Diablo III senior producer leaves Blizzard

@Traptz He later ammended that it was "bad phrasing" and that he meant "they're going to do a great job" (from his Twitter feed).

@Borick

Thanks for the clarification. I was wondering the same thing.

Found it: https://twitter.com/#!/retailsails/status/160242330333483008

@(Unverified) A message within a message? Honestly you have to watch your P's and Q's when leaving a company, that is if you ever want to get another respectable job.

@MithranArkanere

"Or maybe they are adding Little Ponies to the game or something..."

Well, actually....

http://www.equestriadaily.com/2011/09/pony-references-in-diablo-3-secret.html

@Adeptus Enginus Oh, gods. I hope you get to KILL the ponies.

@(Unverified)

Not sure this has anything to do with this but here:

http://www.diablofans.com/news/1060-patch-10-not-this-week-conference-call-senior-game-producer-leaves-blue-posts/

Note also the conference call, which is also posting the quarterly subscription numbers for WoW last year:

http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/2625-Blizzard-Q4-2011-Conference-Call-Mists-of-Pandaria-Talent-System-Warcraft-Art

...things may not be going as well for Blizz/Activision as they intended. Perhaps this is has something to do with the drastic changes for D3 and the noted key resigning. That is, the bottom line is not being met somwhere overall, setting things into scramble mode Kotic style.

But I am no stock analyst and your guess is likely as good as mine on this. /shrug

@(Unverified)
If the job was really done, Blizzard wouldn't be hiring a new Senior Producer, which is exactly what they are looking for now that he left. So it makes the "disagreement" angle more likely.

@DevilSei
That's my point. Some people are suggesting he's leaving because the job is done but I disagree with that. No, we don't have proof, but I think you are right as Utakata.

I don't think there is much doubt Kotick is running the once great Blizzard into the ground.

@(Unverified)

Just to note, correlation does not always equal causation. The negative numbers of WoW's subcription numbers may have nothing to do with the D3 changes and a Senior Producer leaving. But they could have. So I pointed it out not so much as a theory or even an observation, but more of potentially something to watch for.

@Utakata
I just think it's an overall attitude at Blizzard now that Kotick is in charge of the division.

Some people can bash what they call Blizzard "haters", but most of us that are often referred to as haters actually love the old Blizzard. I have always loved their games.

But it became very obvious after the merger that something changed. The World of Warcraft no longer has anything to do with Warcraft. I would dearly love for them to bring the story back in the game so I could go back. I would love to play D3, but D3 is something that Blizzard has never done with a game before, and that is restrict gamer's choices rather than expand them.

This is why I think Steve Parker left.

@(Unverified)

I tend to agree with you.

However, the issue is a problem with Blizzard's holding company relationship. It's strange...one would think that due to it's ridiculous success with its games, Blizz could get up and walk out the door telling where it's parent should go on the way out. Thus becoming a wholey self-owned independent corporation. But it doesn't work that way.
No matter how successful Blizz was and is, it still has to look up to it's parent company. So when *Vivendi (Blizz original parent company) decided to sell it's shares to Activision, all Blizz could do is stand there and watch...and soothe the fears of the WoW forums that this deal is not going to turn WoW into World of Guitar Hero.

My point being, I'm not sure the gradual melt-down of Blizz was entirely preventable baring Vivendi selling/merging it to a more competent and far less meddling parent company.

*Note: Vivendi had merged with Activision the year before Activiion took over Blizz.. Apparently Vivendi is still is the major share holder of Activision. Now if your head hurts after reading that, I don't blame you...so does mine. :(

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activision

@Utakata
Yeah, that's the thing, Blizzard just can't walk out and leave. Sure, the individuals could, but Vivendi owns the rights to the Blizzard name. Morhaime, Tigole, Samwise, Metzen, all of them, could walk out and leave and you would see Blizzard's Warcraft 4 and it not have a thing to do with them.

a similar thing happened when Activision Blizzard bought out Infinity Ward. Kotick wanted to make changes to degrade Call of Duty and when the Infinity Ward people stood up to him to defend their product, he fired them. So while Call of Duty may still carry the label, no one who had anything to do with it's creation has anything to do with it. I think this is one reason Blizzard seems to go along with it. I believe they know the moment they openly defy Kotick, they get fired and no longer have any involvment on their creations.

The major problem is Vivendi and them naming Kotick as CEO of ActiBlizz when they bought Activision.

@Maseno i was moderately interested in GW2 five years ago when they announced it. now that i've become completely sick of GW1, and that GW2 is no where near closed beta yet.. i just don't care.