Unannounced Survival Game [Blizzard]

[dwarven]

What is this?

The ad, links to the hiring page, not a game.

It's not a game announcement. It's a job recruiting effort.

[Ealyssa]

Honestly, why do people keep saying "late as ever"

Because development hasn't even started... Taking 3-5 years to make the game will push it so far from the already fading out genre.
Sure it make be absolutely crazy good and relaunch the hype when it comes out. But it may also just be late at the party.

[Makabreska]

Because development hasn't even started... Taking 3-5 years to make the game will push it so far from the already fading out genre.
Sure it make be absolutely crazy good and relaunch the hype when it comes out. But it may also just be late at the party.

Development did start.. And how genre is already fading out when we had a huge success of Valheim in 2021?

[FuxieDK]

It's not a game announcement. It's a job recruiting effort.

I was my thought too... But then people started to write about it, and I started doubting.

[RampageBW1]

Blizzard just announced the survival game known as "Unannounced Survival Game".

And that better be the damned title to launch and beyond as far as I'm concerned.

I am with you on the title, I'd purchase a sub to the XBox Game Pass just to play Unannounced Survival Game!

[Lochton]

I like the idea they present, hopefully not to be like most other games.. We'll see. I sense it is a case of OW and HS, something started to fuel the teams instead of letting them go stale on one project.

[Yriel]

You know what else they were late to? The MMO genre, I think it worked out for them though.

MMOs still were a total niche product before WoW (not just by their gameplay, the whole online thing. i remember playing DaoC on a dial up modem, i could only afford to play a maximum of two hours each night (after 9pm, where the tarif was cheaper) as a student.). It was WoW that made them mainstream, along with internet flatlines.

I'd argue that in contrast to that almost every gamer has tried a survival game in one way or another. Arc was big, Minecraft was enormous, the Forest, Rust, Valheim, so many.

[Orange Joe]

Because development hasn't even started... Taking 3-5 years to make the game will push it so far from the already fading out genre.
Sure it make be absolutely crazy good and relaunch the hype when it comes out. But it may also just be late at the party.

It's not. Survival games are still going strong. Many survival games still in development with decent activity.

- - - Updated - - -

MMOs still were a total niche product before WoW (not just by their gameplay, the whole online thing. i remember playing DaoC on a dial up modem, i could only afford to play a maximum of two hours each night (after 9pm, where the tarif was cheaper) as a student.). It was WoW that made them mainstream, along with internet flatlines.

I'd argue that in contrast to that almost every gamer has tried a survival game in one way or another. Arc was big, Minecraft was enormous, the Forest, Rust, Valheim, so many.

Ark has still been releasing dlc paid and free. Ark 2 was only announced recently, we have very little info on that so it's probably a few years out yet.

[Shakzor]

Survival games are anything but dead, they just aren't the "huge" thing anymore. Similar to how mobas are now settled or fighting games barely get new entries.
Just because something is not the huge current hype, does not mean it's a dead genre. People say MMOs are "dead" and yet New World was pretty successful, because people look forward to new entries in saturated genres.

[Kralljin]

WoW was a solidly third generation MMO when it launched, I think it's reasonable to say they was chasing the popularity of the genre rather than being a pioneer.

That's a massive simplification

The early MMO's frankly also faced the massive hurdles that people
(1) have a pc for themselves (MMO's were obviously a nightmare to play on the "family pc" because no save / pause button and such)
(2) have PC being decent enough to run the damn thing
(3) Reliable Internet connection (try playing an MMO when your Internet goes out when someone picks up the phone)

Due to these factors alone, MMO's were already a niche product, because the enviroment for them to be as sucessful wasn't there.
By 2004 / 2005 however, a lot of these things started to change and the internet became more prominent within the gaming community, WoW likely was for the vast majority their first MMO if not even online game.

However, nowadays, within the gaming sphere, a lot of people likely played some Survival game, Minecraft, Rust, the Forest or Valheim more recently.

[czarek]

Survival hmmm. Will see. As they just announce it i hope to see this before my retirement LOL

[Gaidax]

I think it's great they start a new universe and a new game genre for them. It's really long overdue and I'm glad they finally got over their Titan trauma and are ready to try something new.

I'm not exactly sure why there is salt here - overall it's positive news and there is honestly not much to bitch about here either given all you have is just 2 pieces of concept art. At best you can only nitpick at this point, which people do here plenty it seems.

[ati87]

That's a massive simplification

The early MMO's frankly also faced the massive hurdles that people
(1) have a pc for themselves (MMO's were obviously a nightmare to play on the "family pc" because no save / pause button and such)
(2) have PC being decent enough to run the damn thing
(3) Reliable Internet connection (try playing an MMO when your Internet goes out when someone picks up the phone)

Due to these factors alone, MMO's were already a niche product, because the enviroment for them to be as sucessful wasn't there.
By 2004 / 2005 however, a lot of these things started to change and the internet became more prominent within the gaming community, WoW likely was for the vast majority their first MMO if not even online game.

However, nowadays, within the gaming sphere, a lot of people likely played some Survival game, Minecraft, Rust, the Forest or Valheim more recently.

Doesn't really mater though, the games your mentioning are pretty far apart Valheim being a game from last year and the other games are from way before if google is accurate.
Only proofs that there is a market for survival games which Blizzard believe is big enough to take a risk in trying to develop a game which is a risk every developer takes whenever they start a new project.

Also by your logic no developer should ever take any risk.....people complaining about how blizzard changed (they aren't releasing enough games to come to this conclusion) but regardless them going for a survival game is typical Blizzard. Blizzard, as a company, sees a game genre they like (MMO, shooters) and think " lets go make our own".

[Kralljin]

Doesn't really mater though, the games your mentioning are pretty far apart Valheim being a game from last year and the other games are from way before if google is accurate.

League was also like ~7 years old when HotS came out, DotA is even older if we're not just limiting ourselves to Dota 2.

Also by your logic no developer should ever take any risk.....

That's a pretty stupid read, frankly.

When you don't have optimal conditions, that's frankly a risk, that's just how it is.
And as seen with HotS, Blizzard has burned their hand already by tapping into a market with multiple competitors and where a big hype wave around a specific genre has already happened.

In the past, Blizzard were the ones who created hype surrounding a given genre, now they're chasing the hype.

Blizzard, as a company, sees a game genre they like (MMO, shooters) and think " lets go make our own".

I think the difference is that previously, those genres were far more niche before Blizzard stepped in, the survival genre isn't exactly niche anymore.

MMO's before WoW were frankly niche genre.
Digital card games before HS.
Exception might be OW and TF2, but then you also have HotS on the other end.

[Chadow]

Im not a survival game specialist...in fact i avoided playing every single one (not my thing)

But i saw Asmongold checking all Survival games on the market right now...and he has a point.
They are all either unpolished or bad...apart from Rust or Valheim.

So...Blizzard's objective is to swoop in just like in old times and polish a genre that is rather behind and unpolished in the present times.

[Goat7]

What is this?

The ad, links to the hiring page, not a game.

Like nobody left working at blizzard, microsoft deal is not closed yet so they used the game as a ploy to say PLZ COME WORK HERE we make this game so we can sell many things in the in game store for ppl to buy.

[Soulwind]

Holy crap has Blizzard's artstyle become stale over the past decade. It began with MoP and Diablo 3, but by this point it has become bland and completely indistinguishable from the rest of the industry.

To be fair, that statement is kind of backwards. Blizzard has always used cartoony artstyles that now many companies go for, partly because it's cheaper/easier to port into different systems, partly because it ages a lot better, partly because it's their brand identity.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

To be fair, that statement is kind of backwards. Blizzard has always used cartoony artstyles that now many companies go for, partly because it's cheaper/easier to port into different systems, partly because it ages a lot better, partly because it's their brand identity.

Blizzard's artstyle has changed. It went from gritty and detailed texturework with hard shapes to clean and sparsely detailed textures and soft shapes.

[Kathranis]

Also

Holy crap has Blizzard's artstyle become stale over the past decade. It began with MoP and Diablo 3, but by this point it has become bland and completely indistinguishable from the rest of the industry.

Opposite, IMO. Blizzard's aesthetic has been aped so much that it's become bog standard. They started the painterly, stylized, Pixar-meets-Joe Mad look that Riot and a bunch of other studios have ran with.

- - - Updated - - -

Blizzard's artstyle has changed. It went from gritty and detailed texturework with hard shapes to clean and sparsely detailed textures and soft shapes.

It went from triangles and low resolution pixelated textures to higher poly, high res textures.

They'd have made models like this back in the day if they had the technical ability to. Compare to the actual Classic concept art.

[Soulwind]

Blizzard's artstyle has changed. It went from gritty and detailed texturework with hard shapes to clean and sparsely detailed textures and soft shapes.

https://i.imgur.com/bXOJmWu.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/5AjaiK4.png
https://i.imgur.com/BxrSCbf.png

I wouldn't say the old textures were gritty and detailed, I'd say they're crispier because with such low resolution, any detail stands out. Same with the "hard shapes", it's just fewer polygons. Look at the proportions of those characters, look at their animations. Look at the character portraits in Warcraft 3, too. It's all exaggerated and caricaturesque.

Their cinematics are also extremely detailed, and yet cartoony. A contradictory artstyle that only W3:Reforged went for, and didn't quite pull off.