It seems Microsoft and Activision-Blizzard is gearing to make a new team for new projects—and these could be big developments. But not too big.
As originally reported by Windows Central, several members of the Microsoft Gaming conglomerate, especially those within the King development subsidiary, have changed their titles to a new team within the Blizzard subsidiary. It’s also very likely you forgot the following, so here’s the reminder that this specific conglomerate is called “Activision-Blizzard-King,” or “ABK” because it owns that Candy Crush company.
After further digging, the reporter was told by sources that this new team was officially approved to create smaller “AA” games, as described, based on ongoing Blizzard franchises—and older games know well and true that Blizzard has plenty to tap into, especially since letting Starcraft 2 and the wider non-MMORPG Warcraft potential collect dust.
These sources also noted that Microsoft wanted to scale down project sizes, with concerns arising at the supercorporation about “monstrously ballooning costs facing AAA game development,” For a project of that size, it seems King staff would make sense, as despite the worldwide popularity of Candy Crush, it’s actually a fairly modest game (though not in its pride).
A smaller-scale project also makes sense in conjunction with both the trend of recent industry layoffs, which went over 30,000 recently according to one estimate, including two massive waves at Microsoft itself. There’s also the modern breakneck speed of the gaming industry, which sees constant new releases of huge, often-expensive service games.
