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Readers will recall that it's been a wild couple of years for the company as 2019 saw mass layoffs, the Blitzchung boycott, a weak BlizzCon, and plunging YOY revenues for five straight quarters in May 2019, August 2019, November 2019, February 2020, and May 2020. Q1 2020's revenue drop was very slight and close to flattening, and then in Q2, YOY revenues for the company were up for the first time in six quarters thanks to COVID-19 lockdowns. Q3 saw those revenues hold steady, while Q4 saw revenues up 17%, suggesting the company had finally turned a real corner, despite pretending to investors everything was fine the whole time. But this time around, the investor report is coming on the heels of some massive public relations disasters, as Activision-Blizzard forced yet another round of layoffs and investor groups alleged that CEO Bobby Kotick could pocket as much as $200M in bonuses. Last week, the company announced it was halving Kotick's future salary and bonuses, which frankly seems like an empty gesture under the circumstances, given that investors have been agitating for this for a year, and the timing of the announcement implied an effort to soothe ruffled investor feathers. In any case, now we have Q1's results, which were actually just fine. Better than fine, with revenues of $2.28B, a significant increase compared to this quarter last year, though of course this quarter last year wasn't great to begin with. Once again, the moneymakers are Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and Candy Crush. "For the quarter ended March 31, 2021, Activision Blizzard's net revenues presented in accordance with GAAP were $2.28 billion, as compared with $1.79 billion for the first quarter of 2020. GAAP net revenues from digital channels were $2.01 billion. GAAP operating margin was 35%. GAAP earnings per diluted share were $0.79, as compared with $0.65 for the first quarter of 2020. On a non-GAAP basis, Activision Blizzard's operating margin was 43% and earnings per diluted share were $0.98, as compared with $0.76 for the first quarter of 2020. For the quarter, operating cash flow was $844 million, as compared with $148 million for the first quarter of 2020. For the trailing twelve-month period, operating cash flow was $2.95 billion." As to Blizzard specifically, the company talks up WoW Classic and World of Warcraft Shadowlands, which apparently drove Blizzard's revenue growth of 7% YOY. Hearthstone appears to be doing well too. The presser reiterates a global launch for Diablo Immortal this year. [screenshot_005204] As we noted last month, Blizzard continues to lose monthly active users across all of its titles; it's now lost 11M players in the last three years, or 29%, as measured by Blizzard's own preferred monthly active user count. Two million of those dried up just since Q4 2020. Brutal. MAUs going back to Q1 2018: 38M in Q1 2018 37M in Q2 2018 37M in Q3 2018 (BFA) 35M in Q4 2018 (mass layoffs) 32M in Q1 2019 32M in Q2 2019 33M in Q3 2019 (WoW Classic) 32M in Q4 2019 (Blitzchung) 32M in Q1 2020 (COVID-19) 32M in Q2 2020 (COVID-19) 30M in Q3 2020 (COVID-19) 29M in Q4 2020 (COVID-19, Shadowlands) 27M in Q1 2021 (this quarter) [Addendum: We are as always left to assume that the bulk of the bleed is coming from Blizzard titles other than WoW, given that WoW's revenue is up, though we note that Activision-Blizzard didn't actually say that WoW subs were even or up since last quarter, which suggests they're down. We also note that PC Gamer has reported that Overwatch claims it increased its playerbase size by 10M users in 2020, bringing it to 60M total. Of course, those aren't monthly actives, and that was during the pandemic. Still, it's unclear which games are suffering these persistent monthly actives losses, which is exactly the obfuscation that Blizzard's switch from subs to MAUs was meant to create.] We'll be updating with the important-to-us bits from the conference call below as it rolls on. Some context in the meanwhile: * Activision-Blizzard is halving Bobby Kotick's exorbitant salary and bonuses * Activision-Blizzard has laid off another 190 employees as Kotick could rake in an extra $200M * Activision-Blizzard Q4 2020: Activision's revenues are up QoQ and YoY as Blizzard MAUs drop again * Blizzard absorbs 200 Activision employees following merge of rumored Diablo II remaster team * Activision-Blizzard lays off more support staff, this time in the Asia-Pacific region * Activision-Blizzard Q3 2020: Blizzard MAUs fell to 30M as overall ActiBlizz revenues hold steady * Unions in Europe call on Blizzard employees in France to strike against the closure of the Versailles office * Not So Massively: Reflections on Blizzard, one year after the Hong Kong fiasco * Activision-Blizzard is reportedly shuttering its Versailles, France, office * Activision takes heat for poor female representation in its games over the last decade * Activision-Blizzard Q2 2020: Year-over-year revenues are up for the first time in six quarters * Blizzard staffers agitate against poor worker pay as Activision-Blizzard rakes in billions * Activision-Blizzard shareholders say nay votes constitute 'rebuke' of company pay practices * ActiBlizz Q1 2020: Blizzard MAUs flat at 32M, but revenue jumps ahead of Shadowlands, launching Q4 * Activision-Blizzard's Q4 2019 revenues are down YoY for the fourth straight quarter * WAPO says Activision-Blizzard execs profited from dodgy but legal stock sale * Activision-Blizzard's Q3 2019 revenues sink for the third quarter in a row * Complete coverage of Blizzard's 'Hong Kong liberation' Blitzchung fiasco * Activision-Blizzard Q2 2019 revenues dip again, WoW subs rise, expanded teams en route for Blizz * Activision-Blizzard's revenue has dropped by nearly a quarter since last quarter * Activision-Blizzard posted another record-high quarter and year, layoffs begin anyway Source: Investor report Relevant bits from the conference calls * Kotick is once again promising expansion of specific teams. The new bit here is additional expansion into Poland, China, Australia, and Canada. Obviously no mention of the multiple rounds of layoffs, including some in Australia, already. * The slides promise that Activision-Blizzard "intend[s] to hire more than 2000 developers over the next two years, including triple the size of certain franchise teams by the end of next year as compared to 2019." Again, the big layoffs were at the beginning of 2019. Also, this number keeps changing from quarter to quarter; in February, they said 3000, not 2000. [screenshot_005206] * AB is repeating the stuff about "scale" and "engagement" for WoW, which doesn't actually mean anything. But it does sound as if WoW is the key game keeping MAUs from plummeting even faster, followed by Hearthstone. Blizzard is clearly counting on Burning Crusade to carry a lot of weight in 2021. It's also clearly counting on Diablo II Resurrected and Diablo Immortal to buffer Diablo IV. We didn't hear any new word about the "more frequent premium content" for the Warcraft franchise promised last quarter. * First analyst question is on engagement as COVID restrictions wind down. AB says it varies between the franchises and game types and regions, but it insists that it's not seeing a dramatic trend for people drifting away from AB's core games. (There's an implication that it's captured a lot of new gamers, which might make up for any post-COVID drift.) This is basically the same answer given last quarter. * Another analyst asked for an update on the Blizzard pipeline. J. Allen Brack says it's added "hundreds of developers" on its key franchises in the last couple of years, with the goal of continuous content. He mentions feedback on Overwatch 2 following BlizzConline. (He does not mention the abrupt departure of OW2's director, Jeff Kaplan.) Brack namedrops the multiple games in the Diablo franchise, including Diablo IV, as well as multiple mobile titles, though nothing specific is offered here, and what we know of right now is limited to Diablo Immortal. * A second question about the Diablo franchise is met with Brack recapping how Diablo II Resurrected, Diablo Immortal, and Diablo IV are meant to fit into the franchise. If you've read a basic news post about these games, you already know everything said here. The overall strategy, he says, is to provide players with different ways to play the franchise on different platforms. * Worth noting is that there was no mention of Kotick's pay or paycut, suggesting again that the latter was meant simply to preempt any potential investor grumbling. The loss of Kaplan, who was a vice president at Blizzard, not just Overwatch's director, also went unmentioned, though there was a whole ton of extra airtime spent on hellos and farewells for incoming and outgoing execs. Advertisement * TAGS * activision * activision blizzard * blizzard * blizzard entertainment * blizzcon * breaking * buy to play * carousel * convention * coronavirus * covid-19 * d3 * diablo * diablo III * diablo immortal * expansion * fantasy * hearthstone * launch * layoff * layoffs * mmotcg * oarpg * online shooter * overwatch * patch * shadowlands * subscription * tcg * update * warcraft * world of warcraft * wow * wow classic Share Twitter Facebook ReddIt Previous articleMassively OP Podcast Episode 320: Guild Wars 2 shakes and stirs Next articlePSA: Download the Black Desert companion app, get an adorable pupper Bree Royce Code of Conduct | Commenting FAQ | Edit Profile | Akismet Privacy No posts to display 79 LEAVE A COMMENT Please Login to comment Connect with: Facebook Google Twitter Reddit Subscribe newest oldest most liked Subscribe to: [new follow-up comments ] [ ] [>] Kherova Reader Loyal Patron Patreon Donor Kickstarter Donor Kherova Blizzard has a massive hit with the Battlegrounds mode in Hearthstone. Their problem is they released it free-to-play without any idea how to monetize it. You must be logged in to vote0You must be logged in to vote 1 minute ago kody Reader kody I'm going to wager that most of the MAU loss is from Overwatch. Valorant seems to have taken a big bite out of that team shooter pie. You must be logged in to vote0You must be logged in to vote 2 minutes ago Aldristavan Reader Loyal Patron Patreon Donor Kickstarter Donor Aldristavan I love Bree's financials rants. So much drama, but quarterly! You must be logged in to vote1You must be logged in to vote 1 hour ago jealouspirate Reader jealouspirate Congrats on the traffic Massively, been seeing this linked all over the place today You must be logged in to vote1You must be logged in to vote 1 hour ago SmiteDoctor Reader SmiteDoctor Asmongold just covered this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= nGhYflUJU7o You must be logged in to vote0You must be logged in to vote 2 hours ago Danny Smith Reader Danny Smith There it is dude, bald and real. You must be logged in to vote0You must be logged in to vote 1 hour ago Drunk3nShaman Reader Drunk3nShaman Blizzard does not exist anymore it is now BobbyVision and you have to say it like your hank hill. You must be logged in to vote1You must be logged in to vote 2 hours ago Bryan Correll Reader Bryan Correll That CEO ain't right. You must be logged in to vote0You must be logged in to vote 1 hour ago Greaterdivinity Reader Kickstarter Donor Greaterdivinity Damn Bree, this is doing the rounds! And actually mostly getting cited by name rather than "a blog" : D You must be logged in to vote6You must be logged in to vote 6 hours ago Bree Royce Author Bree Royce "a publication" is my favorite! You must be logged in to vote5You must be logged in to vote 4 hours ago Dug From The Earth Reader Dug From The Earth Im sure Activision is just prepping to move Blizzard over to work on Call of Duty :P You must be logged in to vote4You must be logged in to vote 9 hours ago Greaterdivinity Reader Kickstarter Donor Greaterdivinity In another 10 years...I can honestly believe it. They moved Toys for Bob to the franchise on top of the mobile team and the 3 existing teams (Sledgehammer, Treyarch, Infinity Ward). But hey...it's working, annual releases between three studios, an ongoing mobile version, and an ongoing F2P BR version and they're still somehow growing and not just cannibalizing their own audience. You must be logged in to vote1You must be logged in to vote 6 hours ago Ardra Diva Reader Ardra Diva without Overwatch's success it's difficult to think of Blizzard as anything but a dinosaur. They're kind of like the farmer who needs meat to eat, but only has one cow and their only source of income is milk. WoW is a blessing and a curse. They dare not make a new MMO to cannibalize that population, and following trends (battle royals) is short-term income. Reminds me of the mighty elf Feanor in "The Silmarillion" when asked to give up the Silmarils to save the Two Trees. He declines, stating that 'even the mightiest of craftsmen could make a thing so fine they can do it only once'. You must be logged in to vote4You must be logged in to vote 9 hours ago Shane Sargent Reader Shane Sargent There's no innovation, that's why. Im totally fine with WoW living on, there obviously is a good fanbase there; however, when the only thing you are providing is nostalgic throwbacks to the early 2000's, its no wonder why people are falling away in droves. You must be logged in to vote2You must be logged in to vote 9 hours ago KoboldWhite Reader KoboldWhite And don't forget that after enough time has passed they can always remaster the remaster! You must be logged in to vote4You must be logged in to vote 7 hours ago Load All Comments ADVERTISEMENT BREAKING NEWS [png] Activision-Blizzard Q1 2021 financials: Blizzard has lost almost 29% of its overall active playerbase in three years Bree Royce - May 4, 2021 79 LIVE NOW! CLICK TO VIEW. CURRENTLY OFFLINE NEXT MOP STREAM No events to display. LATEST FEATURES [png] Desert Oasis: The best Black Desert quality-of-life changes May 5, 2021 Balance. Vague Patch Notes: Checking your bias when it comes to MMOs May 5, 2021 Sitting around. 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