Blizzard Entertainment has announced it has acquired Spellbreak developer, Proletariat and is set to work on its long-running multi-massive online game, World of Warcraft including the upcoming expansion, Dragonflight which is set to release later this year, as first reported by VentureBeat.
Proletariat’s team of 100 employees is set to beef up Blizzard’s staff and is one of the biggest acquisitions under the Blizzard brand in recent memory. In a similar move, the newest development absorption into Blizzard follows longtime Activision and Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1+2 studio, officially folding into the company back in April to work on the Diablo franchise which kicked off back in January 2021. The news of this recently came up again as the pro skater legend himself, Tony Hawk confirmed that the remakes of Pro Skater 3+4 were cancelled as a result of the move, as no other studio could handle them on the same level as Vicarious Visions.
“We are putting players at the forefront of everything we do, and we are working hard to both meet and exceed their expectations. 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 Entertainment president, Mike Ybarra said in a statement.
The purchase news coincides with Proletariat addressing the future of Spellbreak which isn’t bright after releasing in early access in 2018 and the 1.0 version of the game launching in 2020. The studio addressed the game’s fans known as “breakers” and announced in a blog post they are shutting down the servers of its magical take on the battle royale mode, Spellbreak sometime in early 2023.
“After more than four years of elemental magic and spell combinations, we’ve made the decision to end the development of Spellbreak. The servers will be shut down as of early 2023. Thank you to the millions of players who have joined us in the Hollow Lands since 2018; it’s been an amazing journey… thank you for the support and dedication that made the game and community so special,” Proletariat said in a blog post.
