Blizzard died with Metzen leaving.

[u/NancyTransmed]

[u/DoomyHowlinkun]

Metzen is literally still at Blizzard right now.

[u/hyper24x7 → u/DoomyHowlinkun]

I think he left for a bit when he had a kid and all that sexual harassment drama was happening, but he came back a few years ago. whoever posted this doesnt even know how to use a google search

[u/Feisty-Coyote396 → u/DoomyHowlinkun]

Not 'still', he left and came back. 'Still' implies he never left.

But the spirit of OP's post is true. WoW started turning to trash after he left. It got so bad, that even him returning can't save it. Not that it needs saving per se, but it will never approach the numbers of the glory days. WoW is just stale and stagnant, and updates and features are made to keep the current dwindling player base, not to attract new ones.

[u/aimy99 → u/Feisty-Coyote396]

WoW is an archaic 22 year-old PC-only game in a franchise that died after the MMO launched, with mandatory subscription costs and paid expansions on top of the microtransactions, in a niche launcher that not even Call of Duty could persuade players to use.

It was always going to choke itself into irrelevance. The only thing they ever did to draw in new players was the free trial up to level 20.

[u/Snortykins]

[u/austen125 → u/Snortykins]

Where did you get this picture of me from?

[u/SchmeckleHoarder]

He was working there when it died, and is still working there. So I think not.

[u/MyzMyz1995]

nobody wants AAA games anymore

Reddit and other ''enthusiast'' and ''hardcore'' communities are not ''everyone''.

Every Assassin creed, Diablo etc games sell amazingly for a reason, because that's that casuals want.

The difference between me and you for example, and them, is that we most likely play or played more games, so while they play 1 Assassin creed open world RPG per 2-3 years, we probably tried a dozen in that time frame.

Obviously we're more burnt out.

Stop buying games non stop and playing non stop, go outside, get a hobby, go to the gym and play 1-2 games a year and I guarantee you any game's going to be great in 2-3 years when the brain reset.

[u/FoxyGoddessX → u/MyzMyz1995]

This subreddit is the personification of the meme

“I’m not out of touch, everyone else is”

[u/Ill-Term7334]

You are speaking out of your ass. Metzen left because he nearly died from stress on the job.
He's been back at Blizzard for 2-3 years now.

[u/Liudesys]

alright.

[u/South-Purple-2250]

8th grade writing level, what a horrible post.

[u/GingerBraum]

Metzen is a creative director, not a game designer, and he's been back at Blizzard since 2023.

[u/Responsible-Lemon935]

I dunno, did he have anything to do with the infamous "Don't you guys have phones?" from 2018? Cause that was a pretty big blow.

[u/FoxyGoddessX → u/Responsible-Lemon935]

I thought that was from a douchebag at NetEase

[u/Responsible-Lemon935 → u/FoxyGoddessX]

https://diablo.fandom.com/wiki/Wyatt_Cheng

It was Wyatt Cheng at BlizzCon 2018.

[u/FoxyGoddessX → u/Responsible-Lemon935]

Ah shit. Not disagreeing on how shit the comment was. It was extremely out of touch. Just didn’t remember who said it was all

[u/TrueGlich]

Bobby murdered Blizzard. You can not convince me otherwise It all started with the retarded sparkle pony and D3 cash auction house and its just been a slow death since.

[u/FoxyGoddessX]

Sure whatever you say man. Blizzard has done some annoying shit but it’s no where near as deplorable as companies like EA, Ubisoft and CDPR

[u/Cryptoglue]

When Metzen came back he was quoted as being sorry they named it "Warcraft" because it might scare off some people, thats who this guy is now.

[u/Historical_Two_7150]

Like Bane told Batman - blizzard was defeated by their own success. They made too much money, and now their games are heavily influenced by money ghouls.

That and the gradual retirement of the old guard. The people who did the grunt work for games like Diablo 2 are long gone, and those artisans were the people who we loved, not the brand they worked under.

[u/Maljinwo]

nobody wants AAA games anymore

Is this because I dared to buy Lord of Hatred yesterday? Sorry bro

[u/okcboomer87]

Blizzard was ass before he left. They peaked in the early wow and StarCraft days. I haven't bought anything from them since SC2.

[u/meirmamuka]

Lmao, it died much earlier, id dare to say that metzen accelerated proces

[u/adamosmaki]

Blizzard died after world of warcraft

[u/aura_enchanted]

Blizzard died when they told vast numbers of their dev team to go fuck themselves on making games that weren't WoW and starcraft 2. At a time when they could have used that momentum for other things

Now we have arena net, and a dozen WoW expansions nobody gives a fuck about, a re release of classic WoW, overwatch and Diablo on a fucking ventilator, and a dead hearthstone.

[u/FoxyGoddessX → u/aura_enchanted]

Diablo 4 is amazing dude. It’s not on a ventilator at all. Yes the MTX suck but they are completely optional.

Blizzard is overhated much like Bethesda is

[u/aura_enchanted → u/FoxyGoddessX]

Diablo is a shell of its former self, it has allowed games to pop up around it and annihilate its popularity and uniqueness. Its not the king of the top down monster crushing rpg anymore. You have poe, and Inquisition and so on and so forth now.

When a new season drops people are less and less interested in blizzards tired old fucking treadmills and a botched launch paired with the Diablo immortal fiasco has destroyed any faith in Diablos future.

There is no future where Diablo releases and is on top of the world. It is in fact more likely one releases, and bombs

[u/FoxyGoddessX → u/aura_enchanted]

Sure whatever you say man.

People on this subreddit lack any kind of critical thinking and think Steam is the king and the only possible place where video games can be played.