Blizzard reportedly took pre-orders and refused to delay Warcraft 3: Reforged, despite knowing that the game wouldn’t be sufficiently ready for release.
In a new report from Bloomberg, sources claim that Blizzard chose to release Reforged – which launched to widespread fan complaints about low quality and false advertising – because it had already accepted pre-orders, and didn’t want to risk those sales by delaying.
Bloomberg also reports that it has seen an internal Blizzard postmortem document saying, “We took pre-orders when we knew the game wasn’t ready yet” and that the company should, in future, “resist the urge to ship an unfinished product because of financial pressure.”
The project was allegedly hamstrung by a low budget, and was apparently seen as a low priority by parent company Activision because of its unlikeliness to become a ‘billion-dollar product’. The report says that the game was then rescoped, leading to it launching without features present in the original Warcraft 3, and without reworked cutscenes announced before launch. Altered scripts and re-recordings of dialogue were allegedly also ditched.
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The problems on the project reportedly caused low morale, with the internal postmortem reading: “We have developers who have dealt with exhaustion, anxiety, depression and more for a year now. Many have lost trust in the team and this company. Many players have also lost trust, and the launch certainly didn’t help an already rough year for Blizzard’s image.”
Several sources pin the blame on leadership in both the Reforged team, and within the wider Blizzard organisation. The postmortem reportedly adds: “Senior voices in the department warned leadership about the impending disaster of Warcraft on several occasions over the last year or so, but were ignored.”
Blizzard subsequently changed its refund policy to allow for more returns of the game, but some missing features have not yet materialised, more than a year after release. A Blizzard spokesperson told Bloomberg that despite the closure of the Classic Games team that made it, a new team is, “dedicated to updating Warcraft III: Reforged with improvements. In these efforts, we realize our work and actions will speak louder than our words.”
Earlier this year, we published a special report on the exodus of talent from Blizzard. Yesterday, Activision Blizzard as a whole was sued by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing for an alleged “frat boy” culture in which female employees are allegedly subjected to unequal pay and sexual harassment.
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Joe Skrebels is IGN’s Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].