Mike Ybarra Expects Blizzard to be More Independent Under Xbox - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 06 November 2023 / 3,863 Views
Blizzard Entertainment President Mike Ybarra in an interview with The Verge said he expects the company to have more independence now that they are part of Microsoft and Xbox due to Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer giving teams creative freedom.
"I think the way [Spencer] approaches building teams and focusing on culture and enabling creative freedom is going to give Blizzard a lot more of that sense of being an independent studio than ever before," said Ybarra.
"That’s what I really mean when I talk about a new era of possibilities, of empowerment, of serving players even better than we ever have."
Microsoft in October completed its acquisition of Activision Blizzard King and CEO Bobby Kotick is set to step down at the end of the year.
Spencer did make appearance during the BlizzCon 2023 opening ceremony on Friday to welcome Blizzard to the Xbox family.
"Now that Blizzard is part of Xbox, we will nurture the essence of what makes Blizzard unique," said Spencer at the time. "We are going to empower our new colleagues to continue what they do best - redefining existing genres, and creating new never-before-seen experiences. In Azeroth, in near-future-Earth, in Sanctuary, and beyond. I'm honored to be able to be here, to help welcome all of you to Blizzcon 2023."
He added, "The future of Blizzard is brighter than ever."
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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I expect the same, I expect MS to give them budget, time, and a clear mandate to put back consumer center to their game design instead of some short-term profit scheme that place consumer nostalgia as the mean to get to consumer pockets without valuing consumer retention adequately.
Well, I think everyone expect the same... And you can see that with currently Xbox owned studios.
This is very good and I may even see one option at some point where Blizzard could be moved away from Activision to be put at the same level than Bethesda/Activision under Xbox.
It would be great if Activision and Blizzard were again separate entities in general. I remember when the whole debacle of Real ID happened not that long after the merger and it left us old Blizzard fans going "why the hell would Blizzard even attempt this?" and of course it all started going downhill even further from there.
Phil is clearly a huge fan of Blizzard, so the more autonomy they have to make what they want to make (and Phil giving constant hints to make more StarCraft) and let Blizzard be Blizzard without the mandates of Activision business practices, could lead to a bit of a renaissance for the company......at least that's what I hope.
It’s a Better situation than Blizzard has been in for a long time.
Xbox has proven that that they will give more time & money to dev’s ….but Xbox still hasn’t proven at all that they can give helpful directions & criticisms to studios that need it. And even if needed to reset, or even cancel a game.
& Putting clowns like Matt Booty in charge of Bethesda proves that Xbox hasn’t learnt that lesson.
Any good that comes from Bethesda I guarantee it’s inspite of Booty, or he stayed out of the way, or he’s there to follow orders from another higher up from Xbox.
Hopefully they are no longer controlled and influenced by Activision. They can create with full freedom of Blizzard themselves.
