In an interview with IGN at BlizzCon 2023, the President of Blizzard, Mike Ybarra, talked about the future of Blizzard under Xbox. He said that Xbox’s vision for Blizzard is aligned with their own and that they are focused on enabling the creative freedom of their teams. He also said that they have some big things planned for the future, but that they are still early in the conversation with Xbox about how Activision Blizzard will exist under the Xbox banner.
During the interview, Ybarra also talked about the ‘Blizzard way’, and said that it is still very strong and that it will only get stronger with the increased autonomy that they are getting from Xbox. He said that Blizzard is always open to looking at new ways to broaden their IP and get more people interested in their universes.
While I love Blizzard and Warcraft Rumble is one of my favorite mobile games, I’m not sure that Blizzard has the best reputation on the ‘Blizzard way.’
He also said that they are looking at ways to get more Blizzard and Activision games onto Xbox consoles, but that they are still committed to servicing PlayStation players as well. That’s good to hear because as a PlayStation and Xbox player, I don’t want to have to choose one vs the other. Gamers win when we can get games on both consoles.
Ybarra’s message shows a positive outlook filled with optimism and excitement for the future of Blizzard under Xbox. He said that they are focused on enabling the creative freedom of their teams and on bringing new and innovative games to players.
I am excited for the future of Blizzard to be honest. They haven’t felt like the old Blizzard in a while and Microsoft is far better at pricing and subscription models. I hope to see Blizzard have big changes for the better.
