Blizzard responds to claims from producer it's creating product "crisis maps"

Blizzard responds to claims from producer it’s creating product “crisis maps”

Time Stamp: April 21, 2023 6:50 AM

Blizzard has responded to claims from one of its producers that the company is creating “crisis maps” of what products can be shipped due to the number of employees leaving.

Earlier this week, World of Warcraft producer Adam “Glaxigrav” took to Twitter to voice opinions on how Blizzard is “losing amazing talent because someone in power doesn’t listen to the game directors who make his products”.

He added: “DE&I [Diversity, Equity and Inclusion] also means diversity of thought, especially when it’s backed by data and financials”.

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Later in the thread, the producer claimed: “We are creating crisis maps of what we can or cannot ship. That is the loss of capacity we’re facing. I literally have a schedule I strike out as people hand in notice”.

In a comment to IGN, a Blizzard spokesperson said that creating crisis maps is “not a team practice for WoW. However, making decisions around priorities, iterating, and ensuring quality are everyday parts of game development”.

Blizzard senior game designer Allison Steele also responded to Glaxigrav’s tweet. “Forced rto [return to office] has cost us some amazing people and will continue to cost us more in the coming months,” she wrote. “It is a terrible, shortsighted, self-destructive policy that is only weakening our ability to deliver the kind of game we want to make and our players deserve.”

Back in January, World of Warcraft Classic lead Brian Birmingham left the company due to concerns over its “forced” stack-ranking policy.

More recently, employees voiced displeasure at the company’s return to office policy, although Blizzard said it was “proud” of Mike Ybarra’s leadership following a disastrous company-wide meeting to discuss an internal employee satisfaction survey.

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