On Oct. 15, 2020, Blizzard informed members of Team 1 that it was reorganizing the entire division, according to the people who worked on Warcraft III: Reforged. In the following weeks, members of the team were given opportunities to interview for jobs elsewhere within Blizzard. Those who did not find positions in the company were gradually cut. Others left for independent studios recently started by high-profile company veterans, such as Frost Giant Inc. and DreamHaven Inc., started by Blizzard co-founder and former Chief Executive Officer Mike Morhaime, whose departure widely signaled the beginning of Activision’s takeover.
Team 1 was also responsible for the games Heroes of the Storm and StarCraft II. Blizzard slowed down development support of Heroes of the Storm in 2018. On the same day that Blizzard said it was reorganizing the division, it announced publicly that StarCraft II was ending all ongoing development.
Not the point of the article, but still sheds some light on how and why SC2 support suddenly ended.
Also D2 remaster/remake, few years ago I’d be looking forward to it. Now, I dunno.
It has been a known fact for a long time. Look at all the franchises:
SC2 is what I’d call the last bastion of Blizzard (every other franchise has been touched by Activision in a major way). IAPs and loot box systems have been introduced to all others:
Hearthstone - We have HS to thank for the prevalence of loot boxes today. They made RNG popular.
Heroes of the Storm - Dead game (as officially declared). Plus they attempted to move to a loot box system for the skins for some time.
Diablo - Hail Diablo Immortal if anyone recalls the ‘April Fools’’ joke. D4 hype is IMO overrated because it looks exactly like D3 with slightly better graphics (just my own opinion, you don’t have to agree). It seemed like a game that was created in haste to appease the fans after the outrage.
World of Warcraft - Pay to level up, people. Pay $ for gold. Pay for your new pet. Let’s not forget bots that are left alone because:
Banning too often will giveaway the banning criteria;
Bots are, in a sense, paying customers too.
Overwatch - Loot box for skins.
Let’s not forget that there has been a lot of other matters:
Stories about employees being laid off, only to have their role put up for rehire with more responsibilities.
France office closure (was it France?)
Blizzard is long gone. It no longer exists. What is left is a money minded Activision.
Activision and EA appear to contribute very little value to its most important stakeholder group (customers) that is not mentioning another group which is also important for the healthiness of the industry (developers).
If i have to do another ethical course in another commerce program, i think either of them makes very good case study for unethical behaviors.
It’s surprisingly sad that some of the leading companies in the gaming industry are also the most unethical ones and the customers who actually pay for the existence of the industry is at the receiving end. Meanwhile companies like Activision and EA can just switch their market/industry after they finished exploiting the goodwill of the customers.
Perhaps evilness is the ultimate goal of mankind where the strong, influent, rich and famous have the power to decide the fate of those below in the social ladder.
Also keep your voice down if you don’t want to have your acc banned by A-B.
Actually, to be more precise, this applies to many other companies, and not just the gaming industry.
The key problem here is that people want short term gains over sustainable long term ones. As a result, many companies seek quick funding from investors, and so they tend to give investors a say in the company (proportionate to the amount of investment). This is NOT required legally in pretty much every country that I know.
As what a famous leadership speaker (Simon Sinek) mentioned on 2 accounts:
Prioritising shareholders over employees is the same as a football club prioritising the fans over the players.
In the football context, it is painfully obvious that it is the wrong approach; but interestingly, when it comes to corporate business, we seem blind to the problem.
In the military, we reward people who sacrifice themselves to save others.
In business, we reward people who sacrifice others to save themselves.
Or perhaps because people still buying from them despite that the very same people voice out their dissatisfaction with the company give them the wrong idea that they can get away from everything.
Just like those haters from Diablo 3 (I like Diablo 3 btw) who literally bought the D3 license so they can complain at the D3 forum how they hated Diablo 3. Does this look like a perfect strategy to boycott a company that they don’t like?
