What you need to know
- Over the past few weeks, many King employees had switched their LinkedIn profiles from King to Blizzard.
- We can reveal that Microsoft and Activision have formed a new smaller team within Blizzard comprised of King and various other employees to work on “AA” games, based on existing Blizzard franchises like Overwatch, Warcraft, StarCraft, and beyond.
- Microsoft is keen to leverage its huge back catalog of franchises it acquired with its Activision-Blizzard purchase of previous years.
As an observer with over two decades of experience in the gaming industry, I find this latest development between Microsoft and Activision-Blizzard intriguing. The creation of a smaller team within Blizzard, comprised mainly of King employees, seems like a strategic move to revitalize some of the beloved franchises that have been on ice for too long.
Over the last several weeks, a number of employees from Microsoft’s King division have been updating their LinkedIn profiles, indicating a shift towards an intriguing new professional path.
In the previous year, I became part of an unprecedented $72 billion acquisition by Microsoft, which now grants them ownership over titanic franchises such as World of Warcraft, Call of Duty, and Candy Crush Saga (King mobile games). Already, we’re witnessing the effects on Xbox’s financial performance, with a staggering 61% year-over-year increase in their gaming division. This growth is primarily due to the successful operation of Microsoft’s newly acquired Activision-Blizzard across PC, console, and mobile platforms. However, it seems that Microsoft isn’t content to stop here.
Our sources indicate that Microsoft and Activision have approved the creation of a new team within its Blizzard subsidiary, comprised mostly with employees from King. Blizzard is known for beloved franchises like Warcraft, StarCraft, Diablo, and Overwatch, and Microsoft is keen to curate and serve these franchises more prolifically than Activision itself did previously. Military sci-fi strategy series StarCraft for example has essentially been on mothballs since StarCraft Remastered in 2017, and Xbox CEO Phil Spencer himself has name checked StarCraft during interviews about the acquisition in recent years. Still, you need teams to work on these classic franchises, and that’s exactly what Microsoft is gearing up to do.
For this purpose, Microsoft and Activision’s new team in Blizzard has been assigned the job of creating smaller games based on established franchises within the Blizzard universe. Since King, being an expert in mobile games, might be involved, it’s plausible that these games could be designed for mobile devices to support Xbox’s upcoming mobile gaming store on iOS and Android platforms. However, it’s not definitively known that these games will only be available on mobile. Given Microsoft’s platform-neutral strategy across mobile, PC, and console, there’s a strong possibility that any new projects could run seamlessly across various platforms. As stated by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Xbox intends to focus on a threefold gaming approach encompassing these different endpoints, with the Xbox console serving as the foundation.
Microsoft is exploring building games with smaller, more agile teams
According to my information, Microsoft is actively looking to create and test games using smaller teams due to escalating costs associated with AAA game development. Notably, some of the most successful games in recent years have originated from smaller teams, such as Balatro, Palworld, Vampire Survivors, Among Us, Sea of Thieves, Grounded, and even some self-made titles. These games gained popularity primarily due to their unique gameplay and, at times, their ability to adapt quickly to emerging trends. With changing player preferences in recent years, the gaming industry is experiencing a significant shift, and cost reduction is a crucial aspect of this transformation.
As a seasoned gaming enthusiast with years of experience under my belt, I can’t help but feel a pang of empathy for the developers at Bungie who recently announced a round of layoffs due to the financial challenges faced by AAA game teams like theirs. Having played Destiny 2 extensively and witnessed its immense popularity, it’s heartbreaking to see such a beloved title struggle with astronomical production costs.
“AA” games are created by smaller teams with fewer resources compared to “AAA” titles. The new King studio is designed for flexibility and efficiency, avoiding the red tape that can arise in larger teams. Microsoft has adapted some of its existing studios along these lines, with the Halo developer, 343i, transitioning to a more streamlined, single-team structure, discarding the segmented multi-team setup from the past, which was criticized for communication problems. The Verge recently reported that Xbox has relocated into one building at its Redmond headquarters to enhance collaboration and communication.
It’s yet to be discovered what projects the new King team might be focusing on. Fingers crossed, let’s hope it could be StarCraft-related!
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2024-08-02 16:09