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https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2021-01-22/blizzard-absorbs-activision-studio-after-dismantling-classic-games-team?__twitter_impression=true
...On Oct. 15, 2020, Blizzard informed members of Team 1 that it was reorganizing the entire division, according to the people who worked on Warcraft III: Reforged. In the following weeks, members of the team were given opportunities to interview for jobs elsewhere within Blizzard. Those who did not find positions in the company were gradually cut. Others left for independent studios recently started by high-profile company veterans, such as Frost Giant Inc. and DreamHaven Inc., started by Blizzard co-founder and former Chief Executive Officer Mike Morhaime, whose departure widely signaled the beginning of Activision's takeover.
Team 1 was also responsible for the games Heroes of the Storm and StarCraft II. Blizzard slowed down development support of Heroes of the Storm in 2018. On the same day that Blizzard said it was reorganizing the division, it announced publicly that StarCraft II was ending all ongoing development....
Not terribly surprising given what we already knew with WC3, SC2 development stopping, devs leaving for Frostbite etc.
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Upsetting, but the writing has been on the wall for a while. When I read that Grant Davies annouced a couple of days ago that he left the BW team at the end of 2020, a lot of people speculated this was right around the corner. At least we have confirmation.
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Should be noted that the dissolution of Blizzard Team 1 happened last fall, so this isn't a very recent thing.
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Northern Ireland26262 Posts
I just hope Frost Giant can nail it.
In the absence of say, a Valve entering the RTS market, Blizzard is dead in that regard.
The company that made genre-defining classics can’t even get the resources to make competent remasters of its own properties.
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On January 23 2021 10:09 WombaT wrote:
I just hope Frost Giant can nail it.
In the absence of say, a Valve entering the RTS market, Blizzard is dead in that regard.
The company that made genre-defining classics can’t even get the resources to make competent remasters of its own properties.
Valve is making an RTS?
This is really bad news, but as far as BW is concerned, I am excited to try Shield Battery again.
As far as SC2 is concerned, this sucks for SC2 lovers. Does this mean no more blizzard sponsored SC2 events / no more patches for SC2?
I haven't played SC2 in years actually, do people feel the balance is perfect now?
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So with sc2 dev stopping, does this mean this patch of starcraft is going to be the one used for the rest of eternity? 
Does this mean we should be expecting a sc3 announcement soon?
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United States33559 Posts
meanwhile ATVI stock at an all time high ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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Big question is, are we now stuck with current balance and map pool? I would expect ESL to be quite unhappy to run the tournaments for this and next year if that is the case.
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On January 23 2021 10:38 Waxangel wrote:
meanwhile ATVI stock at an all time high ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I too feel confident WoW and CoD will make lots of money!
Also Candy Crush. Never forget about CC.
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I'm more sad about Activision throwing Vicarious Visions to the wolves and having them take over Diablo 2 remastered development. Vicarious Visions have been knocking it out of the park the last few years with their remakes of old games and there was hope they would do another Tony Hawk game after Tony Hawk 1+2 sold incredibly well.
I mean, it's great that a team with that good of a track record is working on Diablo 2 remastered, but they seemed like they were on track to do some great things and now they're stuck trying to fix up the mess at Blizzard and at the same time it sounds like none of the management who caused all of these issues at Blizzard (per that Jason Schreier story on this topic) are still around calling shots. It sounds like Blizzard is getting the Bioware treatment.
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I think this answers the question of are we going to see any future balance changes.
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On January 23 2021 10:27 TelecoM wrote:Show nested quote +On January 23 2021 10:09 WombaT wrote:
I just hope Frost Giant can nail it.
In the absence of say, a Valve entering the RTS market, Blizzard is dead in that regard.
The company that made genre-defining classics can’t even get the resources to make competent remasters of its own properties. Valve is making an RTS? This is really bad news, but as far as BW is concerned, I am excited to try Shield Battery again. As far as SC2 is concerned, this sucks for SC2 lovers. Does this mean no more blizzard sponsored SC2 events / no more patches for SC2? I haven't played SC2 in years actually, do people feel the balance is perfect now?
I think they're saying Blizzard isn't going to make another RTS unless a big player like Valve decides to.
They announced they were stopping major patches for SC2 a few months ago, promising to make tweaks where necessary, but I'm pretty sure everyone back then knew there were never going to be any "necessary" tweaks. Balance isn't perfect but I'd say every race has a good shot at winning something right now, which is better than how things were back in 2019.
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On January 23 2021 10:31 Woosixion wrote:So with sc2 dev stopping, does this mean this patch of starcraft is going to be the one used for the rest of eternity? Does this mean we should be expecting a sc3 announcement soon?
Pretty much. They announced a while back that SC2 would no longer have any major patches. I doubt we get any minor balances patches either.
Don't expect an SC3. I remember hearing in an interview with the Frost Giant team (I think it was them, anyway) that Blizzard had pitched RTS games to Activision but Activision declined.
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My god, out of any patch to get stuck with, it had to be this one. As a zerg player, this is the worst patch in 4-5 years easily. RIP. Wish they didnt remove infested terrans and just removed rockets... And maybe a small buff to broodlords or hydras  .
Ladder protoss must be happy I guess.
I feel like in the last 2 -3 years, both protoss and terran got lots of new toys and new builds, while zerg only had things taken away, nerfed, and has now less builds than ever before.
Its not even just about balance, but about game play. Its just not that enjoyable right now to play zerg; and its coming from someone who played 40k games at masters/GM for 10 years. This is the only patch that ever made me quit playing because of how rare fun games are and how few cool builds/unit comps you can go for.
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So we began with cannon rush into void rays, so we end with cannon rush into void rays.
It's almost poetic.
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Down goes the drain for all my hopes on this game. Maybe this is also the reason why we aren't seeing any new maps when the new season is just right around the corner
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About Warcraft:Reforged:
Members of Team 1 met to discuss what had gone wrong. Internal Blizzard documents reviewed by Bloomberg pinpointed the game’s failures on poor planning, miscommunication and a rushed release due to financial pressure from management, among other factors.
they fucking ruined it !!!
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On January 23 2021 11:03 StasisField wrote:Show nested quote +On January 23 2021 10:31 Woosixion wrote:So with sc2 dev stopping, does this mean this patch of starcraft is going to be the one used for the rest of eternity? Does this mean we should be expecting a sc3 announcement soon? Pretty much. They announced a while back that SC2 would no longer have any major patches. I doubt we get any minor balances patches either. Don't expect an SC3. I remember hearing in an interview with the Frost Giant team (I think it was them, anyway) that Blizzard had pitched RTS games to Activision but Activision declined.
I can't understand why they would not jump at opportunity to make a few billion dollars with SC3.. like.. they've got the market cornered on RTS every single RTS player in the world would buy it no matter what..
On January 23 2021 11:11 Snakestyle11 wrote:My god, out of any patch to get stuck with, it had to be this one. As a zerg player, this is the worst patch in 4-5 years easily. RIP. Wish they didnt remove infested terrans and just removed rockets... And maybe a small buff to broodlords or hydras . Ladder protoss must be happy I guess. I feel like in the last 2 -3 years, both protoss and terran got lots of new toys and new builds, while zerg only had things taken away, nerfed, and has now less builds than ever before. Its not even just about balance, but about game play. Its just not that enjoyable right now to play zerg; and its coming from someone who played 40k games at masters/GM for 10 years. This is the only patch that ever made me quit playing because of how rare fun games are and how few cool builds/unit comps you can go for.
Like.. seriously.. I would never have imagined that the teleporting BC/proxy SB + cannon stuff would have stayed in the game when those patches came out. Like for all of the insanely strong openers P/T has, to take away OL drops on hatch tech was the single most crippling nerf ever IMO
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On January 23 2021 12:17 Woosixion wrote:Show nested quote +On January 23 2021 11:03 StasisField wrote:On January 23 2021 10:31 Woosixion wrote:So with sc2 dev stopping, does this mean this patch of starcraft is going to be the one used for the rest of eternity? Does this mean we should be expecting a sc3 announcement soon? Pretty much. They announced a while back that SC2 would no longer have any major patches. I doubt we get any minor balances patches either. Don't expect an SC3. I remember hearing in an interview with the Frost Giant team (I think it was them, anyway) that Blizzard had pitched RTS games to Activision but Activision declined. I can't understand why they would not jump at opportunity to make a few billion dollars with SC3.. like.. they've got the market cornered on RTS every single RTS player in the world would buy it no matter what..
It probably just isn't as profitable as other ventures. I also doubt we'd see billions of dollars from SC3. I'm sure it'd be very successful for an RTS game but there are markets they could target for an even higher possible return on their investment.
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The Blizzard that we knew is long dead. Long live Activision. Turns out the 2 in Starcraft 2 is the number of people working on it, although that's probably too high.
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EPT
