This is what happens when ivy-league thieves who aren’t gamers, or even have a vested interest in gaming, are put into C-level roles, and their goal is to rob the organization of it’s wealth through ridiculous pay and bonuses and sold-golden parachutes when they leave. They then bring in their ivy-league buddies to distribute the wealth. They only care for themselves, and give zero fucks to the employees who are passionate about the company they work for and love gaming.
Missing their bonus targets? Lay off 500 staff – fuck the development schedules. Oh look! I’m meeting my numbers!
Same is currently happening at Ubisoft and EA Games. FFS, hire people who give a shit about gaming and let them run the companies.
Pretty sure it was all the rape, sexual slavery, and worker exploitation.
StarryNightSandwich on
Bobby fucking Kotick
Saedron on
Bobby Kotick
_Administrator on
D4 brought in 1B at least. they are not poor.
thatmikeguy on
No king rules forever my son.
Peakomegaflare on
Kotick and perverts
ReleventReference on
Do you guys not have phones?
MagnusTheCooker on
You guys mentioning the CEO being non-gamer, but XBox head Phil is a “gamer”, and look at Xbox studio… Halo for example
Azozel on
* The company got complacent and lost interest in making good games. Instead, they relied on the continued income of existing games.
* The company was sold to a company with no interest in making good games and only an interested in making money.
* Everyone working there got rich and left, putting the final nail in the coffin that changed the environment from one where people made good games so they could play good games to one where people maintained old dead games so they could milk every last cent out of brainless morons.
Odeeum on
“Maximizing profits for shareholder returns”
Emperor_Zar on
The same thing that’s happened to EA, SquareEnix, etc…
Corporate Greed and enshitification.
godzilla619 on
Frat Bro CEO
Va1crist on
Loot boxes and got to greedy with how successful WoW got , as soon as digital items made more money then full fledged games then why brother and that still is destroying blizzard and gaming general
towelheadass on
nerds made something cool, marketing took over & made it hyper monetized shit. Same thing that happens to every beloved franchise of gaming.
PartiallyExhausted on
The parallels to Aerospace (I.e. Boeing) is uncanny!
unlock0 on
They stopped making games and started making casinos for kids. Absolute evil.
1nitiated on
Same happening at Bungie
Embarrassed_Quit_450 on
It’s always greed.
old_and_boring_guy on
They went from focusing on making games to focusing on making money.
The first is a labor of love, where stuff is done because there are people legitimately excited about playing the final product, and they think it’ll be cooler if they add x, y, z.
The second is a bunch of managers and focus groups and think tanks trying to figure out how to squeeze the most money out of “their ip.”
It’s no accident that the product turns to shit. You see these high profile flops, and the company is just gobsmacked. “We checked all the boxes! Why aren’t they buying our over-monetized generic shit that’s designed almost entirely to make you play *longer* but not enjoy it!?”
Zemini7 on
They abandoned RTS. The genre that made them great and help build goodwill.
ppuspfc on
On my humble opinion, what causes this is the human problem on projecting the future. Capitalists think too much on quick gain and destroy all business by doing this
DrPoopyPants on
Was a contract worker for about a year with one of their major games. While there, I watched 3 lead engineers leave. Each had about a decade of experience with one of them being the first engineer on a major franchise (they prototype with small teams first).
The brain drain from those 3 losses alone would kill most projects, but it’s still going (and I still play it). I’m amazed that Blizzard is still around – a true testament to the talent there, but it can’t last forever.
Gnarlstone on
Rotten to the core from day one.
GraveyardJones on
I’m gonna guess shareholders who only think of games as a money sucking product instead of art and entertainment
borghive on
Most of the old devs that left Blizzard, the ones that were responsible for making all those great games, all say Blizzard has been dead for years.
It was a good run for me, I loved Warcraft RTS games, Diablo 2 and the older versions of WoW.
RocMerc on
It seems like greed is ruining most major gaming companies sadly
DarkIllusionsFX on
Prioritizing money over the product and customer. It’s what happened to every major company in every major industry.
Wow, Blizzard. There’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time. I think I dumped that subscription at least 10 years ago.
Expensive_Finger_973 on
MBAs and their shareholder bosses is what happened. Same thing that happens to any company once the MBAs start to out weigh the people that actually know how to do the thing the company does.
spider0804 on
I honestly think the problem with the entirety of the major studios is that the developers stopped playing their games and management started worrying more about messaging than making a good game.
Blizzard used to be a studio of gamers that made games, now in ANY large studio if you ask the devs if they have ever even started the game they will probably say no.
As long as this is the case, we will be in the status quo of smaller / indie studios and studios from other countries churning out bangers while the gaming giants fold one by one.
Do you think tencent is going to give two craps about diversity or messaging if they buy Ubisoft?
No, they are going to care about MONEY, and you get money by making something with:
Decent gameplay
Follows the established lore
Has a decent amount of fan service.
.
That is it, that is all any company has to do to make money but they just cant figure it out.
bdigital1796 on
When blowing into cartridges evolved to corporatization of the video game industry, it was the death knell. not even a soul stone could have saved them. But I don’t place the blame on the companies, rather it is the consumers that are clearly defective.
Eurymedion on
If you read the article, Schreier’s main point is Blizzard started to go sideways in terms of innovation because WoW became such a huge hit. They were pretty much “forced” to pump resources into it to sustain growth and having Activision breathing down their necks certainly didn’t help. Unfortunately, that meant taking people away from other projects – including potential new IP. It’s sort of like a weird golden handcuff scenario.
n33dwat3r on
I quit buying Blizzard products when they made Diablo 3 pay to win. I loved that series and they ruined it with transactions.
rdececco29 on
Here’s the full article for those who don’t want to start a free trial – “Over the past three years, as I worked on a book about the history of the video-game company Blizzard Entertainment, a disconcerting question kept popping into my head: *Why does success seem so awful?*Even typing that out feels almost anti-American, anathema to the ethos of hard work and ambition that has propelled so many of the great minds and ideas that have changed the world.
But Blizzard makes a good case for the modest achievement over the astronomical. Founded in Irvine, California, by two UCLA students named Allen Adham and Mike Morhaime, the company quickly became well respected and popular thanks to a series of breakout franchises such as *StarCraft* and *Diablo*. But everything changed in 2004 with the launch of *World of Warcraft* (or *WoW*), which became an online-gaming juggernaut that made billions of dollars. I started writing [*Play Nice*](https://bookshop.org/a/12476/9781538725429) because I wanted to examine the challenging relationship between Blizzard and the parent corporation that would eventually call the shots. After conducting interviews with more than 300 current and former Blizzard staff members, I found a tragic story—a cautionary tale about how the pursuit of endless growth and iteration can devastate a company, no matter how legendary its status.”
bedbathandbebored on
I mean, the cover ups of sexual assault/harrassment. The firing of whistleblowers, the micro transactions and gender pay gaps etc. it’s hardly a mystery.
41 Comments
Greed and misogyny. Done.
They were bought by Activision. End of story.
they sold out to activision
This is what happens when ivy-league thieves who aren’t gamers, or even have a vested interest in gaming, are put into C-level roles, and their goal is to rob the organization of it’s wealth through ridiculous pay and bonuses and sold-golden parachutes when they leave. They then bring in their ivy-league buddies to distribute the wealth. They only care for themselves, and give zero fucks to the employees who are passionate about the company they work for and love gaming.
Missing their bonus targets? Lay off 500 staff – fuck the development schedules. Oh look! I’m meeting my numbers!
Same is currently happening at Ubisoft and EA Games. FFS, hire people who give a shit about gaming and let them run the companies.
Here’s a 2008 article for you: Here’s the reason why blizzard died. Keyword here is *exploited:*
https://www.engadget.com/2008-11-06-activision-blizzard-ceo-kotick-vivendi-franchises-lacked-poten.html
Pretty sure it was all the rape, sexual slavery, and worker exploitation.
Bobby fucking Kotick
Bobby Kotick
D4 brought in 1B at least. they are not poor.
No king rules forever my son.
Kotick and perverts
Do you guys not have phones?
You guys mentioning the CEO being non-gamer, but XBox head Phil is a “gamer”, and look at Xbox studio… Halo for example
* The company got complacent and lost interest in making good games. Instead, they relied on the continued income of existing games.
* The company was sold to a company with no interest in making good games and only an interested in making money.
* Everyone working there got rich and left, putting the final nail in the coffin that changed the environment from one where people made good games so they could play good games to one where people maintained old dead games so they could milk every last cent out of brainless morons.
“Maximizing profits for shareholder returns”
The same thing that’s happened to EA, SquareEnix, etc…
Corporate Greed and enshitification.
Frat Bro CEO
Loot boxes and got to greedy with how successful WoW got , as soon as digital items made more money then full fledged games then why brother and that still is destroying blizzard and gaming general
nerds made something cool, marketing took over & made it hyper monetized shit. Same thing that happens to every beloved franchise of gaming.
The parallels to Aerospace (I.e. Boeing) is uncanny!
They stopped making games and started making casinos for kids. Absolute evil.
Same happening at Bungie
It’s always greed.
They went from focusing on making games to focusing on making money.
The first is a labor of love, where stuff is done because there are people legitimately excited about playing the final product, and they think it’ll be cooler if they add x, y, z.
The second is a bunch of managers and focus groups and think tanks trying to figure out how to squeeze the most money out of “their ip.”
It’s no accident that the product turns to shit. You see these high profile flops, and the company is just gobsmacked. “We checked all the boxes! Why aren’t they buying our over-monetized generic shit that’s designed almost entirely to make you play *longer* but not enjoy it!?”
They abandoned RTS. The genre that made them great and help build goodwill.
On my humble opinion, what causes this is the human problem on projecting the future. Capitalists think too much on quick gain and destroy all business by doing this
Was a contract worker for about a year with one of their major games. While there, I watched 3 lead engineers leave. Each had about a decade of experience with one of them being the first engineer on a major franchise (they prototype with small teams first).
The brain drain from those 3 losses alone would kill most projects, but it’s still going (and I still play it). I’m amazed that Blizzard is still around – a true testament to the talent there, but it can’t last forever.
Rotten to the core from day one.
I’m gonna guess shareholders who only think of games as a money sucking product instead of art and entertainment
Most of the old devs that left Blizzard, the ones that were responsible for making all those great games, all say Blizzard has been dead for years.
It was a good run for me, I loved Warcraft RTS games, Diablo 2 and the older versions of WoW.
It seems like greed is ruining most major gaming companies sadly
Prioritizing money over the product and customer. It’s what happened to every major company in every major industry.
Those who forget history are [doomed to repeat it](https://youtu.be/NlBjNmXvqIM?feature=shared)
Wow, Blizzard. There’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time. I think I dumped that subscription at least 10 years ago.
MBAs and their shareholder bosses is what happened. Same thing that happens to any company once the MBAs start to out weigh the people that actually know how to do the thing the company does.
I honestly think the problem with the entirety of the major studios is that the developers stopped playing their games and management started worrying more about messaging than making a good game.
Blizzard used to be a studio of gamers that made games, now in ANY large studio if you ask the devs if they have ever even started the game they will probably say no.
As long as this is the case, we will be in the status quo of smaller / indie studios and studios from other countries churning out bangers while the gaming giants fold one by one.
Do you think tencent is going to give two craps about diversity or messaging if they buy Ubisoft?
No, they are going to care about MONEY, and you get money by making something with:
Decent gameplay
Follows the established lore
Has a decent amount of fan service.
.
That is it, that is all any company has to do to make money but they just cant figure it out.
When blowing into cartridges evolved to corporatization of the video game industry, it was the death knell. not even a soul stone could have saved them. But I don’t place the blame on the companies, rather it is the consumers that are clearly defective.
If you read the article, Schreier’s main point is Blizzard started to go sideways in terms of innovation because WoW became such a huge hit. They were pretty much “forced” to pump resources into it to sustain growth and having Activision breathing down their necks certainly didn’t help. Unfortunately, that meant taking people away from other projects – including potential new IP. It’s sort of like a weird golden handcuff scenario.
I quit buying Blizzard products when they made Diablo 3 pay to win. I loved that series and they ruined it with transactions.
Here’s the full article for those who don’t want to start a free trial – “Over the past three years, as I worked on a book about the history of the video-game company Blizzard Entertainment, a disconcerting question kept popping into my head: *Why does success seem so awful?*Even typing that out feels almost anti-American, anathema to the ethos of hard work and ambition that has propelled so many of the great minds and ideas that have changed the world.
But Blizzard makes a good case for the modest achievement over the astronomical. Founded in Irvine, California, by two UCLA students named Allen Adham and Mike Morhaime, the company quickly became well respected and popular thanks to a series of breakout franchises such as *StarCraft* and *Diablo*. But everything changed in 2004 with the launch of *World of Warcraft* (or *WoW*), which became an online-gaming juggernaut that made billions of dollars. I started writing [*Play Nice*](https://bookshop.org/a/12476/9781538725429) because I wanted to examine the challenging relationship between Blizzard and the parent corporation that would eventually call the shots. After conducting interviews with more than 300 current and former Blizzard staff members, I found a tragic story—a cautionary tale about how the pursuit of endless growth and iteration can devastate a company, no matter how legendary its status.”
I mean, the cover ups of sexual assault/harrassment. The firing of whistleblowers, the micro transactions and gender pay gaps etc. it’s hardly a mystery.