Blizzard Entertainment shows a new game – and it will take up the survival trend. A completely new universe is being created for it.
Blizzard Entertainment is working on a new game. The inventor of Diablo, Starcraft and Warcraft is currently creating the first fresh brand since Overwatch from 2016. The still nameless game belongs to the survival genre – a first for Blizzard.
Update from 26 January 2022: We have supplemented this news with information and tweets from Blizzard employees. By the way, if you think Blizzard chose the wrong genre for their new announcement, you might find yourself reading this article, especially after the debacle surrounding Warcraft 3: Reforged.
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Blizzard’s new survival game: all pictures and info
(On its website), the traditional developer shows two first pictures of the survival game in the context of a job advertisement and reveals that you will discover an unknown world in it. The background for the “Unannounced Survival Game” is explicitly not one of the already known series, but instead a completely new universe is being created in the Californian studio.
The published pictures show signs of a modern setting (a bicycle and skyscrapers) as well as fantastic elements (a flying castle). Two youthful-looking figures stand on the threshold between the grey reality and the colourful fantasy world; a portal in the forest provides access to this as yet undiscovered universe.
In the second concept drawing, a woman in richly decorated armour, modelled on the skeleton of an animal, bends over magically shimmering footprints in a forest, her look reminiscent of medieval fantasy games.
AAA-Survival, which is already playable
On Twitter, Blizzard president Mike Ybarra speaks out shortly after the job ad was published. He emphasises that he has already played the new Blizzard game for “many hours” together with the team. So the project could already be in an advanced stage:
I’ve played many hours of this project with the team and I’m incredibly excited about the teams vision and the brand-new world it presents for players to immerse themselves in together. Join us to help make it a reality! https://t.co/pLhijX2Li9
– Mike Ybarra (@Qwik) January 25, 2022
Blizzard’s Unannounced Survival Game would be the first proper AAA game from a major developer in the genre – so far, apart from Obsidian Entertainment (Grounded), only indie teams have tried their hand at monetising the trend started by Minecraft.
The development of the survival game is led by Craig Amai, who has been with Blizzard Entertainment since 2004 and worked on World of Warcraft for years, first as Senior Game Master, then as Senior Game Designer and Lead Quest Designer. The mysterious survival game is Amai’s first project of his own at Blizzard, where he holds the title of Project Lead.
Once upon a time this dream project was humble pitch deck on my desktop. Now it’s a team full of caring and passionate people sharing a vision I couldn’t be prouder to be part of.https://t.co/dCumH9yoEm
– Craig Amai 💙 (@craig_amai) January 25, 2022
Release and game modes are still a secret
Meanwhile, it is completely open whether Blizzard’s survival game will be an online-only game or whether a solo campaign is also planned. However, the artwork, Mike Ybarra’s tweet and the experience suggest that you will at least play in co-op mode with other people.
There is no release date yet, but Blizzard’s next game will be for PC and consoles. Currently they are still looking for employees for the project, so there are job advertisements for the following positions:
ART
- Environment Artist (Associate to Senior)
- Senior Character Artist
- Technical Artist (FX Pipeline)
- VFX Artist (Associate to Senior)
- Senior Character Concept Artist
DESIGN
- Associate Level Designer
- Level Designer
ENGINEERING
- Lead Software Engineer, Engine
- Senior Software Engineer, Audio
- Senior Software Engineer, Server
- Senior Software Engineer, Tools
The announcement comes at a time when scandalous working conditions at Activision Blizzard and reports of sexism at Blizzard Entertainment are the talk of the town.
If Blizzard Entertainment’s arguably far-off survival game ever does appear, it will likely do so under publisher Microsoft’s banner and on PC Game Pass. After the recently announced purchase of Activision Blizzard, the Diablo studio will also belong to the Microsoft group in the future.
What do you think?
Do Blizzard and Survival go together? Write us your opinion and tell us what you think Blizzard Entertainment’s new project has to offer in order to be successful in the genre.
