I read with interest the experiences of Bethesda's disaster of a game, Fallout 76, in an article just published on Wednesday by Kotaku. While the article itself could have used better editing*, the basic premise remains the same: Bethesda refused to listen to the multi-player part of the studio, used crunch needlessly on QA and dev staff, refused to let the release date slide, utilized a game engine not built for what it was being used for, and relied upon snitches and bad management to deal with a project that chewed up and spit people out.
It sounds a LOT like what happened to Bioware with Anthem and Mass Effect: Andromeda, doesn't it?
But for me, the most interesting part of the article was how the QA and dev staff thought they were gonna be saved when Microsoft bought the game studio, and once they came onboard they were sadly mistaken.
Microsoft operated in a "hands-off" policy, mainly because they feared too much corporate interference would disrupt the "secret sauce" of the creative nature of game development.
“The impression that I got was that Microsoft would not make big changes unless they needed to,” one staffer told Kotaku.
“Simply because they’re like: We hired you to be excellent. And if we
touch you, it could be like a house of cards situation where you just
fall apart [as creatives]. I don’t think health benefits are going to do
that to anybody.”
Microsoft did not address a request for comment by the time of publication.
A former Bethesda employee told Kotaku,
“[Xbox CEO Phil] Spencer’s word when picking up Bethesda [and ZeniMax]
is largely that his preference is that studios be let to operate as they
always have, let the talent be the talent.”
One
source spoke cynically about Bethesda’s potential for changing from
within: “It would be great if something like [Activision Blizzard worker
advocacy group] A Better ABK
existed for Bethesda, but everyone is terrified...because [Bethesda] HR
is super cutthroat.” A current employee agreed it did not feel like
Bethesda HR was actively interested in addressing “any real employee
concerns.” Similar cynicism is reflected in the company’s Glassdoor reviews.
--From The Human Toll Of Fallout 76’s Disastrous Launch
My big takeaway from this is that if people thought that Microsoft would "right the ship" with Blizzard's handling of World of Warcraft or any of their other franchises, they are being naive.
There isn't going to be a big cultural shift at Activision/Blizzard, and there isn't going to be a sudden improvement in the quality of the work done on WoW. The stories aren't going to get better (or worse, I suppose), and the focus on WoW isn't going to change from raiding and Mythic+. And Diablo Immortal? It's not going to change from it's own insidious version of gambling mechanics.
Unless Blizzard itself wants it to change.
*Having blogged for almost 13 years has given me some appreciation for that part of the creative process. I mean, I read an old post I'd made and cringe at the grammatical errors I find, years later. And don't get me started on One Final Lesson; every time I go back and reread it I find new areas I could rewrite and improve the flow of the story.
