Omar Gonzalez Leaves Blizzard and Joins Dreamhaven, New Battle.Net Avatars

[Kralljin]

"Classic has its own development team" brought to you by the longest introductory tier content drought since the game was released.

That's the fault of the Team working on Retail, not Classic.
Unless you have any source that can back up the claim that Classic is the reason why there's massive content drought on Retail, that's just a baseless claim.

The job listings for Retail and Classic are even separate.

[Swnem]

I can't wait for Ion to leave and join one of these Blizzard offshoots. This community will be so confused on how to respond.

I find it unlikely cause he would likely not have the position of project leader in a different company. It's a bit too late now.

So, career wise, he probably benefits from staying with WoW for a while longer. I imagine that if he has another xpac like Legion he will leave in a high though. But, it would take a while cause i doubt he wants to go back to the position of senior designer.

[Relapses]

Blaming ANY content drought on classic is silly. What was the excuse for 14 months of SoO just to go straight into WoD?

I think Blizzard is smart enough to have two legitimate teams for both games but I think the pandemic has drastically impacted their ability to produce on a timeline and we'd be foolish to believe that the introduction of Classic hasn't in some way internally impeded the retail games' development.

- - - Updated - - -

That's the fault of the Team working on Retail, not Classic.
Unless you have any source that can back up the claim that Classic is the reason why there's massive content drought on Retail, that's just a baseless claim.

The job listings for Retail and Classic are even separate.

See above.

[pewpmeiser]

I can totally understand leaving. Blizzard is a huge triple-A company now. It's priorities has shifted to pleasing the shareholders. No doubt Blizzard has the same abuses towards video game developers all triple-A's have. As in, the absolutely ridiculous crunches, with shit pay. Some more creative and maybe more adventurous developers probably get tired of it. Dreamhaven is likely quite enticing, because of it. A change of scenery. A fresh start. With familiar people.

Stop pretending like you actually know things about the situation. People in the industry change jobs all the time. This doesn't mean there was any maliciousness at blizzard or that there's abuse or anything like that. Get real.

[Aggressive]

I can't wait for Ion to leave and join one of these Blizzard offshoots. This community will be so confused on how to respond.

I hope he doesn't join any of the up and coming companies like Dreamhaven. He would ruin it IMO by wanting some of the up absurd things in the game like he has done for wow here.

[tikcol]

Thank you Omar, see you in a better place.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhzaJ6hq-n4

I'd like to summon you again

[shise]

Leaves Activision**

And join Blizz.. ehem, Dreamhaven


Great to see the good old people following Mike. I am having great hopes for a new era coming out of their studios.

[Kralljin]

I think Blizzard is smart enough to have two legitimate teams for both games but I think the pandemic has drastically impacted their ability to produce on a timeline and we'd be foolish to believe that the introduction of Classic hasn't in some way internally impeded the retail games' development.

...why should it?

Unless you can actually highlight how the Retail team constantly has to shift around due to Classic, that's just false.
The Pandemic also plays no role here - it's just much harder to develop actually new content under these conditions than getting an old client running on modern servers, which however has nothing to do with Classic impeding Retail's development.

[Chilela]

I can't wait for Ion to leave and join one of these Blizzard offshoots. This community will be so confused on how to respond.

The community would cheer it on, and miss him a few years afterwards as things manage to somehow get worse.

[McNeil]

Any other project would have brought in more money.

Like Warcraft 3 Reforged?

[GnomeEU]

I'm curious did any of these ex Blizzard employees ever create a cool game?

[Tziva]

LOL selecting the new avatars on bnet doesn't work. It just leaves it blank.

[Zka]

He probably quit over the ridicolous drum and wb changes I would not add my name to these for sure.

[Daronokk]

Stop pretending like you actually know things about the situation. People in the industry change jobs all the time. This doesn't mean there was any maliciousness at blizzard or that there's abuse or anything like that. Get real.

He is quite right though, power corrupts and attracts the worst, that's why big corporations face moral and creative bankruptcy. This is why so many big names leave. Blizzard isn't what is used to be anymore. It can still produce games that sell well but the passion is gone and these people seek their passion elsewhere.

[Relapses]

LOL selecting the new avatars on bnet doesn't work. It just leaves it blank.

Log out and back in.

[Belloc]

The community would cheer it on, and miss him a few years afterwards as things manage to somehow get worse.

It's almost like he's not actually the problem.

[Relapses]

...why should it?

Unless you can actually highlight how the Retail team constantly has to shift around due to Classic, that's just false.
The Pandemic also plays no role here - it's just much harder to develop actually new content under these conditions than getting an old client running on modern servers, which however has nothing to do with Classic impeding Retail's development.

Evidence speaks louder than words. Truth is none of us can say how the pandemic and adding Classic to their repitoure have impacted things. But the initial delay of SL followed immediately by one of the longest introductory tier content droughts indicates to me that something is amiss within the company. I don't think it's too far of a stretch of the imagination to say that while Classic's development may not of impacted retail in the strictest of terms, it seems to have strained a company already struggling due to the pandemic.

- - - Updated - - -

He is quite right though, power corrupts and attracts the worst, that's why big corporations face moral and creative bankruptcy. This is why so many big names leave. Blizzard isn't what is used to be anymore. It can still produce games that sell well but the passion is gone and these people seek their passion elsewhere.

I like how you say passion as if you have the slightest fucking idea why the dude left. For all we know Mike offered him a paycheck with an extra 0.

[Outofmana]

all new avatars are females KEKW

[Rogalicus]

Stop pretending like you actually know things about the situation. People in the industry change jobs all the time.

Yeah, the guy that spent 18 years in the company obviously changes jobs all the time.

[Kralljin]

Evidence speaks louder than words.

What evidence?

You have no evidence on your hands other than there being a delay on Retail.
Right now, you have made an observation, you now need to deliver evidence that explains the cause of this.

But the initial delay of SL followed immediately by one of the longest introductory tier content droughts indicates to me that something is amiss within the company.

That delay was mostly down to system designers, because by their own words, the delay happened to "fine tune endgame systems", they made their own mess and had to delay the game for it.

Frankly, between Covid, the continous reports of Blizzard underpaying, people leaving the company & joining startups founded by ex-Blizzard Employees, my finger is on "low morale" - not Classic eating up Retail resources.

Blizzard seems to suffer from a serious case of brain drain, which affects the development quite heavily, especially in these times where it's even more difficult to integrate new recruits into the team.