I’ve heard this claim multiple times. Is there a source for this?
As a point of reference, how many developers do they have on retail?
It’s really not too farfetched to imagine the Classic team being that small. Activision’s mission statement lately is “Cut Costs.”
I’d be surprised if there’s any proof though. My guess is it’s all speculation.
Are you bored or something? Just looking to start a new conspiracy?
Yes to both.
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Seems impossibly small, but we can be fairly certain the Classic team is significantly smaller than the retail team.
Probably at least dozens. Many more in their team including all the artists, analysts, testers, musical composers and others to create sounds, many many more for other essential roles.
touche.
/10chars
Is it really important to know?
Retail actually develops new content. Classic doesn’t.
Edit: Classic shouldn’t, that is. Hopefully that is the case.
I’m not sure that is accurate. I was reviewing Activision Blizzard’s 2018 Q4 financial report and they state that they are looking to increase their developer count by 20% in 2019.
Ion watching over both of them then the 2 peeps that talked about it so that leaves one person to do graphics? Also if it’s 4 people why do you need a lead engineer and lead designer.
Yep and one of the ways they’re doing that is by cutting costs in support. Hopefully that was for the best. We’ll see.
I haven’t seen any confirmed reports of how many are in the team working on Classic or on Retail.
That said, I expect the Classic team is much, MUCH smaller than the team working on Retail.
Classic is a niche product. Like the gold edition of Starcraft 2. It’s not a flagship product for the company like Retail.
Classic is also recycled content. As such, it does not need a team of hundreds of artists and story designers working on it. A few designers to mame game decisions and a bunch of programmers to update databases and make sure it works is probably all Classic needs.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the team working on Classic is 15 people or less, while the team working on Retail is a few hundred people.
I also expect that Classic isn’t going to get a large advertising campaign like Retail gets every time an expansion comes out.
I’d love to see a source on this too. However, from the way they talk about the team it seems like more than 4 people. Maybe not more than 20, but definitely more than 4.
Reminds me of how Nintendo only had 4 people building NES classics in their basements. Then 1 year later, they doubled their production staff for the super NES classic and doubled their profits. Here’s looking forward to TBC: classic next year 
Not surprising.
Every project I have ever been on that had a half dozen or more was always teetering on the edge of catastrophe or spinning it’s wheels needlessly.
Small team approach is best approach.
Honestly i don’t know where you are hearing this crap. They have to have at least 5 people working on it.
I doubt it’s just 4, but it’s possible to do it with 4.
Dev 1: Database table conversion to new standards
Dev 2: Server source code snippets moved from old standalone server model to the virtual server (cloud gaming) model to work with resources.
Dev 3: Art/fixes. Fine tuning graphical components and UI elements. Ensures missing artifacts are corrected.
Dev 4: Supervises project and helps in areas needed, keeps team on deadline for certain tasks. Compiles corrections into client every monday (Monday because you’d want to review throughout the week.
Done.
I would think a company this large would have ATLEAST double that, not including CMs and Project leads. I’m simply stating that 4 people can do much of the heavy lifting with the proper skill sets.
I have a guess where someone came up with the number 4, which is the job/career postings originally made as well as the later art assets one. Beyond that, I suspect there are quite a few more than 4, even if we don’t count all the management above them, because there were people internally who could ask to be part of the project, or applications they’ve received in the past they could have contacted people about.
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you are a special kind of snowflake
For those interested in staffing problems for large-scale software projects, you might want to read “The Mythical Man Month” by Fred Brooks. One of the principal takeaway messages in the book is that throwing bodies at a software project WILL extend the schedule. Always. So, as a rule of thumb, S/W companies will often understaff a project. So, don’t be surprised if the numbers of engineers are low. Having said this, I have my own thoughts.
I doubt there are only 4 engineers. Ten would be my guess. However, it’s not beyond the realm of possibility. It all depends on how Blizz organizes their development projects. For example, I worked on Microsoft’s NT operating system back in the late 90s. It might surprise you, but the number of engineers who were dedicated to O/S development were pretty small (e.g., the file system guys, driver writers, the kernel guys, and the boot team). On the other hand, we were dependent on the compiler, network, security, support and testing, product management , and documentation groups. Altogether Microsoft threw hundreds of people at the job of which maybe 10% were dedicated to the O/S. Classic is probably no different.
Because Classic involves little new design (BNET integration notwithstanding), these engineers probably spend most of the time updating and migrating the software and fixing bugs. These tasks are not manpower intensive. Completing them requires expertise, not manpower. For example, updating and integrating the database is one of the most risky and difficult objectives, so look for Blizz to have a couple of experienced, heavy-duty DB gods - but not 50 people.
OTOH, to push Classic out the door will require hundreds of people involving a test group, a documentation group, a network group, a security group, etc. These groups while vital to Classic are probably not dedicated to Classic. In a large S/W company like Blizz they also work for, and support, other projects. It’ll take hundreds of people to get Classic off the ground, but the hands-on engineers likely constitute the smallest group.
Well, sorry. I didn’t mean to go on for so long but I hadn’t thought of this in a while.
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Why would it matter? They are literally just porting the old code to work with the new system, they have given us a timeframe.