A new team withinBlizzardwill start developing AA games based on existing IPs likeOverwatch,StarCraft,World of Warcraft, and more.
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It seems like Microsoft and Activision have new plans to utilize their massive library of franchises and existing intellectual properties (IPs), as they cost the former a hefty $72 billion dollars following the biggest purchase last year. After a long period of trying to convince regulators around the world, Microsoft finally added colossal titles to its ever-growing IP arsenal.
With their arrival, the industry titan also recorded a massive growth in its gaming division last year. And it seems like it’s nowestablishing a new team to accelerate the growth with a different approach.
We know that, thanks to the report ofMicrosoft Central’s Jez Cordenand the recent changes in the LinkedIn profiles of a great number of Blizzard employees, who changed their profiles from King and Microsoft’s other gaming subsidiaries to Blizzard.
According to Corden, these employees are part of anew team that will work on AA games based on Blizzard’s gargantuan IPs, such as StarCraft, Diablo, Overwatch, World of Warcraft,and more. For the fans of these franchises, it should hopefully mean that there will be new games based on existing IPs at shorter release intervals.
Considering that it takes at least six years and hundreds of millions of dollars towrap up an AAA game, it’s only natural for industry giants to utilize different development pipelines. That’s where AA games come into play, as they have shorter development periods with lower production costs.
According to the sources, the new team will be delivering games of this scale that may be set in Overwatch, Starcraft, Warcraft, and others.
New Blizzard Team Mostly Consists Of King Developers
With that said, the size and the scope of the new internal team in Blizzard remain unknown. It’s worth noting that the team consists of former King employees, though. Knowing King’s overwhelming talent and know-how at tailoring mobile games, the new team might be focusing on mobile games exclusively.
While that’s a possibility, we also know Xbox wants its games on virtually every platform. According tothe recent comments of Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, they want “to have content for everywhere people play games, starting with PC.”
While the majority of the team’s members are former King employees, Nadella’s comments suggest that the upcoming titles are likely to be multi-platform. However, it’s quite early to pinpoint the forward strategy of the new team.
Here’s hoping for a new and smaller generation of Blizzard games that will run across platforms while offering new ways to explore the universes of the beloved IPs.
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