Blizzard Puts Together "Crisis Map" Of Games It Cannot Ship Due To Staff Losses

[Remixt]

Summary

Blizzard Entertainment is struggling with a severe staff shortage due to ongoing workplace abuse allegations and poor leadership. The company has created a "crisis map" to determine which games can be launched with its current workforce. Employees are expressing their frustrations on Twitter, as valuable talent continues to leave the company. This issue is critical for Blizzard as it tries to maintain multiple live services and undergoes a merger with Microsoft.

 

Quotes

Quote

 "Blizzard is losing amazing talent because someone in power doesn't listen to the game directors who make his products," says Adam. "I just want to make video games...Can't do that if we get rid of everyone who made World of Warcraft: Dragonflight.

 

 

My thoughts

Blizzard is getting in its own way, which is nothing new. As a developer myself I can't count how many times I've had issues outside of the actual project preventing me from doing my job effectively or worse - "forcing" me to look for work elsewhere. 

 

Sources

 Blizzard Puts Together "Crisis Map" Of Games It Cannot Ship Due To Staff Losses (msn.com)

[filpo]

2 minutes ago, Remixt said:

Blizzard Entertainment is struggling with a severe staff shortage due to ongoing workplace abuse allegations and poor leadership.

sounds like a 'skill issue'

[johnno23]

Blizzard been going downhill a long time now.

They were outsoucing development then when the outdsourced company asked for realistic compensation Blizzard Leadership decided they were so cool that how dare someone ask for more.

The company has been run into the ground chasing profit for shareholders and shareholders do not make games....they invest then demand you do what they ask to get a good return before moving on. 

As for the staff leaving well they see the hammer is going to fall eventually and if they were part of any harrassment allegations then good riddance.

Microsoft has pennies enough to buy up talent if needed they just want the rights to the games and staff are something that will most likely be evaluated on a return on investment spreadsheet.

[Radium_Angel]

36 minutes ago, Remixt said:

due to ongoing workplace abuse allegations and poor leadership

That, of course, is the problem right there in a nutshell, but I"m sure leadership won't rectify this.

[SorryBella]

7 hours ago, filpo said:

sounds like a 'skill issue'

"Cant keep my dick in my pants"

- XXXTentacion  Blizzard HR department

[StDragon]

"The fish rots from the head."

[Doobeedoo]

Sucks, especially after good things lately for like WoW exp, D4 though. Would be sad if announced stuff for those would slow down because of lack of staff. Starcraft is basically frozen and rest of games are meh. They have that new IP they work on, some survival game. Blizzcon is happening again. So we'll see.

Also it seems the back to office requirement struck a blow too, even though I mean you work for a comapny in office in general, apparently it's hard for many because of pay-rent ration. In the end, company, you get what you pay for. Don't pay devs or have enough make crap releases and yeah.

[Remixt]

I think it’s probably too late to fix the damage without effecting existing projects but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t change their stance and hiring practices for future/newer projects.

[dizmo]

At least D4 seems solid

This post is kinda meh without seeing the actual list. Blizzard doesn't make many games so I can't imagine what's been delayed. 

 

They should just stick to what they're good at. 

[Brooksie359]

On 4/21/2023 at 1:09 PM, HomicidalPingu said:

Only blizzard game I’ve really played was overwatch which was amazing until the announcement of OW2. OW2 is actually a downgrade on OW because they’ve moved it to a battle pass system which actively disadvantages you if you don’t purchase it. There was nothing wrong with OW, all it needed was live service, new maps, new heroes etc but that wasn’t enough for blizzard. 

If you think overwatch had no issues then you clearly didn't know the numbers behind the game. Nobody played the game because goats basically killed the game. By the time they "fixed" it the player base was irreparably damaged and the fix they had was role que. The issue was that nobody wanted to play tank so que times was way too long for anyone other than tank. The only reasonable fix they could think of was to go to 5v5 and reduce the tank role to one tank making it so that que times are reasonable for everyone which for the most part they have accomplished. Also live service games only work if you have things like battlepasses and honestly they sorta had to go this route at this point to stay relevant as its much easier to get people to play a free to play game and have them spend money if they like the game vs the idea of them having to pay say 20 bucks for a game they might not even like. I used to play overwatch a ton and played since beta and I can confidently say that overwatch was in a horrible place before the overhaul. 

[Brooksie359]

3 hours ago, HomicidalPingu said:

I didn’t say it had no issues but they’ve destroyed the basis of the game in search of money. You have to essentially buy new heroes now which makes the game effectively pay to win. They could have just updated the game to 5v5 with a giga-patch for balancing if they wanted to. 

 

The game has no identity anymore, it’s basically just Blops 3 now. Doesn’t really matter too much about synergy just what does the most DPS. 

Clearly you don't play the game if you don't even know you can unlock all of the heros for free. I haven't paid a cent and have all of the heros other than the one that just released mostly because I don't really play support anyways. As for the game yes its more about individual play making which tbh is more fun because nobody actually worked all that well together in overwatch in 6v6 unless you stacked. I mean most of the time I was just shoot shield and charge up ults to win team fights and rinse and repeat. I mean when I was playing in masters in the og overwatch you still didn't see a crazy amount of teamwork. The game was fairly good prior to brig but as soon as they added her the whole game because pretty heavily ult oriented. Honestly the best meta imo was dive meta but we were never going to get that meta back. I think you are just nostalgic for a game that was dead and wasn't going to survive that had to change and now you don't like the direction they took which is fine but to say it was the wrong direction is sorta crazy considering they didn't really have much alternatives to keep the game alive. 

[mr moose]

There's always 2 sides to every story and the media usually only tell us the side that sells their articles.    Is it no wonder we think every company is run by a sexist racist megalomaniac greed driven narcissist dinosaur? 

 

 

[Mark Kaine]

15 hours ago, HomicidalPingu said:

just what does the most DPS. 

look the original ow model looks better yes (just started playing ow2 in February) especially i think its stupid there's only one tank now, thats also why i like playing arcade you can have up to 5 tanks, or no tanks, etc... (Mercy main btw) but no, what does the most DPS is not the deciding factor,  its more how well the team plays together and an understanding for the game, because thats how most maps and modes are designed,  ex: DPS doesn't matter *at all* as long your moving the payload more than the enemy team, ie, you can actually outsmart them... been on both sides, and no , DPS is usually not the deciding factor,  unless 1 team is just way better than the other,  which happens mostly due to the poor matchmaking (maybe they're working on that, it seems less bad lately, not sure)

 

 

ps: also im p sure new heroes are *free* you just have to unlock them, which takes about a week ... theres no pay to win at all therefore, especially because you don't even need the new heroes necessarily, mechanical and tactical skill seems way more important.

 

 

Tldr: if all you do is look at "meta" and "dps" you're doing it wrong imho. 

 

[Mark Kaine]

26 minutes ago, HomicidalPingu said:

dps as in the concept not the class. 

i know what you meant, im telling you ,that one team can have way more dps/kills and still lose because the other team acted more as a team and stayed with the payload/objective, so its not necessarily a deciding factor.

 

 

28 minutes ago, HomicidalPingu said:

You know that the first week is where your ranking is decided right?

No, i dont, explain? (never played ranked, but i have friends that do almost daily, did notice though that you don't need many matches to get a good ranking apparently  its more % that counts i think,  but still why would only the first week matter?)