Is It Possible That Blizzard Will Consolidate Their Talent Behind WoW?

[Edward Wu]

I don't think it's controversial to say that WoW is the game that's bleeding the most out of their repertoire right now. D4 still seems to be in fairly good hands despite recently losing its Game Director, and stuff like D2: Resurrected is trucking along nicely. I'm not following Overwatch 2 much but apparently it's taken a turn for the better recently, as well.

So that really just leaves WoW that's still in quite the painful state. The thing that makes me wonder about the future of this game is whether or not they will try consolidating their dev talent in order to reinforce the WoW dev team and bring in additional, probably much needed help? And is that even a realistic thing to expect/hope for?

We know they have multiple unannounced projects they are working on and some of those projects will undoubtedly be mobile titles. We know that Tom Chilton, the previous Game Director is working on an announced game right now, possibly a mobile title. When you look at Blizzard's recruiting drive, I'm sure it's no doubt vast and their resources in acquiring new talent should be more than enough. However, at the end of the day, you still need your veterans to retain that winning culture you've had that allowed you to make your legendary games of old.

To put it plainly, I'm saying I think it's a good idea that Blizzard restructure their dev teams internally and move back a few dozen developers back onto the WoW team who are working on other stuff, that already had years of experience with the game.

I don't think it's a stretch to say that dev teams are a lot like sports teams, in a way. You can stack up your team with talent through trades and signing free agents, but if you let go too many of the old veteran core, maybe fired the head coach and some assistants, you're really risking changing the culture around that organization, for good or bad. In the context of Blizzard here, I just think you really can't replace some of the old dudes who've been working on WoW for 2 decades and possibly even earlier Warcraft titles, who are very intimate with the IP.

What do you think? Would/should Blizzard do this? People have already lost a lot of faith in the current dev team. Maybe it's time to truly shake things up, and not simply by recruiting outside talent?

[Val the Moofia Boss]

From the perspective of the suits, they probably think that WoW is on the way out and that there is no point pouring more money into it (hence why Shadowlands didn't get a huge marketing campaign like the prior 3 expansions). More than likely they will switch to mobile games and trying to milk the Warcraft IP as much as possible before it is completely exhausted of customer goodwill.

I personally think Ion and Danuser should be thrown off of WoW (Ion can still design raids though) and the game should be redesigned to cater to casuals again, but that's not going to happen.

[stross01]

What talent?

What successful systems have you seen in a Blizzard IP in the last 5 years?

[Soon-TM]

It's safe to say that most of the old guard has already left the WoW team, for a multitude of reasons - but they have left nevertheless.

[Ivarr]

What successful systems have you seen in a Blizzard IP in the last 5 years?

Heroes of the Storm has been fertile soil for at least innovative gameplay mechanics. I always thought that was the game's value for Blizzard, for it to be a field lab to test novel ideas and then take the successful ones further into their other games.

Flimsy example, I mean it in a more broader and abstract way. But both Kel'Thuzad and Sylvanas use their full core HotS mechanics in the Shadowlands fights.

Ironically the HotS team has already been stripped and moved over to other games. Mainly Diablo I believe. However, the skeleton crew that now maintains it has gone all out with what little resources they have and they're showering the community with creative and bold balance patches every couple of weeks. It's brilliant.

[Lolites]

What talent?

What successful systems have you seen in a Blizzard IP in the last 5 years?

there are few debatable, but mythic + is within last 5 years and its probably the most successful system they added EVER...

[Ivarr]

World Quests as well. It's just that Blizzard still isn't making that final step and merges Legion, BfA and Shadowland world quests together. That's such an obvious move to pad their content pool.

[luciano]

there are few debatable, but mythic + is within last 5 years and its probably the most successful system they added EVER...

Is that really a new innovation? It's just Diablo 3 GRifts, but with WoW characters.

[Paperfox]

From the perspective of the suits, they probably think that WoW is on the way out and that there is no point pouring more money into it (hence why Shadowlands didn't get a huge marketing campaign like the prior 3 expansions). More than likely they will switch to mobile games and trying to milk the Warcraft IP as much as possible before it is completely exhausted of customer goodwill.

I personally think Ion and Danuser should be thrown off of WoW (Ion can still design raids though) and the game should be redesigned to cater to casuals again, but that's not going to happen.

I too think that WoW is in the 'long tail', there will probably be a 10.0 so they can get one set of profits from it. Why? Because it would be simply far to expensive - in terms of lost revenue - to pull of a ARR type of thing.

The thing I wonder about is how can we tell if the game has essentially been placed in maintenance mode.

[stross01]

there are few debatable, but mythic + is within last 5 years and its probably the most successful system they added EVER...

I'd love to hear about the other few that are debatable.

I'm not sure M+ is the success that some think it is. That's dying of thirst in a desert, finding a puddle of cloudy water in a hoof print then claiming it was a success of development. There was nothing else to do in BFA and Shadowlands is no different.

[potis]

This god damn boomer logic that you need "VETERAN TALENT" to continue producing games baffles me.

You saw your veterans and their D3 creation and it was an abomination.

Its amazing how you think all these systems are also decided by some "non-veteran", like its 1 person making the calls, and not 20 of them trying to do both, extension of subs, aka income and "content".

Capitalism and stocks is everything, everyone believing they will magically drop millions of income because of some people "leaving", when we all know they are gonna jump to the next game , literally the 99.9% of the people that are "leaving", also baffles me.

Start using some god damn logic, the majority of Blizzard game buyers have no idea, or dont even care about what is happening with the lawsuits, seriously, in what kind of utopian internet world do you guys live in?

Seriously, stop pretending this echochamber of negativity that is mmo-champion somehow reflects the actual world, the majority does not have a clue what is going on, and they are gonna jump in 10.0, buy D4 and buy Overwatch 2 by the millions the moment they are out.

"YEAH BUT IT WONT BE MY MONEY!!, FAK BL0ZZARD", awesome, great on your part, the guy working 50 hours and raises 2 kids that doesnt check mmo-champion and reddit is gonna drop double the amount for you either way.

[stross01]

This god damn boomer logic that you need "VETERAN TALENT" to continue producing games baffles me.

You saw your veterans and their D3 creation and it was an abomination.

Its amazing how you think all these systems are also decided by some "non-veteran", like its 1 person making the calls, and not 20 of them trying to do both, extension of subs, aka income and "content".

Capitalism and stocks is everything, everyone believing they will magically drop millions of income because of some people "leaving", when we all know they are gonna jump to the next game , literally the 99.9% of the people that are "leaving", also baffles me.

Start using some god damn logic, the majority of Blizzard game buyers have no idea, or dont even care about what is happening with the lawsuits, seriously, in what kind of utopian internet world do you guys live in?

Seriously, stop pretending this echochamber of negativity that is mmo-champion somehow reflects the actual world, the majority does not have a clue what is going on, and they are gonna jump in 10.0, buy D4 and buy Overwatch 2 by the millions the moment they are out.

"YEAH BUT IT WONT BE MY MONEY!!, FAK BL0ZZARD", awesome, great on your part, the guy working 50 hours and raises 2 kids that doesnt check mmo-champion and reddit is gonna drop double the amount for you either way.

New hires generally have no idea what's going on, let alone where to go from here. New hires have no clue how to balance ambition with possibility. Veterans are not people who always catch lightning in a bottle every time they touch a product, they're people used to the rigors of working.

New hire system designs have always been terrible, as they're usually going to lack foresight.

They did drop millions in stock value, though. Capitalism reflected the happenings at the company. Not sure why anyone would think it's a 'magical' outcome.

Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4 won't be out for a very, very, very, very long time. Like, even before this, they're in the scope of YEARS away.

[Itori]

Blizzard is ran by accountants and shareholders. If anything they’ll pool resources into easily profitable games. WoW is profitable but they look at it as how much can they make over the most time with as little development time they can.

[Edward Wu]

This god damn boomer logic that you need "VETERAN TALENT" to continue producing games baffles me.

You saw your veterans and their D3 creation and it was an abomination.

Its amazing how you think all these systems are also decided by some "non-veteran", like its 1 person making the calls, and not 20 of them trying to do both, extension of subs, aka income and "content".

Capitalism and stocks is everything, everyone believing they will magically drop millions of income because of some people "leaving", when we all know they are gonna jump to the next game , literally the 99.9% of the people that are "leaving", also baffles me.

Start using some god damn logic, the majority of Blizzard game buyers have no idea, or dont even care about what is happening with the lawsuits, seriously, in what kind of utopian internet world do you guys live in?

Seriously, stop pretending this echochamber of negativity that is mmo-champion somehow reflects the actual world, the majority does not have a clue what is going on, and they are gonna jump in 10.0, buy D4 and buy Overwatch 2 by the millions the moment they are out.

"YEAH BUT IT WONT BE MY MONEY!!, FAK BL0ZZARD", awesome, great on your part, the guy working 50 hours and raises 2 kids that doesnt check mmo-champion and reddit is gonna drop double the amount for you either way.

The post is the definition of rambling nonsense. Not a single salient point was made.

[Metrox]

there are few debatable, but mythic + is within last 5 years and its probably the most successful system they added EVER...

I am thinking more folks have used LFG than ever run mythic dungeons. M+ is a good system that keeps interested players busy. I agree that M+ is a nicely done addition to the game.

[Luxeley]

Blizzard is completely bereft of talent. And what little talent exists is suffocated by Activision's upper management. New blood is long overdue.

[Raizz]

They will boost investment in all their games, because they can afford it and it's needed.

This includes WoW, people who think they are going to drop or slowdown WoW are out of their rocker, because the thing still prints a shitton of money and is far from over either, despite the obvious slump.

- - - Updated - - -

Blizzard is completely bereft of talent. And what little talent exists is suffocated by Activision's upper management. New blood is long overdue.

This forum meme needs to end.

Blizzard's issues are purely and completely their own. No, it's not Activision that made their higher ups stroll around the office in drunken stupor sexually harassing women employees. Neither it's Activision that made the shitshow WoW currently is or made Blizzard lose their way with Starcraft dead, Overwatch being a rotting carcass and Diablo 4 taking 10 years to come out.

It's all 100% Blizzard proper fuckups and people need to stop thinking there is some big bad man in Activision that forces Blizzard to not make games and shit on remaining ones they have.

Yes, after all that has happened - you bet Activision will actually take over, but seeing the trash Blizzard pulled out of their backsides for years now, damn I'm glad some changes are actually going to happen, because it legit can't be worse than last half a decade of Blizzard results.

[Raizz]

Man if I’m in charge of Blizzard I view wow as the lifeline keeping things going. Milk it as long as you freaking can. Sure the days of 10 million subs are over, but 1 million subs still brings in about 200 million a year.

People can't wrap their heads around the fact that WoW still produces insane amount of $$, its expansions are akin to releasing AAA grade games with insane revenues without even trying in comparison to effort needed for new game that can beat these semi-passive sales.

People who think that "WoW is on the way out" are practically a walking joke. It will be another decade before that is even on the books. Clearly, WoW is not as hot as it used to be, but damn son, it's still one of the biggest and most profitable games out there. You can bet ActiBlizz will do EVERYTHING they can to make sure it pumps out another 5 major expansions before they even start thinking of sunsetting it, if at all.

[Cæli]

if there's anything to do with wow it's to reduce the size of the team, and pay the team better

[BronzeCondor]

They can still milk WoW, I could see them putting together a stunning Legion-esque expansion that'll invigorate the playerbase again.

As was mentioned elsewhere, they need to implement a form of player-housing. They could even monetize accessories and make a killing on $$$.