A new team has been established at Blizzard, which is now set to develop several games. The catch: most of them are not ‘real’ Blizzard employees.
Quite some time ago, Blizzard mentioned that they were working on several projects spanning all franchises. But it has now become known that Microsoft has even formed a brand new team at Blizzard, which is supposed to create a series of ‘AA games’ with reduced costs. This should delight fans of the popular Blizzard franchises – but it also brings some worries.
Blizzard games continually produce curious, unforgettable stories:
What has been revealed? As several sources confirmed to the magazine Windows Central, there is supposed to be a new team at Blizzard that largely consists of (previously) non-Blizzard employees. The developers come from companies like King or Activision and have now been integrated into Blizzard to work on smaller projects and equip all popular franchises with new, smaller titles.
King is primarily known for ‘Candy Crush Saga’, and the studio is otherwise specialized in mobile games. However, it has not been confirmed whether all the new games will be mobile titles.
What is the goal behind this team? Microsoft aims to reduce costs in game development. The costs of AAA games have been steadily increasing in recent years. Therefore, large studios are supposed to collaborate with others that have significant expertise in specific areas. This should result in smaller teams being necessary and thus reduce the costs of game development. In addition, it should allow popular franchises to receive games that may not directly match the expertise (for example, of Blizzard).
The result will likely be that in the coming years we will see more small games related to Warcraft, StarCraft, Overwatch, and Diablo, where one should not expect them to be the large ‘blockbusters’.
But do not worry: Because this is a new, small team, the larger teams are still working on correspondingly extensive titles. For example, World of Warcraft is already working on three new expansions, and a fourth is already planned, while Diablo IV will also receive its first expansion, Vessel of Hatred, in just a few weeks.
Other games, on the other hand, have already been canceled. The survival game announced by Blizzard just a few years ago is now history.
Is this normal? That Blizzard no longer develops solely “in-house” has been the case repeatedly in recent years. Particularly notorious is Diablo Immortal, which was largely developed by NetEase in China. Even with Warcraft 3: Reforged, external help was likely sought to revise the new models.
Both titles received very mixed reviews. Even though Diablo Immortal was likely a financial success, the very aggressive monetization was harshly criticized, which is unprecedented even for mobile games.
Considering all this, the discontent and doubts within the community can be quite understandable. It remains to be seen whether Blizzard, under Microsoft’s auspices and with the help of King and other studios, can also develop smaller games that nonetheless meet what the player base desires.
