I genuinely don’t understand what all those people are doing there. Not just in Blizzard, but any other corporate studio
Comment on Over 450 Diablo developers at Blizzard have unionized
LuxSpark@lemmy.cafe 2 months ago
There’s 450 Diablo developers?
dinckelman@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Truscape@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 months ago
Microsoft is notoriously bureaucratic - there’s probably a lot of PR, middle managers, support staff and bean counters at each studio.
tal@lemmy.today 2 months ago
Well, someone in this thread linked to the Diabolic 4 credits, and those list what they do.
saltesc@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I think you just discovered why they’re unionising so hard.
Microsoft: Don’t worry, Blizzard. We can quash a union attempt. There’s only like 100 of them, tops…
Blizzard: There’s 650.
Microsoft: _spits drink _. For this shit!?
Strobelt@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I bet 449 are just for the auction house
kurushimi@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
I’m giddy that we’ll never let them live down D3 Original
eve@evenyc.com 2 months ago
unpopular opinion. i liked the ah in D3. was able to make my money back. should be in all games to make your money back when they churn out shitty games. at least u can make a profit from a bad game
thatKamGuy@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
According to the Diablo IV credits, over 9,500 people worked on that title in some capacity:
www.mobygames.com/game/204085/…/windows/
Frozengyro@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Yea there’s still ongoing seasons for Diablo 3, Diablo immortal, Diablo 4 (seasons and another expansion), Diablo 2 resurrection. Probably other stuff I’m not aware of.
MBech@feddit.dk 2 months ago
Diablo 2 ressurection seasons don’t actually get new content though. It’s just a wipe.
Frozengyro@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Weird, seems kinda pointless.
DupaCycki@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I’ve worked in the video game industry for a couple years and have been credited in several games. This number may actually be higher.
It may sound crazy, but there’s a lot of people working on AAA games, usually most of them completely unrelated to game dev. Marketing, public relations, translators, 3D graphics artists, sound designers, orchestra performers, motion capture stuntmen, voice actors. Probably a few dozen managers, who have never even seen the game. Hell, some companies even credit IT staff in the game’s credits.
That’s already a whole bunch of teams. It’s also important to mention that many third-party contractors will often be skipped from the credits. QA is very commonly outsourced (to poorer countries like Romania or Serbia) and rarely gets into the credits. You may only see 5-10 names, while in reality it was at least 100. This is true for several other fields, though mostly non-game-related, e.g., localization, promotial material, merchandise.
I won’t disclose in what capacity, but in the past I have worked on several of Blizzard’s titles for a few months and I’m not credited anywhere. Just like at least a couple hundred other people. Not necessarily saying I should be - it was never mentioned or promised. Just highlighting that the real number of staff that worked on the game (or adjacent to the game) may be above 10k.
overload@sopuli.xyz 2 months ago
Crazy that AAA games take that many developers
thatKamGuy@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
As a bit of a thought exercise, I went through every mainline GTA game using that website to get an idea of each title’s respective headcount:
So while the general headcount growth over time tends to track, as each generation of platform requires more and more people to churn out higher fidelity content, I can’t help but wonder what portion of that headcount is just there to churn out micro transaction and Games-as-a-Service garbage.
DupaCycki@lemmy.world 2 months ago
A good number of that is 3D artists. Try making a highly detailed 3D model in Blender. Now imagine a game like GTA V has thousands of those, but even more detailed. This is one of the major reasons why AAA are taking longer and longer to produce. At the same time, game systems and mechanics are simplified to cut costs.
Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Most of those devs are probably freelancers or from hired studios doing esoteric work. It’s still crazy to see these numbers when most of the games I play are indie and have tiny credit listings. 450 people could make at least ten of the games I play.
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
I’m still surprised when I see 50+ on some indie games.