Activision Blizzard announced that Diablo IV and Overwatch 2 will be delayed to 2023. This was revealed by a recent statement in which the company hinted that, due to changes in its internal policy, it will have more time for the launch of these titles:
“After working with new leadership at Blizzard and in their respective franchises, particularly in certain roles, it has become clear that some of the content that the company has planned for next year will benefit from more time to reach its full potential (…) we are now planning a later release for Overwatch 2 and Diablo IV than was originally planned.
Both games were revealed during the Blizzcon 2019. It was expected that two years later the public would have access to at least one beta, but the 2021 edition of the event did not even throw up a release date even for Diablo IV not even for Overwatch 2.
With this, it is assumed that there will be more time for developers to do a good job and not extend their working hours. However, there is still mistrust surrounding the company’s decisions.
Jen Oneal leaves the address
To this announcement is added another news: co-director Jen Oneal leaves the company. This was made public by sharing a letter on the Blizzard’s official blog Recently. Basically, he says that he will leave all his work in the hands of Mike Ybarra, who continues as sole director, and that he will focus on a new project early next year.
Oneal stated that Activision Blizzard agreed to donate one million dollars to the non-profit organization Women in Games International (where she is a member of the executive board), which focuses on equality, diversity, and supporting women in the video game industry. The now former director will work on planning how to manage these funds.
Jen Oneal and Mike Ybarra had only arrived at Activision Blizzard in August of this year as a replacement for J. Allen Brack in the midst of one of the most critical moments of the sexual harassment scandal in which the company was involved.
Diablo IV and Overwatch 2 Delayed: What’s Happening at Activision Blizzard?
It all started a few months ago. Activision Blizzard received a lawsuit from the California Department of Housing and Fair Employment claiming that the company had “a culture of sexual harassment and sexism.” Basically It was pointed out that women went through very harsh and unfair working conditions caused by the abuse of coworkers and managers
The event ended up uncovering very serious cases such as the one called «Suit Cosby«, A hotel room of creative director Alex Afrabiasi, where large amounts of alcohol were ingested and lent itself to harassing co-workers and having sex.
What the company did in this regard was to respond by questioning the accusations, calling them “old and out of context.” This produced a wave of rejection both external and internal, as at least 2,000 employees signed a letter agreeing with the accusations and asking for better conditions.
Since then, many employees “have jumped ship.” The scandal has also claimed the heads of directors who, by action or omission, had allowed the lamentable working conditions. Such was the case with Jonathan Lecraft (World of Warcraft
A restructuring and “face wash” process has been proposed that began with removing references to former managers within the games. For example, Blizzard made sure McCree no longer shared anything with his namesake character in Overwatch, as his name was recently changed to Cole Cassidy.
On the other hand, the dates and upcoming projects of the company have been changed. Not only Blizzard announced the delay of Diablo IV and Overwatch 2, but also released the cancellation of Blizzcon 2022.
Even so, there is still a lot of mistrust. The public continues to believe that these will be “superficial measures” that will not change the internal culture of the company at all. Only time will tell if employees are actually being listened to as they say they are.
Source: Blizzard Blog.