Blizzard Boss Doesn't Rule Out Return of Beloved IPs; World Doesn't End on Diablo, Warcraft and Overwatch
Microsoft's acquisition of Blizzard may have a very positive impact on the studio. The team is expected to receive more freedom of action, and its head does not rule out the return of less popular brands, including the StarCraft series.
Recent years have not been entirely successful for Blizzard Entertainment, and Actvision's management style should be considered one of the main reasons for this. In the past, the team had practically a free hand in doing what they thought was best. Unfortunately, this freedom was gradually limited until it was eventually reduced to almost nothing. Now there are chances that this will change. All thanks to the acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft.
At the end of October, two weeks after the deal was finalized, Blizzard was visited by a group of people from Microsoft, headed by Phil Spencer.
- The heads of the studio's various teams hurriedly prepared Power Point presentations to show the vision of financial development for the studio's various IPs.
- Phil Spencer, however, was not interested in them - instead, he wanted to meet the developers and find out what they were working on.
- The whole event was highly informal and ended with a barbecue party, during which Phil Spencer talked for hours with various Blizzard employees.
As reported by Jason Schreier from the Bloomberg Agency, during all these meetings and conversations, people from Microsoft made it clear that they are not going to tell Blizzard what to do. Indeed, they prefer to rely on their judgment and are mainly interested in helping the studio's employees realize their creative visions.
- The development teams are currently filled with optimism, as everything indicates that Microsoft will restore the studio's former autonomy. Blizzard's head of development, Mike Ybbara, stated that Phil Spencer has communicated to him that he wants the studio to be more like the independent team it was long ago.
- Ybbara believes that under Microsoft's wing the studio will be able to experiment more freely. The team will continue to intensively develop its three biggest brands, namely Diablo, Warcraft and Overwatch, but there will also be a chance for the return of other series, including most notably StarCraft.
Mike Ybbara stresses that first he will need people who are able to create something new and good in the universe of StarCraft. Under Activision, RTS games were considered too unprofitable to invest in, which caused many of the most experienced developers specializing in the genre to leave Blizzard. Ybbara didn't say so explicitly, but it's possible that the next installment of the brand will be a different type of game. Alternatively, the studio may simply hire specialists in real-time strategies.
Recall that Blizzard became part of Activision in 2008. For a long time the studio operated as an independent entity. This began to change at the end of the past decade. Bobby Kotick pushed to cut costs and significantly accelerate the pace of game development. This resulted in the exodus of many veterans from the studio, including its president and co-founder Mike Morhaime.
Microsoft has a different approach. For the past decade, the conglomerate has given acquired studios a lot of leeway, so one can expect the same with Blizzard.
