Blizzard has announced a new survival game set in a “whole new universe” coming to PC and unspecified console platforms with no release window.
The untitled game is unrelated to Blizzard’s current fantasy and sci-fi IP. The original post includes two pieces of artwork as part of the announcement. The first piece features a female skull-wearing ranger with an axe in a forest-like ruin that features a mirror on a castle-like wall. The other artwork features a pair of teenagers in a forest locale looking through a portal into the game’s survival universe with a cityscape in the background.
“Blizzard is embarking on our next quest. We are going on a journey to a whole new universe, home to a brand-new survival game for PC and console. A place full of heroes we have yet to meet, stories yet to be told, and adventures yet to be lived. A vast realm of possibility, waiting to be explored,” Blizzard said in a post announcing the survival game.
Although it does sound like the brand-new IP is early in development as the original posts list job roles for the project. The company’s internal game studio is looking to recruit artists, designers and engineers for its untitled survival game which recruitment posts are linked in the blog post. The game would make it the first original property from the company since Overwatch’s release in 2016. To coincide with the announcement, Blizzard’s Mike Ybarra revealed he’s played “many hours of this project with the team” and is “incredibly excited about the team’s vision and the brand-new world it presents for players to immerse themselves in together”.
The news is off the heels of Blizzard’s parent company in the news spotlight with public fallout of Activision’s discrimination and harassment lawsuit filed by the state of California. The story of 2021 has led to key figures leaving the company, Activision CEO, Bobby Kotick knowing the sexual harassment allegations for years, multiple organized strikes from ABK employees, Raven Software’s QA forming a union and more. Last week, Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard for $68.7 Billion which is set to finalize sometime in Microsoft’s 2022-2023 fiscal year, ending June 30th, 2023.
