At Blizzard, there are cutbacks. Projects are being canceled. It seems to affect games that we will never see now.
For fans of Xbox and all game developers somehow under Microsoft’s umbrella, it was a dark day. Because Xbox will lay off a total of 3,200 employees over the course of this year and next. This time, there is also unrest among fans of World of Warcraft, Overwatch, and Diablo – as Activision is also affected by these cuts.
Until now, Blizzard had not been significantly impacted by most changes at Microsoft. At least, that’s what was always communicated outwardly. Microsoft had simply acquired Activision Blizzard, but Blizzard was able to continue operating pretty much as they had before.
Some are also worried about the future of WoW – there’s currently a lot of content:
That Asha Shar now explicitly lists Activision raises significant concerns among some fans. Because she said:
We are also making reductions in other areas and in some cases, we are shifting the focus to higher-priority projects. These changes have varying impacts on Activision, Bethesda/ZeniMax, Blizzard, King, Mojang, and XBOX Game Studios. None of our publicly announced game projects are being canceled as part of these reductions.
The canceled projects will likely remain secret
Yes, there is reassurance from Shar that announced games will not be canceled. But that is precisely what drives fans’ concerns. For years, there have been well-substantiated rumors that Blizzard is working on several games in their beloved franchises. There has been talk for years about a new game set in the StarCraft universe that is in development.
From various leaks – with not entirely verifiable credibility – we also know that, for example, an Arthas action RPG is reportedly in the works.
These are games that have not been officially announced. They are projects that possibly have already seen many years of work. Perhaps they are experiments that deviate from what Blizzard has done so far. It seems likely that these projects could have been canceled if an “order from above” came that they should concentrate on the familiar and the proven.
It is exactly these yet-to-be-announced games that I worry about. Because they could be Blizzard’s attempts to explore new paths and detach themselves a bit from the major flagships like World of Warcraft, Overwatch, or Diablo. But that can only happen if these projects actually see the light of day and are not coldly squashed during “restructuring”.
Accordingly, I now look at the future with concern. And I hope that there will be some revelations afterwards about which games or projects have fallen victim to this reduction.
After all, there was already an incident in the past where even an announced game was quickly shelved. Blizzard had introduced a survival game with initial artworks and design ideas – but just a few months later, it was already stated that the project would never see the light of the digital world. But what do you think? Are you also worried about games – whether existing or still unannounced? Or do you believe this restructuring will actually lead to something good?
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