But, it appears Blizzard Entertainment hasn’t learned its lesson yet.
According to a report by The Washington Post, the Diablo 4 team is currently being forced to “crunch” with insufficient compensation just so the studio can meet the rumored June 5 release date of Diablo 4. The report details that employees aren’t explicitly required to work overtime, but they are incentivized to do so. The said incentives include everything from Door Dash credits to company shares once Diablo 4 is out. However, the report adds that this hasn’t been enough to prevent tenured employees from resigning. The report reveals that a 20-person team lost half of its members in a year and that some employees were told to look for another company after asking for a raise. Furthermore, the report details that Blizzard later replaced the experienced employees with entry-level hires. As a result, there’s a lot of doubt about whether Diablo 4 will not be delayed again. Later on, the same report outlines the development timeline of Diablo 4 and how it started five years ago under Luis Barriga (director) and Jesse McCree (lead designer). Barriga reportedly brought on Sebastian Stępień to help out and he’s since rewritten the game’s narrative to remove traces of disturbing content and poor handling of female employees. Blizzard fired both Barriga and McCree last year as part of a company-wide restructuring following allegations of workplace harassment, among other issues. Finally, the current development structure of Diablo 4 involves Rod Fergusson, who formerly oversaw the Gears of War franchise, and Vicarious Visions, which was recently renamed to Blizzard Albany. Unfortunately, these changes might have only added to the confusion and chaos. Diablo 4 tells a tale of two opposites. The latest previews sing nothing but praises for the first dozen hours of the dungeon crawler. However, the report, which contains details from anonymous employees, paints Diablo 4 and Blizzard Entertainment in a dark light. We have no choice but to wait for similar reports to find out more about what’s going on behind the scenes of Diablo 4. For now, we’ll have to make do with the game’s appearance tonight at The Game Awards.
