Blizzard Entertainment has acquired Spellbreak maker Proletariat, the goal here is to merge their staff with their existing pool for their MMO, World of Warcraft. Alongside this news, comes the reveal that their game is shutting down next year. The shooter seemingly failed to gain an audience despite its unique premise. Spellbreak is a class-based third-person shooter video game developed by Proletariat for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. Seeing it go out after just a few short years is pretty sad, at least the staff have new opportunities now.
Speaking on the game and its fate, the company had hoped for a better outcome. “Our vision was to create a fresh, multiplayer action-spellcasting game with exceptional movement and class customization that would give players the chance to unleash their inner battlemage,” Proletariat posted today.
“Spellbreak was an ambitious project that saw our team push new boundaries in design and development and we are excited to continue to innovate as we create new titles in the future. To all Spellbreak fans around the world, thank you for the support and dedication that made the game and community so special.”
Spellbreak will be shut down sometime in 2023 as the studio is fully absorbed into Activision Blizzard operations. The full staff of the studio is likely to join in on the merger. The team of 100 people will help working on World Of Warcraft, including the upcoming Dragonflight expansion.
Blizzard previously absorbed Vicarious Visions, the talented studio behind various Activision titles including the recent Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2.
One has to wonder why such a prestigious company would be looking to make a move like this. With the ongoing merger with Microsoft, there are questions raised by some over why a company being acquired, is itself able to acquire other firms, even before the main merger is completed. Aside from that, some people are concerned about the reasoning behind this move. Are the current toxicity and controversy surrounding Activision Blizzard so bad that it’s hurting recruiting? To me, this latter point seems more like a quick move to staff up for that upcoming expansion. Faster is cheaper, after all. It will be interesting to see how the future looks for these 100 new members of the team. If most of them are out of a job after the expansion ships, we know the answer to the question of how much Blizzard cares. Let the jokes about Activision Bourgeoisie flow, I guess.
