Activision Blizzard is currently hiring for an unannounced game, and are looking for multiple senior staff to fill up the ranks on this project. This includes a creative director, design director for combat AI, senior art direct, and more.
While there is little indication on what exactly this kind of game this will be, the job posting for creative director notes they’ll have to develop the game’s IP as well as “multi-season story arcs”. Whether that means it’ll be a live service game like much of Blizzard’s recent releases remains to be seen, but appears likely.
On it’s own this is a very cut-and-dry simple news story, and one we probably shouldn’t expect much of an update on for a while. However, recent developments across Activision Blizzard can provide interesting external context.
Xbox lead Phil Spencer has in interviews noted that he’d personally like to see a revival of legacy Activision Blizzard IP, following Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard last year. While it’s obviously fun to speculate on whether or not this new game does delve into the Acti Blizz IP vaults, it’s also worth pointing out that of course Phil Spencer would say this in a post-acquisition press tour. His job in said statements is to drum up excitement about the aquisition, and leaning on nostalgia is a great way to do that. This isn’t to say such a return isn’t what’s causing this hiring wave, just that such statements aren’t a smoking gun.
For one, it’s difficult to note this development without also considering the recently laid off staff from Activision Blizzard in the wake of the Microsoft acquisition. A stunning 1,900 staff were let go, and while sitting here and saying ‘wow guys, why couldn’t you keep people if you were just going to hire more staff later’ isn’t really a sensible statement to make, you’ve got to wonder if these positions will be filled by some of the talent that’s already out the door. Sure you probably have a good shot at getting a job if you’ve already got experience at Blizzard, but the layoffs were three months ago. A lot of those people may already have work.
What’s clear is that Blizzard does desperately need a win with this new IP. Not only has its last venture into fresh IP Overwatch seen better days thanks to the cavaclade of controversy surrounding Overwatch 2, the company also cancelled its unreleased survival shooter after several years of development. This new game, whatever it is, needs to be a heavy hitter.
But let us know what you think! What are your hopes for this new game. Yes, hoping it’s just good and controversy free is fair play.