Blizzard alarmism: Diablo 3 or the turning point of decline

A server failure event may be a symptom: Blizzard's ongoing transformation is in conflict with its consistent goal of providing the best games for users.　　Perhaps "Diablo III" will allow Blizzard to succeed in the transition, but it may also be a turning point in its decline. Author: Luodong May 15, 2012, Blizzard Entertainment Company's latest work, "Diablo Ⅲ" officially on sale.　　7 days later, Blizzard is excited to announce that Diablo Ⅲ sold more than 3.5 million copies of the game in the first 24 hours of its release (excluding 1.2 million players from Diablo Ⅲ, which was absorbed by the worldwide World of Warcraft (Twitter) promotional campaign), created a new record of fastest-selling PC games. In addition to the celebrations, Blizzard Entertainment CEO and co-founder Mike Morhaime said: "We are also deeply sorry for the lack of preparation and the inability of many players to enjoy a seamless gaming experience." "Insufficient preparation" is aimed at the "Diablo Ⅲ" global server, especially the Asian server instability, resulting in frequent user logon error, or the game is not smooth events.　　To that end, Blizzard had to launch a conditional refund policy for the Korean and Taiwanese markets one months after the game was sold. For Blizzard, known as the "ten Years of Grinding sword", the "Diablo Ⅲ" server incident is unprecedented, but for a reason. The "Diablo Ⅲ" line is a hallmark of Blizzard's history, not because its sales outperform the classics-Blizzard's game products are mostly the continuation of previous hot classics, but because its business model is very different from Blizzard's previous offerings.　　and "Diablo Ⅲ" This "inadequate preparation", to a certain extent, is precisely the business model of the blizzard and the transformation of the relevant. Blizzard's first major business model transformation took place at the end of 2004, the World of Warcraft online. Previously, Blizzard's three flagship brand "Warcraft Ⅲ", "StarCraft", "Diablo Ⅱ" are the traditional stand-alone game products, users buy a one-time game client, then you can choose three ways to play: stand-alone, local area network multiplayer and through the blizzard of Free War network to provide more people to battle,　　and three games have entered the life cycle of the late. The "World of Warcraft" charging model is free of charge for time, clients and props, until the July 2010 StarCraft Ⅱ, which contributed most of the revenue to blizzard-only 2009 years to bring in 1.2 billion dollars in sales.　　"StarCraft Ⅱ" after the listing, Blizzard retained the "World of Warcraft" time Billing mode-users can buy a lifetime package, but also free access to clients, and then monthly pay. After the launch of StarCraft Ⅱ, Blizzard fans blamed Blizzard for its lack of innovation. In fact, Blizzard's investment in StarCraft Ⅱ is not all about the game itself: on the one hand, Blizzard tries to subvert the profit model of stand-alone game products by "StarCraft Ⅱ", such as the time charge for transplanting online games, and the use of StarCraft Ⅱ"Technology development derivative game" blizzard DotA ", on the other hand, blizzard around the" StarCraft Ⅱ "to create a new" Battle.net "War network system, which is the focus of the new blizzard strategy. Battle Network System is "StarCraft Ⅱ" players to battle the platform, to "force" players to register and use battle nets (while also preventing piracy), Blizzard canceled the "StarCraft Ⅱ" offline stand-alone and LAN functions, that is, players can only login to the network for games, which even caused some of the players protest. Meanwhile, Blizzard has integrated the user data of World of Warcraft into the battle net. Simply put, the network will become a unified entrance to all Blizzard's games, with the player having a pass and a unified top-up payment system. In addition, the network became the community of all blizzard users, their experience in the game, results, rewards, as well as friends dynamic, ranking and other information can be glance in the war network, the function of the enhanced buddy system can even allow players to "communicate across the game", whether the player is in the Web page browsing information, or in the "StarCraft Ⅱ" in the game,　　Can talk to friends who are in the World of Warcraft. "Diablo Ⅲ" after the listing is naturally integrated into Blizzard's war network system, its charging mode and game mode and "StarCraft Ⅱ" is not the second, but blizzard in the profit model on a very radical change, that is not yet online "cash auction house",　　It was the first time Blizzard had allowed players to sell the equipment they had acquired in the game in cash, and Blizzard had taken a handling charge. Therefore, the "Diablo Ⅲ" online is a sign of the complete transformation of Blizzard: from the traditional computer game developers, the project system to sell products and services, to get through all the products of the user resources, integrated into a large gaming community, each product is only a part of the game community, thus deriving a wide range of profit models. Morhaime at the Blizzard Carnival in 2011 that Blizzard is about to start a profitable model change: In addition to the Diablo Ⅲ, "World of Warcraft" began to sell the game can be traded props; "StarCraft Ⅱ" the derivative of "blizzard DotA" may abandon the time charge mode,　　Consider the charging model for props or value-added services. Blizzard transformation is not so drastic, after all, some practices, such as the "direct sale of the virtual world of privilege" and the player's equipment cash transactions, has been the previous effort to resist blizzard.　　But the changing industrial environment and the financial pressure of Blizzard have forced blizzard to shift. In September last year, a survey conducted by Information FX Group, a research firm, showed that social games caused players to spend less time and money on traditional big games.　　Although the research's sponsor, Kabam, itself is a Facebook-based social gaming company, has reason to doubt the neutrality of its findings, but the findings reflect the fact that social-game developers covet the traditional gaming market and the impact of mobile interconnection on the traditional gaming industry. Despite the blizzard and other game makers, such as Zynga, which is based on mobile interconnection and social platform ecosystems, has failed to inflict a powerful shock on the veteran game makers, but has apparently forced it to start thinking about how to further enhance user experience and stickiness outside the game's products. To achieve this, veteran game manufacturers must complete two major transformations: first, the so-called players ' social needs are highlighted, not just the network game players "simply" in the virtual world of interaction, but also include players online how to interact, how to enhance the users of different game products interaction and contact, To enhance their reliance on game makers rather than just a particular product.　　To achieve this, in addition to Blizzard, a number of mainframe platforms are also trying to get through all of its products, the user resources for them to create a huge social network. Second, around the emergence of mobile interconnected ecosystems of the game, its essence is for the vast number of game users, and even non-traditional game users to provide a low threshold of the game environment. The meaning of "low threshold" is that users can choose, enter and switch games at almost 0 of the cost of money at any time, anytime, anywhere. This approach poses a huge challenge to traditional game developers.　　As a result of this trend, Blizzard began experimenting with various profit models such as the time charge for StarCraft Ⅱ. Financial pressure is another important reason for Blizzard to expand its profit model. World of Warcraft is the most successful online game, but since 2010, Blizzard has felt a single product line and the risk of aging. The number of people online in World of Warcraft fell by 800,000 in the 2011, although the loss of the population was only a fraction of the total number of users, but the signs of World of Warcraft's decline were already evident in February, when Ding Lei acknowledged the decline in China's sales in the earnings conference this year.　　But the profit ability of the computer single game product is far from the same as the net game, Blizzard must look for new profit model. In this case, "Diablo Ⅲ" by Blizzard High hopes. But whether it can become a blizzard's "bailout owner" is still unknown: Blizzard may be able to sustain the status of the king, or it may go downhill-after all, the drastic changes in blizzard have conflicted with the aim of providing users with the best games. In any case, the "Diablo Ⅲ" server failure can not get rid of the "ready to rush online" label, and the change in the profit model, more involved in the blizzard game design ideas and ideas of adjustment, this will be a difficult process.