Will Blizzard’s Reputation in Korea Hamper Diablo 3 Sales?
Posted 30 April 2012 by Rushster
I don’t follow StarCraft 2 in-depth but in Korea the original StarCraft was a national obsession with pro gamers becoming celebrities, TV shows dedicated to the game and tons of merchandising. With Diablo 3′s release now a matter of weeks away, the Korean Times has put together an article which looks at how Blizzard’s reputation has changed over the years in Korea and how previous events could hamper sales of Diablo 3.
There’s no doubt Blizzard made some unpopular decisions with StarCraft 2, no LAN being the main one, and with Diablo 3′s always online requirement, it’s still a major issue for many. Reading through the article it’s apparent that there’s more to it than just game features not being included that could put players off. There is the perception by Korean gamers that Blizzard has become a “greedy corporation” following Blizzard’s claims against Korea e-Sports Association (KeSPA) over copyright infringements on Starcraft. There was also Blizzard’s struggle with the Korean rating board over the RMAH which went on for months.
Blizzard are of course correct and entitled to protect their IP, but when it comes to gaming communities and the promotion of a product, I think there has to be some give and take. With KeSPA utilising SC as their flagship game, they were also promoting Blizzard products so it’s a bit of grey area.
I think we’ll all agree that Blizzard is not the company it once was, it has had to mature quickly and become more corporate and that usually doesn’t sit well with gaming communities. Natural human instinct is to support the little guy and fight the corporate machine.
Whether Blizzard’s reputation in Korea has been tarnished so much that gamers will keep away from Diablo 3 is unlikely, but I’m sure there are some gamers who will not pick the game up in Korea based on recent events.
Natural human instinct is to support the little guy’ and fight the corporate machine.
Boy you said a mouthful, I struggle against this twisted bias on a daily basis by simply posting on gaming forums. It would be nice if it was purely an honor/code of ethics thing but more and more I begin to suspect some people are merely infatuated with their self image as an old-school gamer who rebels against ‘modern greed’. You explain ‘anti-piracy’ and it goes in one ear and out there other, only prompting a lengthy rant about conspiracies, coverups and some sinister shadow-game being played behind the scenes.
A lot of people have trouble grasping one basic concept, companies have never changed their mandate to create products for the majority of gamers. The only difference between then and now is that we’re no longer the majority, gaming is no longer this taboo hobby for the antisocial as it was perceived to be in the past, the majority of wallet voters are now casuals. So people feel hurt and betrayed when the company, instead of pulling a complete 180 and supporting the minority, continues to market towards the majority, almost as if, hey, they’re trying to make money or something.
The painful side-effects of the metamorphosis from a bunch of nerds working in a rented office to a multinational business with shareholders and equity to worry about are pretty clear, this isn’t happening just in the game studio world either, although it probably hurts the most there.
In the end it’s on Blizzards head, if you don’t like it, don’t buy it. Endlessly complaining rarely does any good and hardly makes you a holy warrior of gaming ethics.
I agree. It’s human nature to support the small guy and kick back at massive corporations even though we buy into the massive corporations’ products. It’s something seen on the high streets for years, the internet is not immune to it.
I am confused by one thing the OP said on korea times however.
“The reputation of Blizzard as a money grabber by fans here began after the launch of its first massive multiplayer online-role-playing game (MMORPG) World of Warcraft on 2004.”
Does anyone know the figures in Korea for wow?
And does anyone have information on
“The new game is receiving much attention not for the high-quality content it offers, but for its auction-house system that allows players to buy or sell virtual items for real currency. “
Why is this a problem with them?
The legal wrangles were news to me also. Sounds like quite the stink.
I think a lot of gamers who have followed Blizzard from the early years have watched the company change, which they have had to, it would be impossible for Blizzard to operate like they did in the early years. Any company of that matter. It’s also a noticeable change because fans follow Blizzard very closely, unlike say Starbucks or McDonalds. In general people don’t like change, and when things do change, there is usually some kick-back. The reality is that Blizzard needed to change to operate effectively and to compete in a very busy market. This is good for the fans, it means better products,
The product, in this case Diablo 3, will speak for itself and there’s plenty of people who say they won’t buy it but will. Why? Because it will be a great videogame and that at the end of the day is what matters to the consumer. The plus side of this is that Blizzard get their well earned rewards in sales,
Trololo
Natural human instinct is to fight the big bad corporation, which is why corporations are so successful, right? WRONG!
The VAST majority of people you never hear anything about don’t give a **** what corporations do or not do, they are perfectly comfortable getting ripped off by unethical corporations on a daily base.
In my country there’s a corporation which pretty much has the monopoly on energy supply. Not because there aren’t a myriad of alternative smaller businesses that supply energy at a fraction of the cost. Not because the big corporation uses green energy and everyone is so ecofriendly (on the contrary, they pretty much hold back green energy development since they have so many nuclear plants that they want to prolong). It’s not because they have such amazing services (they’re atrocious) Nope, it’s simply because people are sheep. People don’t care that the corporation skews laws so that they can raise prices to unreasonably levels, or charge people to change contracts. You think “talking with your wallet” for the few that do see reality and actively want to take action is going to change anything? No, you have to grab people and shake them awake. Hell, even our government literally tells the populace to actively compare prices between energy companies in order to save vasts amounts of money. And still the majority is a customer with that big company.
It’s always the same story whenever a company exceeds a certain moneymaking treshold, then it doesn’t care about it’s customers anymore, nor about the quality of it’s product, nor about any sort of fairness or ethics, no the ONLY goal is then to make money.
But why am i even telling you this? It’s obvious that you’re either brainwashed or a corporate psychopath.
But atleast you’re not sheep right.
It will definitely be interesting to see how they handle it over there. I will be keeping a close eye on it for sure. With Blizz stating the PvP system is going to be loose and they have zero intention of it becoming an E-sport, it will be interested to see where that ends up. Especially because I don’t think they had any intention of SC becoming an E-sport when they first made the game.
not having any pvp mode is the biggest hindrance for a success in Korea i guess.
Do you really think that only some Koreans wont buy this game because of what Blizzard has become as you are describing in the article? I bet many others in US, EU and other places wont buy it aswell (with the most frequent reason being: online requirement).
The decisions Blizzard took for Diablo 3 might not be strong enough for me in order to not buy the game, but Blizzard manage to put theirself to the test there: If I D3 is not a great success, I will seriously doubt that they will be able to make any other good game anymore. Not to mention SC2… I payed 60 Euros to play 1 month and get bored of it totally, it’s not even on my PC anymore.
The Kespa / Blizzard incident was already resolved.
Infact, Kespa will be going into SC2 as well.
Yes it may be resolved now but it opened up a can of worms that many Blizzard gamers frowned upon.
If the game is as good as I think it will be, then I’d say no. I’m sure it will sell fine.
You are right, anybody who thinks D3 will not sell well is an IDIOT. the point is that Blizzard is not what it was in D2 day.
I’m still pissed about the online requirement.
So am I.
http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/penny-arcade-on-the-always-online-issue
Has nothing to do with the reason why I’m pissed. now go back to fapping at anime
“mature quickly and become more corporate” which in ENGLISH means, GREEDY.
You know there is a reason people put the $ symbol in Activi$ion Blizzard.
When you grow as large, and as quickly as Blizzard did, well, there’s reasons for everything. They would have to, by necessity, change the entire structure of the company to accommodate everything going in and out of it.
Korea is fond of starcraft,,,
http://imgur.com/gallery/jz1qS
I’m sure that Korean sales are going to be just fine. Blizzard knew when they made the online only choice they were going to see a percentage of ppl NOT buy the game. Still this is an interesting topic.
Obviously, this opinion won’t go over well here… but I, for one, though I thoroughly understand a company’s right and obligation to pursue directions that increase revenue, absolutely love seeing fallout for said decisions. We have so little chance, as individuals, to shape and effect the decisions of these modern juggernauts, that it’s nice to pretend, if only until the sales numbers come out, that push-back might actually change something.
/end daydream