Blizzard’s as-yet-untitled survival game is still in development behind the scenes, and apparently the team working on it has doubled since last year.
In a blog post Looking back at last year, Blizzard head Mike Ybarra noted that “The team has doubled in size this year, and we’re looking to grow it even more in the new year!”
He also reiterates that it is in fact a new IP (the first since Overwatch in 2016). And he notes that its development team is led by former Far Cry director Dan Hay, who left Ubisoft at the end of 2021 after more than ten years with the company.
We first learned about Blizzard’s untitled survival game earlier this year through an official blog post announcing the job opening. From that post, we know it’s planned for PC and “consoles” and know it will involve: “A place full of heroes we haven’t met, untold stories and Unrealized adventures. A vast field of possibilities, waiting to be explored.” We also took a look at the two artworks listed next to the opening that show a cross between modern and fantasy settings, and a hunter in a cap and armor. But it’s still unclear what the specific relationship between these images and the game itself will be.
At the time, Ybarra also said he played “many hours” with the team, which suggests that the team was in a playable state at the time and has probably progressed further since.
Elsewhere in today’s blog post, Ybarra mentioned the company’s ongoing efforts to improve company culture following: a series of revelations last year disclosing discrimination, harassment and malicious activity taking place within the company. He noted that the percentage of women and non-binary individuals at Blizzard has increased in the last year from 22% to 25%, and the percentage of employees from ethnic minorities has increased from 34% to 36% in the same period. that period.
Also somewhat notable, besides the blog post Blizzard also published a year-long content roadmap for the latest World of Warcraft expansion: Dragonflight. While many other direct service games have always published similar roadmaps, this is the first time Blizzard has put out a year-long plan for patches before an official announcement. The post expects a total of six content patches in 2023: two major patches with new regions and raids, and another four with smaller updates like world events, dungeons, chapter narration and system updates.
Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.
