Make no mistake: Warcraft III: Reforged is going down in history as one of the worst-received and most poorly handled Blizzard launches. The incredibly strong community backlash and rush for refunds has put pressure on the studio to respond, and respond it did — in a half-hearted and ultimately unsatisfying nature.
“We want to say we’re sorry to those of you who didn’t have the experience you wanted,” said a Blizzard CM, who apparently has a talent for understatement.
The studio went on to promise that it will be supporting the title “for the long term” and addressed a few (but not all) of the major issues that cropped up with Warcraft III: Reforged. These include fixing a visual bug and patching in support for online features such as leaderboards and clans.
Blizzard also defended the current state of the game’s cutscenes and defended why it didn’t include tournaments of the Reign of Chaos ruleset: “Eliminating the maintenance for underused elements has helped us streamline our overall support of the game and focus on areas impacting the most players.”
Note: The lack of taking any responsibility here. They’re not sorry they released a poor quality game. They’re sorry we didn’t have the experience we wanted…based off the expectations they set.
This is a predictable response and tracks with the Blizzard as of late, but it’s still hot garbage. If I could lose more respect for Blizzard I would, but I think I’m starting to bottom out.
And RIP one of their CM’s who left for CDPR yesterday. I guess she used to be in charge of HotS (lol) and Diablo (also…kinda lol), and while I know nothing of her and can’t speak to her work I bet she’s feeling a lot better working on Cyberpunk than trying to salvage Blizzards mess of a reputation.
I sometimes forget there are still companies people get excited about and like. CDPR being one of the few.
There was a leaker a while back that said something like “the mood inhouse is that the consumer is kind of the enemy and they are viewed with derision and scorn” and the more time goes on the more i could see it. On some level the greedy suits must be deeply frustrated that people have started to find their spines again and not put up with any old shit for a brand.
On another level they anticipate it and have it already worked out in a declining brand metric. Maximize profit post-purchase until nothing is left but an empty husk – they buy another company people like. Repeat process.
The problem now is? There are hardly any companies people like that are small enough to acquire.
ActiBlizzen strikes again
Shitty non-apologies appears to be the new Blizzard standard.
Bonus points if they ‘aplogize’ for minor stuff no-one cares about so they can claim they’ve ‘apologized’ when everyone continues complaining about major things.
Like I mentioned before… 2019 marked the dieing breaths of the seemingly unstoppable three B’s:
Blizzard
Bioware
Bethesda
What we are seeing here is the killing infection having it’s effects during the death throes
Thank you, MOP, for covering this shitshow accordingly. Other mainstream sites have yet to even write about the refunds; corporate bootlickers that they are. This has convinced me to support you on patreon since you’re one of the very few websites i can trust.
As for Blizzard, the less i think about them the better. I just started my day and don’t want to be angry first thing in the morning due to corporate greed and incompetence.
Hey we have a 2 year old in the room. It’s not my fault, it’s yours is a classic rebuttal. It’s a well though out and rational argument that is used to totally blow off any accountability.
Too bad it wasn’t really an apology as much as it was a subtle attempt to blame the players for having ‘the wrong expectations’.
I’m not seeing an apology anywhere.
Well then I guess the smart thing to do is buy it in November during a Black Friday sale after they patch in all their missing features at a fraction of the cost?
No, the smart thing to do is stop supporting Blizzard. Your idea is more the thrifty thing to do.
Nah, I still enjoy their products; if they screw up Shadowlands and Diablo 4 I’m out though.
At least you have your line the sand. Godspeed Mordy!
Most of the people I play with just refunded back to the version that doesn’t have reforged enabled and will consider upgrading later if they think it’s worth.
Personally I long since lost my CD keys so just sticking through it fill they fix things.
To the morons that bought this game from Blizzard. Get what you deserve. Blizzard isn’t even a tenth of the company from back in the day. All they care about is cash. I mean my God WoW is terrible and has been for 5 years. Why would you think anything they do will be any different?
I’ve gotten about 70-80 hours now in the last week or so of Black Roads, Vampire Hunters, Night of the Deads, Wintermauls, Gem Tower Defenses, Island Defenses, Warlocks, and much more. Been a total blast, glad to know I deserve a good time. So wholesome thanks! :)
Couple things here:
1) What is with the attack at the players her? There is no need for that. Those people just wanted a game they loved but with new shiny stuff (that they were promised by the developers mind you). They aren’t to be blamed. That is like blaming someone who was robbed for being robbed. Blame the robber.
2) Hyperbole should be used to exaggerate for easy comparison. If your whole argument is hyperbole then it just comes across as spite and not reason. I don’t play WoW anymore and probably never will again. I personally don’t do any business at all with blizzard nor do I play any of their games since the China fiasco. That said WoW is still quite fun for many people and is still quite successful financially for the company as well.
How could they think that this wouldn’t blow up in their face?
Did they think they could release a game without promised features and no one would notice?
Blizzard = Blunder.
How?
When was the last time we had a serious discussion about Blizzard’s behavior and non-apology with regard to the Hong Kong protest? Was Mr. I’m Accountable ever actually held accountable? What punishment or consequence did Blizzard receive as a result?
The answer to your question lies in the answers to mine.