Will blizzard's new releases ease California's recession?

[visom]

I know this is a dumb question to put here (and we don't want school subjects during summer) but will WRoLK (the new WoW, or w/e it is), Diablo3 and Starcraft2 help pull California's out of its recession?

Blizzard normally takes forever when it comes to making new games, but next year will be pretty exciting since thats around the time where 3 of Blizzard's newest games will be released. Old fans of Blizzard games who haven't upgraded their computer in a long time might finally have the motivation to go out and when a couple hundred dollars on upgrading.

I heard before that Starcraft helped ease Korea from its recession about a decade ago, and helped give a small jump start to Korea's economy since the people loved the game so much.

So yea sorry if this topic doesn't belong here, its a weird one so I don't really know what to do with it. Besides I'm curious, since the recession made it a bit difficult for me to find a job.

[NKlint]

Exclusively, computer sales aren't what drives a state's economy.

If the release of those games somehow opens up lots of new, high paying jobs then yeah. Perhaps people assembling the computers that people are supposedly buying for D3 and SC2.

Other than that Blizzard's games will have about as much impact on the economy as a new Japanese video game.

[visom]

Exclusively, computer sales aren't what drives a state's economy.

If the release of those games somehow opens up lots of new, high paying jobs then yeah. Perhaps people assembling the computers that people are supposedly buying for D3 and SC2.

Other than that Blizzard's games will have about as much impact on the economy as a new Japanese video game.

Well consumer spending is always something that can help against a recession.

But anyways, blizzard is hiring... lol that'll created like 60 new jobs

[Apocalypse]

you will not see 3 bliz games released next year, no way in hell

[Grawner]

you will not see 3 bliz games released next year, no way in hell

the year bliz releases 3 games, hell will freeze!

[visom]

you will not see 3 bliz games released next year, no way in hell

well i said "thats around the time" sorry if i didn't rephrase it right

course i know theres a small chance that all 3 are going to be released next year, but around that time, like next year, or in 2years, anywhere thats close.

[Flux]

i don't see how the game sales make any real difference to CA. True, Bliz HQ is in Irvine, but those employees are getting paid whether the games sell or not (well, if they didn't sell the company would go away, but their salaries are regular, not peaking with game sales, some bonuses/royalties aside). Bliz also has hundreds of employees in Austin at their CS center, and thousands worldwide, mostly supporting WoW.

Blizzard isn't privately owned, so the profits don't go to their HQ, like gold coins filling Scrooge McDuck's vault. They went formerly to Vivendi's corporate structure, which was in France. Now they'll go to Activisions, which might be in Cali, but those would only boost the economy to the extent the money went to salaries, which were then used to buy things in California.

Generally speaking, the process of boosting (or deflating) an economy is so complicated and interrelated that no one company or item can have any real impact on it. (Unless it's something global, like crude oil prices tripling in 4 years.)

If Blizzard packed up and moved all of their operations to a much smaller state with a much weaker economy, like say Montana, or South Dakota, then the game sales could actually make a measurable difference. Adding 1000+ high paying jobs to a smaller state, and all the ensuing car, real estate, and other purchases those employees would make, could have a substantial impact.

CA's too big though. Computer game sales on Cali's economy doesn't even register, since CA's GNP is around $2trillion annually, good for something like 8th in the entire world (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_California#California_as_an_independent _nation).

[MooCQ]

Yea, definitely or maybe a recession? due to.. hours upon hours.. of lost productivity.. everyone will be glued to their computers (as if they weren't already) hacking and slashing away... I CANT WAIT!!! To become Zombified!!! Red within red eyes..

[5zigen]

No it won't make a difference to california or the US. The reason SC had such an impact on South Korea was because it created a huge demand for things that didn't exist there before (intenet connectivity, computer hardware).

Their is little chance that the Blizz releases will do anything like that in the US. Our telecoms are almost regional monopolies, our computer hardware has leveled out. It's doubtful that their release will help in that way.

It could help slightly though, as a large increase in profits for blizzard could mean some extra tax rev for CA, IF blizzard still has their basings in CA. I actually don't know that much about interstate tax law. If it ends up just translating to extra capital gians, that would still mean more tax money, but spread out across the US (and the world).