The company has moved from a family company to a large conglomerate, so it is "normal" that the internal culture has changed, they say.
Blizzard Entertainment has lived through its annus horribilis since they presented Diablo: Immortal at BlizzCon 2018. In a relatively short period of time, several of the company's key figures have left the company. Among those who said goodbye are two of its founders, Michael Morhaime and Frank Pearse. In addition, in the background, the controversy triggered by the protests in Hong Kong continues to resonate. Meanwhile, Diablo's original creators, David Brevik, Max Schaefer and Erich Schaefer, have stated that Blizzared has changed "completely."
"It's not that something has changed, it has completely changed." This is what Brevik admits, which in an interview with PC Gamer has spoken long and hard about the subject. In fact, from the core of Blizzard's original developers, only Samwise Didier, art director, and Allen Adham, video president, remain with whom Brevik still has conversations regularly.
An empire of video games
“The old Blizzard is dead, confirms Max Shaefer. “When we left, there were about 180 employees in total. Now there are thousands. The empire as a whole is different, and Activision had no influence. At that point, it was simply Blizzard and then some anonymous corporate owner, Vivendi or whatever. ” Now, however, it is a "video game empire that should appease shareholders."
According to Erich Schaefer, at the time there was no discussion about the value of the shares: “We were not talking about the Chinese government or what they might want. The only thing we were discussing was what fans would like to see. It is not the case anymore, for better or worse. I don't blame them, they are a gigantic company.
The creators of Diablo argue that they would not have "survived" the growth of the company if they had stayed. "It would have made us crazy, because all we want to do is gather a team and develop the games we want to do." That is possible with a small group like the old Blizzard, but not with the large conglomerate they currently have.
Blizzard Entertainment announced Diablo 4 in the last BlizzCon 2019. In addition, it also works in Overwatch 2, although neither title has a date at the moment.
