Blizzard can't create good games anymore

[Utrrabbit]

It's Activision now. Blizzard is pretty much gone. To OP's point, this is a company that started with a bunch of dudes who wanted to create games. Had crazy ideas and put them out for the world to see. And it literally exploded. The company that owns these games now is just riding that initial development from 30-40 years ago. Nothing new is going to come out.

Overwatch was a step in the right direction. But they immediately tried to make it bigger than it was with a massive competitive scene and pro league. Now look at it. Game is still fun, but the unfolding story has been so slow to come out. New characters are often enough. But slow maps, slow game modes, slow story. Not a tons really to do in the game.

Activision have owned blizzard since 2008, blaming activision is a sign of stupidity.

[rhorle]

Activision have owned blizzard since 2008, blaming activision is a sign of stupidity.

That isn't correct. In 2008 Activision was merged with Vivendi games. Vivendi still had ownership until 2013. At that time Activision Blizzard bought control of the company from Vivendi. Blaming Activision is a sign of stupidity any time however. Because Blizzard is to blame for Blizzard.

[Viikkis]

Blizzard is doing remakes and so is the whole industry. Just take a look at how many companies are pushing out remakes of old classics because they sell. It is all just demand and supply.

[Naiattavain]

With the mass of old games being remastered to feed the hungry nostalgic player and the criticism that blizzard receives for almost everything that has been released recently, I am not surprised. Blizzard simply lacks developers with a feeling for that certain something, developers who are children themselves and like to develop games, real games.

Games are simply no longer developed out of passion or because developers obviously enjoy doing them, but only so that they don't end up in the red at the end of the year. How can you develop games without much effort to keep the player on the hook, this is what 99% of all game industries are pursuing today. And don't get me wrong, that's fine too. But with the amount with which players are just getting f*cked over it no longer funny.

I also think it is not because blizzard doesn't want to create good games with effort anymore, they just can't. It feels like their games are currently being developed by lawyers and tax advisors instead of real developers with a burning passion for it.

Just wanted to get rid of.

Cheers

i have lost all faith in blizzard at this point there is no reason to do business with them. time to move on and look else where for entertainment.

[Kallisto]

That isn't correct. In 2008 Activision was merged with Vivendi games. Vivendi still had ownership until 2013. At that time Activision Blizzard bought control of the company from Vivendi. Blaming Activision is a sign of stupidity any time however. Because Blizzard is to blame for Blizzard.

At this point I am certain people are just looking for a scapegoat either for their own personal crappy choices or to excuse what goes on at blizzard. Even right now when Activision seems to be hitting it out of the park last few years with Crash, Spiro, Tony Hawks. Somehow bad things that happen in Blizzard is also Activision's fault.

[thebelltolleth]

What would happen to perception (in it being more corrected to what people are experiencing) if people just stopped using the name 'Blizzard' when referring to that agency?

I mean, Activision and will continue to use it for business purposes, but if the public (especially the former lovers of their games) stops using it to acknowledge that is doesn't F'n exist anymore as an entity... then what?

Then I think people can start to let go of the disappointment of loss from the death of that creative group and have discussion that is more clean, more authentic to what the actual quality of this current, operating group of develops is putting out.

But that would take some presence of mind, more purposeful speech, and seeing some value in burying the reference of 'Blizzard' (and maybe ascribing honor for the good work that they did in the past and simultaneously not dragging that name through the feces that is being spat out today).

[Advent]

I don't think deifying the name of "Old" Blizzard would do the discussion surrounding Activision-Blizzard any good.

[Soon-TM]

what is stopping blizzard from making Diablo 4 that is in all aspect better than diablo 2 that a remake is necessary ?

Because D2 was one of old Blizzard's greatest hits, to the point that it has a dedicated, vibrant community even 20 years later - while D3 is pretty much forgotten and in full maintenance mode, despite being much newer.

[rhorle]

Because D2 was one of old Blizzard's greatest hits, to the point that it has a dedicated, vibrant community even 20 years later - while D3 is pretty much forgotten and in full maintenance mode, despite being much newer.

Every game is one of their greatest hits so that isn't saying much. Diablo 3 isn't forgotten either. It has a current PTR and a new season starting soon. Just because you choose to forget it doesn't mean it actually has. Just as majority of people forgot Diablo 2 even if it was still popular. Same thing with WC3 prior to the re-master.

[Chilela]

Blizzard is doing remakes and so is the whole industry. Just take a look at how many companies are pushing out remakes of old classics because they sell. It is all just demand and supply.

Well, that, plus a soft remake a la WC3R doesn't really require the wheel to be reinvented. But they somehow managed to even screw that one up, to the point where a loss in faith in Blizzard as a company isn't outside of reason (amongst other recent snafus)

[Soon-TM]

Every game is one of their greatest hits so that isn't saying much. Diablo 3 isn't forgotten either. It has a current PTR and a new season starting soon. Just because you choose to forget it doesn't mean it actually has. Just as majority of people forgot Diablo 2 even if it was still popular. Same thing with WC3 prior to the re-master.

A new season for D3? Sounds like full maintenance mode, thanks for confirming

[Easyclassictopkeklel]

WoW = usually fun, at least for a certain time. no need to pay sub, few euros für expansion...worth it.
Hearthstone = One of the best card games out there
Diablo 3 = had a bad start but also turned out to be a good in the end
Overwatch = shooters are not my cup of tea but even here I had a few months of solid fun

So guess what. Just because you don't like those games does not mean they are garbage.
People are just overexaggerating. Ideals and passion are neat when you have a small company going...but the bigger
the company the more complicated things gonna get. What do you think why the big players are still around?
How many companies took risks and just vanished in the past 20 years?
I wonder if you complainers have ever worked at a company that has more than 20 employees...you seem to have
absolutely NO clue how big companies work and how complicated things can get.

[Ausr]

WoW = usually fun, at least for a certain time. no need to pay sub, few euros für expansion...worth it.
Hearthstone = One of the best card games out there
Diablo 3 = had a bad start but also turned out to be a good in the end
Overwatch = shooters are not my cup of tea but even here I had a few months of solid fun

So guess what. Just because you don't like those games does not mean they are garbage.
People are just overexaggerating. Ideals and passion are neat when you have a small company going...but the bigger
the company the more complicated things gonna get. What do you think why the big players are still around?
How many companies took risks and just vanished in the past 20 years?
I wonder if you complainers have ever worked at a company that has more than 20 employees...you seem to have
absolutely NO clue how big companies work and how complicated things can get.

Blizzard has the biggest fanbase of ex-fanbase players I've ever seen who are so bitter about them they devote all their free time into doing so. Had a problem with WoW and quit? Probably mad the game didn't explode when they left a forum post saying they quit. Not being automatically in Diamond/Platinum placements in OW even though they suck? Fuck you, Blizzard.

I don't think I've ever seen another gaming company have this devotion of not liking it. Even moreso than EA.



Disclaimer: I'm not a Blizzard fanboy and I think there are problems with games, but the positives outweigh the negatives to me as of right now minus Hearthstone because fuck that piece of shit.

[Osmeric]

Clearly it's time for Diablo 3 Remarketed.

[Dwimmerlaik]

It's seemingly basically a sub-division of Activision that focuses on milking Blizzard IP's now.

The people and culture that made it "Blizzard" are seemingly long gone.

It's Blizzard in name only.

No seemingly about it - they're all very much gone and have created their own studios or retired.

Mike Morhaime left and founded Dreamhaven.
David Brevik left ages ago and did Hellgate London and Marvel Heroes.
Rob Pardo founded Bonfire Games.
ArenaNet (Guild Wars) was founded by multiple Diablo/Warcraft developers.
Ben Brode grew Hearthstone from the ground up and then randomly vanished to make his own studio.
Max and Erich Shaefer made Runic Games, which made Torchlight 1/2/3
Carbine Studios (Wildstar) was made by former EARLY WoW devs.
Greg Street (Ghostcrawler) left ages ago and is now head of creative development for Riot, who is apparently making a LoL MMO.
Chris Metzen left to be a Dad, then founded a tabletop company. Obviously still voices Thrall though.
Nick Carpenter, who was VP of Art & Cinematics, left in 2016 to go to Bonfire Games with Pardo. He's responsible for the overall creative vision of all Blizzard games.
Dustin Browder, who headed Starcraft II and Heroes of the Storm but started in WoW left to join Dreamhaven.

They're pretty much all gone at this point.

[druchii5]

No seemingly about it - they're all very much gone and have created their own studios or retired.

Mike Morhaime left and founded Dreamhaven.
David Brevik left ages ago and did Hellgate London and Marvel Heroes.
Rob Pardo founded Bonfire Games.
ArenaNet (Guild Wars) was founded by multiple Diablo/Warcraft developers.
Ben Brode grew Hearthstone from the ground up and then randomly vanished to make his own studio.
Max and Erich Shaefer made Runic Games, which made Torchlight 1/2/3
Carbine Studios (Wildstar) was made by former EARLY WoW devs.
Greg Street (Ghostcrawler) left ages ago and is now head of creative development for Riot, who is apparently making a LoL MMO.
Chris Metzen left to be a Dad, then founded a tabletop company. Obviously still voices Thrall though.
Nick Carpenter, who was VP of Art & Cinematics, left in 2016 to go to Bonfire Games with Pardo. He's responsible for the overall creative vision of all Blizzard games.
Dustin Browder, who headed Starcraft II and Heroes of the Storm but started in WoW left to join Dreamhaven.

They're pretty much all gone at this point.

Only Samwise Didier, one of the most iconic Blizzard concept artists from the early days, is still there (surprisingly). I'm surprised he doesn't just jump ship at this point and join Mike Morhaime, Rob Pardo, or Christ Metzen with their new projects.

[Pony Soldier]

exactly when was that time where developer made sp story driven games?
because in the '80s there was a plethora of arcade games with stupid difficulty to spend more coins, '90 was full of copy pasted platforms everywhere with dumb expansions to recycle the same game, '00 fps and mmos with subscriptions, p2w and introduction of dlcs, '10 mobas and the lastman standing shooters with their esthetic gambling

Back in the early 00s with the PS2, Gamecube, and Xbox. My personal golden era of gaming. Hundreds and hundreds of platformers, RPGs, racing, fighting and action/adventure games and yes FPS games too. So many awesome story driven games were to be had back then if you actually looked (and you didn't have to look very hard either). If you think it was just all FPS and MMOs then to me it doesn't sound like you played a whole lot of games back then.

Matter of fact the way you describe the 80s and 90s as well, to me, sounds like a very narrow minded and ignorant point of view. The 80s and 90s did indeed have a plethora of arcade style games but there was also lots of RPGs, fighting, and adventure platforming games and a lot of them didn't have "stupid difficulty". If you were any sort of a competent player you could complete those games in a decent amount of time and with relative ease. A lot of them also had epic stories to follow. It wasn't just all "get the high score" arcade games.

As far as "copy paste" games go they've ALWAYS been a thing in video game history. There's not one era where you could tell me that every game was unique and felt different. Every single game out there is similar to another in some way, shape, or form whether by a little or a lot ESPECIALLY these days. So it's not just something the 90s had. It's like complaining that a game is repetitive when pretty much EVERY single game in existence whether it be a sport like football or baseball, a board game, a card game, or a video game. ALL games are repetitive in some way.

[cparle87]

I don't really follow blizzard that closely but didn't most of the original team leave? That's the problem right there. Sounds like they realized the Activision thing was a mistake and jumped ship. I will say though, the quality certainly has declined, there was a point in time where everything they released was truly epic.

Blizzard has gone on record numerous times that Activision is just a holding company and has a hands-off approach with Blizzard. And that Vivendi interfered with them far more than Activision ever has, all of this being back in Blizzard's "golden age."

[NineSpine]

No this is what people who are old enough to remember the 80s know. Gaming from the developer POV has ALWAYS been business first. It was always about making money. Hell it is capitalism 101, these corporations like Activision/EA are simply put the logical next step in any market of any capitalist venture.

It was about money in the 70s, it was about money in the 80s, it was about money in the 90s. Just like it was in the 2000s and 2010s and will be in the 20s and beyond. To think otherwise is just insanity. Yes there were a few gems back then, just like there are now. But just like with every other medium for every gem that is remembered countless others are forgotten which is why people go with Music, games, movies "It was all better back then.". It wasn't you just didn't realise cause not old enough or blocked out because of how bad or forgettable they were the pile of shit that surrounded the gem.

You're wrong.

Things have changed, quite dramatically. The people managing things back then operated on a model of "Give the creative people resources, have them produce something, make money off of it". The model relied on giving the creative people freedom. That is gone in the modern corporate model. Everything is top down now. The creative people are instructed what to do very precisely. Their output is micromanaged to the extreme.

This is primarily because of the development of data analytics that did not exist in the past. You have no idea how minute these things go. Do you think all this crap with endless collectibles came from nowhere, or because designers thought it was good design? No, it is because they literally employ psychologists and analysts to determine the rate at which people should get collectibles to maximize addictive potential.

[Gorsameth]

Blizzard has gone on record numerous times that Activision is just a holding company and has a hands-off approach with Blizzard. And that Vivendi interfered with them far more than Activision ever has, all of this being back in Blizzard's "golden age."

People make up excuses about Activision being evil so they don't have the accept the reality that their favourite developer (Blizzard) made a game they don't like and that the world would go back to being perfect if only Acti was gone.