One of the highlights of the game industry this week was the news that Gears of War chief Rod Fergusson would be flying over to Blizzard Entertainment next month, where the development chief will head the Durloise Frontise. Usually, shifts like these are not good for the average video player – people change jobs all the time. But Fergusson's studio adaptation is startling when we consider the broader changes that have taken place in Blizzard recently.
Fans of the game business may know Fergusson by nicknames such as "fixer" and "close." The man has made a name for himself over the years as the kind of person who can drive a solid ship and bring projects to the finish line. Perhaps most notably, he helped BioShock Permanent overcoming the years of development of hell, molding it into a product widely accepted by the general public.
Hiring Fergusson to do things – in this case, he may have been sent Devil 4, which is currently under construction in Irvine, a studio in California. While Blizzard is not as big as the game window announced, Kotaku report on the Diablo Franchise world that the game could very well come this year. When Fergusson pulls on, my gut says that Blizzard wants it done sooner rather than later.
According to the same report, Soldier activists have been worried about the company's growth over the past few years. Usually, Blizzard's style is to install things as long as needed, and when the game is over, chances are good that the developer will support it for as long as possible – The World of War, which is now over 15 years old, is getting stronger. It's a thoughtful approach that has helped Blizzard become a popular gaming company, but it's also one that may be on its way out. Improvement in Heroes of the Storm (2015), Blizzard's take on the MOBA model, for example, has begun to slow down as the studio converts its employees into more successful projects.
"We're constantly evolving and working on not only our games, but how we support and grow them," Blizzard president J. Allen Brack wrote when the company announced its decision to delay the development. Heroes of the Storm.
“Over the past several years, the task of evaluating our development processes and making difficult decisions has led to new games and other products we're proud of,” he continued. "We now have more live games and uninvited projects than at any time in the history of this company."
The “over” key here. In Kotaku's report, the news release states that the activation wants to "maximize the effect of Blizzard content and release more games into the mainstream system." Devil 4 it may fall under that umbrella, but this change may also help explain some of the latest Blizzard announcements.
2019 unveiling of Overwatch 2, for example, it looked strange and confusing to many, as long as the first game came out in the spring of 2016. Blizzard rarely does this in rapid succession. It's especially surprising when you consider that Blizzard says it will continue to update the original game with the sequel's content. Overwatch 2 maps and characters will also appear in The escape, in an effort to provide fans with a "multiplayer space where no one is left," according to series director Jeff Kaplan.
It's a cool idea, but it also makes you wonder why sequences exist when the company can just keep updating and changing the existing game. Everything starts to make sense, but once you put in the passion in the marketing of other games.
And what better way to sell more games than to expand on new platforms? Blizzard started out as a PC-focused developer, and developed a world of comfort over the last few years, but one area where the mainstream studio has been impressed is that the space is recognizable. Soon, that may change – again Devil: Immortal, announced in 2018, may just be the tip of the iceberg.
"According to Blizzard's approach to mobile games, many of us in the last few years have gone from playing desktop to playing long hours on mobile, and we have many of our best developers now working on new mobile topics across our IPs," says the studio's founder Allen Adham on time the BlizzCon 2018 press conference. “Some of their foreign partners, for example Devil: Immortal. Most of them are built-in only, and we will have information to share with those to come in the future. ”
The question then becomes, can Blizzard maintain its normal quality level while also maximizing its impact? The latest issue of Warsters 3: Renewal, which aims to make it a classic RTS, does not inspire confidence. Repeated reference to a host of performance and connection issues, and ironically, has also changed how the first game works. The situation was bad enough for Blizzard to start returning fans money regardless of play time.
Granted, Blizzard did not have fixer Rod Fergusson on its list Renewal. And it's based on what we know Devil 4, it seems to be the kind of bad, bad game that fans rely on. The next game in the demonic franchise is already being seen during a cultural exchange at the development center, and that will influence the game in some way.
"We have more new products to launch today at Blizzard than we have ever had in our history," said Adham at BlizzCon 2018. "And our future is bright."
