Leah Jackson picks pro-gamer Greg "Idra" Fields' mind about Blizzard's shift to more casual games.
Speaking at SXSW Sydney, Mike Morhaime shared some insight into his departure from Blizzard Entertainment, the company he co-founded.
“There’s this great Steve Jobs quote I love: If you keep your eye on the profit, you’re going to skimp on the product. But if you keep your eye on the product, the profit will follow, and I really believe that,” Morhaime explained.
I think that basically explains the problem with Blizzard now and clearly goes against high level execs who couldn't give a toss about the games.
Samwise Didier, the legendary art director who helped define Blizzard's art style and is even credited with coining the name "Warcraft" is retiring after 32 years.
Must be something bad happening at MS (going by someone's obscure observation) right guys ? Surely ?
During BlizzCon 2023, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer delivered a promising message to Blizzard Entertainment fans.
I´m not expecting a miracle.
But I´m 100% sure that Blizzard and its games will get a far better treatment under Xbox than they had under Kotick in more than a decade.
By what basis since MS is of the habit of turning over established IPs to studios other than ones that made them?
And what is Activision at this point other than COD, Diablo and Overwatch?
"By what basis since MS is of the habit of turning over established IPs to studios other than ones that made them?"
Who cares? If the ones who made it don´t want or can´t make it, what´s the problem?
"And what is Activision at this point other than COD, Diablo and Overwatch?"
That´s exactly the point I´m talking about, dude. I´m expecting for legacy IPs to make a comeback now that ABK is under Xbox, since Kotick couldn´t give a sh!t about those games.
When you look back through the last decade, it's hard to argue with this.
The only studio that has truly flourished were Playground Games and I'd even suggest that since MS acquired them, FH4 & 5 were the worst in the series due to huge issues not being fixed now for 5+ years due to the focus on live service style weekly/monthly updates.
Way too many studios have been gutted by Microsoft to the point of closing or made into a joke as far as I know only bungie was able to break their chains and ran away as fast and far as they could unlike rare and lionheart.
Phil can say whatever he wants but as usual expect half truths, full lies or Ignorance of the situation.
Anytime you see “Phil Spencer Promises” you know not to believe it.
I don't know if that is possible. Most of the folks that made the Blizzard that we loved aren't in the company anymore.
Yeah its weird to think but the "Blizzard" we all know and love is from 15+ years ago
Came in to say that. You are completely right. If we go by recent talents, even Jeff Kaplan jumped ship. I know some people NEVER liked Overwatch, but it was in a MUCH better state when he was at the helm. You could see he cared about the project a lot. But care can only lead you to one place only in greedy companies like this... out the door.
You mean like you did with Bungie/343i, Rare, Arkane and Bethesda? Plus like a lot of these legacy studios, almost if not all the vets who made it special are gone
He's been trying to retire for sometime now. Hes helped the next creative director John Johanas. High FI was his creation from scratch not Shinji Mikami.
No MS had nothing to do with HIFI before you start.
For once in your life I have to give you your flowers. Take a lap, dance in the streets you finally got something right. It took you a million years but you finally did it.
He spoke candidly about Retiring but decided not but left Bethesda. 👏 👏. I'm happy for you for getting something right It won't happen ever again buy hey I give props this time.
It's 20 and 1 you finally got one over me.
I wasn't talking you I was talking to Israi about his comment kiddo. I heard a rumor awhile ago about him retiring but it was him leaving instead. In my head I thought "retirement" a slight mess up done by my own hand. Like I said, pat yourself on the back. It's a small win leaving vs Retirement but hey it's facts and I don't argue facts. You should be proud.
343 got gutted because of bad management and slow and uninspired season releases (now they're releasing one of the best seasons yet) similar to BUNGIE recently. Redfall had nothing to do with MS. People leave all the time doesn't mean anything. With that logic Connie Booty and Jim Ryan being gone is bad management. Again with your logic Sony layoffs and downsizing recently is bad management also?
You must have a fetish for being wrong bro, that's the only explanation I can think of for how you act around here 🤣
@Lightning
"He's been trying to retire for sometime now."
Oh really?! Just wanted to throw in an idiotic comment as usual. Wrong again as usual too. He's not retiring at all.
https://videogames.si.com/n...
So how do you like your crow to be served?! Studio wasn't allowing him the freedom to do what he wanted to so he left his own studio under Microsoft to do what he wants to. Damn it only took 5 seconds to prove you wrong again.
Here Shinji Mikami in his own words:
“Now that I've broken the spell of non-competition on myself,” he wrote, “I guess I should get to work.”
Yeah definitely sounds like someone retiring right?! He's only making new games.
"Oh really?! Just wanted to throw in an idiotic comment as usual."
As usual!? I'm not you don't ever compare me to you kiddo.
https://www.gamespot.com/ar...
He left earlier this year yes he retired from Tango at Bethesda, BETHESDA Show me where I said he was exiting the game industry? Please show me.
Gee what do you know it only took me 5 minutes to correct you as always. You throughim false things I Never said and made yourself look dumb as always kiddo.
You'll never win anything against me you and I both know that, you're not smart enough, never ever will be so back to bridge you go.
"Damn it only took 5 seconds to prove you wrong again."
I would love to see this where have you ever proved me wrong go ahead and tell me.
@Lightning
"Show me where I said he was exiting "
The part where you deflected and made it seem like he was retiring. Hence you're idiotic and wrong. He's doing no such thing. He didn't 'retire' from Bethesda, he F'n left which isn't the same. Lol.
Leaving a company is NOT retiring stupid. Because by that idiotic logic for example I retired when I left my last job. I did no such thing. I moved onto a better higher paying job. I didn't 'retire'.
So again wrong. You're doing mental gymnastics trying to backtrack right now when you were straight up wrong like usual.
https://www.gematsu.com/202...
"“I am writing today to let you know that studio head Shinji Mikami has decided to leave Tango Gameworks in the coming months,”
But yeah okay. Where anywhere does the word 'retire' show up. Bethesda even wished him well on whatever he planned to do. What happened is there was speculation he was retiring which you assumed to be true without researching (no surprise there of course). So again you're wrong.
https://www.gamesradar.com/...
"Mikami departs Tango at age 57, which naturally leads to questions surrounding his possible retirement. The Evil Within director has spoken pretty candidly in the past about retiring but has maintained over the last few years that he wants to direct one final game before he hangs up his hat. "
Nice way of saying that I'm right since you can't point out how I'm wrong nor have a counter argument but go ahead and entertain me on how I'm "wrong" though.
"he retired from Tango at Bethesda"
I knew were dumb and you might have difficulty with English, but, 'retiring' is NOT the same as just up and leaving. By your stupid logic when you switched jobs you 'retired'.
Here's the Oxford definition to dumb it down for you:
"to leave your job and stop working"
Mikami left Bethesda. He didn't stop working because he's still making games. He paused because of a non-compete which is not the same as retiring. So again you are wrong.
I don't think you can manufacture talent.
Old Blizzard died a long time ago.
Blizzard has been garbage for a long time now. Same with Activision. Good luck with that.
Currently they have NOT but we will see how things go when "Titan" their new MMO is released.
Blizzard has been FEASTING very well off of games that are like 10 years OLD.
will be nice to see a new begging with Titan and if Blizzard is still a hungry dev team eager to compete or have they turned into a Dev team too fat too care.
stay tuned Gamers.
I wasn't aware they have ever been anything but casual , I mean when wow first launched it was THE most casual mmo at the time, and I don't think it got any more hard core in its years.
World of Warcraft has gone so casual, every expansion since WotLK has be making the game so easy to a point of boredom, they been making classes so easy that you can spam just 1 key and do dmg. Changed mechanics so it was more easier for noobs who just entered to play the game, and not to mention the insta 90 bought character. In their process to make the game casual they lost nearly 6 million of their hardcore fanbase, they are down to 7 million and losing more every month.
My thoughts:
-Their SP RTS's were always tough, I think.
-WoW was always pretty casual, and so are the newer Diablo games.
-Don't know what HotS will be like.
-Hearthstone is hard.
Ever since WoTLK, Blizzard cares more about monetary gains, instead of a fantastic game. WoD looks to remove even more from classes, which is a pretty bad signal itself.
D3 - certainly not a Blizzard North game.