Company News Blizzard North closes

[Spazmo]

Tags: Blizzard Entertainment; Diablo III

Blizzard North, the division of Blizzard that made the Diablo series of games, has now been officially closed since so many of its employees have left it to form other companies. <a href="http://www.gamespot.com/pc">Gamespot PC</a> has the story:<blockquote>In a statement today, Blizzard president and founder Mike Morhaime said the relocation will "improve our efficiency as a company" and "represents an opportunity for all of our teams to have regular, direct input on each other's projects."
<br>
<br>
Those from Blizzard North who were offered relocation packages "will continue work on an unannounced project," which most believe is the third installment in the hugely popular Diablo series.</blockquote>The remaining Bliz North employees have been amalgamated into the main Blizzard operation. As for Diablo 3, further speculation suggests that its official announcement will be at the <a href=http://www.blizzcon.com/>BlizzCon</a> event which will take place on October 28-29 of this year.

 

[Atrokkus]

Well, that's an obvious decision.

Mmm... waiting for Diablo III announcement... mmm.

Too bad that the core designers left... It may downgrade the next project

 

[roguefrog]

Flagship Studios is the new Blizzard North and Hellgate: London is the new Diablo if you get my drift

 

[Atrokkus]

actually, i don't think so.
WEll, of course, there's not much known about H:L, but damn i just don't think it will be a kind of "diablo-sequel." It may retain some features, but it won't be like D3 or sumthing.

And don't get me wrong: there is a sense in D3. Both story and gameplay-wise. There are many options, really. I'll elabroate on that later, if anyone's interested.

The question is: will the remainders of North (now in Blizzard central), along with new blood, be able to really revive Diablo and create a worthy sequel?
I really can't even speculate on that.

 

[corvax]

Too bad that the core designers left... It may downgrade the next project

It's not like following up to Diablo 2 is THAT hard.

 

[Seven]

Ding dong the witch is dead... :wink:

Personally, I stopped carring for Blizzard when they decided to make Starcraft: Ghost. Some one correct me if I'm wrong but didn't Vivendi say that Blizzard would be focussing on consoles from now on?

 

[DemonKing]

Personally, I stopped carring for Blizzard when they decided to make Starcraft: Ghost. Some one correct me if I'm wrong but didn't Vivendi say that Blizzard would be focussing on consoles from now on?

If you had 3.5 million customers playing WOW, would you dump them and shift to console-only?

Even Herve wouldn't be that dumb.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Oh yes he would.

 

[Walks with the Snails]

Pull the plug on an existing project I doubt. I don't hold very high hopes of seeing a Starcraft 2 PC game, though.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

Pull the plug on an existing project I doubt. I don't hold very high hopes of seeing a Starcraft 2 PC game, though.

 

[Atrokkus]

don't hold very high hopes of seeing a Starcraft 2 PC game, though.

Oh no you are wrong.
Strategy department of Blizzard is in NO WAY affected by all that personnel drain. StarCraft is supported vividly, Warcraft is becoming VERY solid strategy, even potentially ascending to SC's level.

The only problem is that due to so much spending on WOW SC2 may be delayed considerably.
SC:G is in no consequence, because Blizzard is not devleoping it, technically. Swinging Ape does all the work. Well, recently they were assimilated by Blizzard, as a separate department, as sort of a console-department, so they surely won't participate in SC2.

So I have no worries about SC2. It is VERY hard to beat the original and WC3 in concept, but I'm damn sure Blizzard can pull it off.

 

[kris]

So I have no worries about SC2. It is VERY hard to beat the original and WC3 in concept, but I'm damn sure Blizzard can pull it off.

Beating WC3 won't be hard, just take away more of the armies... and make it impossible to wage war and you have it.

 

[Naked_Lunch]

Even if a new Starcraft or whatever did come out, it would be instantly pulverized by Supreme Commander. So there.

 

[kris]

Even if a new Starcraft or whatever did come out, it would be instantly pulverized by Supreme Commander. So there.

Go make out with Exit will you? :D

 

[Shagnak]

Even if a new Starcraft or whatever did come out, it would be instantly pulverized by Supreme Commander. So there.

You know, that's pretty much what I was thinking...are you psychic as well as a pervert? :wink:

 

[Naked_Lunch]

Can I be both?

 

[Fez]

Can you invade people's minds and rape them with thoughts?

 

[Naked_Lunch]

At 50 bucks an hour, yeah.

 

[Atrokkus]

I'll be the pimp.

 

[Naked_Lunch]

No. I don't like you. If anything, you'll be the one getting mind-fucked, pro bono.

 

[Sol Invictus]

Diablo 3? More like World of Diablo. Meh!

The guy who made Battle for Middle Earth is the lead designer. What does he know about RPGs?

Anyway, Warcraft 3 sucked. You didn't even control real armies or wage any war on a realistic scale. It was more like Skirmishcraft. I don't want to see an SC2.

 

[Naked_Lunch]

The guy who made Battle for Middle Earth is the lead designer. What does he know about RPGs?

Probably less then he does about RTSes....

 

[Atrokkus]

What does he know about RPGs?

RPG? Diablo is no RPG, and never was.
Diablo is a strategy-action-game.

Anyway, Warcraft 3 sucked. You didn't even control real armies or wage any war on a realistic scale.

Of course it differs so much from StarCraft. But hey: if it was simialar, wouldn't it be a cloning?
Plus, the game is pretty balanced now.
The game is centered around your hero. There are not so many parallel battles, mostly it's one force vs one force. However, before the final battles, tehre are lots of harrassing, lots of ways to damage enemy's economy etc. So it can be pretty active. Plus, the creep-jacking.
And skill is required. I mean, yeah, StarCraft is kinda faster, and thus harder, but still it all comes down to players' skills. So, it's equally hard to beat a high-level gosu in StarCraft and in Warcraft.

And sure SC2 must be different. It should be more like SC, that's obvious.

 

[corvax]

RPG? Diablo is no RPG, and never was.
Diablo is a strategy-action-game.

You got me there. You got the action part right. But there's strategy in Diablo? I guess there's strategy in everything then. Hmm? Which monster should I click next? Which weapon should I use next?

As flaky as genre definitions are my guess would be for an arcade-action-adventure-role-playing game.

 

[Naked_Lunch]

It is a fucking action RPG. It has stats and character development, there's the RPG. It has an extreme emphasis on killing shit, there's the aciton. Boom bang done.