The Rise and Fall of Blizzard Entertainment

Seeing the fall of Blizzard has been really disappointing. My all time favorite game developer, once beloved by the gaming community- fell onto a path of unfinished games and constant controversy. Where did it all go wrong? Here's the entire story of the rise and fall of Blizzard Entertainment.

[Nateson]

Yeah Blizzard announcing PvE getting cancelled for Overwatch 2 is just icing on the cake.

[cataholic]

Since WoW Classic was so successful maybe they should think about Blizzard Classic next?

[clawdroppin]

It's crazy how nowadays with blizzard you can expect the worst and somehow they still smash your expectations with their decisions.

[seahr]

Rip Blizzard. I went through all the stages of grief a couple years ago. Now it feels like I miss an old friend sometimes

[filipvadas]

I think one of the biggest showcases of how low Blizzard had fallen is that a lot of the cofounders who left Blizzard *didn't quit developing games* . They just quit developing games *for Blizzard.*

The fact that the people who practically built the company and were there from Day 1 felt that the only way to continue their careers was to just *leave* says a lot about the work culture and problems over there.

[purplehaze]

The fact that WoW succeeded so hard that the entire company needed to kill the development of any other game is like, the pinnacle of "mission failed successfully".

[Kerath]

You can literally pinpoint the Activision merger as the root of all problems to come. Instead of a studio ran by gamers for gamers, their leadership drifted away towards billionaires focused on profits alone.

[BrianKingsbury-nlde]

I think you would have benefited from looking at HOTS history a bit more. Blizzard absolutely screwed over everyone involved in its competitive esports, telling them they'd continue supporting it then pulling the plug and not even warning them in advance. A lot of people suddenly found themselves out of jobs, and it added into that general lack of goodwill Blizzard was building at the time.

[AntiDoctor-cxjd]

here is how companies go. They are founded by passionate people with a vision, and eventually replaced by been counters trying to squeeze every penny out of over charging and cutting corners.

[mchammer]

Man I’d love to see an internal side of this. Like what was happening in the executive meetings. Of course it would be a gross expose of arrogance and greed but it would be interesting.

[supermutant]

It's gotten so bad that Blizzard players have gaslit themselves into believing these games are getting better

Edit: they just cancelled PVE mode 😐

[cargnome]

The sad reality about Blizzard is that controversy is nothing new. The more you look into it, the more you find that all of their current problems have happened before. They have a storied past of despicable acts, and only recently have they been truly called out for it.
The problem is that they make some really popular games with that classic Blizzard polish, so people keep supporting them no matter what.
It's hard to resist the devil when he plays your favorite song.

[LightsJusticeZ]

I just realized this was 30+min, holy crap, this was so well done it didn't feel like that at all! Bravo for your video editing skills, this was super entertaining to watch!

[Liftinglinguist]

Blizzard and Bioware were heroes back in the golden age of PC gaming, it's sad to see them both fall like this. We knew from the moment they merged with Activision that they were screwed.

[Joske]

You know it's bad when even random people who run private servers offer a better gaming experience than what blizzard is doing these days

[Mediados]

I remember not too many years ago a time when I thought Blizzard was incapable of making bad games. I loved every single one in their line up, from WoW to Starcraft. Damn, that feels like a different era now.

[manospondylus]

Aw man, that story about the redshirt guy is heartwarming. I at first feared that people would mock him for being pedantic.

[jgj]

The saddest part of all is that Bobby and the suits won. Core gamers raged and raged, but too many gamers kept playing and kept paying. Gamers will have to learn that raging on social media is far less effective than simply withholding your money.

[empire]

I've been playing Blizzard games since the mid 90s and it's pretty heartbreaking what has happened to this company. Their games used to ooze personality and had the polish of a diamond. Now you fire up a game and there's instantly a screen to sell you in game content, and the dumbing down of some of their great properties. I still play WoW Classic and SC, but it's sad seeing new games come out with so many problems

[Zyphera]

It's truly disheartening to witness the current state of Blizzard Entertainment. As a longtime fan of their games, it's difficult to see a once highly regarded company stumble and falter.

Blizzard was once synonymous with high-quality, innovative titles that captured the hearts of millions. I can't fantom how they got from this state to the current state. The lackluster releases, and the prioritization of monetization over player satisfaction is truly sickening.