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My fear, and I'm sure it's one shared by many, is the direction that Activision will ultimately push Blizzard via pressure to perform to shareholders. Will they turn Blizzard into another soulless title-churning machine with the ultimate result being their demise? That's a fear all of us have. Sure, they might exist as a company and still put out games, but they might not be the same quality or caliber that were the foundation that made Blizzard what it is today.
I fear the idea of trying to monetize so much of their business model. I won't say this is an Activision only thing either. Everyone wants a subscription business model. It provides far more revenue over time - look at WoW. With the added "bonus" features you can pay one-time fees for in WoW, they have the single largest video game revenue stream in the world on ONE TITLE. This isn't like selling 100 million copies of Guitar Hero worldwide or something. This means, they have a persistent revenue stream that has lasted over 6 years now - and it's only grown. If they can do this same thing with Starcraft 2, you know they will.
Now, they know the RTS market isn't ready for a subscription model yet. At least here in the states. However, I see them pushing down the path of creating a paid model for entering tournaments by locking them down to only being able to run on Battle.net. If you want to create a custom tournament, or league, I'm guessing they will offer those things in the future as "fee-based services" similar to how you can buy a character transfer on WoW.
I'm just worried about what this will do to their community over time. The biggest question though is : Will pressure from Activision cause them to ultimately betray all their fans and do something that kills them as a company? I really hope it never comes to that.
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I think that's what they mean by "nickels a day can feed a child." I thought, "How could food be so cheap over there?" It's not, they just eat nickels. - (supposedly) Peter Nguyen, internet hero
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