VentureBeat is reporting that Blizzard Entertainment is acquiring Proletariat, the developer behind the free-to-play Battle Royale Spellbreak. Yesterday, Proletariat announced that the game will be shutting down “as of early 2023.” The team of approximately 100 developers will now work on World of Warcraft.
“We are putting players at the forefront of everything we do, and we are working hard to both meet and
exceed their expectations,” said Mike Ybarra, president of Blizzard Entertainment, in a statement regarding the acquisition. “A big part of caring for our teams is making sure we have the resources to produce experiences our communities will love while giving our teams space to explore even more creative opportunities within their projects. Proletariat is a perfect fit for supporting Blizzard’s mission in bringing high-quality content to our players more often.”
Blizzard themselves are in the process of being acquired by Microsoft as part of the Activision Blizzard purchase. The company is also under investigation for sexual harassment and discrimination.
VentureBeat’s Dean Takahashi asked Proletariat CEO Seth Sivak about that lawsuit. “We had a very kind of open and transparent conversation about this,” Sivak said. “And I think the Blizzard team recognized some of the challenges they’ve had. In some of the earliest conversations, we discussed just how they were looking at continuing to improve the culture and continuing to make a great place for developers to work.”
Given the development issues and poor reception of the most recent World of Warcraft expansion, Shadowlands, an influx of new developers should help out development leading into the upcoming Dragonflight release. Proletariat developers have been working on World of Warcraft since May. They will be fully integrated into Blizzard within the coming months.
Founded in 2012, Proletariat includes a background of former developers from Harmonix, Turbine, and Insomniac. Their focus was “pushing the boundaries of multiplayer games while demanding a level of quality unheard of for a small studio.”
