Warcraft 3 Reforged: Has Blizzard Finally Gone Too Far?

What Went Wrong?

After the game released, Blizzard soon found themselves staring down the barrel of multiple lawsuits over breaches of consumer laws and false advertising. Under continuing pressure they have since allowed full refunds for anyone who has purchased the product, but betrayal of your adoring fans cannot be so easily undone.

Many were unaware until the release that much of the work, including the new unit models, was actually undertaken by Malaysian studio, Lemon Sky. Not to blame Lemon Sky's work for the failure of this game though, as their work is in fact the only thing in the game that's successful. Still, it's important to mention this because we must face the extraordinary fact that the only thing in the game that works is the outsourced art assets. For a AAA company worth billions, that is abysmal.

Looking through the lens of hindsight for clues as to how this catastrophe unfolded reveals some interesting details. In 2019, despite a record year of profits, Activision ordered Blizzard to fire 800 employees. This would appear paradoxical until you begin to look at Activision Blizzard's new corporate management structure.

Helmed by a CEO who is neither a game developer nor a game player, the name of the game is to reduce costs as much as possible while allowing the company to continue churning out profitable sequels. Consider for a moment that the only new games created by blizzard in recent memory are Overwatch (which made from the cancelled Project Titan), and Heroes of the Storm, a MOBA with Blizzard characters.

Within a single decade they have regressed from industry leading pioneers to simply stamping their own name over existing genres.

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