Why is everybody leaving Blizzard?

[Deleted]

Except warcraft, starcraft, overwatch, hearthstone and diablo suggest that there are employees in the company who make decent games. Who are they?

Or, could it be that it's the company as a whole, and not just specific developers, who bring us these amazing products? I mean, a bit like when you see an actor give a great performance in an amazing movie or TV show, and then you watch a new movie or TV show of that actor, and you realize they're just horrible.

Sometimes it's the environment and people around you that push you to do great things, and it might just be that without those things one doesn't amount to much.

[Raelbo]

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,

Some quick Googling reveals the following facts:
1) Blizzard has 4700 odd employees
2) People work on average 4.4 years in a job

Ergo one should expect roughly 1000 resignations from Blizzard per year if they were the norm.

My perception is that Blizzard has a much lower loss rate than that and that the people who do leave have generally been working there a lot longer than the average. Eg Chris Metzen retired after more than 20 years at Blizzard.

So to answer your question: People are leaving Blizzard because that is what people do and the numbers involved aren't indicative of anything untoward happening at Blizzard.

and how it can affect blizzard titles?

The loss of critical people can always have a negative impact on an organisation. But it really depends on how robust the organisation is and how many people leave over a short period of time.

If any organisation loses a significant number of staff over a short period of time they would expect to struggle. So it makes sense that when you perceive that "lots of workers are leaving" that you'd be concerned. However "lots" is a relative term. For an organisation the size of Blizzard their losses are actually pretty small and given how successful they are as an organisation, I would expect that their titles won't be greatly affected.

[Alvito]

Well they can't all retire like Metzen, so of course they have new jobs. If you leave a job by choice with nothing else lined up you are an idiot.

[Karthius]

I mean these are the guys that were responsible for WOD so that's fine if they go. However we see how the next expansion goes without them on board. That will be the true test of time. I think we be fine the new game designers are kinda retarded in class balance however.

[Rakoth]

Some quick Googling reveals the following facts:
1) Blizzard has 4700 odd employees
2) People work on average 4.4 years in a job

Ergo one should expect roughly 1000 resignations from Blizzard per year if they were the norm.

My perception is that Blizzard has a much lower loss rate than that and that the people who do leave have generally been working there a lot longer than the average. Eg Chris Metzen retired after more than 20 years at Blizzard.

I would say that your 2) is quite generous for the software industry. I don't have time to google right now, but I would suggest that it's closer to 3 (from my own experience as a software dev).

To the OP: If anyone on this forum was able to answer that question without knowing the internals of a company like Blizzard, I would suggest they leave the forums and start speculating on the stock market. If you can take a few random events and infer the state of a company, you can make a TON of money in stock. Just saying... Anyone truly able to answer this question is too busy analyzing stock news and day trading. All we are going to get here is a bunch of people prone to confirmation bias seeing things they want to see.

My take, and it was someone else's post:
Companies are usually giant pyramids. As you move up, there are less and less people in the job you can be promoted to. Senior folks, like some of the names that are quitting, usually have smaller and smaller windows of opportunity in the same company. The only way around that is to go out into a new company, or start your own.

There is only one CEO in a company, if the COO wants to get promoted, he usually needs to get the CEO fired (bad idea, as the whole C level team gets replaced in that case) or needs to be given the chance to be a CEO somewhere else.

I am senior software developer being groomed as a manager, I can either wait for my manager to leave the company, or get promoted (above the 4 other managers in her type of role), or I can stay as a senior and follow a technical path. The fastest way to get a manager role for me right now, is to join a company looking for a manager. This is true in most industries. You hit a ceiling where you need to replace someone to get promoted.

[Gimlix]

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

"From the look off it"

What look off it? There is nothing to lead that 8.0 will be the last WoW expansion.
You know what a company cares about most, Money.
Does WoW still make a chunk of money? Ow you bet it does.

If Everquest can live for yeaaaaars with 1 million subscribers. then don't think WoW won't.

[Luckx]

Most ppl who created Original World of Warcraft aka so called Vanilla, left Blizzard pre Cata/MOP release.

[Hhavok]

It may be that it's something that the longer term (WoW) employees have been thinking about for a while, and leaving during Legion's release allowed them to leave on a good note. Instead of abandoning ship when they were really needed, they got to leave after a job well done.

[TheTaurenOrc]

It may be a natural churn and some of these guys have been with Blizzard for a very long time, but this is still a huge problem for them.

A core part of the Warcraft creative team have left in the last few weeks alone. Senior Vice President, Story and Franchise Development, the Director of Story and Creative Development and the Lead Character Artist.

I can only assume that those of you who are brushing this off have never worked somewhere when a hugely talented and influential person has left, especially in a leadership position. It leaves a void and big shoes to fill.

[Raelbo]

You know what a company cares about most, Money.

This isn't strictly accurate. The most successful companies in the world find the intersection of making money, doing what they're passionate about and doing what they are good at.

While being profitable is important, caring most about money (ie aiming to maximise profit) is generally a bad way of building and sustaining a successful organisation. You have to balance the three factors.

[Deleted]

The software company I work for just posted a quarterly net income of 1.8 billion dollars. In my division of 25k people we see 50+ people leave each week and at the same time we hire people to replace them. People easily making 6 figures with ridiculous benefits.

Success means nothing. People leave because they want change. I applaud those who stay in their jobs for years like myself. (18 years) but at the same time I envy those with the courage to take the leap towards change. Change is good. New blood at Blizzard is good as well.

Of course, like always, there are exceptions.

[Hexian]

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.

I have been playing this game for over a decade and been on MMO-C for 7 years of that, I have never seen this many people (especially prominent ones) leave the company like this currently. I am not trying to tin foil hat any speculations, but to simply dismiss this as "normal turn over" is being absurdly naive.

[Aleksej89]

Working for big companies is very restricting.
You can not do anything without checking with the 10 layers of management and financial departments above you.

Any idea or creative design you might have will be scrutinized by those departments.
None of them are gamers or are interested in fun - they just want the safest way to get $$$$

[micwini]

Sure guys. A bunch of people all leaving in one month is just "people changing jobs all the time" yeah sure.
Something is definately brewing over there.

[Tharkkun]

I have been playing this game for over a decade and been on MMO-C for 7 years of that, I have never seen this many people (especially prominent ones) leave the company like this currently. I am not trying to tin foil hat any speculations, but to simply dismiss this as "normal turn over" is being absurdly naive.

Social media also didn't really exist 7 years ago so you had no idea who came and went outside of the moderators on the forums. These guys that recently left were there less than 7 years as well. 5 years.

[Hexian]

Social media also didn't really exist 7 years ago so you had no idea who came and went outside of the moderators on the forums. These guys that recently left were there less than 7 years as well. 5 years.

Umm, no. Where are you getting these numbers? Both the last two have been at Blizzard longer than 5 years, and that's not including Metzen.

[Staalsy]

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

[Citation needed]

WoW is a license to print money. It isn't ending any time soon

Sent from my SM-G935P using Tapatalk

[TheTaurenOrc]

[Citation needed]

WoW is a license to print money. It isn't ending any time soon

Yeh, exactly! They're gonna slap a new frock on the Lich King for us and make him dance for our pleasure. Bleedm' for all they got.

[Dequanacus]

Yeah but companies don't tend to see a mass exodus of employees in a short amount of time like Blizz has unless something is up.

They weren't laid off and a number of them left shortly after Legion launched. Seems more like they wanted to leave at an appropriate time rather than leaving on bad terms.

[greysaber]

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

well, they're probably worried about hillary starting ww3, if she wins.