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A Break for BlizzCon (and the possible future of in person events)

Blizzard has announced that BlizzCon is taking a break for 2024. 

BlizzCon is Blizzard’s annual gaming event. The one to two day event is full of events, game announcements, cosplay, and big concerts headlined by popular musicians. The event draws big crowds, averaging 25,000 over the past decade, and has been a cultural staple for the past decade for gamers. 

Blizzard’s reasoning for not holding an event is that they want to focus on smaller, more intimate events focusing on specific games. Despite not holding BlizzCon, Blizzard will be attending trade shows such as Gamescom. 

This year has been a wild one for Blizzard, from its record Microsoft acquisition to its subsequent layoff’s of almost 2,000 people across Microsoft’s gaming division. 

This also is not the first time Blizzard has canceled BlizzCon. Notably, 2022’s BlizzCon was canceled after state federal workplace harassment lawsuits were brought into the media. BlizzCon was also canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic. 

The cancellation of BlizzCon 2024 calls into question the popularity and relevance of big gaming events. Notably, E3 has retired and is “100% dead” as Polygon puts it. Similar to BlizzCon, following the Pandemic, it's been hard to see events focusing on large gatherings thrive again. 

With this cancellation, it's noted that Blizzard is going to have to fight harder to show off their new projects. Despite everything being announced in one big event, people would need to seek out the individual events - which can be difficult as it can lead to people only focusing on the projects they care about and not focusing on anything else. 

With Blizzards previous track record of canceling BlizzCon events, the impacts of the pandemic, and the general way that the gaming industry is going, its a wonder if Blizzard will host another event. Even major events such as The Game Awards have faced empty seats recently at their most recent event. The way of the future does not look like it’ll be one with big gaming conventions. What it will be, that's for us to find out. 

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The Rekindling of Blizzard and Netease (and a bit more)

In big news, Blizzard has renewed its partnership with Netease to bring its games into China. In even bigger, yet seemingly seldom mentioned news, Microsoft also announced a partnership with Netease to bring Xbox games to China. 

Blizzard and Netease have a long relationship dating all the way back to 2008, where they had a long term partnership until it ended in 2022 after contracts failed to come to fruition. This led to sales of Blizzard games, notably World of Warcraft, Diablo 3, Hearthstone, and Overwatch (which all had some traction in China) being suspended in January of 2023. 

In the past year and following the mergers of Activision - Blizzard and Microsoft, Netease and Blizzard have rekindled their relationship so to speak and decided to once again partner up. 

“We at Blizzard are thrilled to reestablish our partnership with NetEase and to work together … to deliver legendary gaming experiences to players in China,” said Johanna Faries, President of Blizzard Entertainment.

In addition to Blizzard, Microsoft has also entered into a partnership with Netease to distribute Netease titles to “Xbox consoles and other platforms” as stated in a press release. Microsoft head of gaming Phil Spencer stated that the partnership will “demonstrate our commitment to bringing more games to more players around the world.”

Netease, who have seen substantial growth in the past year, are also “ thrilled to embark on the next chapter, built on trust and mutual respect, to serve our users in this unique community that we’ve built together” as stated by CEO William Ding. 

Blizzard titles are expected to return to China in the summer, and Microsoft and Netesae are both “thrilled” with the outcome.

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Sega has Unionized

Sega has officially unionized!

The Allied Employees Guild Improving Sega (AEGIS) has finished their bargained contract in partnership with Communication Works of America, a union of 150 full time and contract workers at Sega of America. 

This news comes after over six months of negotiations between Sega and AEGIS. During this time, Sega of America had to cut 10% of its workforce, or 61 employees, however AEGIS-CWA were able to save 18 jobs and won favorable severance packages for laid-off employees. 

Conditions as part of the union include pay raises, just cause protections against discipline and discharge, layoff protections, crediting commitment to all staff members who worked on a game or project with the inclusion of QA testers, better benefits to bonus plans and retirements, and advance notice of AI usage in the workplace. 

Sega became one of a few large and major companies to unionize, joining companies like Microsoft Activision - Blizzard (collective) and CD Projekt Red as major players with unions. Despite the high stress and high stakes pace that the gaming industry moves at, most studios are not unionized, which has led to increased layoffs and talks of unionizing. 

"Without a union, today would be a lot worse than it is" states AEGIS. As the gaming industry has hit hard times, unionization has been prevalent and has shown to work. Sega’s unionization has proven to be relatively successful, with hopes of more key players to join. While unions are unable to prevent layoffs, they are able to mitigate damages, provide fairer wages (which in this industry can be hard to reason about) and provide safety nets when it comes to technologies that are either not yet adapted and would rather not be adapted by industry professionals (such as AI). 

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This week, Mattel announced its foray into the mobile games industry. 

The company, worth over seven billion US dollars, is best known for its range of toys and IP’s. From Barbie to Hotwheels to Uno, Mattel has over 220 brands in their portfolio, including major partnerships to produce products for companies like Disney and WWE. 

This is not Mattel's first foray into digital media, however. Mattel’s Barbie line of toys has had over a dozen animated/web series and close to 40 movies, the most recent of which (Barbie; The Movie) has grossed over a billion dollars in the box office. 

This also isn’t Mattel's first foray into gaming as a whole. Mattel has mobile and PC games, dating all the way back to the 1980’s. Mattel has also branched out into Roblox games, working on the game Vehicle Simulator by having a special event with Hot Wheels related cars and tracks as well as Barbie-based Roblox game.

The key difference is that Mattel has licensed their IP’s to these third parties. Mattel’s licensed Uno game for mobile is made by Mattel163, a joint venture between Mattel and Chinese based NetEase. 

This news comes almost a year after Mattel hired video game veteran Mike DeLaet, whose previous experiences include being the head of games at Sprint, the SVP of Global Publishing at Glu Mobile, and the SVP of Strategic Partnerships at Scopely to name a few. 

DeLaet states that he hopes to see Mattel publish at least one new game per year. While Mattel already has many tie-in products, DeLaet wants to put a “‘new spin’ on existing brands.” This, however, does not mean that Mattel will be self publishing every game. In an interview with GamesBeat, he stated that "We'll still continue to do most of our projects through licensing, and we can't do everything ourselves"

While excited, Mattel CEO Ynon Kriez is a bit weary. Issues of layoffs in the gaming sector over the past few years have been a big issue, and the chances of Mattel hitting them are still on the table. Kriez stated that, in addition to hoping the video game industry recovers quickly, he also hopes and believes that Mattel will be able to hire new heads - a statement also mirrored by DeLaet.

It is exciting to see what Mattel is able to bring to the table and expand on what they already have. 

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Sony's Mass Layoffs

Sony’s Interactive Entertainment, the sector of Sony known for Playstation and gaming, is facing deep cuts. Today, it was announced that Sony has let go of over 900 staff members, restructured the department, and shuttered its London offices. CEO of Sony Interactive Jim Ryan stated that the layoffs affect employees from all regions, however London’s studio will be hit the hardest. 

Jim Ryan stated that the "evolving economic landscape, changes in the way we develop, distribute and launch products" is the reason for the layoffs. PlayStation studio boss Herman Hulst stated that the company needs to take a new and different approach to greeting games that “push the boundaries of play and deliver what you expect of us” and “step back and look at what our business needs.”

The news of these layoffs follows a mass layoff wave that has been hitting the video game industry. Companies like Microsoft, Discord, and Twitch have all been hit with mass layoffs. 

As the PlayStation has reached its fourth year, its life cycle is starting to end. Despite the PS5 reaching a quarterly high sales figure, Sony stated that it is not on par with the internal sales figures they want to reach. Most people who want a PS5 have gotten one, meaning sales figures will start decreasing. Sony’s target unit number is 25 million a year, however it's looking like it’ll be unlikely for them to hit that number. 

Sony’s COO Hiroki Totoki has also stated that Sony Interactive has no major projects due for release before March of 2025, where the PS5 will have been 5 years in development. Todoki, who will be replacing current CEO Jim Ryan in April, has also stated that there's “room for improvement” when it comes to studios spending money, scheduling development, and staying accountable regarding development pipelines. 

As the PS5’s life cycle comes to an end over the next few years, Sony has been facing a bit of an identity crisis. From delays at Sony Interactive to figuring out what's next in the company's grand scheme, I look forward to seeing what comes next from them. 

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The Layoffs of 2024

After a record-breaking past few years, a big topic of recent discussion hasn't been new products or content but layoffs. Companies are cutting people off by the thousands, with major companies in the gaming industry also firing their employees. 

The gaming industry has been experiencing a rough patch since the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024, with layoffs at many different game studios. 

The year started with the platform Discord cutting 17% of its workforce, about 170 employees, and that was only the beginning. Twitch and Riot Games both cut their workforce by over 500 employees. Twitch, an Amazon subsidiary, had its layoffs due to the massive Amazon layoffs, where over 18,000 employees were let go. The layoffs affected about 35% of its workforce. This news comes after Twitch laid off over 400 people almost a year ago. 

More controversially, Microsoft laid off almost 2,000 people in its gaming division, including its game studios and Xbox. This comes after their merger with Activision Blizzard, which went through in October 2023 for over $70 billion. Following the layoffs, Microsoft’s financial reports showed a growth in revenue and profits, which led to outcry and further explanation from the head of Microsoft Games, Phil Spencer. 

During the pandemic, gaming was at an all-time high. With people unable to leave the house, more and more resorted to gaming - whether it was a way to connect with friends or pass the time. During this time, major companies also doubled or tripled their workforce to keep up with the demand. Now that more and more places are opening and things are returning to normal, gaming doesn’t have as big of a place anymore. It's exciting to see where the future of gaming goes. 

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My sector is gaming

My sector is the gaming industry. For my main sources, I plan on using Game Developer, GameIndustry, and Mashable. To sometimes aid in my research, I plan on watching videos from Atrioc, a game industry veteran and current live streamer who has previously worked at Twitch and Nvidia, as well as Game Industry News, an independent publication.