The rise and fall of Blizzard Entertainment

[m7600]

Blizzard used to be such a great company. Their video games were top-tier, they really cared about the products they were making. I played countless hours of Warcraft 2, StarCraft, Diablo 1 and 2, and Warcraft 3 way back in the day. But the company changed for the worse, in many ways. I wanted to share this video which discusses the rise and fall of Blizzard Entertainment.

 

[Black Elk]

Yeah, I mean there's no denying that they were living legend status for a good long spell. I remember trying to pretend I had the flu so I could stay home and play the og Warcraft on the computer at my dad's, but he was too hip to my scheme. 'Like kid aren't you too old try and pull that one?' Hehe I instantly cracked, couldn't sneak one past that dude. All weekend afterwards though. The first Diablo same deal. Then I bought BG1 at Frys (I love that little snippet in the video hehe). Starcraft too, level up! That was a pretty crazy couple years there right at the turn of the millennium. I remember Unreal, Starcraft, Shogun. Sorta right at the same time, then BG2.

I think for me they lost me on a monthly subscription angle. I remembered Everquest fondly and obviously it was a pretty good call on WoW to fill the coffers, but that whole concept of pay to play on the monthly dime, that just made it rough for peeps at a certain stage of life trying to like rent a room with a bunch of roommates. I guess 2008 is a marker, but I also remember 2004 with Enron and California going broke with all the furloughs and such too. Everybody put the squeeze on all at once there, so I think for me the enchantment started breaking a lit bit earlier. But anyhow, it's fun to see a take on that as like a modern history, when he says "the year I was born" it's like, oh damn! These games had some legs!!! hehe. Fun view!

Ps. Random aside, but I'm pretty sure the very first Warcraft game had the first custom scenario/map making suite I'd ever encountered in a PC game. You know where you could create a map and set up the specs then have a friend play it, just as a bonus deal. (I mean that's the sort of mentality that gets one to the largest wiki ever created for a fantasy setting, by making it not-transactional and instead like gifts from the heart.) The Warcraft map editor was a game changer for me. Many many maps later I still think of it for that little gem of an idea/tool. Such a great hook, totally iced it!

 

[Antimatter]

I remember when I first saw a PC game ever, it was WarCraft 2 - on my relatives' PC when we were visiting them. I was very young back then, and didn't even have a console (and no PC ofc). It was absolutely phenomenal to watch them play it. Probably that's why when I got my PC the first game there was Age of Empires I, that is how high my appreciation of that kind of game was, thanks to my initial impressions of WarCraft 2.

And then, ofc, my father played Diablo I. I played it only much later, several years ago, but the memory will stay forever how I watched him play it. My first Blizzard game was Diablo II which I absolutely adored, and could think of nothing else after passing my exams at school. At that time, we avidly played HoMM 3 and Diablo II with school friends, both Singleplayer and Multiplayer.

I bought Starcraft next, and I was fully into that. Particularly due to the brand (Blizzard), yeah, considering all the previous titles I had tried were so important for me, but more because I really liked RTS games back then, and Starcraft had phenomenal music and sound design, and was sci-fi.

There came a life period where I almost stopped playing due to focusing on education/work, only playing FIFA games with friends, and that's why I missed subsequent Blizzard games. But I kept my love for Diablo over the years, and was monitoring closely any news regarding the development of Diablo III. After years of watching over the progress (I remember they had a site where put all the news and showed character concepts etc), when Diablo III was actually released (and I was back to gaming at that point), it was such a let down due to horrendous design decisions about loot, monetization etc.

Because of my withdrawal from gaming between ~2004 and 2009, I totally missed Starcraft II, World of Warcraft, and other games. Diablo III launch wasn't a pleasant experience to watch, so it cooled down my interest in the studio.

Now, years after that, I learned clearly that games are not being created by "companies", they are created by people. And these people come and go. It's very difficult to expect the same level of quality, design, actually everything, from a totally different team. And we're talking about dozens of years.

That said, the Diablo II Resurrected remaster is one of the best remasters ever created, it was amazing to see and play it. Diablo IV seemed like a cool game, I just didn't get to play it yet, and wasn't ready to pay an increased price for it at launch. The post-release situation with Diablo IV wasn't ideal either.

 

[O_Bruce]

Blizzard used to be awesome and their games were guaranteed to come out good and polished. But, if over the years you keep making small changes, these will end up adding up. Is Blizzard still Blizzard when every one of its elements, be it employers, management, owners, work culture etc has been replaced? I my opinion, no. It is not the same company and it probably isn't going to go back to its roots. Unfortunately.

There is some hope in Microsoft acquiring Blizzard, but I guess only the future will tell. I'm not gonna lie, I'm mostly interested in how Diablo will be treated and if and when Diablo IV is going to fix is problems in a similar way Diablo III did with removing auction hourse, patch 2.0 and Reaper of Souls Expansion.

 

[m7600]

I learned clearly that games are not being created by "companies", they are created by people.

This is something that actually took me a quite a long time to understand, but I've reached the same conclusion.

I my opinion, no. It is not the same company and it probably isn't going to go back to its roots. Unfortunately.

I really want Blizzard to go back to its roots... but I agree that it's just not going to happen. I have the same problem with Wizards of the Coast. I want them to go back to how they were in the 90's, when they made awesome expansions for Magic: The Gathering. But it's just not going to happen.

 

[O_Bruce]

I forgot to share some trivia. I have on my Battle.net account two keys for Warcraft III and Frozen Throne. Despite legally owning these games, I cannot play them! On my launcher right now, I only have an option to purchase Reforged, despite the fact that months ago I could still play W3 and Frozen Throne (I just never had access to Reforged graphic). So basically, I own the games I cannot play, because reasons.

Now, remember the times when Microsoft brough Mojag, and therefore Minecraft? I recall that around this time I lost my acces to my Minecraft game too. And now, if I think about Microsoft acquiring Activison-Blizzard, it's funny to me that one company that scewed me over will buy other that also screwed me over. Lol.

 

[Zaxares]

I wouldn't call myself a real hardcore Blizzard fan (although I did play, and love, a lot of their seminal works from the 90's and early 00's), but yeah, it's saddening to see the fall of Blizzard. They were the last of the great development houses of the 90's (along with other companies like Bioware, Westwood, Maxis etc.) that eventually got swallowed up by bigger publishers. (Supposedly their in-house environment was actually pretty toxic to women and minorities for a very long time too, but they made such great games that we were willing to overlook that, but that's a discussion for another time.)

Ultimately, I have to lay the blame at the feet of corporate execs who looked at the money mobile gaming was bringing in and going "Why can't YOU do that?" to their PC/console divisions, ignoring the fact that they're marketing to two very different customer bases, and the monetization tactics that work for mobile gaming wind up being poison and alienating their target audience. I think Blizzard held out as long as they could, but as people retire or move on, resistance inevitably crumbles, and the execs get their way, to the detriment of their games as a whole.

 

[Fandraxx]

What will always strike me about Blizzard is how it just doesn't, from top to bottom, represent anything that the company stood for in it it's earlier days. They went from by gamers, for gamers, and literally pioneering new online systems to make their games that much better... to always-online DRM, banning their own professional players and being bought out by whatever morally ambiguous entity would hand them money.

A fall from grace if there ever was one.

 

[shmity72]

EA made a amazing titles...for 20 years. then shitter quarterly reports.

 

[mlnevese]

I just saw an ad for the mobile Warcraft game... If it's like the mobile Diablo you'll just need a quarter million dollars to play it...

 

[Skatan]

Never been particularly vivid about companies, but I was a big fan of many of their games. D2, WC3 and SC were all played relighously for many years. D3 I played a bit, liked but didn't love. Overwatch is the last one I've played and I enjoyed it, it still had that old Blizzard polish IMHO (though they should've stopped tinkering with it since the last year or two of its lifetime it just got mostly worse).

OW2 is a massive disaster, play-wise. Dunno if they actually make money from their scrummy money-schemes to lure the cash from kids. D4 seems to be launched as somewhat of a success but it kinda.. died down? I don't follow statistics, but the general 'buzz' I saw on reddit died down very quickly. Immortal everyone already know was a bust. There are many more examples of poor management, poor design, poor development and poor usage of old established franchises but D2 remastered stands out as the only good one really (maybe D4 too, but I dunno).

I don't really have a point with my ramblings, but I doubt I will ever buy their games again. I was leaning towards D4 on and off, but from friends I trust it seems to be worth one playthrough but it lacks the staying power that makes you come back for more. Microsoft buying them or not, as you guys said above, at the end of the day it's the people that make the games that actualyl makes the games, and what they make is just not my cup of tea.

Side note: Creative Assembly is kinda similar in a way. Anyone who was employed back when they created timeless classics are not in the company anymore and the people there now, most of them was probably not even born then and have no connection at all to the old games.

 

[Antimatter]

Let's look at some of the previous record of that gentleman:

Bobby Kotick must resign

New allegations in a report from the Wall Street Journal suggest the CEO of Activision Blizzard isn’t fit to fix the company

www.polygon.com

Report: Bobby Kotick Knew Of Activision Blizzard’s History Of Sexual Misconduct, Employees Walk Out Demanding His Resignation

A report by the Wall Street Journal reveals evidence that the Activision CEO was aware of the company's toxic culture, neglected to inform its board of directors, and reveals allegations against Kotick himself.

www.gameinformer.com

Activision Blizzard Lawsuits & Allegations Explained [2023 Update]

Two lawsuits were filed against Blizzard.

screenrant.com

Kotick blames scandals on "a very aggressive labor movement"

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick believes the company's image problems stem not from a workplace culture that spawn…

www.gamesindustry.biz

 

[shmity72]

Let's look at some of the previous record of that gentleman:

Bobby Kotick must resign

New allegations in a report from the Wall Street Journal suggest the CEO of Activision Blizzard isn’t fit to fix the company

www.polygon.com

Report: Bobby Kotick Knew Of Activision Blizzard’s History Of Sexual Misconduct, Employees Walk Out Demanding His Resignation

A report by the Wall Street Journal reveals evidence that the Activision CEO was aware of the company's toxic culture, neglected to inform its board of directors, and reveals allegations against Kotick himself.

www.gameinformer.com

Activision Blizzard Lawsuits & Allegations Explained [2023 Update]

Two lawsuits were filed against Blizzard.

screenrant.com

Kotick blames scandals on "a very aggressive labor movement"

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick believes the company's image problems stem not from a workplace culture that spawn…

www.gamesindustry.biz

good research.