This Is How Blizzard Died
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 23 ก.พ. 2022
- Just a few years ago, Blizzard was one of the most beloved companies in gaming.
They were the masterminds who made one of the biggest games of all time, created esports as we know it, and tried to change what it meant to be an esports pro forever.
But as poor decision after poor decision began to unravel the gaming community’s trust in their favourite developer, the ugly truth became obvious:
The Blizzard we all knew and loved died a long time ago.
Written by: Alina Sotula (@ASotula)
Edited by: Brendan Fahey (@Drillbit_)
Hosted by: Daniel Rosen (@Daniel_Rosen)
Thumbnail by: Bennett Grainger (IG: @bennettgrainger)
Produced by: Daniel Rosen (@Daniel_Rosen) and Alina Sotula (@ASotula)
Footage credits: pastebin.com/DVLbf4xd
Music used under license from Associated Production Music LLC (”APM”).
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My sister passed away from breast cancer in 2010. She was a HUGE WoW fan and played with her guild for hours basically every night. While she was going through the chemo and recovering from the mastectomy, WoW was her escape and her guild was the outside support system she needed in addition to the one she obviously had in our family. Her WoW character, Lordes, was a part of her soul. I've always been thankful that she didn't have to witness Blizzard's downfall because it would have absolutely broken her heart. 😞
Rip to your sister, thanks for sharing 🙏
I hope your sis rest in peace man and i am glad she enjoyed her moments with the best of blizzard
Really sorry to hear about your sister bro
You have my condolences.
🙏❤️ RIP
Met a lady in WoW who had Parkinson disease. Nobody wanted to play with her since she was slow and died a lot. She joined our guild, everyone loved her and played with her constantly. Whenever she would vc she always cried and apologized profusely for her gaming at some point in the evening though everyone always encouraged her. We had a blast and she had such a great sense of humor she would joke about her disease and how everyone has to put up with her. After a few years she met one of our guildies in person, fell in love, got married and they were so happy. She died last year from cancer. WoW was her life. The joy she, and all of us for that matter, had playing with everyone could never be replaced. I'm grateful to Blizzard for those years. All stories come to an end though and I can't support Blizzard anymore hard as that may be. RIP my friends and Blizzard.
Wow this is a heartwarming story, especially when she got married with one of the guildies. I guess happy endings do happen in real life.
@@jayzenstyle It didn't even happen to me and it's one of the happiest memories I have. A real life fairy-tale. Our guildies were more happy for her than she was hahaha
I didn’t have Parkinson’s and I was still slow and died a lot.
@@ThatGuy-kz3fx Geez dude I don't know what to say. I really hope you don't man it's terrible. She did have an excuse to smoke weed though hahaha. She was the sweetest person I knew. I miss her a lot.
@@Mackadoches Bahahaha she would have loved this. Thanks!
The perfect example of -
You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become a villain.
They died a villain.
THAT is the story of blizzard, wow and every character in wow
Blizzard deliberately killed the hero in them and decided to live a life of a villain
@@kuyagab4444 just like Arthas xD
Hire Bobby Kotick and let the villian in.
I’m one of those rare people who fell in love with Heroes of the Storm. What Blizz did to the esports community, during Christmas no less, was unforgivable.
I am one of the fortunate ones who participated in HGC and I can tell you it ruined peoples life as it was our job. We had nothing left and had to adventure in new opportunities.
@@bkbgrnrjefek The most infurating thing, the thing that made me despise their decision to stop the HGC the very most, not only was it a horrible decision to stop it as the e-sports was clearly growing... But it was also done via a blue post, people lost their lively hoods... through a blue post... I can't imagine how you felt, I can't imagine how anybody felt that got fired despite repeatably being told everything was going to be fine... And the way in which they did it... I still personally feel like that should have been an illegal action, not just in the sense of "this is unjust" but in the sense of "this is criminal ahd should be punishable beyond just a bad reputation"
The impact this had on people's lives, not just in terms of a literal job, but also in terms of the mental pressure of going for half a fucking year without real answers to then getting fired by a blue post.
ALL in Activision's infinite wisdom as to focus on Overwatch, which they themselves fucking killed only a year later with another horrible set of decision making.
I am sorry this happened to you, and I am still even more sorry that Blizzard got away with it...
What did they do ?
Damn, I still remember HotS with such joy, I've been playing Dota 2 for 10 years, but HotS had a special place in my hearth and you made me remember that...
@@ziting5756 long story short?
They cancelled all future esports events for the game through a blue post just before the next season was about to start, costing many their livelyhoods
On top of that, just as the game was starting to attract a following, they basically reduced the dev team to a skeleton crew
They still release patches, but major updates happen like twice a year IF we're lucky
I still remember how me and my friends use to talk about blizzard with such respect... Sad to see how things turned out
In 2022 all excitement for the Activision blizzard‘s newest games has all but vanished thanks to the lawsuit and some like me want to company just straight up burn to the ground I think it’s time to amend blizzards Plack every voice matters but some matter more than others
grew up playing diablo 2 and starcraft for YEARS. for a while i even dreamed about working there someday. now, i've uninstalled anything that has to do with them.
@@iHasCaek same. I keep thinking I want to go back to LoD or Remastered but every time I just feel. gross. like I'm betraying my own good conscience.
@@iHasCaek i just what to play OW again with feeling any guilt
@@sytherwusky erm... also cuz their games sucks now. Others caught up and they got nothing new. Their new expansions are worse than their 10+y ones and im not talking nostalgia here. Look at wc3 reforged and wow. They literally cant make a better version of their old games!
the wild thing is that when it comes to the allegations of mistreatment of women that was likely occurring well before the activision acquisition, it just wasnt being reported. that kind of work culture doesnt just form overnight
the acquisition happened way after the allegations. the acquisition felt more like a sell out after everything that could go wrong with blizzard was going wrong and microsoft just came to save their asses
@@deso2 i meant activision's acquisition, which i now realize should have been written as "merger". i was just trying to say that the toxicity at blizzard likely predates even its merger with activision
@@deso2 This was also what's in my mind, they're fucked up beyond all recognition, might as well sell it before all of that crumbles
Truthfully, they most likely got worse when Blizzard got bought by Activision
Trust me i m glad this shitty situation is soon over but I m sure there are still reality like this out there
Blizzard is like toxic relationship. He was abusive but you still love him. But when he died, you feel relieved and sad at the same time and just thinking about good memories you had the first time you've met him.
Damn dog that was deep af you good?
Pretty much on point. I played wow constantly from vanilla to wrath. Then it was on and off till warlords and quit it for good in mid bfa. Since then the company was dead to me (wow got worse, not just the game, also the community, the d3 desaster and "dont you have all phones" incident).
I told everyone in the game around 2010-2011 that Activision would have control of blizzard and the games. That activision would be the reason why WoW would slowly die off in a long death. No one believed then and low and behold 11 years later I was right....
It is amazing to see that you add a little bit of a sexist touch to your comment. Because as we all know, only men can be toxic in a relationship, the other gender (or 734 other genders if you believe in that), can't do no wrong!
@ChouetteWoW remember during that time the OG blizz team left and formed new dev team to create guild wars 1 and guild wars 2. So they all knew that it was a sinking ship. Let's be honest, after 2012 they started to fill up the empty ranks of employees on dev team with new woke SJW people fresh out of college. During that time 2010-2014 was circa of college students being brainwashed by Marxism professors. This around 2016 the entire industry and all other industries were flooded with woke sjw people of all ranks and positions. Now we have the fubar we see today in 2022.
It's not just Blizzard, its the entire gaming industry. Back in the day, you needed to flash people with your games, you basically needed to turn a non-gamer into a gamer. It was a competition of quality and those, who made the best games, usually got the biggest piece of the success cake.
But today, the gaming scene got "industrialized". It's a simple investment and return calculation. Why make an amazing AAA game costing millions upon millions and years of development, when you can make a cheap micro-transaction ridden gambling simulator, abusing every psychological weakpoint we know of ( esspecially in children and people with mental problems) for the thing billions of people already carry around in their pocket wherever they go. Add some fake advertisement, or just straight out steal others' ideas and intellectual property to save development money and voilá. Do this every three months, and you out-revenue every game developer who pours his heart and soul into crafting a masterpiece.
yeah, I honestly believe Mobile gaming is what started the downfall of the gaming industry. Former Blizzard fanboys want to act like its just this company but every company has switch to the same model that are used for mobile gaming.
@@geoffreybentley5619 Missed the point entirely. There are perfectly good games on mobile, the problem is, as it is in most cases, are morally and creative bankrupt businesses and individuals who gleefully market their garbage games to children and boomers who are by nature extremely susceptible to the psychological that is mobile game advertising. That's why you see your 40-50 year old aunt or your 9 year old cousin playing some shit glorified ad made by shit glorified 'devs'.
@@ehitale I didn't miss the point, I said what you said but not going to make excuses that their might be a few good indie companies and act like that's enough.
Just look at EA
Have you completely forgotten E.T. The worst game ever and created purely for profits? Or the numerous games over the years that were garbage and just for the name recognition? It's the same story since gaming reached the living room 30+ years ago.
"How to kill your company 101 - Activision Blizzard"
Kill your company = sell it for 70 billion. Literally no one ever reaped any negative consequences. Corporate America is just like that. Old white guys with way too much money can do whatever they want whenever they want
@@funkgremlin2765 The lawsuit is in court so right now it's early to say there would be no consequences.
@@funkgremlin2765 How about Apple reaching $3 trillion and all companies are trying to achieve the same goal including video games
@@funkgremlin2765 selling a company is white guy bad logic? Right.
Activision sought to make money while trying to keep you in the game as long as possible, while blizzard was making games for you to feel and enjoy an alternate reality where you could feel like a king,adventurer,etc.I stopped playing wow 5 years ago but for me is still the best game ever created. I still play some sc2 from time to time.
starcraft 2 seems to be the least affected by all of blizzards shit, they also have the least engagement from blizzard almost feels like them all but dropping the game is for the best
Activision wasn't forcing the executives at Blizzard to sexually assault people, but yeah lol
@@imKhokie it was not the sexually harrasments lawsuits that made everyone stop playing their games tho, their game had no vision or originality going forwards
Yeah activision definitely played a part on that but I don’t think they were the sole reason.
Pool of 😘😘😘😘😘😘😘 poo MO 😂 polo lol okay 👍 on PPP application I
As someone whose first introduction to gaming was Warcraft 3 and Dota, this is heartbreaking to watch
Glad dota isn't owned by blizzard
@@ryuukami__ Valve is no good either with Dota and CS, but they still heard their fanbase. They knkw what they're doing. Even with dogsht release like Artifact, Valve still know and acknowledged that they've failed.
@@HafifSyukra Nah, valve definitely good.
Blizzard is so old it's weird how people react to the quality of the games.
From my memory and experience, the company already dropped in quality a lot when they released the burning crusade expansion. They took most of the great writing from warcraft 3 and just turned all the interesting characters into silly raid dungeons.
Wrath of the lich king was a lot more interesting than the first expansion. But I feel it had more to do with the expectation of a warcraft 4 coming one day. They laid the foundations for a good story to be told. But good stories doesn't satisfy investors.
@@ahmadfadelyusuf4003 well, my judgement kinda clouded.
Something this video doesn't talk about - most of the accusations in these lawsuits were actually from BEFORE the merger. Everyone keeps talking like Blizz was the dream company until Activision came and spoiled everything. The reality is blizzard was ALWAYS like this. Some of the people accused in the lawsuits were literally at Blizzard from day 1 - so please, let's stop pinning this all on evil activision overlords. The company was rotten from the get go
Yeah, I don't understand why people blame it all on Activision. It was poor leadership from the beginning, not letting go of people who didn't behave properly because of their perceived worth.
I do think there are issues with mixed workplaces, everything does become more complicated, but none of those complications can justify such actions.
but microsoft bough them.
I highly doubt it was that bad back then. The culture nowadays has shifted into absolute crazy tier bullshit though. People were probably literally JOKING back then and now you're super not allowed to joke. So they decided that even though it was an okay thing back then, looking back now they're mad.
I don't give a shit what you say, stop white knighting all these lying females.
There's one thing that you miss. A large portion of the employees who used to work at Blizzard either retired, went to work elsewhere, or even started their own studios. You're basing the past state of the company solely off of the remaining people who chose to stay behind rather than move on. Moreover, that assumes that all of the employees were in on the abuse, and not a smaller subgroup of them.
@@DDadams0 true, culture was a lot less soft back then. Now you have to watch what you say
You can't say Microsoft hasn't changed anything. They haven't taken ownership yet.
hopefully everything will be better onwards :C
@@ellonmusketwannabe2201 unless they pull a rareware
@@tapgames3465 I'm curious what you mean by that? Like do you mean their last Banjo and Kazooie game that was bad or did you mean how they are handling Sea of Thieves cause SoT is currently really good. Still issues with hit reg and such but the game content itself is big.
@@mrcaterpillow9926 I think he means not using the company at its fullest.
I doubt they'll do anything they don't for any of the other studio they bought
Former Heroes of the Storm pro here,
Love the video. Sad to see that we don't even need to mention how Blizzard laid off over hundreds of players, staffs, casters, game devs etc... via email weeks before Xmas to see how bad Blizzard shat the bed.
Feelsbadman
Yeah, I’m surprised that he didn’t mention Heroes or HGC.
As a former hots pro aswell, its sad that no one even remember how badly blizzard managed the end of HGC. They literally confirmed to everyone at blizzcon that it would still happen in 2019 despite the uncertain times, they literally lied to everyone... I still remember nessper... such a tragedy for him specially
Heroes of The Storm was literally one of my favorite games for a while, but the way Blizzard treated it just got worse over time.
The cancellation of any future esport events for the forseeable future and the dev team being reduced to a skeleton of its former self was just the final nail in the coffin
Cancelling the HGC was when I finally bailed on my twenty year relationship with Blizzard. This video informed me on how they did a lot of crazy stuff after that I only sorta heard of before.
That game was born dead pretty much. I was a LoL hater at the time and I'd bet it would dethrone it as soon as the alpha test began, which I was lucky to be invited in. And man like they didn't even tune heroes at all; 1v1s lasted forever, and there was basically no skill-req in the game at any point other than forcing camps while objectives were up. My hype didn't even live up to the actual launch since I also recall they did a million alpha/beta periods in which almost nothing changed and the game was still a mess down to its foundations.
I retook it and got masters or whatever the rank after diamond was named and I remember clear as day I quit as soon as they nerfed the hero I climbed with (the barb chick forgot her name now lol ). She was basically the master yi of the game very useless at team fights but unbeatable at 1v1s, an insane pusher/wave clearer and could solo any objective including bosses. I hated league because every season they completely ignored nearly all the balance flaws the game had and focused on nerfing already bad or even unviable champs further into oblivion, making any lone wolf viable choice to victory either worse or straight up removing your ability to continue to play it that way, and hots just felt like that shit all over again. Literally any hero that could do anything at all on it's own was immediately hammered into the mud by blizz, so bewteeen playing LoL and shitter LoL wannabe no wonder the game never stood even to a fraction of LoL's popularity.
I loved that "dog shit" + "horse shit" = THE ULTIMATE PILE OF SHIT part :D
I'm glad I got out of WoW when I did. I didn't know about any of this stuff, I just felt that the game had gone in a direction I wasn't OK with. Hearing all this stuff, well, I'm glad I don't support them anymore, and I truly hope that the women that were and are abused by them are able to hold their abusers to account.
It's not OK. The people that are responsible for not only the actual abuse but those that ignored it when they could have changed it...they all need to be fired and prosecuted. When I think of how much money I cheerfully gave to Blizzard, it makes me sick.
Reminding everyone that the original group of sex offenders from Blizzard were mostly composed of the OG team members
And all the bad games were made by the people complaining. Really makes me thonk.
Group? The only one named in the lawsuit was Afrisabi. Who else are you referring to?
@@DsiakMondala 1000000%
Exactly....since these types of people were hired it all went to crap.....its no wonder what the common denominator in all these examples nowdays is then.
@@DsiakMondala there's a bit of pattern. Somehow there's always harassment wherever woke women and men go. Other men and women seem to get along fine, for the most part.
What are these replies lol. ain't no thing as woke, 's just people being able to speak up now about the degenerate shit these companies have always done
This was a much needed video and let's be honest.... It was something we saw coming a long time ago! It is sad but still.... Yeah!
Quitting WoW was one of the best decisions I ever made, but seeing what they have become since is shocking and appalling
Which expansion did you quit in? I quit mid-BFA.
Did you quit gaming as a whole or did you find another MMO to play?
@@carmacattack3712 WoD, hated it so thought I'd take a break and I never went back
@@neckbeardo1233 I play Black Desert now, also been fiddling with Lost Ark
Same here! I quit during Cataclysm and was the best decision ever!
As a boomer at 42, I remember falling in love with Blizzard from Warcraft 2. I've bought and loved their games for many years, but now I don't see Blizzard as a family member that's going through tough times, I see them as dead and I feel terrible that they've gone. Whatever Blizzard is now is just another heartless corporate game company that holds Blizzard's name like some sort of parasite that eventually took over its host. RIP Blizzard
Is 42 boomer age now? D:
@@pw1169 I’ve no idea tbh, I just know that I’m too old lol
@@Danath121 You're not a boomer, they are 57 at a min now. They are the generation that came post WW2.
Where it hurt during the Blitzchung situation seeing them forsake their values and refusing to stand up for their players? The California lawsuit made me realize all the corporatization (the very thing that bled out the company’s old guard) couldn’t protect their own damn employees from abuse.
They say forgive but don’t forget. But I can’t see myself ever forgiving such a thing.
to be fair all players are banned from making political statements so Blitzchung isn't some special case, he broke the rules and was punished for it.
@@r6guy That's just an excuse, everything is political. When it makes money it's human right, rainbow flags, women power and stuff these corporations do all the time, it is not acceptable only when it pisses off China.
@@r6guy But blizzard is allowed and often make political statements is kinda fucked up. Often this political statement is used to cover up their mistake which is also fucked up. Imagine some politician got outed for raping and he tries to drown out the drama by pretending to be queer? That's how I see blizzard. At least this time it didnt work on the sexual abuse drama.... despite how slow some people were to previous drama.
@@Pandaxtor doesn't matter what blizzard does, the players are under contract and have a code of conduct they must follow per the contract. i know they are playing a game to you but they are in fact employees in a way. just like sports leagues will fine players for political statements they make.
I remember reading a Reddit thread that said female employees weren't specifically being targeted because something like "1.08 men reported being harassed for every 1 woman who reported being harassed", meaning the TOTAL number of women being harassed was lower.
However, they completely ignored the fact that there were three to four times as many men working there, which means female employees were disproportionately targets of said harassment.
The mental gymnastics to try and downplay the problem was pretty disgusting.
Yeah. It's the same with any harassment or abuse women disproportionately get.
@@jonnovak6856 You're fighting a strawman here, I didn't say anything that would be refuted by your first paragraph.
The thing is, with any mention of the harassment and abuse that disproportionately affect/target women, there will always be some legion of men online that will jump at the opportunity to say 'men too'.
And I say to that, yes, men too but it's irrelevant here. Sometimes they may even claim the issue affects men more but then you look at how they arrived at that conclusion and find the logic is spurious.
I think pointless bickering about 'who has it worse' can be, well, pointless. But that doesn't mean we have to pretend everything is equal.
The fact is, the gaming industry is male-dominated and women face a disproportionate amount of sexism and harassment in said industry. This goes for any other male-dominated field, STEM is another example.
Wait so who harassed the men
@@blasianking4827
>"And I say to that, yes, men too but it's irrelevant here."
It is relevant and it needs to be mentioned because nowhere in this video or other news articles even mentioned this fact. Male employees were being sexually harassed as well, even within their first day of work by other males in Blizzard, rubbing and groping their genitals out of nowhere. The fact that you don't know this and even labeled it as irrelevant proves my point.
I'm the 69th like omgggg
For those finally breaking away from WoW addiction, Congrats! I'm glad for the Blizzard downfall, and it was brought upon by none other than themselves, with their greed, and disgusting work environment who abused their employees
I never got into WoW myself, was pretty bummed and kinda betrayed they would stop with a Warcraft RTS. Pretty glad I never got into WoW, due to lack of money.
Agree 70 billion %!
Basically, they became a psychotic company, which in turn got bought out by the big brother of all such companies - microsoft. A fitting end... I deleted my account there, after the TOS changes this January. I've never had such a hard time deleting my account, anywhere. They even demand a copy of your ID card (which I think is illegal).
Most people won't break their addiction cause they're too much into it. Cause is the "best game" or the "most played game", while currently is one of the shitties mmo's out there.
@@robertdarie4192 Or their life isn't the game they are working on primarily so they escape into wow.
sad to see this happen to blizzard, they were literally the pinnacle of gaming at one point.
Well the moment they sold out to Activision the rot began to fester
When WoW released, to say it was popular is an understatement. There was NEVER ANYTHING like it.
But now.... Gods why, Bliz?....
@@Freedomcustom when china bought 30 percent of there stocks is when it started to go to shit!!!!
@@michaelblake2280 same scenario with the Newegg company. After the chinese acquired them, everything went downhill. Chinese businessmen are totally disgusting.
As a lifelong fan, it was heartbreaking for me to say goodbye to Blizzard... but I don't regret it. I'm never going back. Good riddance I say.
One small point, Blizzard didn't die. It is now a division of Microsoft. There are content creators who tried as hard as they could to kill it with as much negative publicity as they muster but they failed. WOW is likely to continue as a Microsoft product for a long time so those of us who always loved the game will still be playing. Sorry Asmoldgold. Sorry Preach. Sorry Bellular. Now please go try to kill something else.
You will be back
@@chrisaustin9949 blizzard is dead not a single original blizzard founder is not with company anymore no money from microsoft can save it
@@kristjan3376 That doesn't make a company dead. Bye dinosaurs.
See you next expansion lol
You forgot that part where they killed an entire esports scene over christmas: HotS.
The leaving of Alan B. wasn't mentioned, but I feel like that's really important in regards to the internal shift of Blizzard's culture shift in regards to handling game development.
The interesting thing about the Blizzard story is how this death wasn't like so many other game studios: This one was slow and painful. This wasn't like your grandma getting a heart attack and dying, this was like losing a grandparent to dementia. At first, when they forget their keys you think "Oh silly grandma, she probably has a lot going on at the moment, and who hasn't forgotten their keys at some point", and when they start forgetting more and more stuff you think "I guess that's just part of being old, I'd probably forget some stuff too if I was 83", but when they start calling you the wrong name and smiling at the old lady in the mirror and asking "Who is that?", you suddenly realize that whilst you're standing next to your grandma, you've actually been taking care of a completely new person. It's that slow wither, that slow but steady decline that makes it impossible to determine exactly when this person was your grandma, and when she had basically become a shell of her former self, only to become completely demented, not even able to recognize herself. Arguably a slower and more painful death for everyone involved.
I've been saying this for many years. Blizzard might've had their issues beforehand, but Activision took them and destroyed them. That's why Bungie bounced the hell outta there
I'm shocked no and you really don't want to do that you think you do but you don't telling people what to think so sad what Blizzard has become
and now that Microsoft owns them, I imagine that this'll be the death knell for them.
@@dieseljester3466 everything dies that's why we have daughter's
I knew when Activision bought them out that's what would happen. I loved CCTP but they did steal the content from Civ. The whole company is fishy in general.
RiP Blizzard one of the last great video game companies to fail its fan base. Ill never forget Starcraft.. WoW and Diablo 2... so many memories.
worked as a gamemaster for them from 2010 to 2016.
There were signs things weren’t gonna be paradise for ever when Wow stopped growing , but the huge shift was the massive layoffs just before D3, and the horror that was the D3 release. For me
what made blizzard great died with error 43 and the very poorly thought out real money auction house. And they’ve been digging under the grave ever since…
So heartbreaking. My wife and I loved to play WoW and Diablo together, so many great memories forged in the fires of Blizzard servers. We both agreed that we could no longer support Blizzard and stopped paying and playing their games. It's hard to say goodbye but it's the right thing to do.
Blizzard is a meme at this point and at first i was just laughing but now im just disgusted
Blizzard slowly fell off when Activision bought them out.
real
And true
This was the start of the death spiral.
This still hurts. Such a huge part of my likes and interests was formed by Blizzard and to see it go so wrong, and how slow and insidious it was until it all came bursting out, kills me.
dude i love that even if doing short videos you keep them in a documentary style, makes them really interesting
6:40 "D-Do you guys not have phones?"
I don't even know how to feel about this.
Such a powerful video. Growing up playing Blizzards games, and being excited about everything they released seems so distant now. Such a shame that it would turn out like this. Fingers crossed for a new company to take over, and not repeat the same mistakes as Blizzard
It is so funny to me that people can see clearly how corrupted a game company is becoming, but become blind when it comes to their government
I do hope when Microsoft take over completely that they follow through on the culture changes and ethos that they seem to have. No place for behaviour like this under their banner. Phil Spencer as the de facto leader seems someone enough to trust that he wouldn’t allow any blizzard wrongdoers to stay on.
Im also quietly hoping that this turns into more of a Mojang situation than a mixer situation in which they’re adoption or a game studio actually took something with a successful formula and made it thrive even more.
Microsoft suffers from the same culture issues as Blizzard..
@@FishyMango I’ve not heard of this? Whats this based on im curious. I know Phil led a talk last year to DICE about toxicity and sexism in game dev culture last year. Possibly off the back of the allegations to MS all up in 2019. They also just doubled down on their sexual harassment and gender discrimination policy review with independent parties since announcing the takeover of activision blizzard. But thats the only recent news I know of
I doubt that Microsoft will be good at managing the company at all. Look at the games they tried to develop, always failed in the middle.
@@chaos3088 I mean they developed Minecraft from commercial success to global success. Of recent they did halo infinite which put battlefield to shame. Forza had a solid release. Even gears tactics although not overly popular was a solidly developed game. Age of empires 4 has done very well. Or did you mean games they contribute to but dont solely own like psychonauts 2 or state of decay series?
@@jayjenks499 there were some abandoned project which they have put very promising trailer before but then went silent then later abandoned, I'm not sure why but with enough financial power they should able hire anyone they need on the team to get it done
Blizz literally got to the point where they jumped at every opportunity they got to make a mistake
Videogames companies have controversies and scandals, the problem is blizzard didn't handle them well, riot isn't beyond criticism but it handle it better like a good politician, when you comments are "don't you have a phone?" For people not liking your stuff then you need to remember who is paying your bills
As soon as these news surfaced on 2021 I stopped playing WoW. I loved that game so such but I just couldn't bear the feeling that a company as big and prestigious as Blizzard, that I always cherished and looked up, could do something like this, on such a huge scale.
me too after more than a decade of playing and i cant go back
Hearthstone was the game that I loved to play and it helped me grow as a gamer and as a person. Such a shame to see how the mighty have deceived us and fallen.
How would it help you grow as a person? There's no story or anything
@@vapingfury4460 slow 👽👽👽👽💀
I’ll remember the good days of blizz 20+ years ago playing D2 as a teenager. After the Diablo immortal disaster at Blizzcon I began to distrust the company. Then all of the lawsuits and allegations happened…what a shame. Part of me wants to give D4 a try one of these days, the other part of me says the company creating it went to shit so the game will probably be shit too. Tough to see such a once great company not just go downhill, but completely fall thru the floor.
I'm just half way through this video and already feel like crying dude... I was born in 1990, grew up with Diablo StarCraft and Warcraft, this is really sad to see... Also played Overwatch since its realize, and now it all went to shit....
What exactly went wrong with over watch?
@@wolfumz there us a full video on that dude, a lot went wrong. The video is in this same channel, called "how to kill a game" or something like that
@@diaco423 thankz
The end of this video got uncomfortably close to making apologies for all the things it just criticized in the prior 16 minutes.
Blizzard's highlight for me was when I grew up watching my grandfather play Warcraft II in the mid 90s. That, and playing Starcraft not many years after. They really knew how to make amazing games.
StarCraft was what got me into PC games.
Warcraft II was my favorite game as a kid... Damn I'm old 😅
You guys covered a lot of it, but man was there still so much more.
I had a friend on Discord who was a massive fan of Starcraft and Diablo back in 2019. We were good friends and we’d listen to a lot of music on Discord (good old days of Rythm). Then, a year later I kinda missed him so we talked again after the lawsuit, and a lot had changed.
Honestly surprised by the lack of mention of them just halting the HOTS esports scene with like no warning. I had zero interest in HOTS, but that story still stuck out to me.
I've Never seen a company fuck up so many things in such a short amount of time
The final nail in the coffin was that Diablo Immortals shitfest. They never lived that down.
"Created esports as we know it." Lol that was id actually.
I was in a SEVERE abusive relationship. Severe. The only escape i had was WoW. They "weren't real people who could actually do anything for me" so I was allowed to play in the bedroom that i couldn't leave if anyone was home. One day I opened up up my guild about it and the encouragement I got shocked me to tears. I wept hard and I got got strength for my family to sneak me away at night and move me across the country. If I didn't have some type of escape then I don't think I'd be here today. I'll forever be grateful for my guild, I wear frostmourne on my arm for life now cause of it. F you blizzard seriously, but thank you for what it gave for so long.
Still cracks me up when a game companies who’s main customers are pc gamers made a mobile game that is not even available on pc
These last couple of years I feel like im watching my childhood crumble into pieces
To be totally honest, I've just given up on Blizzard a long time ago... they just fuck up time and time again.
Blizzard was dead for me when a new Patch for WoW came out and instead of advertising new features in the game the launcher advertises all the little pets and other store items which are limited offer that you can get for only 30€ (or more)
The whole situation breaks my heart. The wholesome and caring uncle Blizzard that we all grew up with and loved turned into the creepy uncle that sneaks into your room and goes through your underwear drawer while you're not looking.
I've seen so many friends drop out of WoW because of all of this, but I'm too addicted to leave. I genuinely can't imagine my life without WoW, as its been a part of my life nearly every day for the last 15 years. Blizzard have done so much that is wrong and deplorable, but I just can't let go.
is it common for people to have creepy uncles that sneak into their bedrooms?
and honestly man just get tf out of this game already, what are you waiting for?
Maybe you can try looking at it from a different perspective? You can’t imagine a life without wow because you have not experienced it. Simply put if you feel like the game is disappointing or the company is not supportable then do yourself a favour and unsubscribe. I promise you if you feel disappointed in the game/company you won’t even notice it’s gone. It’s happened to myself and every single one of my friends/guild mates. We loved wow but it’s just not good anymore and once we stepped back it was surprising how little we missed it. There are so many great games you could play instead, you could try some mmo’s that are not wow or just play with your friends on whatever game they currently play. Don’t support wow just because it’s wow, if you want to stop playing it then uninstall, cancel that subscription and stay away for a few weeks. See how you feel after some time has passed.
Activision-Blizzard HAS NEVER BEEN anything but their own gravedigger when it comes to E-sport. If Starcraft I & II ever was a major thing, it's because of Kespa and Blizzard destroyed it by taking over, just like they destroyed Hearthstone E-sport, litteraly buried HOTS E-sport AND the game itself after taking over.
They don't know shit about E-sport and never cared about it until it actually start making money and THEN they take over and destroyed it.
You CAN'T possibly said Activision-Blizzard ever did anything good in E-sport, that a joke to anyone who ever worked or even have any insight on E-sport.
The thing that still bothers me about the D:I announcement was that D4 was in development at that time, all they had to do was show a placeholder logo and say in development, then announce D:I as a side thing at it would not have been such a disaster. Those were hardcore fans in that room, they were LOOKING for reason to sing Blizzard’s praises, but no.
Thank you for making this video. This was the most respectful way of capturing the downfall of a once great gaming company. I legit cried thinking about all the countless hours spent with friends on titles like Overwatch and Hearthstone. And to see Blizzard go down like this... sad.
You think you do, but you dont.
Blizzard didn't turn to shit because they offended women. They fuckin' began to rot the day they joined Activision. The creativity immediately fell under the dominion of suits, and there was no coming back after that.
Yep Blizzard died when we killed Lich King.
I hope the recent scandal was a big enough kick up the arse for Blizzard. I hope they can get their shit together
Blizzard was amazing and could do no wrong 20 years ago, like Bioware.
Completely different company then. It's like comparing Disney in the 90's with Disney today. It's a corporate copy of something that used to be good. The worst part is, they rely on the ignorance of mass appeal to survive, and these lemmings of materialism and marketing keep throwing money at them. Almost as bad, are the people who took until 2021/22 to realize this.
I was working a a temp GM, when the Diablo Immortal fiasco happened. I was under a NDA at the time and couldn't say anything. Now that it's public knowledge, I can confirm that Diablo 4 was meant to be announced. The announcement was pulled last minute, and the spokesperson had to make stuff up on the fly.
6:56 this is a painting. You can screenshot it, print it, frame it, and it will literally be art
Blizzard went in the toilet as soon as they let financial officers and investors make the creative decisions. Let artists who are passionate about the experience make the games! RIP blizzard 1991-2010, the former king of pc gaming.
Blizzards Activision actions for the past decade are beyond shameful
Yeah but with Microsoft buying Activision blizzard sure it is safe but people are not gonna be happy making all their games exclusive to Xbox Starfield is a prime example of this meaning that PlayStation Nintendo players will miss out on those games. Before that when the sexual harassing was exposed Bobby Collett tried to bury it under the rug and hide it hide it because one reason and one reason only Apple was the first company to reach the $3 trillion barrier all companies are trying to achieve the same goal
@@kevingame3198 They can buy a computer and all good.
WoW was a very crucial thing for my family. I was introduced to it in 2005 at a very young age, I played on my Dad's account and goofed off where I could but I never really got into it until Wrath of the Lich King. From then, my mom played on her laptop, my dad on his desktop, my brother and I shared a computer and we both played with them, even my sister played from her own computer, it was a family thing that we shared and we all had a lot of fun and a lot of laughs. My love for Blizzard died a long time ago when my parents went through a very nasty divorce, it just didn't feel the same anymore and I think that's what is helping me be resilient to Blizzard's downfall, but I do feel bad for my brother, he still raids and streams it even and Blizzard has always been something that he aspired to work for.
The writing was on the wall for me in 2010 when StarCraft 2 was released without chat channels and no clans. The old blizzard did not release unfinished games.
There’s a lot of people to point the finger at, including the players themselves. When I was young only a few people I knew played Warcraft 3 and were true gamers. When wow became popular everyone and their mother was playing, and those are the people who blizzard started catering to.
I almost didn't recognize Doa, wow. This can be hard to react to as someone that still watches and plays starcraft at least once a week, and plays diablo every few months ... but I am glad this company collapsed. it's not hard to separate the game creators, especially when I'm playing games at least a decade old, from the disgustting corporation they've become, but having to do that is gross too. I wish them the worst, I hope there's fallout for everyone.
edit - I know people get upset when other people get up in arms over comments like "what magazine would you like them to look like they're from", but the attitudes that lead to saying something like that on a goddamn stage to one of your fans BEGGING for content that they can be more proud to play... it reveals something. Absolutely horrific.
The question was based on a false premise. There were and are plenty of characters that do not look like they stepped our of a Victoria’s Secret catalogue. The developers pointed that out with humor by referencing the Tauren, whose characters are not sexualized in the slightest. The question asker was clearly looking to pick a fight, and the developers handled it with considerable grace for people with professions completely unrelated to public speaking. How that giant nothing burger of a clip came to be the poster child of the workplace allegations is beyond me.
This shows how slowly a giant falls dead ones it dies. Took years for people to realise that blizzard is dead.
Most big tech companies are the same but they take time to fall down from the top.
RIP Blizz, what a nostalgic time 😞
8:40 Where can I find this in DJ Wheat rant in full?
I like how you used asmongold to be s comedic relief while also narrating the story, great video
I remember asking my dad to go on a 4 hour drive to my relative's house because they had a pc with world of warcraft, i would play the shit out of it because i dont get to go there very often. It sucks to learn that the games i enjoyed so much were fundamentally rotten on the inside.
Blizz was an amazing thing back then dont be sad
my fondest memories was going to work all summer with my dad and him gifting me the SC and W3 Battle Chests, simpler times.
The bit about "people in charge will remain so with no accountability" is incorrect. Afriasabi was sacked a year before the law suit came out, Morhaime was sacked when the law suit came out. A lot of other middle-men are gone too. The only one remaining is Bobby. Who apparently is planning on stepping down after the Microsoft merger. Though he'll be retiring with a net worth in the 11 figure range.
When you create a company with love and passion, you create something special. When you sell it to a corporation like Activision, all bets are off.
16:13 - 16:38 is how I feel too
But I still want to choke hold Bobby Kotick and tell him that everything these people have gone through because of his negligence as a leader is appalling!
This is what happens to a company when they go public and sell out to shareholders. It’s no longer about making great content, it becomes “are these choices going to give shareholders value in their investment”. Of the latter doesn’t happen, they start cutting budgets and laying off employees to meet those financial obligations. Unfortunate for a company like Blizzard, who was once a ‘Titan of industry’ in the game world. Same thing happened to smaller companies that sold out to EA.
Don’t forget about them canceling HGC, which was professional Heroes of the Storm esports league. Their most dedicated players (pros) were left jobless and it was announced in Christmas. There was definitely an evil behind the table making these decisions.
Who would have thought the whole blizzard history could be summed up in about 20 minutes
Came here for the Blitzchung part of the story.
I LOVED OVERWATCH. I freaking loved that game. I miss playing it to this day. But I could not support Blizzard anymore for kowtowing to the Chinese Communist Party at the expense of everyone else. I gave up so much I put into that game. I gave up the money I paid for, lootboxes, for skins and achievements worked hard for and earned, my endorsement level. I gave up having pure, sincere fun.
And the bitterly funny thing about quitting Blizzard games at that point is that the worse was still yet to come...
I met my amazing girlfriend and it's all because of WoW
6 years ago my best friend raided with me and his guild, and he asked one day if his friend Monk could join. "Sure". We all played together many times outside of the raid, and sometimes she and I played together on our own to. We spent countless hours talking about random crap on discord. Eventually I worked up the courage to tell her that I had feelings for her, the rest is history (we've been together for almost 3 years)!
We had to do the long-distance thing for a while, and it was hard - but it's so worth it. After 8 months, we moved in together, I am very grateful to Blizzard for these years, all the stories and the amazing person I met there.
Dang...they didn't even give HOTS rug pull one second 😂
Blizzard has no real competition back then, but now with developers like Riot showing their capabilities on taking multiple genres well, they're gonna get left in the dust
League- toxic players
Valorant - Cheaters
Runeterra - Ok i guess
Well I think Riot did pretty good
Yeah but it’s been owned by Tencent blizzard is being owned by Microsoft and bungie being owned by Sony PlayStation
Riot games respawn entertainment are new competitors valorant and apex legends battle for moba shooter tactical battle royale
GG to Blizzard. Also anyone wearing those Hawaiian t-shirts with dragons is never a good sign for me just shows old age.
been boycotting them for 4 years now and no plan to give them any time or money
I was wondering why I stopped watching this channel as much. Daniel Rosen is such an amazing reporter he brings me back every time
Overwatch was such an amazing game. It really united people. But the corporate greed of OWL destroyed it.
Jeff Kaplan seemed like a great guy, and it was a shame that Kotick and his greed made him leave. I will be celebrating once kotick is gone from that company. A true abomination on gaming.
Agreed. That's what happens when you got a corporate suit who has zero interest in gaming calling the shots.
I grew up with all blizzard games, Warcraft, Wow, Starcraft the original, had some diablo. Then I just forgot they existed. I just played Dota, then transitioned to League then play Valorant rn. Blizzars just disappeared after they killed Overwatch, maybe even when they merged with Activision. Sad to see the game company I loved and supported for a very long time. But I'm happy to see Riot taking on the mantle.
youre happy riot is what excuse me? taking on the mantle of what? shitty game developer that doesnt give a shit about their customers only money? yea thats fantastic.
@@Tripskiii Surely you buy skins for hundreds of dollars when in reality, you don't have to. Riot has made so many updates for you whiners to be happy yet you blame the game if your bad.
@@DKtrek21 yea you dont have to and if no one did they would be forced to monetize differently. i dont even play this game anymore i just watch lpl and lec so i dont really care? and dont lump me in with people that do support this company.
@@Tripskiii you'd be surprised by the fact that out of the companies right now riot is the one that actively listens to the community. And no I don't mean the 2 upvote Reddit posts but things that majority of the community dislike like the chemtech dragon for example. They are not perfect but I'd take them over the other massive companies right now.
I was sitting there for that diablo immortal thing and its cray how loud the boos were.
You also forget to mention that after stating to the HoTs community a week before the next pro season was going to start they pulled the rug out from under them.
I think something that got overlooked here was how this culture was a thing even before Activision came along. Blizzard was mostly a bunch of geeks who grew up being treated as losers and then when WoW became a hit, they were by all accounts, rock stars and so they behaved as such. Our culture just doesn’t tolerate that sort of bullshit behavior anymore. Activision sure as hell made it all worse though
"Our culture just doesn’t tolerate that sort of bullshit behavior anymore."
Which is a shame... Its pretty retarded that actual warcriminals are held in higher standard then shit talking nerds.
You can commit genocide in Iraq but telling a fat joke is a red line.
They're epic in making cinematic trailers if I remember back in the old days where technology is not that really advanced...at least that's how I remember them from my childhood. Everytime I see them trailers in gives me chills.
and for some reason, OW still has an active playerbase even if they say its "dead", i wish i can see numbers of how many players are online.
Man that bald patch sure do be shiny just can't help but tried to draw something on it in my mind😂