The irony of a company named Proletariat ending up at Blizzard/Microsoft
So just this past week, we caught you up to speed on the sudden development that Proletariat, the studio behindSpellbreak,would be acquired by Blizzard. It came directly after the team announced that they would be closing downSpellbreakfor good, and it seems like Blizzard is already following the same acquisition playbook as Microsoft — the company they’re about to join themselves within the next year. Now we have a bit more info as to what thatWorld of WarcraftProletariat configuration actually means.
As detailed byWarcraftgeneral manager John Hightin a new Blizzard blog, Proletariat will indeed be supporting the MMO going forward,as the deal has officially closed as of today. Hight says that the plan is to “expand [their] development pipeline forWoW,” and will aim to grow their Irvine (read: main Blizzard campus) and Boston teams. The acquisition at the end of the day will bring in 100 additional people supportingWoW.
Hight says that the transition will take “several months” to fully play out. Seth Sivak, CEO and co-founder of Proletariat, said that the team was “excited” to join up, and gave the following statement today:
“Our team has always strived to put players first, and in working with theWorld of Warcraftteam, we have learned that we are completely aligned in our commitments to innovation, quality, investing in our talent, authentic communication, and representation—both in and out of the games we make.World of Warcraftis one of the most influential games ever made and we can’t wait to be a part of that legacy and to help build an even brighter future for Azeroth.”
Of course, the above blog also reminds us that Proletariat was started by former industry veterans from Insomniac, Zynga, Harmonix, and Turbine, who were looking to free themselves from the pressures of bigger publishers. Such is the way of the 2020s, the era of acquisitions. For many studios, the dream never stays a dream for long.
