Blizzard Entertainment is apparently working on a new IP. The organization recently announced it is developing a survival video game set in a new universe. This information was first revealed by the company in a January 25th blog post.
“Blizzard is embarking on our next quest. We are going on a journey to a whole new universe, home to a brand-new survival game for PC and console. A place full of heroes we have yet to meet, stories yet to be told, and adventures yet to be lived. A vast realm of possibility, waiting to be explored,” reads the blog post. “This is your call to adventure. Will you answer it?”
In the posting, Blizzard also revealed that it will be hiring numerous employees across several departments to work on the unannounced game. The business is looking to add four people to its art department, four people to its engineering department, and two people to its design department.
At this time, it is still unclear when the new survival game will officially be announced. However, MSN reports that the title is “in the early stages of development.”
The Profit‘s Take:
We have joked that Blizzard hasn’t made a new game in years! Now, the Microsoft acquisition happens, and we almost immediately get word of a new game. I find it interesting that they decided to make this a survival game that will be specific to console and PC gaming. On top of that, it’ll be held in a new universe, which means new IP. You can argue that these are risky choices. You could make the case that a mobile game set in a pre-existing universe would have been a much safer bet (and pretty much all ATVI has been doing for a while now). Also, it’s tough to build esports competitions around survival games. I imagine there will not be an esports component when this game first comes out. I’m not surprised they didn’t go in the direction of esports. That’s not really their area of expertise, as evidenced by the major failures of OWL and CDL. Good survival games are like mini MMOs. They’re moderately multiplayer online games. The social component is important, but I don’t think competition plays as big of a factor in the title’s success. Blizzard is never first to market. However, they’re the Apple of game devs: they look at an area of gaming that’s popular and create a title that’s more popular than other pre-existing games in that space. I believe we would have never got this announcement without the Microsoft acquisition because Blizzard has learned the hard way, not to over-promise on future games. Microsoft gives this a little air cover. They won’t let the game be in production for ten years. And, even if there is a problem, they can just turn around and blame Microsoft. The Microsoft effect makes me more bullish on this. The best announcement would have been to release a playable demo at the end of January. It just sounds like Blizzard is trying to convince us that they’re not dead yet. Either way, this feels like a classic Blizzard move, and I’m here for it.
(All information was provided by Blizzard Entertainment and MSN)
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