This is from Blizzard, not Activision. Yay!

10 Jul Quotes 2

I'd like to take some time to speak with all of you regarding our desire to make the Blizzard forums a better place for players to discuss our games. We've been constantly monitoring the feedback you've given us, as well as internally discussing your concerns about the use of real names on our forums. As a result of those discussions, we've decided at this time that real names will not be required for posting on official Blizzard forums.
-- Mike Morhaime--CEO & Cofounder, Blizzard Entertainment

The fact that this decision is being relayed by Mr. Morhaime of Blizzard and not Mr. Kotick of Activision is … verrrrrry interesting.

2 Responses to “This is from Blizzard, not Activision. Yay!”

  1. Arkhanist 10. Jul, 2010 at 2:48 am #

    Wow indeed ;)

    I have to say, I’m surprised. Not just that a big company actually listens to its customers, but that Blizzard was able to sway Activision to go along with it – from what I’ve seen, blizzard were pretty much horrified by the idea, but upper management at Activision wanted it as some part of a bigger masterplan.

    RealID is still a pretty horrid idea, for all the reasons laid out before, but at least they’ve backed away from forcing people to use it. Kudos to them, for that.

  2. WolfDaddy 10. Jul, 2010 at 4:13 am #

    I’m dying to know if there’s really that much of a power struggle between Blizzard and Activision going on. Blizzard has always, before the merger with Activision, been pretty much left alone to do what they do. I got a small sense when it was announced that Starcraft II was being split into three parts that perhaps they were being rushed by Activision. And Blizzard hates being rushed. They like their “we’ll publish when it’s ready” strategy and that strategy has served them very, very well over that last 15 years or so.

    Activision, though, is little more than a strategic acquisitions group these days, and the pressure they’re bringing to bear on Blizzard must be testing a lot of people’s patience. One wonders if this RealID forum flap is just the tip of the iceberg or, as some cynics out there are saying, just putting a velvet glove over the iron fist.