needs to be repeated. No offline single player, no LAN multiplayer = no sale from me.

D3 no, Torchlight 2 yes!

 

[minuialear]

Says no to console game cash ins.

Says the company that, if you want to change a feature such as your horns or gender, you'll have to pay $25. Or, if you're friends have the gull to start playing on a different server (or if you meet new people who play), you're going to have to pay $25 to change servers. Are they Alliance, and you're Horde? That one runs you $30. Hey, lets not forget. Tauren players are SO 2006. Want to play a Troll? $25. I'd also like to mention the ingame pets, which will run you $15 per pet (but they throw snowballs, so its ok). Or if you want a shinier version of a horse, you guessed it, $25.


All fairly legitimate things, that customer service usually does for free (or a very low cost, such as $10 for a faction change/race change). This is the company that make money by milking its customers already. They are legitimately killing Diablo 3 just to make a few extra dollars (because who wants balance).

Now you're gonna tell me you have integrity for not making shitty console ports?

You, sir, have grapefruit sized balls.

How does not wanting to make shitty console ports apply to charging for various non-essential additions to an mmo?

Don't get me wrong I agree that some of those charges are ludicrous (except for the pointless , horns and gender one but thats a conversation for another time) I just can't see how one equates to the other

I think the point is that Blizzard claims they won't do it out of a sense of integrity, as if launching these games on consoles would only be for the purpose of getting more money and wouldn't actually enrich anyone's gaming experience.

On the other hand, they charge players exorbitant amounts of money for features that shouldn't require a lot of money to have or change, simply for the purpose of getting more money. Which ironically doesn't enrich anyone's gaming experience.

Should it cost money to change a character's gender? Not really. Should it cost money to switch from Alliance to Horde? I doubt it (though admittedly I don't play WoW so I don't know if there is a whole intricate set of changes required for that to happen, other than an avatar swap and some name changes). Should it cost money to buy a glitter pony? That's justifiable. Should it cost $25? That's debatable.

 

[Clonekiller]

(said sarcastically) Just remember, PC gaming is dead.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

"We don't believe you can make a Starcraft-style RTS and make it great - Blizzard great - on console,"

I just find this funny because of Starcraft 64. If you can't make good console Starcraft games, why make them at all?

To be fair, didn't they scrap Starcraft Ghost because they couldn't make it good enough? Maybe they've moved on since the N64 days.

As for the charges, I agree they're excessive, but they're all optional, and if they were free you'd have dummies changing everything on a daily basis. As it needs limits, why not charge and make some cash, then only those who really want to will bug you for aesthetic changes when you could be working on genuine customer problems.

Sure I'll sound like a raging fanboy, but I don't much care for D3 or SC2, but WOW's kept me interested for 5 years, and I've never bought anything in game.

As for D3, isn't it pretty much built around multiplayer? No-one knocks Team Fortress for demanding you be online to play it. I would however, suggest that the single players modes should at the least, have a login at startup then you're done, rather than a constant requirement.

 

[Versuvius]

He's kinda right. Porting over to the consoles for a quick cash-in often makes the port a bit shit. Especially if it's an RTS. On the other hand...STOP FUCKING US OVER YOU SLEEZY SCUMBAGS. Im still reeling from D3 suddenly having no LAN and an Auction house. That certainly isn't a company that represents MY needs and wants on the PC. I suppose it's half way there to being not utterly wank. Shame it falls flat at the actual games bit

 

[Rouzeki]

... *tips over laughing*

oh Blizzard Blizzard Blizzard... do you try to insult our intelligence more?

Of course you don't have to make crappy console game cash ins. You only control some unspecified majority of the freakin' PC industry, and have for nearly a decade! as an early commenter said, you have no one able to compete, so even if your products wain, nobody cares. except some do.

oh, nice to see that the PA strawman comic is STILL being posted even to preempt arguements over blizzards sliding quality, or crazy business tactics as of late

no, blizzard doesn't have to cash in. they already DO on the PC demographic with the sparkle ponies (awesome though they may be) and nonsense. if they do release Diablo III on console, it would only rake in more sales. blizzard doesn't make crap games (most of the time), but the crap AROUND the good game is what drives me up the wall. its usually something to big to ignore, considering how the prior games of their franchises seeded the install base for the sequels the ways they did.

No duh SCII outsold starcraft's entire lifetime in no time at all. a prior installer base who had been playing the game off and on for a decade, and people just getting wind the E-sports done on it created its own sales. everyone else jumped on in wonder.

So I guess they posted just to go "ha-ha!" and "promise" us a Console port of whatever they are gonna make is good. Thanks for the telegraph blizzard. I'm still not buying D3. if i could skip my entire purchase year (and i did), then skipping another one of your releases is doable. stop taking away the things that can make games so good- OPTIONS OF PLAY.

 

[Simeon Ivanov]

Did anyone else come here because they just wanted more Diablo 3 news? I really couldn't care less about Blizzard nowadays.

 

[Strazdas]

All fairly legitimate things, that customer service usually does for free (or a very low cost, such as $10 for a faction change/race change).

Without even debating the reasons why it makes sense to limit server and faction transfers because of the game itself ... What company does the services you listed for free?

Sony? NCsoft? Turbine? EA-BioWare? Trion? Funcom?

EDIT: Strangely enough ... none of these companies are cross platform either. Trion might be among first to develop a cross platform MMO.

CCP is releasing Dust 514 in spring of next year which interfaces PS3 players with PC players on one server.

I havent seen anything from Trion that would be releasing before then?

cha, was about to say the same.

anyway, i was mad at blizzard for their actions today (then again most big companies screwed this year bigtime) but this puts some water on the fire.

 

[Croaker42]

Says the company that, if you want to change a feature such as your horns or gender, you'll have to pay $25. Or, if you're friends have the gull to start playing on a different server (or if you meet new people who play), you're going to have to pay $25 to change servers. Are they Alliance, and you're Horde? That one runs you $30. Hey, lets not forget. Tauren players are SO 2006. Want to play a Troll? $25. I'd also like to mention the ingame pets, which will run you $15 per pet (but they throw snowballs, so its ok). Or if you want a shinier version of a horse, you guessed it, $25.
-snip.

You know getting people to pay for their laziness and vanity isn't such a bad money maker.

OT/ I applaud this stance on development Blizzard. Thank you for trying to keep your games quality.

Too bad I am not so sure you have achieved that here with D3. Choosing to buy this game might be a tough decision. I have already seen so much bad (orbs/always online) I hope you have the common sense to put out a demo that will push me and perhaps a few more into the buy category.