Report: Diablo IV development waylaid by talent attrition and mismanagement
A new report from the Washington Post reveals the troubled production of Blizzard Entertainment's Diablo IV. Though the game is expected to release on June 6, 2023, anonymous developers speaking to the Post have indicated that getting the game ready for primetime won't be an easy process for the Diablo team.
Diablo IV is the first numbered entry in the series since 2012, and some who've worked on the title at Blizzard have disclosed they are not fully pleased with the final product. Beyond the many lawsuits and firings that have emerged at Activision Blizzard over the past year over its purported "frat boy culture", the biggest blow to development has been the loss of talent.
One department working on Diablo IV reportedly lost half its employees within a year, and a number of employees across the development team departed within that timeframe. Several of them were longtime veterans with the studio and franchise, and according to an ex-team lead, it wasn't something "leadership paid enough attention to and was very flat-footed about. They weren’t very proactive about it.”
Beyond that, team leaders in various departments allegedly had trouble making and standing by their decisions, resulting in a "siloed culture" where it was difficult for employees to know who was experiencing what.
Leadership on Diablo IV has shifted multiple times during development., which has in turn made working on the title a struggle for non-lead staff.
After original director Luis Barriga and lead designer Jesse McCree were both fired following allegations of misconduct, creative director Sebastian Stępień (previously from The Witcher 3) took control. His clashes with Blizzard staff allegedly included "disturbing script changes" that other
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