https://www.reddit.com/r/Diablo/comments/1563tf3/people_need_to_remember_that_washington_post/?ref=share&ref_source=link article redditor reaction

https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2022/12/08/diablo-iv-release-date-crunch/ source

I don't want to copy the post in it's entirety, but this is quite a startling revelation about the development process. Even mentioned bits of having some sort of battle royale that was scrapped in development early on. I recommend checking the source or the reaction to the article. It turns out the game was rushed. Turns out leadership didn't know what they were doing having regular meetings and not getting anything done. Mr. arrogant himself was hosting something called Rodcast to talk about his favorite movies instead of getting work done. Sure the article mentions that the employees had crunch time, but apparently there wasn't much direction by the person brought in to try and fix/salvage the development issues.

Here's one portion I'd like to add from the article though.

"Employees described Fergusson, now in charge of the entire Diablo series, as holding regular weekly Zoom meetings he dubbed the “Rodcast,” where several hundred people would join. Fergusson would discuss movies he enjoyed or celebrities he had spent time with. He would also address the team’s problem with attrition and share employee survey results, but employees felt that not much actually came out of these discussions. Fergusson did not reply to a request for comment. Blizzard did not comment.

To me, he came off as a bit of a clout chaser about where he came from, like ‘Gears of War,’” said a former employee. “People got frustrated because we all thought he was gonna come in and fix the game. And when nothing happened, that’s when you started to see this massive turnover.”

It appears there was a huge issue with employee retention and attrition. Many left for better wages elsewhere. The game had record sales figures and yet they couldn't afford to pay workers more competitive wages and they lost talent from that? What a shit show. Same company that will nickel and dime their employees gives Uncle Bobbo enormous bonuses regularly that are several thousands of times more money than employee wages.

"Second on the list of highest paid gaming CEOs is Activision's Bobby Kotick, who apparently earns an average of $77,306 (£56,310) an hour. In 2021, the company released games like Call Of Duty: Vanguard and Diablo 2: Resurrected."

This post was edited by BlakeXeal on Jul 22 2023 06:08am