Photographer: Troy Harvey / Bloomberg
Photographer: Troy Harvey / Bloomberg
Video game publisher Activision Blizzard Inc. took another step to consolidate control of the Blizzard Entertainment division, which was previously proud of its autonomy, by moving a 200-person design studio to its ranks.
The studio, Vicarious Visions, has been a subsidiary of Activision since 2005 and has worked on franchises such as Skylanders, Crash Bandicoot and Tony Hawk. It will now focus entirely on Blizzard’s franchises, including Diablo, instead of making its own games. Former Vicarious Visions Studio Jennifer Oneal will sit on Blizzard’s leadership team and report directly to the president.
The news, reported by According to people familiar with the company, GamesIndustry.biz arrived a few weeks after Blizzard quietly dismantled one of its in-house development teams.
Blizzard, the maker of games such as World of Warcraft and Overwatch, has traditionally developed most of its games in-house. But in recent years, the Activision publishing arm has begun a stronger hand in Blizzard’s operations. Vicarious Visions, based in Albany, New York, has been working with Blizzard on the Diablo franchise since last year, including a planned remake of Diablo II, people familiar with the plans said. They asked not to be identified and discussed private information.
A Blizzard spokesman declined to comment on Vicarious Visions’ current projects, only confirming that the studio has been working with Blizzard for some time. ‘
Until last year, the Diablo II remake would be developed by Blizzard’s Team 1, part of the company Irvine, California, which became known for remaking classic games. The most recent release, in January 2020, was a remake called Warcraft III: Reforged. The title was poorly received due to errors and missing features, earning 59 out of 100 points on the scorer Metacritic – the lowest score a Blizzard match has ever achieved.
Members of Team 1 met to discuss what went wrong. Internal Blizzard documents reviewed by Bloomberg identified the game’s failures regarding poor planning, miscommunication and a quick release due to financial pressure from management, among others. Blizzard, for example, announced the game in November 2018 and began taking pre-orders for 2019 without notifying most of the development team in advance, according to several people who worked on Warcraft III: Reforged.
Team 1 wanted to avoid repeating the bugs of Warcraft III: Reforged on its next project, the remake of Diablo II. Shortly after the autopsy, however, Blizzard took over the project from the team and put the division behind Diablo IV in charge. A group at Vicarious Visions is also working on the remake, known as Diablo II: Resurrected.
According to the people who worked on Warcraft III: Reforged, Blizzard informed members of Team 1 on October 15, 2020. In the weeks that followed, team members were given opportunities to interview for work elsewhere in Blizzard. Those who did not get positions in the company were gradually cut off. Others have recently left for independent studios by veterans of high-end companies, such as Frost Giant Inc. and DreamHaven Inc., started by Blizzard co-founder and former CEO Mike Morhaime, whose departure was widely the start of Activision’s acquisition.
Team 1 was also responsible for the games Heroes of the Storm and StarCraft II. Blizzard delayed supporting Heroes of the Storm in 2018. On the same day that Blizzard announced that it was going to reorganize the division, it publicly announced that StarCraft II would end all ongoing development.
Blizzard has promised to continue repairing and updating Warcraft III: Reforged, though he will likely do so with another outsourced team. A spokesman would not confirm who was handling the ongoing development of Warcraft III: Reforged, but said “we are still committed to community support updates.”