An article from colleagues at CNBC tells us how Blizzard is downgraded for the first time in 9 years. Activision-Blizzard's share price then suffered a loss of 3.5% on Monday.
Blizzard - The first break-in in 9 years
After 9 years of pure growth, the share rose by approx. 600% and flawless forecasts, this year there are doubts among the analysts for the first time. The reason for this is the immense involvement in the Overwatch League.
Overwatch was a huge success when it was released, millions of players rushed to the shooter which, in the usual Blizz manner, offered a great feel, story, heroes and videos.
According to the developers' plans, an esports scene should be as large as CS: GO or League of Legends consequences. Unfortunately, Overwatch is a great game, but so far it hasn't really taken off in terms of tournaments or viewer numbers Twitch. According to some players on the social media platforms, Overwatch lacks the appropriate viewing experience because it is too fast and the change of perspective is too rapid.
Nonetheless, Blizzard decided to plan a gigantic esports scene with the Overwatch League, 12 teams in 12 cities. Similar to the American basketball NBA or NFL football leagues, each team should represent its city. With esports arenas in each of these cities. Weekly broadcasts of the games that are in the first season in the newly built Blizzard Arena in Los Angeles will take place.
20 million per league space
The entry fee for each team is US $ 20 million and that alone made the league headlines.
Since this is the first time for Blizzard that such a scene has been created out of nothing, the analysts assume a learning experience:
"As this is the first time a publisher has ever attempted to launch a major esport from scratch, we expect OWL [Overwatch League] 1.0 to be a learning experience, and thus believe that the probability of reality failing to meet investor expectations is relatively high . ”
Due to these initial difficulties and the experience gained, the expectations of investors will very likely not be met. Activision's share price then fell by 3.5%.
Isn't Blizzard the inventor of esports with Starcraft: Broodwar?
Who is wondering now? Blizzard and Esports experience? First esports scene? What about Starcraft: Broodwar? Didn't Broodwar basically invent esports?
That's all true, only that the success and the development of the esports scene is due to the Korean leagues. Blizzard was the developer of Starcraft, but the Korean licensees and leagues such as KeSPA, Proleague, GSL, OSL etc. are less responsible for the incredible success.
