Ten leave Blizzard

I know I promised everyone an article on Windows 98 this week, but I asked myself why? Suite101 already has the most complete rundown on Microsoft's new product. Multiple authors have written on the subject, guaranteeing an objective view. Head on over to http://www.suite101.com/events/page.cfm/22.

Now, on with the show. In an evermore-common event, 10 employees left Blizzard Entertainment. The company confirmed this report. One of the departures was James Phinney, a producer and designer for the current #1 game in the US, Starcraft. He left to aid in the emergence of a new game development studio. The others leaving Blizzard include artists, a programmer, and a webmaster for the company's web site. It's assumed they'll be heading to the new studio started by Phinney. Blizzard wishes them well as they go it alone, but said the departures won't slow things down there. Mike Morhaime, president and co-founder of Blizzard said of the affair, "While each of these individuals has made valuable contributions to our products, Blizzard's success has never been attributed to any individual or small group of individuals." The only expected delays are updates to Blizzard's web site (found at http://www.blizzard.com/), and Warcraft II Platinum, a Windows 95 version of Warcraft II that will be playable over Blizzard's battle.net online service.

This unnamed development studio has already become a hot commodity. According to Gamesmania (http://www.gamesmania.com/) sources, the newly emergent company has been negotiating with Gathering of Developers (http://www.godgames.com/) to become their next developer of games. Other publishers reportedly craving Phinney's crew includes Activision and GT Interactive. Nothing is for sure at the time of writing, but as you read this, the gears are already probably in motion.

The departure of Blizzard's 10 employees isn't something radically new. Programmers and developers have been setting off on their own for sometime now. Activision has had a flurry of developers leave to set up shop. Gary Wagner and Rodney Walden began Gizmo Industries, while members of the team that brought us MechWarrior 2 and Heavy Gear defected to begin their own company. And possibly the most well-known developer, Sid Meier, creator of such classic as Civilization and Railroad Tycoon, left MicroProse after several years to begin his own company, Fireaxis Games.

All of these new startup companies have created a glut in computer games in the market place. What do you think? Is this a good thing, the more games the better? Or with so many companies in the gaming business the quality has decreased in games as the talent has been spread thin? Feel free to start a discussion on the subject.