Blizzard President Mike Ybarra Is Departing Microsoft, Survival Game Has Been Cancelled. New President to be announced next week.

[shrike0fth0rns]

Well, to cancel a game is normal in gamedev. But I see Mike Ybarra is out too, maybe someone at MS axed him as a revenge for being a 'traitor' having left MS for Blizzard 4 years ago. Or maybe he left MS because he wasn't happy there and now MS did something else that he didn't like and left again.

To cancel a game after 6 yrs in development is pretty bad especially when u got nothing much else in the pipeline. The project release date was 4-5 yrs from now that means this was there focus. So beyond cod and maybe another Spyro or crash what does abk have to offer gamers? That’s a dryass pipeline for the rest of the gen unless they have some massive secret game we don’t know about. Even if Microsoft greenlit several sequels or reboots of abk ip those games wouldn’t be ready until the launch of next gen. Microsoft paid $70 billion for no games. Cod isn’t enough to move the needle another Diablo won’t come this gen.

 

[Yurinka]

To cancel a game after 6 yrs in development is pretty bad especially when u got nothing much else in the pipeline. The project release date was 4-5 yrs from now that means this was there focus. So beyond cod and maybe another Spyro or crash what does abk have to offer gamers? That’s a dryass pipeline for the rest of the gen unless they have some massive secret game we don’t know about. Even if Microsoft greenlit several sequels or reboots of abk ip those games wouldn’t be ready until the launch of next gen. Microsoft paid $70 billion for no games. Cod isn’t enough to move the needle another Diablo won’t come this gen.

Blizzard has many games in their pipeline, both live getting future updates and expansions, plus games under development.

Blizzard also makes and has a shit ton of money, even more if we count ABK and MS. So they can cancel a game with no problem even if spent 6 years on it. The thing is that they spent 6 years on a Minecraft + battle royale clone and still were several years away from releasing it. So maybe the project was a total mess and was better to cancel it and put the money instead in something safer like Star Craft 3.

Blizzard has many super succcessful projects alive: WoW, Wow Classic, Heartstone, Diablo IV, Overwatch 2, Heroes of Storm, more refurbished old, Diablo, Starcraft and WoW stuff, plus mobile games. The next big Blizzard game should be Starcraft 3. Or maybe even Warcraft 4/5.

Regarding Activision, other than CoD and in a way smaller scale Spyro and Crash they also have other ones like Tony Hawk, Guitar Hero, Skylanders, Hexen, Heretic, Pitfall or the Sierra games to name a few. I think Tony Hawk is the most likely to be brought back in a new game outside remasters/collections, followed by Guitar Hero and Skylanders. I think it's unlikely, but being Indy has a first person camera, maybe MS could resurrect Pitfall to make their own Uncharted.

Heretic and its sequel Hexen were made by Raven and published by ID Software. Now are both under the MS umbrella. Maybe MS could ask them to codevelop a GaaS third game of the series.

 

[shrike0fth0rns]

Blizzard has many games in their pipeline, both live getting future updates and expansions, plus games under development.

Blizzard also makes and has a shit ton of money, even more if we count ABK and MS. So they can cancel a game with no problem even if spent 6 years on it. The thing is that they spent 6 years on a Minecraft + battle royale clone and still were several years away from releasing it. So maybe the project was a total mess and was better to cancel it and put the money instead in something safer like Star Craft 3.

Blizzard has many super succcessful projects alive: WoW, Wow Classic, Heartstone, Diablo IV, Overwatch 2, Heroes of Storm, more refurbished old, Diablo, Starcraft and WoW stuff, plus mobile games. The next big Blizzard game should be Starcraft 3. Or maybe even Warcraft 4/5.

Regarding Activision, other than CoD and in a way smaller scale Spyro and Crash they also have other ones like Tony Hawk, Guitar Hero, Skylanders, Hexen, Heretic, Pitfall or the Sierra games to name a few. I think Tony Hawk is the most likely to be brought back in a new game outside remasters/collections, followed by Guitar Hero and Skylanders. I think it's unlikely, but being Indy has a first person camera, maybe MS could resurrect Pitfall to make their own Uncharted.

Heretic and its sequel Hexen were made by Raven and published by ID Software. Now are both under the MS umbrella. Maybe MS could ask them to codevelop a GaaS third game of the series.

This is all unlikely especially with the major cuts. It took more than 9 studios to launch the last 2 cod games. Activision even had to pull staff from crash team rumble just to get cod out in a finished state and the game was still just dlc basically. With the layoffs they now have less staff to work with key leads are gone and talented veterans. Sledgehammer now has no office , 30% of the staff has been fired and they are working on the next cod. U think when they barely have enough staff to get cod out they can spare staff for any new projects that probably even wouldn’t launch this gen? Xbox is threading water and can’t afford to f-up cod. Raven also lost a lot of staff and they have to assist on cod which is literally they’ve done for the last decade. There hasn’t been a pit fall in 25yrs no one cares about that. Dead ip don’t just come back and be successful after so many years. Activision literally laid off hearthstone staff last year because the game was under preforming so alive and well is an exaggeration. Disblo4 and overwatch2 failed to meet expectations, StarCraft 3 isn’t in production and the ppl who created StarCraft 1&2 are launching a new game shown at the game awards. The abk pipe line is drive and some remasters and remakes of dead ip isn’t going to sell Xboxes or boost gamepass subs.

 

[Dabaus]

Convinced Ybarra was Microsoft’s plant to get the ball rolling in crashing abks stock so it will be interesting to see where he lands next.