Anonymous former and current employees alleged that Blizzard encouraged long hours and mismanaged developers.
These incentives have not been enough to keep all employees at the company, however.
The Diablo 4 team has reportedly been consistently losing developers.
One 20-person team lost half of its members over a year.
Diablo 4 has also reportedly seen multiple shifts in creative leadership.
Development started five years ago, under the supervision of director Luis Barriga and lead designer Jesse McCree.
Both leaders reportedly had a scattershot and unfocused approach to development, leading to confusion among developers.
Stepien rewrote the entire game’s narrative.
In August 2021, bothBarriga and McCree were fired in a wake of wider Blizzard allegations.
Adding Blizzard Albany to the project also added to the chaos, creating problems with duplicate work.
Production on the game is going extremely well.
Overtime is voluntary and limited to specific teams.
At that time, it was deemed inappropriate and we went in a different direction.
The report also leakedthe game’s release date of June 6, 2023.
This is the latest in a long series oflawsuits and reports concerning Blizzard’s mistreatment of workers.
This story has been updated with a full statement from Blizzard.
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