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Businesses Entertainment Games

Blizzard Closes North Offices 35

Posted by Zonk from the roper's-lair-closed-for-business dept.
An anonymous reader writes "GameSpot reports that Blizzard, the company responsible for StarCraft, Diablo, and most recently World of Warcraft, will be closing the offices of Blizzard North, the division of the company that traditionally housed Diablo series development. The article mentions that employees will either be offered severance or moved down to the Blizzard HQ to work on an unnamed project, and speculates that Diablo 3 could be the project. Is it just coincidence that Blizzard released the 1.11 patch for Diablo II on August 1st and closed the studio on the same day?"
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Blizzard Closes North Offices More

Blizzard Closes North Offices

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  • not surprising. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by fireduck ( 197000 ) on Tuesday August 02, 2005 @06:20PM (#13226170)
    Blizzard North pretty much lost all of their top talent in 2003 when the original Condor founders and Roper left (as well as a number of other lead personnel). Combine that with the absence of a game announcement by them in several years, and it really seemed just a matter of time before something drastic happened.

    As someone who lives in Irvine, near Blizzard, I wonder how many new people I'll start seeing at the fast food joints wearing their Blizzard t-shirts. (Spot the Blizzard employee. Yes, that's the kind of fun we have here in sterile, conformist Irvine.)
    • I somehow doubt anyone with the skills to get a job working at Blizzard will be on the wrong side of the McD's counter anytime soon. Blizzard has just discovered a license to print money which is good in three gigantic world markets -- what game developer couldn't use a slice of the brain-trust behind that? Plus these are already likely guys who have that elusive experience/shipped titles qualification needed to get into doors in the industry. Now, if they're giving severence to CS reps or testers those
      • you misunderstood. around lunchtime, you go to various food establishments near Blizzard and in walks a gang: 4 or 5 guys in their blizzard t-shirts. so you get to play "spot the programmer". they clearly aren't working in fast food, just that that's where they congregate at lunch.
    • The only thing that I find remotely interesting in Irvine is probably the Yardhouse....mmmmm 100 kinds of beer on tap...even if the Spectrum sorta sucks :)
    • I'm at the Jack in the Box on Campus. No sign of them yet...
  • ...the company responsible for StarCraft, Diablo, and most recently World of Warcraft Ohhh, that Blizzard.
  • Especially when you consider that the Northern office was responsible for StarCraft, Diablo, and Diablo II. All the southern office ever did was the WarCraft series (and the Blizzard Classics of course.) With that many of their best properties coming from one office you'd have thought they woulda held on a little longer :)

    Kleedrac
  • My jaw just hit the floor. With WoW being as successful (#1 MMP) I figured that Blizzard would be the last game developer doing layoff... for any reason.
    • With WoW causing such explosive growth it makes sense to draw back the reins where you can. Renember the key developers to Diablo jumped ship long ago and created guild wars.
  • I would not be surprised to hear "World of Diablo" announced soon.
    • World of Warcraft IS World of Diablo. It's just a big persistent world with the Diablo play style adapted to a standard 3D MUD.

      • Re:WOD (Score:3, Informative)

        by WIAKywbfatw ( 307557 )
        Exactly. Some of the Diablo character classes might not be there in WOW but most are. Sorceress is now Mage, Assassin is now Rogue, Amazon is now Hunter, Barbarian is Warrior, etc.

        And the game world - with regards to monsters, NPCs, quests, quest rewards, partying, etc - is clearly built on Diablo II. Heck, there are even items in WOW that are clear references to Diablo II, such as the Staff of Jordan, or the Cow King's Hide.

    • WOD [dyndns.org] (Worms of Doom) already exists, it's a game I'm doing. So Blizzard don't even think about it or I'll sue you :P

      PS: Work on the game restarting soon for real, at last...
  • Actually, there was a tiny little blip of an article in the last Computer Gaming World that mentioned the score for Diablo III had just been recorded, so I assume that means they're currently developing it. Either that or they're just planning ahead. Waaaaaaaay ahead. =)
  • Please Please let this mean that they'll start on StarCraft II
  • patches are really becoming deadlines:
    -no patch: the game dies, the compagny is now known to drop games prematuraly (vampire the masquerade, tribes3, etc), then kills the studio.
    -patch: the game lives, the compagny closes the studio anyway.
  • I work right above the blizzard office. They have a real cool life sized statue of diablo and an orc. They locked out all their employees this morning, and the landlord had to get a locksmith so they could get in themselves.

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