Mismanagement and cut costs doomed Warcraft 3: Reforged, a new report finds
Insiders claimed the reviled remake was never treated as a priority by Activision
Insiders claimed the reviled remake was never treated as a priority by Activision
(Image credit: Blizzard)
3 days ago
Warcraft 3 Reforged's underwhelming release was the result of budget cuts, mismanagement, and internal disputes, a recently-released report from Bloomberg has found.
Released last February, Reforged arrived in a shocking state. Not only was the remake missing many of the planned grand, sweeping updates to the game's art and voiceover, but it retroactively ruined the original 2002 Warcraft 3—wholesale replacing its online service with one lacking basic features like competitive ladders.
In the new report, sources write that Warcraft 3 suffered from constant instances of miscommunication and financial pressures. Planned improvements were scrapped as the game was rescoped. Arguments flared over the game's art style and scope. The head of Blizzard's Classic Games team, Rob Bridenbecker, was accused of having an "aggressive management style", as well as frequently taking trips out of the country during production.
“We have developers who have dealt with exhaustion, anxiety, depression and more for a year now," developers wrote in an internal post-mortem obtained by Bloomberg. "Many have lost trust in the team and this company. Many players have also lost trust, and the launch certainly didn't help an already rough year for Blizzard's image."
Reforged also faced pressures from corporate owners Activision, which didn't prioritise a throwback RTS with little hope of becoming a blockbuster success. Mass layoffs across the company in 2019 didn't help, and with pre-orders opening long before the game was complete, the team was constantly having to "resist the urge to ship an unfinished product because of financial pressure."
"We took pre-orders when we knew the game wasn't ready yet," a post-mortem writer explained.
The report goes further into how the Classic Games team was largely maligned by Blizzard, and how management at Blizzard was "out of touch" with the project until extremely late in development. But the report ultimately blames Activision's increasing influence over Blizzard post-merger, pushing the developer to focus only on its stable of billion-dollar games like World of Warcraft and Overwatch.
This report comes hot on the heels of a lawsuit filed against Activision Blizzard by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing accusing the publisher of a "frat boy workplace culture" that saw women paid demonstrably less than their male colleagues and subjected them to "constant sexual harassment".
Warcraft 3 Reforged's underwhelming release was the result of budget cuts, mismanagement, and internal disputes, a recently-released report from Bloomberg has found.
Released last February, Reforged arrived in a shocking state. Not only was the remake missing many of the planned grand, sweeping updates to the game's art and voiceover, but it retroactively ruined the original 2002 Warcraft 3—wholesale replacing its online service with one lacking basic features like competitive ladders.
In the new report, sources write that Warcraft 3 suffered from constant instances of miscommunication and financial pressures. Planned improvements were scrapped as the game was rescoped. Arguments flared over the game's art style and scope. The head of Blizzard's Classic Games team, Rob Bridenbecker, was accused of having an "aggressive management style", as well as frequently taking trips out of the country during production.
“We have developers who have dealt with exhaustion, anxiety, depression and more for a year now," developers wrote in an internal post-mortem obtained by Bloomberg. "Many have lost trust in the team and this company. Many players have also lost trust, and the launch certainly didn't help an already rough year for Blizzard's image."
Reforged also faced pressures from corporate owners Activision, which didn't prioritise a throwback RTS with little hope of becoming a blockbuster success. Mass layoffs across the company in 2019 didn't help, and with pre-orders opening long before the game was complete, the team was constantly having to "resist the urge to ship an unfinished product because of financial pressure."
"We took pre-orders when we knew the game wasn't ready yet," a post-mortem writer explained.
The report goes further into how the Classic Games team was largely maligned by Blizzard, and how management at Blizzard was "out of touch" with the project until extremely late in development. But the report ultimately blames Activision's increasing influence over Blizzard post-merger, pushing the developer to focus only on its stable of billion-dollar games like World of Warcraft and Overwatch.
This report comes hot on the heels of a lawsuit filed against Activision Blizzard by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing accusing the publisher of a "frat boy workplace culture" that saw women paid demonstrably less than their male colleagues and subjected them to "constant sexual harassment".
BY ANDREA SHEARON
PUBLISHED 3 DAYS AGO
A new report sheds light on the internal conflict the Warcraft 3 team faced.
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Following the allegations surrounding Blizzard’s toxic work culture, a new report also reveals that its projects began to suffer following the Activision acquisition. Warcraft 3 Reforged launched early last year to poor reception, and now it’s understood to be from serious mismanagement, budget cuts, and a premature release.
In a new report from Bloomberg, the internal strife at Blizzard points to earlier beginnings around the Activision acquisition and with the departure of co-founder Mike Morhaime. The report indicates that growing pressures from Activision to reduce costs, talent departures, and wage disputes led to growing discontent within the company. These allegations come just a day after the state of California filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard for its “pervasive frat boy workplace culture.”
As Bloomberg reported, morale on the team took a harsh nose dive as the project began to flounder. Reforged’s team began “worrying that they had promised more than they could deliver.” Problems led back to head of the Classic Games team Rob Bridenbecker, who was “known for his aggressive managerial style,” and often held expectations that the team could not deliver on.
The small team continued to struggle as its budget was cut, forcing employees to take on multiple job roles and fall into crunch. That’s when the Bloomberg report suggests that the project began to see cuts to features and trashed work that was already completed. Instead of adding new cinematics and voice-over like Blizzard had promised, they were forced to use materials from the original.
The developers voiced their frustrations with leadership, noting that senior members of the team sounded the alarm on unrealistic expectations several times and flagging the project as something that was in trouble. It was not until the very end that Blizzard finally brought in help, but it still didn’t save the project. Ultimately, Reforged launched far too early, held to a tight deadline that wasn’t typical of older leadership, and the company offered refunds to those who were upset with the project.
In 2021, Reforged remains mostly in the same messy state it launched in. Bloomberg's report mentions Blizzard has brought on a new team to helm changes to the game after Classic Games was dismantled, but we've yet to see the results of that work.
A new report sheds light on the internal conflict the Warcraft 3 team faced.
Following the allegations surrounding Blizzard’s toxic work culture, a new report also reveals that its projects began to suffer following the Activision acquisition. Warcraft 3 Reforged launched early last year to poor reception, and now it’s understood to be from serious mismanagement, budget cuts, and a premature release.
In a new report from Bloomberg, the internal strife at Blizzard points to earlier beginnings around the Activision acquisition and with the departure of co-founder Mike Morhaime. The report indicates that growing pressures from Activision to reduce costs, talent departures, and wage disputes led to growing discontent within the company. These allegations come just a day after the state of California filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard for its “pervasive frat boy workplace culture.”
As Bloomberg reported, morale on the team took a harsh nose dive as the project began to flounder. Reforged’s team began “worrying that they had promised more than they could deliver.” Problems led back to head of the Classic Games team Rob Bridenbecker, who was “known for his aggressive managerial style,” and often held expectations that the team could not deliver on.
The small team continued to struggle as its budget was cut, forcing employees to take on multiple job roles and fall into crunch. That’s when the Bloomberg report suggests that the project began to see cuts to features and trashed work that was already completed. Instead of adding new cinematics and voice-over like Blizzard had promised, they were forced to use materials from the original.
The developers voiced their frustrations with leadership, noting that senior members of the team sounded the alarm on unrealistic expectations several times and flagging the project as something that was in trouble. It was not until the very end that Blizzard finally brought in help, but it still didn’t save the project. Ultimately, Reforged launched far too early, held to a tight deadline that wasn’t typical of older leadership, and the company offered refunds to those who were upset with the project.
In 2021, Reforged remains mostly in the same messy state it launched in. Bloomberg's report mentions Blizzard has brought on a new team to helm changes to the game after Classic Games was dismantled, but we've yet to see the results of that work.
Report: Blizzard's misfiring Warcraft III remake was the result of cost-cutting and mismanagement
July 23, 2021 | By Chris Kerr
The rocky launch of Warcraft III: Reforged was the result of mismanagement and financial upheaval at Blizzard Entertainment.
According to a report from Bloomberg, which spoke with people familiar with the project and managed to obtain an internal postmortem, Blizzard seemingly chose to prematurely release the long-awaited remake knowing it was going to underdeliver.
Despite being branded a "monumentally important" project by Blizzard president J. Allen Brack when it was announced in 2018, Reforged was never truly backed by the studio's parent company Activision Blizzard, which reportedly pushed the developer to cut costs and refocus on other, bigger titles.
That left Blizzard in a precarious situation, with the studio having already promised hefty updates including over four hours of updated in-game cutscenes and re-recorded voice-overs. Ultimately, the company failed to implement those features and offered a number of excuses including not wanting cutscenes to "steer too far from the original game."
It also struggled to bring over features from the original Warcraft III, such as the 'ladder' competitive ranking system, turning the remake into a hollow impersonation of the original release.
Apologies were issued and "no-questions-asked" refunds were dished out, and yet it seems like Blizzard knew exactly what it walking into. In an internal postmortem, a number of Reforged developers said the company "took pre-orders when we knew the game wasn't ready yet," and said the team struggled to "resist the urge to ship an unfinished product because of financial pressure."
Another Blizzard spokesperson told Bloomberg that "in hindsight, we should have taken more time to get [Reforged] right, even if it meant returning pre-orders." As many developers began to realize the scale of the problem facing Reforged, infighting began and morale nosedived.
Those in the know said an aggressive management style, perpetuated by the head of Blizzard's Classic Games team, Rob Bridenbecker (who declined to comment on the report), coupled with unrealistic deadlines and scoping issues sparked arguments and left a number of developers with physical and mental health problems.
"We have developers who have dealt with exhaustion, anxiety, depression and more for a year now. Many have lost trust in the team and this company. Many players have also lost trust, and the launch certainly didn't help an already rough year for Blizzard's image," reads the postmortem. "We were missing and/or had the wrong people in certain lead roles. The team structure didn't set up the project for success."
Bloomberg's report on Reforged, which you can read in full right here, comes hours after the state of California sued Activision Blizzard for instilling a sexist, harmful workplace culture.
The lawsuit contains a number of shocking allegations obtained by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH), all of which suggest Activision Blizzard promotes a "frat boy" culture that results in systemic harassment and misconduct. Responding to those allegations, Activision Blizzard said it values diversity and inclusivity, and described the DFEH's report as "distorted" and "false."
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