Bloomberg has released a deep dive into the troubled development of Warcraft III: Reforged. Concerning news continues to come out from Blizzard this week. This report came in shortly after rampant sexual harassment allegations were brought to light.
According to reporter , the doomed remake of the RTS classic “was the result of mismanagement and financial pressures.” Additionally, it highlighted the “significant cultural changes” resulting from the Activision merger. Stating that corporate has pushed the developer to “cut costs and prioritize its biggest titles.”
Warcraft III: Reforged promised to deliver “over four hours of updated in-game cutscenes and re-recorded voice-overs.” Despite the title's importance as one of Blizzard's most popular games, it was never given the priority or budget that its leaders wanted. This was supposedly due to it “not being the kind of billion-dollar product Activision wanted.”
Blizzard released the game on January 28, 2020. Players and critics alike panned the game, which currently scores a dismal 0.6 user score on Metacritic. The game launched with a plethora of bugs and a distinct lack of features Blizzard promised. It even lacked the ranked “ladder” system that the original release had.
Apparently, documentation produced after the game has released has revealed that Reforged was “rescoped due to budget cuts and internal arguments over the game's direction.” Additionally, the report states that: “Blizzard chose to plow ahead with a premature release of Warcraft III: Reforged largely because it had already taken pre-orders from players.”
In light of this, only time will tell how the upcoming Diablo II Remaster will fare.
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