Profile of SturmtigerCobra

After two years of waiting this is what we get:

AoE4 First Preview Behind A Paywall

https://www.gamestar.de/artikel/age-of-empires-4-preview-modernes-mittelalter,3351229.html
"Even before gameplay from Age of Empires 4 was released for the first time, we talked to the developers. AoE 4 becomes AoE 2 - in modern! (using google translate)"

• Age of Empires 4, set in the Middle Ages , offers the finest 3D graphics with height differences, and is set to set new dramaturgical standards in the real-time strategy genre with its story campaigns.
  

• GameStar talked to the creative minds at Xbox Game Studios about AoE4, got the first gameplay trailer in front of everyone else, and explained in the big preview what's new and promising in Age of Empires 4.

• We'll tell you the most important information about the new medieval strategy game: There are so many resources and ages, these are the new civilizations and they are so different.

• Also, after reading, you'll know why Age of Empires 4 does not have a release date yet - and why Microsoft and Relic took extra time to perfect the technique and engine.

In Age of Empires 4, there are large-scale medieval battles, the real-time strategy game packs the scenario and virtues of Age of Kings into the finest 3D graphics. GameStar Plus was allowed to see the trailer in advance and the developers with questions hole. Will that be the savior of the genre?

Sometimes it surprises me how popular GameStar is around the world . Anyway, Chris Rubyor, design director at Xbox Game Studios and new real-time strategy developer World's Edge, remembers Jörg Langer and Martin Deppe well.

For both of them have visited the game shops for the last 25 years, where Rubyor has been working on RTS pearls such as Command & Conquer, Star Wars: Empire at War and The Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-earth.

Now Rubyor is awarding Age of Empires 4 together with Relic Entertainment, the creators of Company of Heroes, the finishing touches - and he's not the only developer involved in this mammoth project who made the genre big in the '90s and early' 2000s.

Age of Empires 4 will be like AoE2, but prettier
Adam Isgreen can not wait. He wants me to see the first AoE4 gameplay trailer before all the other journalists and viewers at the XO London event on November 14, 2019. Isgreen, Creative Director for the entire franchise, sits me the night before the show in a restaurant opposite, between us the appetizer plate. He pulls out his cell phone.

"Woe!" Threatens Shannon Loftis. The studio boss of World's Edge, Microsoft's new RTS division, can not believe it: "It's not okay to show the game to the very first person outside the studio on a cell phone!" Adam Isgreen grudges: "Yeah, okay, you want Probably will not see this beautiful 4K trailer on my small smartphone display. "Then they show me Age of Empires 4 on a laptop they brought along - and it looks like the best of Age of Empires 2 in modern 3D .

AoE4, however, faces a much more difficult task than all the old classics: it should bring the real-time strategy out of the crisis, modernize the mix of grassroots building and giant battles, awake a deep-seated genre and inspire millions of potential RTS players.

And for that Age of Empires 4 returns to the most popular scenario of the series: the Middle Ages.

The rest of the first preview cost money. Is this a joke?

Whatever it be intentional or not MS is hiding first AoE4 preview behind a stupid paywall. https://www.gamestar.de/ is clearly abusing this as "exclusive AoE4 preview".
This is terrible optics after 2 years of waiting!.
Abuse of fan passion? Not cool.

I could say more but MS want to play the long game?
Focus on talking with AoE fans and streamers/influencers first and almost.
Game journos/old guard do not sell games anymore and are on the way out.
Even EA executives now understand this, look at how Respawn Entertainment stealth launch Apex Legends.

Report: EA Paid Ninja $1 Million To Play 'Apex Legends', Which Is Way Too Little:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidthier/2019/03/14/report-ea-paid-ninja-1-million-to-play-apex-legends-which-is-way-too-little/

This is not organic growth but it shows the future of game marketing.
Streamers/YouTubers today are modern day rock stars to the younger generation of players.
Adapt or die!

What is Influencer Marketing: An in Depth Look at Marketing’s Next Big Thing:
https://influencermarketinghub.com/what-is-influencer-marketing/

Former CoH2 brand/marketing manager, Alex Delamaire returned to Relic this month.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexdelamaire/
https://twitter.com/alexdlmr


Original CoH job announcements:

For future reference I achieved the two jobs below:
INTERNAL BRAND MANAGER:
https://boards.greenhouse.io/relic/jobs/744038
http://archive.ph/YTK3Y
This job announcement, executive producer seems related. Unless someone is leaving, Relic is working on 3 games (2 unannounced). Usually only one executive producer for each game development.

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER:
https://boards.greenhouse.io/relic/jobs/1651424
http://archive.ph/V4u6f

The Sega lead consumer research guy (Jean Yves Lapasset) involved with CoH surveys:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jylapasset/

Relatively speaking is this a positive for the CoH team? I'm carefully optimistic.

Re-post:

Fun facts, check dates:
1) CoH World Championship Finals Weekend
Saturday the 16th and Sunday the 17th of November
2) Microsoft X019
Confirmed AoE4 news and likely new Xbox GamePass announcements: 14.-16. November
https://www.xbox.com/x019

Do you believe in coincidence?

CoH2 giveaway 15-17 November:

https://www.coh2.org/topic/102093/another-big-coh2-giveaway-coming-next-weekend
https://www.reddit.com/r/CompanyOfHeroes/comments/duqihn/fresh_meat_for_the_grinder_is_on_its_way/

Age of Empires 4 on X019; Countdown Before the Presentation has Begun?:
https://www.gamepressure.com/newsroom/age-of-empires-4-on-x019-countdown-before-the-presentation-has-be/zc13dd

*SNIP*
On the official website of Age of Empires, the countdown to the start of the „next adventure” with the strategy game series has begun. It will end on the day of the start of the X019 event at which Age of Empires IV is to be shown.
But how can you be sure that this is about the presentation of the fourth game from the series? After all, it could be associated with Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, which is due to debut on November 14. The point is that on the official website of the series there is a separate countdown to the release of AoE II, ending just before the start of Xbox Inside. Furthermore, the mention of the "next adventure" seems to indicate a new installment of the series. It's not really about a new undisclosed production, either. In June, Adam Isgreen (the creative director of the franchise) made it clear that the priorities are to refresh the original trilogy and the fourth installment of the series. Although this was true for the possible return of Age of Mythology, in this context it seems doubtful that developers could work on a completely new project.

Reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/aoe4/comments/dt5413/is_this_aoe_iv_somehow/?
AoE4 rider on a horse in that teaser:
https://preview.redd.it/q2fz376j6cx31.gif?format=mp4&s=646ac4f6bc97928a95c9444eef288d611c6e833e

Also a mill in the AoE4 teaser. Credit to RadiatingBlade:
https://forums.ageofempires.com/t/eagle-gif-theories-mill-and-units-down-there/60785/7
https://i.imgur.com/rTwlGXq.mp4

RadiatingBlade
Just uploaded to Imgur. Look in the general location of the mill and you can see the blades rotating.

EDIT: Update with new info

Also made MSM news, follow @Slasher on twitter (esport consultant/insider) if interested.
He appeared as MSM guest last week and did a good job representing the game community:
https://twitter.com/Slasher/

Blizzard Support claims that only being able to delete your account by sending your Government ID is a "Bug":
https://www.reddit.com/r/hearthstone/comments/dhexgw/blizzard_support_claims_that_only_being_able_to/


I tried deleting my Blizzard account since last week but they want Government photo ID from my country
All Hail the Dragon Emperor!
Today I checked my account again (delete account + personal data request).
It's been over a week before this Blizzard boycott started and they still don't fix this so-called "bug":



What a fucking joke.
This might be illegal within EU due to new data protection laws.

Europe's New Privacy Law Will Change the Web, and More:

The EU's General Data Protection Regulation takes effect May 25, requiring that people know, understand, and consent to the data collected about them.
https://www.wired.com/story/europes-new-privacy-law-will-change-the-web-and-more/

Do they only have one engineer working on this bug? how convenient?
Blizzard: Maybe you'll change minds after Blizzcon?


Seekingalpha | Sell Activision Blizzard:

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4295993-sell-activision-blizzard-hong-kong-misstep-will-cost-fortune
Conclusion
Activision Blizzard's eagerness to abandon its western customers in favor of China opened Pandora's box. The negative press is just starting: expect protests at Blizzard events and further outcry from politicians. Canceled subscriptions from World of Warcraft and canceled preorders of games like Reforged will hurt the company's top and bottom lines.
*SNIP*
Regardless of Blizzard's intentions, they destroyed potentially billions of dollars of customer goodwill in their eastern and western markets.

Bellular News | Blizzard LOCKDOWN: Overwatch Launch Event CANCELLED, Pro Player CLAMPDOWN: Interview & Cams Are CUT:

Blizzard have cancelled an Overwatch launch event at NintendoNYC, likely in light of the Blitzchung situation. We've also seen them clamp down on Collegiate Hearthstone, cutting player cams & cancelling post-match interviews.

A coach in Blizzard's Overwatch League was told to delete a tweet condemning the company for censoring an esports competitor from Hong Kong:
https://www.businessinsider.com/blizzard-overwatch-league-coach-deletes-tweet-condemning-censorship-blitzchung-2019-10

Blizzard's Chinese Website does not feature the News update regarding Blitzblitzchung - A side by side comparison:
https://www.reddit.com/r/hearthstone/comments/dgp5ll/blizzards_chinese_website_does_not_feature_the/

ACTIVISION BLIZZARD AND TENCENT ANNOUNCE LONG-TERM STRATEGIC RELATIONSHIP TO BRING CALL OF DUTY ONLINE TO CHINA, Jul 3, 2012:
https://investor.activision.com/news-releases/news-release-details/activision-blizzard-and-tencent-announce-long-term-strategic

Below some re-posting from CoH2.org/Reddit, relevant to both Activision Blizzard (Tencent jumped at the opportunity to buy 5 percent of the company) and Epic (Tencent's $330 million investment in Epic Games). In 2013 Bobby Kotick (Activision CEO) led an investment group + Chinese investment/strategic relationship which helped Activision escape Vivendi who was the majority shareholder.
That investment group has since sold off a majority of it’s shares. Current biggest share holder is the Vanguard Group, Inc.

Reddit CoH analysis from RepoRogue:

It's almost like Activision doesn't care about the long term viability of Blizzard as a company but is mostly concerned with doing the video game equivalent of asset stripping where IPs are exhausted by releasing high margin mobile games that alienate the core fan base and slowly lead to the demise of the company and its brands.

The problem is that Activision has a very shortsighted view of things. They're obsessed with quarter on quarter growth and making sure everything the company does shows a direct profit. But competent business involves thinking past the current quarter to ten years down the line. Blizzard has been a staggeringly successful independent company but has been making bad decision after bad decision since it was acquired by Activision. It doesn't take Nostradamus to project what will become of Blizzard in five years.
*SNIP*
Part of the problem is that claims such as Activisions that RTS games are unprofitable are not based on solid evidence, nor are they unchangeable, natural facts. The reality is that StarCraft I and II have made a ton of money for Blizzard, so not continuing the series because RTS are unprofitable is just stupid.

Capitalists are not necessarily rational or intelligent. Many of them are not particularly knowledge about the industry they are in. As a result, they end up taking a lot of received wisdom on-board and just mimicking other big companies rather than seriously thinking through a long-term growth strategy. Activision has been on the yearly sequels until an IP stops being profitable train for a long time, and I suspect that's what they'll try to do with Overwatch (Blizzard's most marketable franchise).
*SNIP*
Except there's a reason that publishers have systematically been killing game studios for decades now: the research they do is inherently conservative in it's outlook. The focus is on genres with consistent sales over and above doing something more risky that has the potential to be way more profitable.

Consider where innovation and smash hits have come from in the last decade. A lot of them have come from Indie studios. Minecraft has been insanely profitable, PUBG has created a genre of imitators while making tons of money, etc. AAA game publishing has been stagnant and slowly eroding itself through running IP after IP into the ground with annualized releases that are more or less identical to what they were before.

This isn't because there are necessarily a bunch of morons at the top but because they have systemically short sighted incentives (namely, quarterly profit reports). The long term trajectory of this strategy, the one Activision appears to be pursuing with Blizzard, is a long term loss of profitability and probably the closure of the studio.

CAN BLIZZARD BUY BACK ENOUGH SHARES TO GET RID OF ACTIVISION?

https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/can-blizzard-buy-back-enough-shares-to-get-rid-of-activision/37510/19
In 2000 Activision created their own holding company “Activision Inc” under which was Activision Publishing (the arm that does the games). Activision is defined in the merger documents as “Activision Inc” (the holding company).

Then in July 2008 Activision Inc merged with Vivendi Games (a division of Vivendi). The new company was named Activision Blizzard to reflect “the significant brand recognition, employee headcount and profit contribution that Blizzard will make to the combined organization 5”

On July 25th 2013 Activision Blizzard announced they were buying back 429 million and million ASAC II LP, an investment vehicle led by Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick and Co-Chairman Brian Kelly, to which they have personally committed $100 million combined, separately will purchase approximately 172 million shares.

Most notably that investment group has since sold off a majority of it’s shares.

Source Jason Schreier:
https://kotaku.com/the-past-present-and-future-of-diablo-1830593195
Activision merged with the publisher Vivendi (at the time, Blizzard’s holding company) to become Activision Blizzard in 2008, but over the past decade Blizzard has prided itself in remaining a separate entity. With its own management structure and its own campus in Irvine, California, Blizzard has always stood out from Activision’s other divisions and subsidiaries. (Activision HQ is based about an hour northwest, in Santa Monica.) Rather than sticking to strict production cycles that result in, say, annual Call of Duty games for Activision, Blizzard has traditionally given its developers as much time as possible. That’s one of the reasons the company has been renowned for making some of the greatest games in the world.

This year, however, Blizzard employees say that one of the biggest ongoing conversations has been cutting costs. To fans, and even to some people who work or have worked at Blizzard, there’s a concern that something deep within the company’s culture may be changing.

They bend the knee to money, like every other company. Their purpose is to make money not to take political sides.

It's more complex than that. A few points;
1) There is a difference between a private company and a publicly-traded company that has shareholders.
A private company such as Valve is less greedy than most publicly-traded companies. That is not to say a private company can't be greedy and vice versa.
Two exceptions to this corporate greed is "old Blizzard" and CD Projekt Red both publicly-traded companies.
New ownership/leadership, new ideas. At this point, it is obvious the "Activision influence" is changing Blizzard inside out.

Cyberpunk 2077 will reject microtransactions to preserve “the goodwill of customers”:
http://latestgamesnews.site/index.php/2019/10/14/cyberpunk-2077-will-reject-microtransactions-to-preserve-the-goodwill-of-customers/
CD Projekt Red: "We leave greed to others":
https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-11-19-cd-projekt-red-greed-cyberpunk-2077-multiplayer
Former Blizzard boss explains why the studio cancels half its games:

https://www.gamesradar.com/blizzard-canceled-games/
The story goes that for every game Blizzard sees through to completion, it cancels another - a roughly 50 percent release rate for games that have had potentially years of work poured into them: "I've gone back every few years and checked the math on that, and it's pretty consistent," Morhaime said, as reported by Eurogamer. "It's like half the titles we work on never make it."

Valve is more pro-free market than Chinese companies that steal and copy anything they can get their hands on. Copyright laws/enforcement in China are a joke.

1 in 5 corporations say China has stolen their IP within the last year: CNBC CFO survey
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/28/1-in-5-companies-say-china-stole-their-ip-within-the-last-year-cnbc.html

Due to corporate ownership there is no such thing as a 100% neutral company. They all have a political bias which can be seen in lobbying money.
Follow the money.

We can't really separate a free market and human rights as they are interconnected.
The founder of the free market is Adam Smith (The Wealth of Nations, 1776) and the founder of unalienable human rights/individual sovereignty is Thomas Jefferson (Declaration of Independence, 1776).
Both core ideas/ideologies was created in 1776 and not a coincidence.
This is a battle of ideas that has been going on for the last 200+ years.

2) Blizzard has not been consistent at all in neutrality nor is they impartial with eSport rules/TOS.
3) China by law has a closed market. It’s very difficult for western game companies to get into the Chinese market without working with a Chinese company and/or Government (Drift0r explain this).
IMO, this is borderline extortion of western companies and abusing a legal vacuum.
4) Yes, we should do legal business (not racketeering) with China even though it’s an utterly corrupt superpower.
5) Unfortunately, many people living in the west take freedom of speech/human rights for granted as it was given to us from previous generations. Because those rights did not cost us much it must not be valuable right?
For billions of people on this planet, defending basic human rights could mean going to prison or worse. The price is very real.
6)
The fact western game companies (including big tech/Google) have to create two separate products is so fucking telling.
A “real world” western version and a censored Chinese version are ridiculous. Then Chinese gamers use VPN to bypass “censored” products.
In a secret project now publicly exposed, Google engineers were forced to do Chinese censorship with a separate search engine. That engine was called Dragonfly


The list goes on.
Western consumers have right to some transparency or we can't vote with our wallet and just mindless consumerism.

Blatant lie from "Blizzard PR" written by Chinese writers (allegedly):

*SNIP*
https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/blizzard/23185888/regarding-last-weekend-s-hearthstone-grandmasters-tournament
The specific views expressed by blitzchung were NOT a factor in the decision we made. I want to be clear: our relationships in China had no influence on our decision.