Of the many gaming titans, few have become as controversial as Blizzard, the creators of World of Warcraft and Overwatch. Due to its misbehaving executives and poor business decisions, the company has recently fallen out of favor with many gamers. However, a few creatives under them have tried to push forward. A new job posting for an upcoming project has been found online, hinting at the existence of a vast production. Here is a breakdown of the latest look at Blizzard’s upcoming project and what it could entail.
Blizzard’s Latest Project
According to IGN, Blizzard released a new job posting for an upcoming project. The position is “design director of innovation” and involves working on the game’s vision and strategy. Interestingly, the posting confirmed the existence of an “upcoming open-world shooter” that remains unnamed. Blizzard is not known for making open-world games, so this would be a new direction for their developers. Due to their recent layoffs, it makes sense that they would need fresh talent.
One demand from the description was that the individual remain attuned to the indie and AAA spaces with their trends and fanbases. This hints that Blizzard is trying to create a game that will appeal to a broad audience, with an entire position devoted to doing so. Given their recent failures, this is understandable. Furthermore, the scale of their previous projects, such as World of Warcraft and Overwatch, show their dedication to keeping their finger on the industry’s pulse.
The Starcraft Franchise
While the game remains unnamed, with its existence not even confirmed by the company, many speculate this open-world shooter could be a StarCraft spinoff. Blizzard maintains several iconic franchises, including Starcraft’s real-time strategy. The games follow humanity as they are caught in an intergalactic war. Given the vast lore of the franchise established, the game could inspire a new spinoff, much like its sibling series, Warcraft, inspiring an MMO, a trading card game, and a massive IP.
While the games have become popular, the series established itself as having a powerful esports scene worldwide. The company tried numerous times to make a StarCraft shooter, yet the project never took off. One of their more recent attempts to do so even brought on Dan Hay from Ubisoft’s Far Cry at one point. While not confirmed to be the same project, it remains a strong possibility given its history at Blizzard. StarCraft has become a large enough IP to warrant AAA games outside its main genre.
The Company’s Rise and Fall
While fans are probably excited by this news, the once-dominant Blizzard has faced numerous setbacks, controversies, and pitfalls over the past few years. By far, the biggest of these was the wave of accusations towards many of the company’s higher-ups and executives for predatory, misogynistic, and unacceptable behavior. Their failure to handle the crisis cost them many employees and their reputation.
While not nearly as severe, other business decisions over the past few years have also hurt their company. For example, many saw Overwatch 2 as a disaster for burying the first game and its poor design. Furthermore, the company’s $70 billion purchase by tech giant Microsoft was seen as a step towards a dystopia for gaming. Finally, as one might expect, they were one of many to lay off parts of their workforce this year. When this new shooter arrives, it will face an uphill battle.
Conclusion
To summarize, this new project could become the next of many attempts by Blizzard to regain its stance within the market. Despite their previous dominance over the MMO and hero-shooter genres, numerous bad actors at the top and poor business decisions have cost them their place in the zeitgeist. However, their new StarCraft game could revive the franchise for longtime fans and bring in new ones. The games were some of the greatest entries in the real-time strategy and sci-fi genres.
