Comcast CEO: "Universal will compete aggressively with Disney"

[TubaGeek]

And what does an MMO have to do with Disney vs Uni? You have cherry picked one example where the big popular thing has outlived all the things that tried to copy it. But there are plenty of examples of the opposite. I remember when Yahoo was THE site to go to when you were trying to find something on the internet, and MySpace what THE social network to be on.

I wanna watch a movie tonight. Now, where is the nearest Blockbuster...?

 

[Matt_Black]

Oh, God, "Return To Oz", why did you have to remind me of it?

I liked it. Though it is odd to watch now. "Hey, that's the hot goth girl from 'The Waterboy'."

 

[janoimagine]

And WoW? Still chugging along, still the undisputed king, and has no chance of being usurped anytime soon, and get this, they haven't released any new content in quite some time.

I agree, WOW and Disney do have a lot in common ... both have gotten fat and lethargic off past successes and stopped trying a long time ago. When Destiny is launched WOW will be long forgotten, kind of like our 'new' fantasyland when HP Phase 2 opens this summer.

 

[Voxel]

I agree, WOW and Disney do have a lot in common ... both have gotten fat and lethargic off past successes and stopped trying a long time ago. When Destiny is launched WOW will be long forgotten, kind of like our 'new' fantasyland when HP Phase 2 opens this summer.

Both WoW arguments are quiet wrong. WoW released an Expansion in 2012 and has another one planned for 2014. In terms of large scale expansions in an MMO that is really good.

 

[mahnamahna101]

Under budget? The thing was ridiculously expensive.

At Disney, anything less than $100 million for an attraction is a B-ticket

 

[Disneyfan_76]

And now, another fantastic analogy I have posted elsewhere but feel the masses deserve my insight.

World Of Warcraft.

Ever hear of it? Most people have, its the biggest video/PC game ever made and has made countless billions for Activision.

Billions, on a yearly basis.

See, when the game first launched almost 10 years ago, it was the first MMO, massive multiplayer online role playing game that got everything right. It appealed to just about everyone with a pulse and many, many people have poured countless hours into it. The game set a new standard in the MMO world, and no one has come close to that standard from a competitive standpoint. It reached a highpoint of 12 million subscribers, and 15 bucks a month, that's some serious change, but people move on and currently, its around 8 million a month, still nothing to sneeze at.

But when one thing is successful, someone always tries to steal the successful persons thunder.

Over the years, there has been countless WoW "killers", Star Wars Knight of the old Republic, Rift, Lord of the Rings, all of them came out, declared themselves the new sheriff in town and waited. They, all they wanted was a little of WoW's massive pie. And then, well, then they go free to play as a last resort for survival. All of them have.

And WoW? Still chugging along, still the undisputed king, and has no chance of being usurped anytime soon, and get this, they haven't released any new content in quite some time. Why? The just don't have to, people are going to play no matter what.

Its a pretty successful business model, makes you wonder why some people run billion dollar corporations, and some people just offer ignorant comments.

Where does the general public stand in this? That's for them individually to decide.

Jimmy Thick- Laying down the lumber with style and grace.

Well, personally, I played WoW for years. But they stopped releasing new content and got lazy. Even the stuff they did release was pretty stale and similar to old raids. Now I play Neverwinter Nights which releases constant updates and allows users to generate their own content and quests for the game. Last I checked WoW was dying rapidly, at least on my server. They have had to merge servers due to low population. No one is playing anymore. I am not sure this is the best analogy to make your point.

 

[TubaGeek]

Just throwing this out there: from '09 (the year the "fad" of Harry Potter opened) to '12, WDW's FOUR parks increased in attendance by only 996,000. Combined.
IOA ALONE increased by 3,354,000.

 

[Cesar R M]

Both WoW arguments are quiet wrong. WoW released an Expansion in 2012 and has another one planned for 2014. In terms of large scale expansions in an MMO that is really good.

they are still hemorrhaging users.

 

[Voice of Disney sanity]

I took Jimmy off "Ignore". I lasted maybe an hour before I had to mute him again.
A difference of opinion is grand, but I honestly can't tell if Jimmy even believes the drivel he's spewing. When confronted with solid facts and figures he "*chuckles*" and moves on to his next jab without addressing that which proves him wrong.
He's weakening this forum, and causing it legitimate harm. Even if he's not directly breaking the letter of the law, we are all well aware that he's intentionally antagonistic. This forum would be much better without him.

I'm afraid I have to disagree with this as a whole. While he does come off as trolling he does seem to genuinely believe what he's spewing err saying.
It's pretty apparent to 95% of theme park fans that WDW is in decline and UNI is improving. Wether or not that hurts WDW in the long run is yet to be determined but as a logical person, I don't see how it doesn't.

 

[Cesar R M]

I'm afraid I have to disagree with this as a whole. While he does come off as trolling he does seem to genuinely believe what he's spewing err saying.
It's pretty apparent to 95% of theme park fans that WDW is in decline and UNI is improving. Wether or not that hurts WDW in the long run is yet to be determined but as a logical person, I don't see how it doesn't.

Or he could do this as "PR stunts" all the time.. because; I'm pretty sure he confirmed he had Disney stock somewhere in this forum.
so, its all in his interest for Disney to keep growing, regardless of the bad experience/reduction of quality people are having. (and do his best to minimize the competitors, like the thread; where he claims Uni is going downhill)

 

[raymusiccity]

Just throwing this out there: from '09 (the year the "fad" of Harry Potter opened) to '12, WDW's FOUR parks increased in attendance by only 996,000. Combined.
IOA ALONE increased by 3,354,000.

You can manipulate statistics to support a notion that IOA has outpaced EPCOT, or any other park. In 2009, IOA was languishing, while other parks were pulling in impressive attendance figures. IOA was compelled to come up with a major new attraction, or be left as a second rate amusement park.

 

[Funmeister's Delight]

Both WoW arguments are quiet wrong. WoW released an Expansion in 2012 and has another one planned for 2014. In terms of large scale expansions in an MMO that is really good.

Expansions do not make a game. WoW has been crap for 5 years move on.

 

[Voice of Disney sanity]

And now, another fantastic analogy I have posted elsewhere but feel the masses deserve my insight.

World Of Warcraft.

Ever hear of it? Most people have, its the biggest video/PC game ever made and has made countless billions for Activision.

Billions, on a yearly basis.

See, when the game first launched almost 10 years ago, it was the first MMO, massive multiplayer online role playing game that got everything right. It appealed to just about everyone with a pulse and many, many people have poured countless hours into it. The game set a new standard in the MMO world, and no one has come close to that standard from a competitive standpoint. It reached a highpoint of 12 million subscribers, and 15 bucks a month, that's some serious change, but people move on and currently, its around 8 million a month, still nothing to sneeze at.

But when one thing is successful, someone always tries to steal the successful persons thunder.

Over the years, there has been countless WoW "killers", Star Wars Knight of the old Republic, Rift, Lord of the Rings, all of them came out, declared themselves the new sheriff in town and waited. They, all they wanted was a little of WoW's massive pie. And then, well, then they go free to play as a last resort for survival. All of them have.

And WoW? Still chugging along, still the undisputed king, and has no chance of being usurped anytime soon, and get this, they haven't released any new content in quite some time. Why? The just don't have to, people are going to play no matter what.

Its a pretty successful business model, makes you wonder why some people run billion dollar corporations, and some people just offer ignorant comments.

Where does the general public stand in this? That's for them individually to decide.

Jimmy Thick- Laying down the lumber with style and grace.

And then there's the MySpace / Facebook comparison that completely goes the other way.

 

[Tony Perkis]

You can manipulate statistics to support a notion that IOA has outpaced EPCOT, or any other park. In 2009, IOA was languishing, while other parks were pulling in impressive attendance figures. IOA was compelled to come up with a major new attraction, or be left as a second rate amusement park.

And they did. Which is awesome.

 

[ParentsOf4]

You can manipulate statistics to support a notion that IOA has outpaced EPCOT, or any other park. In 2009, IOA was languishing, while other parks were pulling in impressive attendance figures. IOA was compelled to come up with a major new attraction, or be left as a second rate amusement park.

In 2009, Uni suffered from a phenomenon that used to happen at WDW on a regular basis. Attendance tapered off as a major new addition neared. Vacationers delayed their trips in anticipation of the next big opening.

For some perspective, WDW attendance dropped 5% the year before EPCOT opened then skyrocketed 80% the year after.

Sadly, WDW doesn't do that anymore.

Even the "historic expansion of Fantasyland" (quoting CEO Bob Iger) didn't have much of an impact on overall WDW attendance. What it's mostly done is steal guests away from DHS and DAK. MK is more crowded than ever; DHS and DAK decidedly less so.

WDW hasn't tried for a big winner in 16 years. Disney's management is comfortable coasting on the work of their predecessors, instead focusing their attentions on new ways to raise prices.

Every year, today's Universal tries to make their theme parks better.

The contrast is startling.

 

[WDWDad13]

Just throwing this out there: from '09 (the year the "fad" of Harry Potter opened) to '12, WDW's FOUR parks increased in attendance by only 996,000. Combined.
IOA ALONE increased by 3,354,000.

IOA increased because of the new HP section of course, things were so stale before that anything would help and HP was big....but how many of those will be repeat visitors each year like so many do at WDW?

Maybe several...I don't know....but a couple of days at Uni and you've done it all....a couple of vacations at WDW and you still have things you haven't done

 

[wm49rs]

IOA increased because of the new HP section of course, things were so stale before that anything would help and HP was big....but how many of those will be repeat visitors each year like so many do at WDW?

Maybe several...I don't know....but a couple of days at Uni and you've done it all....a couple of vacations at WDW and you still have things you haven't done

And with what Universal is adding soon the same could be said of a visit there. But I'm sure we all wanna be at Disney....

 

[WDWDad13]

And with what Universal is adding soon the same could be said of a visit there. But I'm sure we all wanna be at Disney....

Ah so nice to see your magical posts this morning! I've missed you

I'm not gonna compare apples to oranges....but truth be told Uni needs way more to even come close to Disney offerings (and I'm not just talking about rides here) and they are going to run out of room way before then so....

I like how Uni is doing all they can with the room they have though. Impressive for sure but the steam in that train will stop when they run out of track down the road

 

[wm49rs]

Ah so nice to see your magical posts this morning! I've missed you

I'm not gonna compare apples to oranges....but truth be told Uni needs way more to even come close to Disney offerings (and I'm not just talking about rides here) and they are going to run out of room way before then so....

I like how Uni is doing all they can with the room they have though. Impressive for sure but the steam in that train will stop when they run out of track down the road

You're not going to compare fruits, but yet you still did. Excellent....

And somehow I don't think land is going to stop what Universal wants to do moving forward. That desire is coming from above, unlike at the other fruit....

 

[WDWDad13]

You're not going to compare fruits, but yet you still did. Excellent....

And somehow I don't think land is going to stop what Universal wants to do moving forward. That desire is coming from above, unlike at the other fruit....

So what are they gonna do just start bulldozing other property around then?