[GameSpot] - Diablo 4 Development Mired In Crunch And Poor Leadership According To New Report

[343iBot]

Ahead of the game's probable launch in June, the Diablo 4 team has been crunching to ensure the game's timely release, according to a new report.

The Washington Post reported that the Diablo 4 team is mired in long hours, and the company is offering insufficient perks in exchange. While the company has not explicitly required working overtime, Blizzard has offered a variety of incentives to keep employees at their desks. These range from $25 Door Dash credit for employees who work over 10 hours a day to gaining company stock shares after the game ships.

These incentives have not been enough to keep all employees at the company, however. The Diablo 4 team has reportedly been consistently losing developers. One 20-person team lost half of its members over a year. Former employees interviewed by the Post alleged that when they asked for raises, some managers suggested they quit the company to look for a higher wage elsewhere, and only return to Blizzard when they have more experience. Many of the employees who do leave have multiple years of experience, while their replacements are inexperienced, entry-level hires. As a result of these issues, many quoted employees seem to doubt that the game will release in a completed state come June.

Diablo 4 has also reportedly seen multiple shifts in creative leadership. Development started five years ago, under the supervision of director Luis Barriga and lead designer Jesse McCree. Both leaders reportedly had a scattershot and unfocused approach to development, leading to confusion among developers. Barriaga brought on Sebastian Stępień, who was a creative director on The Witcher 3 and head writer on Cyberpunk 2077. Stępień rewrote the entire game's narrative. Allegedly, his script included frequent allusions to one character's experience with sexual assault, in a way that disgusted and disturbed many employees. The character has since been removed, but the game reportedly still handles its female characters, including the villain Lilith, poorly. In August 2021, both Barriga and McCree were fired in a wake of wider Blizzard allegations.

To help get Diablo 4 finished, Blizzard brought on Vicarious Visions, renamed Blizzard Albany, and put industry vet Rod Fergusson in charge of the Diablo franchise. Fergusson reportedly holds weekly Zoom meeting where he discusses the team's problems with attrition and employee concerns, but often centers on his own interests, like celebrities he has met or movies he enjoyed. Adding Blizzard Albany to the project also added to the chaos, creating problems with duplicate work.

Blizzard responded to the story in the following statement: "As you may know, game development in general, and ‘Diablo IV’ specifically, follows an iterative process where the scope evolves over time. Production on the game is going extremely well. Overtime is voluntary and limited to specific teams. We regularly survey the team on their professional well-being, and the latest results are the most positive they’ve been in years."

However, the words of anonymous employees paint quite a different picture, with a troubled development, a potentially incomplete game, and most importantly, a hellish work environment for developers. The report also leaked the game's release date of June 6, 2023. This is the latest in a long series of lawsuits and reports concerning Blizzard's mistreatment of workers. Microsoft is in the process of acquiring Activision Blizzard but the FTC has sued in an attempt to block the deal.

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