The publisher Activision acquired the gaming studio Blizzard in December 2007 and became Activision Blizzard. 15 years later, many players believe: The decline of the beloved gaming titan began with the purchase. The greed for profit took center stage, until Pay2Win titles like Diablo Immortal were released. Former lead designer of Diablo 3, Jay Wilson, now emphasizes this interpretation of the last 15 years of Blizzard in a talk.
Where does the information come from? At the “Portland Retro Gaming Expo,” three veterans of game development discussed on a panel on October 15. The gentlemen all once belonged to Blizzard and Diablo 3.
- Matt Uelman took over the music and sound design
- Matt Householder was a producer at Blizzard North
- Jay Wilson was the lead designer of Diablo 3
The talk can be viewed on YouTube as a 47-minute video (via youtube). The website PcGamer has summarized important points from the talk.
Always Trouble Between Blizzard North and South
Why was Blizzard North closed? There apparently has always been a competition between Blizzard North, where Diablo was made all those years, and Blizzard South, where WoW originated and where Blizzard’s headquarters still are today.
Householder says:
We at Blizzard North referred to ourselves as BN – We called Blizzard South BS.
Matt Householder, Producer
It should be noted: “BS” is an abbreviation that stands for Bullshit in English – for “nonsense”.
Jay Wilson adds: Even at Blizzard’s headquarters, they would have known some unfriendly names for Blizzard North.
WoW Earned More Money than the CIA with Crack Sales
In any case, the decision to close Blizzard North was made by Blizzard itself, not by Vivendi or outsiders, as is often reported. The balance of power had shifted radically with the success of WoW.
Composer Uelman explains:
WoW earned more money back then than the CIA did when it sold crack in 1998. And so Mike Morhaime, whom I liked, had all that money and all the power in the situation. And maybe it wasn’t an inappropriate action – no matter how it turned out. It may have been the right decision at the time.
Matt Uelmen, Music & Sound
So they let Activision off the hook. Apparently, Blizzard North fell apart back then because the fathers of the game wanted to go in a different direction and left Blizzard.
Heroes of the Storm Felt the Pressure from Activision Blizzard
What was it like with Activision? Wilson says it wasn’t that something changed immediately with the purchase by Activision, but the change came over time: He uses the analogy of a frog in boiling water:
- If you throw the frog into boiling water, it will jump out
- If you heat the water slowly, the frog will not notice the looming danger and will be slowly cooked to death.
The effect of Activision on Blizzard was like a frog in boiling water: At first, you notice nothing. But later, as the business models for the products progressed, the influence became more and more evident. There was enormous pressure to deliver on the new products.
Jay Wilson.
The Free2Play game Heroes of the Storm was apparently destroyed in meetings with Activision – they only wanted to know what would come out in the end, how they could get even more out of it.
Diablo 3 was not so affected, as it pursued a premium model in the box.
But even then, Activision Blizzard was very interested in Diablo Immortal – it was all “Activision Blizzard.” They wanted a “very strong” Free2Play Diablo, explains Wilson.
Top Talents Leave Out of Frustration Over Activision
How did this affect Blizzard? According to Wilson, many executives at Blizzard gradually left the company because they were frustrated with Activision’s reorientation.
It was no longer about making better products – but it was primarily about making more money:
There are many bad things about Blizzard and there are many great things, but the best thing was: When I was at Blizzard, there was the saying: We always want to be the guys with the white hats, we always want to be the good guys.
So if we want money from our players – and of course we do, we are a company – but we always wanted to take money for something we thought was reasonable. This came into conflict with some of Activision’s ideas.
Jay Wilson
What’s Behind It: What Wilson says completely aligns with anonymous insider reports about what is happening at Activision Blizzard, and it aligns with the messages from the studio that we can observe and that are officially confirmed.
Practically all known names have left Blizzard in recent years: David Brevik, Mike Morhaime, Ben Brode, Jeff Kaplan, Tom Chilton, Ghostcrawler, Chris Metzen – the list is endless.
Already 4 years ago, reports surfaced that Activision is now much more focused on money:
- Blizzard had been strongly focused on quality before Activision, developing things until they were “finished”
- However, Activision was dissatisfied that Blizzard was releasing so few new games, applying pressure and cutting positions that were not directly related to game development
Two years ago, a major report emerged that there was something wrong within Blizzard, because the frog had probably noticed how hot the water had become in which it was now sitting:
New insider report sheds a dark light on what is happening at Blizzard
Your opinion is important to us!
Do you like the article? Then let us know!
![In Pokémon GO you will not encounter Zorua today, the ‘Ditto Pokémon’ [Update]](https://images.mein-mmo.de/medien/2022/10/Pokemon-GO-Zorua-Titel-Update-Gestrichen.jpg)
