Why is everybody leaving Blizzard?

[cFortyfive]

Long Careers come to an end, that is normal.

Certainly a lot of them lasted incredibly wrong by current standards.

Theres cosmetic items

Not sure if you recognize it but cosmetic microtransactions are what stand behind kinda successful titles like dota2, lol and csgo. Maybe you heared of those.

[Deleted]

This is commonplace for every expansions release and every game release ever, only difference is.... MMO-C is posting about it.

The only thing these threads are showing are people who've never had a long career not understanding the need to change things up.

Most of these people are leaving due to legion being a good note to step off the wagon with. They feel they've left wow in a good state, and it really is a good state. Never seen so many new players since Wrath and concurrent numbers seem to be way up for the moment at least.

Regardless, I see alot of people leaving for a new opporunity with RIOT.... Might be that Riot is gonna attempt that F2P market MMO.

[Mondroc]

from look of it 8.0 will be last chapter of wow - it all sums up - metzen written the ending , quest dev has probably already designed main lore questing etc etc - with coming months we will probably see more and more people leaving game to not be the last person who turns off lights

What?! Did Blizzard just get sick of making a lot of money or something? What kind of crazy world do you live in that people shut down money machines just because?

Edit: Thing is, if senior people are going to leave, the usual time is just before or after a launch when the majority of their work is done. If they are going to leave, it would be a bit of a dick move to wait until you are half done with an expansion and then leave, it would look horrible on your resume (assuming you're choosing to leave and not going off on maternity, can't work anymore or have other personal reasons for leaving immediately.) The idea that Blizzard is shutting down WoW is insane. It may not make as much money as it once did, but it still makes far, far, far more than it would need to to justify continuing.

[TyrianFC]

To you, world of warcraft might be your life. To a blizzard employee, it's a job.

You fill in the rest.... using a little common sense.

[Sierra85]

its either a sinking ship, or its a coincidence? it can't be both.

[Aggrophobic]

If you're into last months news, you must have noticed that on last months, lots of workers are leaving blizzard to work on other companys.


Any guesses on why is this happening, and how it can affect blizzard titles?

Everyones not leaving. They did finish a large project just now, so if you're lokking to leave, now would be a good time without pissing off your co-workers or the management.
If you want a new job after this, quitting your job in the middle of a project might not be the best idea.

[Redblade]

While, sure, people move on it is however a fair few long term higher up guys leaving so it's not just something to brush off. Not like the game will be shut down because of it but it might have some effect on how it will evolve out of it. If it's for good or bad only time can tell.

[Lochton]

If you're into last months news, you must have noticed that on last months, lots of workers are leaving blizzard to work on other companys.


Any guesses on why is this happening, and how it can affect blizzard titles?

A lot of the names are from LOOOONG careers and some might wish a different path finally, or retirement.

[The5thVegetable]

The only people leaving are Blizzard vets- people who have been there a decade or more. The old people are moving on, and leaving the company in the hands of a newer generation. The company isn't dying, it's just the old ones growing weary and wanting to leave what they've built up with someone else- someone else being a newer generation in which they've decided to put their trust.

[caervek]

They're all leaving to form a new Activision free company, hence the HD Diablo 2 remake site that's appeared XD

Or not :P

[Maudib]

This is normal turn-over. It literally happens after every expansion. The only big news is Metzen going.

The rest is people Chicken Little-ing over normal change.

I wish you guys had been around at release. WoW lost dozens of senior people just before and just after it came out. There were plenty of people going "OMG WOW WIL BE A FLOP RATS LEAVING A SINKING SHIP!""""!!!1112" back then, too.

The amount of denial is overwhelming. They are losing a lot of people in a very short period of time. But hey... close your eyes. If you can't see it, it isn't happening.

[pinkz]

its either a sinking ship, or its a coincidence? it can't be both.

not a sinking ship, activision-blizz stock has almost tripled in last 2 years. that being said, if you read the stock reports WOW at times is barely or not mentioned and is not the big money maker that all WOW players think it is.

alot of older DEVs maybe actually retiring, also possibly behind the scenes asked or offered early retiements to make room for new DEVs that cost less money. happens in other industries all the time.

btw, had you invested $10000 in 2004 in ATVI, or got stock options like some DEVs may have gotten, you would be able to retire now too

[Adrim]

There is no opportunity for advancement. Blizzard has very few management positions open, and virtually no executive positions. The people at the very top are not actually leaving, or if they do it's to move sideways within the larger corporate structure.

This means if you're a guy who has been working there for 5-6 years and have maxed out what they can really pay you for that job, and that's not enough to support you or your new family etc etc then you have to find another job somewhere else. It would be great if Blizzard could give you greater responsability in order to be able to pay you more, but at the end of the day Blizzard would be a building of all chiefs and no Indians.

[Mojo03]

They realized they screwed up big time and lost their dignity the last couple of years with microtransaction heavy games like Hearthstone and Overwatch. The games aren't about passion anymore. They are about money now (as their main focus).

And now with World of Warcraft being artificially enlongagated through very long cooldowns that last multiple weeks they want people to pay for the game each month. This was probably the tipping point for many old blizzard guys that don't want to stand up for it anymore

It's been like that since Wrath, since they merged with Activision, this not a recent development at all.

If you say they're a business and of course they are just trying to make money, you aren't an old school Blizzard fan, because their stuff after the merger has a noticeably different feel.

Their stuff used to be essentially art, now its a product.

[hyperhyve]

They realized they screwed up big time and lost their dignity the last couple of years with microtransaction heavy games like Hearthstone and Overwatch. The games aren't about passion anymore. They are about money now (as their main focus).

And now with World of Warcraft being artificially enlongagated through very long cooldowns that last multiple weeks they want people to pay for the game each month. This was probably the tipping point for many old blizzard guys that don't want to stand up for it anymore

This made me laugh so hard. Thank you for this sarcastic jewel of a post.
Or.. were.. you.. serious.. ?
Honestly, this must be the most naive comment that I've ever read in the whole internet.

[thedingleberry]

This happens alot at companies right after a huge project comes to an end. In this case, Legion was probably a huge multiyear project and now that it is out and people are transitioning to other things, some people are using it as a good time to leave and do other things.

[Siq1ne]

They realized they screwed up big time and lost their dignity the last couple of years with microtransaction heavy games like Hearthstone and Overwatch. The games aren't about passion anymore. They are about money now (as their main focus).

And now with World of Warcraft being artificially enlongagated through very long cooldowns that last multiple weeks they want people to pay for the game each month. This was probably the tipping point for many old blizzard guys that don't want to stand up for it anymore

I really hope nobody reads this and actually believes you.Only a naive child thinks this way!

It's just a matter of time before everybody retires/finds a new place. On top of that you can clearly see there was a ton of effort put into Legion so some of them are just wore out and ready to rest. Others are finding better opportunities because of the great work they did in Legion.

If you think Metzen retiring has anything to do with what you said then you're absolutely delirious.

[Yorgh]

Isn't the bigger question why is everyone leaving for Riot?
What are they planing? - The 2 creators of Riot recently made a 10y anniversary video ending with something like - "we would like for our players to be able to experience more games from Riot" indicating they have something up their sleeves.

Who thinks there could be a LoL MMO?

[Tuesdaywastaken]

There is no opportunity for advancement. Blizzard has very few management positions open, and virtually no executive positions. The people at the very top are not actually leaving, or if they do it's to move sideways within the larger corporate structure.

This means if you're a guy who has been working there for 5-6 years and have maxed out what they can really pay you for that job, and that's not enough to support you or your new family etc etc then you have to find another job somewhere else. It would be great if Blizzard could give you greater responsability in order to be able to pay you more, but at the end of the day Blizzard would be a building of all chiefs and no Indians.

This is a situation that all large companies face, and i do not see why Blizz would be any different. The dead mans shoes progression path is always strong in a successful business where you have long serving staff. I work in a very similar industry and i'm the young kid in my part of the office... with nine years under my belt.

[Mojo03]

To me, Metzen leaving makes sense. I've seen him in person at Blizzcon (2007) and he literally was the best part of going there. He was hilarious and full of energy and just awesome to listen to. I've seen him speak several times online over the years and I feel you can tell the guy was just slowly getting more burnt out and just didn't care as much anymore over the years.

I personally think he was not a fan of what Blizzard became after they became the WoW company and he liked the old school Blizzard. You can tell he talks really fondly about that and how it felt like a frat. Then he talks about it now and says it feels like a corporation with different departments and tons of people whom he has no idea who they are.

I'd assume that's what the Bonfire studios that has 5 senior Blizzard employees will be more like and why it was formed and wouldn't be surprised to see Metzen go there in a few months if he does go back into the industry.