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Former Blizzard Staffers Announce New Studio

Posted by simoniker on from the out-of-the-cold dept.

Thanks to GameSpot for their news that the key members of the creative team behind Diablo and Diablo II have announced their new company, called Flagship Studios, after their split from Blizzard at the end of June. The 9 co-founders of the San Francisco-based studio hope "...to build on a track record established by their work on the... Diablo franchise" at Blizzard North, and there's a piece of concept art and a company FAQ on Flagship's site that clarifies the fact they "intend the PC to be our main development platform", mentioning "multiplayer focused" aspects to this very early-in-development debut title.

1 of 24 comments (clear)

  1. was blizz north gutted? by fireduck · · Score: 3, Interesting

    the initial story when these guys left was that it was only a few employees, Roper and 3 original Condor guys. This release mentions that 9 people left B.North, including art directors and senior programmers. That's a bit more drastic that first reported... (or at least than I recalled). I'm sure this gives Blizzard an opportunity to encourage new talent at B. North, but I really doubt losing all the top guys there is going to help any release dates (for any of their unnanounced projects.)

    Best quote in the interview with Roper, "Basically, it all comes down to spending less time managing teams and more time making games." And then of course, you go to the flagship homepage and see that of the 9, they've got a CVO (??), CEO, CCO, COO, CFO, 2 art director, and 2 technology directors. Seems odd that all 9 of their employees are managers...