Last month, Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision-Blizzard-King became final. What is the impact of this acquisition for Blizzard?
In an interview with Bloomberg Mike Ybarra (President of Blizzard Entertainment) clearly expresses his expectations. He expects much more creative freedom under the Microsoft banner. Blizzard must become the ‘old Blizzard’ again, where ideas on the work floor do not have to go through many layers in the organization for approval. Blizzard staff in particular hope that the new regime will restore the studio’s sense of autonomy. “I think that’s absolutely amazing,” Ybarra said. “It motivates the teams.”
Starcraft
In the Bloomberg article we read further that Ybarra said that despite the acquisition, he still plans to have large teams working for the largest franchises. But he’s also open to less mainstream projects, including a possible return of StarCraft. Under Kotick, many Blizzard employees with experience developing real-time strategy games left the company. So if the franchise returns, the next iteration could be a completely different genre, Ybarra hinted.
2023-11-08 19:09:25
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