MacG
02-11-2004, 12:40 AM
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/columns/tech_reporter_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=2086499
Blizzard's days of uncertainty drain off talent
By Paul Hyman
For 13 years, Blizzard Entertainment has been well known for populating the computer gaming world with hordes of orcs, sorcerers and warriors.
These days, the renowned game developer is unintentionally parenting a different sort of offspring -- brand-new game developers such as Flagship Studios and Castaway Entertainment. Both were launched recently by ex-Blizzard management and staff who were more than a bit frustrated by what they describe as the lack of attention and information they received from parent Vivendi Universal.
VU recently sold off its VU Entertainment unit to NBC for $14 billion, but that deal did not include its games division, VU games, which includes Blizzard. Until mid-January, it was unclear what Vivendi intended to do with VU Games. On Jan. 13, it announced that not only would it retain but power up its games business. According to a VU spokesperson, Blizzard "will remain 100% owned by Vivendi Universal."
That came as news to the folks who had already departed Blizzard, including several of its co-founders and other longtime employees, many of whom had been responsible for the company's incredible success. The powerhouse studio was known for launching PC hits such as "Warcraft," "Diablo" and "Starcraft," which sold a combined total of over 35 million units. The sequel "Diablo II" took just two weeks to sell a million copies.
"Rumors had been rampant about whether we'd be sold or not -- and to whom," said Bill Roper, a former Blizzard vp who is now CEO of San Francisco-based Flagship Studios.
"Amazingly enough, the top people at Blizzard North were getting the vast majority of their information from Yahoo News, nothing from the parent company in New York or Paris," Roper said. "It was becoming a huge distraction from our work; chunks of each day were being dedicated to the latest rumor on the Internet."
Hoping to get some attention from Vivendi -- "to get some traction," Roper says -- Dave Brevik, Blizzard North's president, as well as Roper and two vps, co-founders Erich and Max Schaefer, tendered their resignations by e-mail.
An industry analyst reportedly estimated that the loss of the four could cost Blizzard $100 million in sales. But, said Roper, "to this day, we still haven't heard from anyone at the parent company -- which says something about why we left."
Subsequently, others followed, including Blizzard North director of business and operations Ken Williams, senior programmers Tyler Thompson and Peter Hu, and artists Phil Shenk and David Glenn. All nine now comprise the entire Flagship Studios staff.
More recently, designer Stefan Scandizzo and programmer Mike Scandizzo left to start Castaway Entertainment, where they are now vp and president, respectively. Last month, Blizzard's original president and chairman Allen Adham left, reportedly to launch a financial consulting firm.
Asked to comment on the departures, Blizzard president and co-founder Mike Morhaime said: "We are unable to speculate on former employees' motivations for leaving. What VU Games and Blizzard can confirm is that there is regular and close communication at the executive management level taking place today. All parties are looking forward to that communication increasing."
According to industry observers, the departure of 25-30 Blizzard staffers in the past 10 months has prompted the San Mateo, Calif.-based Blizzard North development studio to merge its two teams into one and to cancel one of its two unannounced projects.
But Morhaime said he "doesn't foresee any significant delays or long-term negative effects on future projects or those currently in development.
"Blizzard's success has never been attributed to any individual or small group of employees," he maintained. "Development of our games has always been a collaborative effort of numerous individuals here at the company. Our senior management and development staff includes many long-standing employees who have played an integral part in making franchises such as "Warcraft," "Starcraft" and "Diablo" into global successes, and we remain confident in the company's ability to continue creating some of the best games in the world."
Meanwhile, both Blizzard offspring are working on their own game projects and both are incredibly reluctant to discuss them.
Flagship's Roper says, "It's just too early to talk openly about our current project, although we've been discussing it with practically every major publisher you can think of (except Vivendi) for the last six months. Our goal is to concentrate on producing the game, and then let a publishing partner worry about shipping the boxes."
Roper says his nine-person team's experience is in "making big games which cost a considerable chunk of change. If we self-publish, we might have to limit our scope to some degree." Flagship's plan is to partner with a publisher that's used to shipping 2 million to 3 million units.
He chose not to discuss the current project other than to say that, as with "Diablo" (which combined role-playing and action) and "Warcraft" and "Starcraft" (which infused real-time strategy with role-playing), the game will "definitely be blending some different genres." Roper added that he "wants to believe we'll be showing the game publicly by the E3 2005 trade show," which traditionally takes place in Los Angeles each May.
Similarly, at Redwood City, Calif.-based Castaway Entertainment, president Mike Scandizzo says his 15-person team (nine of whom -- producers, artists, and programmers -- are from Blizzard) is working on a game "that will appeal to the same audience as did previous Blizzard games." He, too, hopes to display that game at E3 2005. In the meantime, Castaway is in talks with several interested publishers, and looks forward to make an announcement soon.
"As for Blizzard," Scandizzo says, "we still have a lot of friends who are working there whose uncertainty concerning the future of the company still lingers to some degree. I wish them the best."
*****
Just last week, Microsoft had no comment about when its hugely anticipated Xbox sequel "Halo 2" would ship. This week, its Bungie Studios says "it's confident" that the first-person shooter -- originally scheduled to hit store shelves Christmas 2003 -- will ship "this fall."
Meanwhile, Atari has pushed back the ship date of "Driv3r," the sequel to "Driver" and "Driver 2," from the end of March to June 1 to give the company's marketing team "additional time to exploit the game's full potential." The action/driving game will be available for the PC, Xbox and PlayStation 2 platforms.
Paul "The Game Master" Hyman was the editor-in-chief of CMP Media's GamePower. He's covered the games industry for over a dozen years. His columns for The Reporter are Web site exclusives.
Blizzard's days of uncertainty drain off talent
By Paul Hyman
For 13 years, Blizzard Entertainment has been well known for populating the computer gaming world with hordes of orcs, sorcerers and warriors.
These days, the renowned game developer is unintentionally parenting a different sort of offspring -- brand-new game developers such as Flagship Studios and Castaway Entertainment. Both were launched recently by ex-Blizzard management and staff who were more than a bit frustrated by what they describe as the lack of attention and information they received from parent Vivendi Universal.
VU recently sold off its VU Entertainment unit to NBC for $14 billion, but that deal did not include its games division, VU games, which includes Blizzard. Until mid-January, it was unclear what Vivendi intended to do with VU Games. On Jan. 13, it announced that not only would it retain but power up its games business. According to a VU spokesperson, Blizzard "will remain 100% owned by Vivendi Universal."
That came as news to the folks who had already departed Blizzard, including several of its co-founders and other longtime employees, many of whom had been responsible for the company's incredible success. The powerhouse studio was known for launching PC hits such as "Warcraft," "Diablo" and "Starcraft," which sold a combined total of over 35 million units. The sequel "Diablo II" took just two weeks to sell a million copies.
"Rumors had been rampant about whether we'd be sold or not -- and to whom," said Bill Roper, a former Blizzard vp who is now CEO of San Francisco-based Flagship Studios.
"Amazingly enough, the top people at Blizzard North were getting the vast majority of their information from Yahoo News, nothing from the parent company in New York or Paris," Roper said. "It was becoming a huge distraction from our work; chunks of each day were being dedicated to the latest rumor on the Internet."
Hoping to get some attention from Vivendi -- "to get some traction," Roper says -- Dave Brevik, Blizzard North's president, as well as Roper and two vps, co-founders Erich and Max Schaefer, tendered their resignations by e-mail.
An industry analyst reportedly estimated that the loss of the four could cost Blizzard $100 million in sales. But, said Roper, "to this day, we still haven't heard from anyone at the parent company -- which says something about why we left."
Subsequently, others followed, including Blizzard North director of business and operations Ken Williams, senior programmers Tyler Thompson and Peter Hu, and artists Phil Shenk and David Glenn. All nine now comprise the entire Flagship Studios staff.
More recently, designer Stefan Scandizzo and programmer Mike Scandizzo left to start Castaway Entertainment, where they are now vp and president, respectively. Last month, Blizzard's original president and chairman Allen Adham left, reportedly to launch a financial consulting firm.
Asked to comment on the departures, Blizzard president and co-founder Mike Morhaime said: "We are unable to speculate on former employees' motivations for leaving. What VU Games and Blizzard can confirm is that there is regular and close communication at the executive management level taking place today. All parties are looking forward to that communication increasing."
According to industry observers, the departure of 25-30 Blizzard staffers in the past 10 months has prompted the San Mateo, Calif.-based Blizzard North development studio to merge its two teams into one and to cancel one of its two unannounced projects.
But Morhaime said he "doesn't foresee any significant delays or long-term negative effects on future projects or those currently in development.
"Blizzard's success has never been attributed to any individual or small group of employees," he maintained. "Development of our games has always been a collaborative effort of numerous individuals here at the company. Our senior management and development staff includes many long-standing employees who have played an integral part in making franchises such as "Warcraft," "Starcraft" and "Diablo" into global successes, and we remain confident in the company's ability to continue creating some of the best games in the world."
Meanwhile, both Blizzard offspring are working on their own game projects and both are incredibly reluctant to discuss them.
Flagship's Roper says, "It's just too early to talk openly about our current project, although we've been discussing it with practically every major publisher you can think of (except Vivendi) for the last six months. Our goal is to concentrate on producing the game, and then let a publishing partner worry about shipping the boxes."
Roper says his nine-person team's experience is in "making big games which cost a considerable chunk of change. If we self-publish, we might have to limit our scope to some degree." Flagship's plan is to partner with a publisher that's used to shipping 2 million to 3 million units.
He chose not to discuss the current project other than to say that, as with "Diablo" (which combined role-playing and action) and "Warcraft" and "Starcraft" (which infused real-time strategy with role-playing), the game will "definitely be blending some different genres." Roper added that he "wants to believe we'll be showing the game publicly by the E3 2005 trade show," which traditionally takes place in Los Angeles each May.
Similarly, at Redwood City, Calif.-based Castaway Entertainment, president Mike Scandizzo says his 15-person team (nine of whom -- producers, artists, and programmers -- are from Blizzard) is working on a game "that will appeal to the same audience as did previous Blizzard games." He, too, hopes to display that game at E3 2005. In the meantime, Castaway is in talks with several interested publishers, and looks forward to make an announcement soon.
"As for Blizzard," Scandizzo says, "we still have a lot of friends who are working there whose uncertainty concerning the future of the company still lingers to some degree. I wish them the best."
*****
Just last week, Microsoft had no comment about when its hugely anticipated Xbox sequel "Halo 2" would ship. This week, its Bungie Studios says "it's confident" that the first-person shooter -- originally scheduled to hit store shelves Christmas 2003 -- will ship "this fall."
Meanwhile, Atari has pushed back the ship date of "Driv3r," the sequel to "Driver" and "Driver 2," from the end of March to June 1 to give the company's marketing team "additional time to exploit the game's full potential." The action/driving game will be available for the PC, Xbox and PlayStation 2 platforms.
Paul "The Game Master" Hyman was the editor-in-chief of CMP Media's GamePower. He's covered the games industry for over a dozen years. His columns for The Reporter are Web site exclusives.