News Investors nervous of Starcraft 2 delays

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2009/07/29/investors-nervous-of-starcraft-2-delays/1

Investors in Activision have voiced concerns that Starcraft 2 may be delayed until next year, mainly as beta testing has started in earnest yet.

 

Investors and thier stocks are what is ruining this industry, activision need to take a chill pill and let the pros do what they do best.

 

The moment developers start to worry about the stock price, this will be the end of Blizzard as we know it.

 

ZERG RUSH!!!!

 

The investors of Blozzard seem to shut up, as far as I know Blizzard is the only company that constantly have black numbers to present to the investors even in the current situation, just let Blizzard do as they always have done, ONLY releasing games that are finished.

That is why they have become so big, and that is what people want, game that has not been released before they are ready.

 

INVESTOR RUSH!!!

 

Rushing a game will get you killed, please think of the dwarfs!

 

Yes, because Blizzard sure do have a horrible track record. Same with Valve. I don't know why these guys are still afloat, their games are terrible and sell like crap.

I guess all that money from World of Warcraft just isn't enough for those greedy *******s.

 

Blizzard are also there to make money for the investors (that is what being a business is all about). Its not unreasonable for the investment groups to apply pressure to the company to stick to schedules.

This whole mantra of 'It will be done when its done' simply doesnt suite the current economic climate and has no place in business. Blizzard may want to make a perfect product (and rightly so), but constantly slipping schedules in order to deliver it is also known as bad project management, and this needs to be corrected.

So stop encouraging Blizzard to 'keep coding until the last man drops dead'.... and start encouraging 'Better Project Management = Better Products on Time'

 

"Carrier has arrived" rush!!

 

the formula for projects goes like this:

Cheep
Reliable
Fast

Pick two.

The way investors want everything is fast and cheep. This sacrifices reliability. If you sacrifice reliability you loose customers.

You can do things fast and reliable but it isn't going to be cheep. Adding on more staff, paying tons more overtime, paying more benefits to said staff.

You can get it cheep and reliable (cheep is kinda relative, it does take time and time costs money, but not as much as fast and reliable). This means you give the staff as much time as they need to complete the process. This will ultimately produce the best product. But will not fulfill the desire to have it fast.

Working on something like this does not necessarily relate to bad project management. When you are crating something from the ground up, problems are inevitable. Everything looks great when its on paper, the execution doesn't always go as smoothly, so adjustments need to be made. Time is required for these adjustments.

Investors are whats wrong with any company. because you need to constantly up your game every quarter to please them. Its the reason jobs get sent overseas during periods of record profits. Because the company went "**** there is no way we are topping last quarter, we need to do something so our numbers don't go down next quarter" so they lay off a bunch of people and cut corners.

I understand business. But its impossible to keep increasing revenue, without cutting corners. A company could be steadily profitable, but because they have stopped climbing, they are no longer a good investment. It is a difference of bull and bear investors. but when the CEO's get greedy they start hunting aggressive investors to make their company grow by taking steps backwards.

 

Remember:
It's not JUST blizzard anymore.. it's ACTVISION Blizzard...

 

My impression of the business world, and america in particular, is that US companies LEGALLY HAVE to put the shareholders first and think in terms of maximum gain for the shareholders BEFORE they're allowed to think of the customers/consumers... Correct me if I'm wrong on this...

Seems backwards to me, you need to please your customers in order for them to buy the product to generate the products to turn into dividends for the shareholders.

The problem with investors, however, is they're the ones who effectively subsidise the development, so no investers, no development money, no product, no profit, no company!

Then again, this is Activision Blizzard, so WoW pretty much subsisdised everything else the company does...

 

yes yes we all love blizzard and what they do with their games.

however, blizzard has taken 10 years to make this game, and now they intend to split it into 3 parts which ultimately generates money and whether that is a money making investment pressure or the creators decision who knows, but that doesnt matter.

as it is, blizzard has a rediculous amount of capital for investment from its success (of which large percentages will have come from people buying their company shares), and as such shouldnt keep moving deadlines because they have the power to do so. As someone has already said its poor project management and pisses people off. Personally, i'd like to see their share price drop by 50% and then maybe the coders and those in charge will make a more concerted effort to finish the product, not before its ready, just finish the damn thing and let us have it. otherwise its all needless hype and as far as i'm concerned they can f$$k off with their product as the waiting is bollox. give us some news when the game is ready for release please mr CEO blizzard, otherwise, stfu!

peace

fatman

 

Activision shareholders, what killed Blizzard.

 

Blizzard will go the way of Westwood and all games will be equally crap and we'll just have to play indi games...

 

Where's Diablo 3?

Blizzard is still a company at the end of the day, it needs to make games to survive (or at least, continue supporting WoW , but that aside...) and the owners i.e. shareholders have a responsibility to give them a bit of lashing to make them keep the target in their sights - to make great games. I'm not saying they should be rushed - and investors should realise quality of products is paramount - but if they want to be bankrolled by private investors and their life savings etc. then they are going to have to produce something that starts bringing in the moolah.

 

someone please give that kid a toothbrush

 

HAHA... If they knew anything about Blizzard they would have seen this coming back when the game was announced.