Blizzard Faces More Trouble: The Rise of Bonfire Studios

As if the troubles of the popular Californian game development company weren’t enough already, more developers have left to form a new studio, Bonfire Studios.

Rob Pardo, the founder and CEO of Bonfire Studios. Courtesy Bonfire Studios.

World of Warcraft’s lead designer Rob Pardo had left Blizzard a long time ago, and finally his passion for game development returned when he toured many game studios like Unity.

He then decided to create Bonfire Studios. Here’s the official website – Bonfire Studios.

Bonfire Studios logo. Judging from the look and feel of their design, it’s correct to assume we’ll be getting mostly fantasy-themed games from them.

See the touching account, Welcome to Bonfire Studios, by the now CEO of the new studio. He provides the analogy of Avengers to explain how things are with the studio. Right now he’s just hiring. No development has begun yet.

Among the chief investors of the newly formed studio are a16z and Riot Games. Yes, the name behind the widely played League of Legends.

More people have joined this upstart, as it promises a lot. Among them are talented developers, designers, and artists connected with Blizzard’s titles like Diablo III (game director Josh Mosqueira) and Battle.net (game director Matthew Versluys).

Also among the Bonfire starting talents is Min Kim, the ex-CEO of Nexon – “a global developer and publisher of free-to-play PC and mobile online games.”

Rob explains in his announcement post (see above – Welcome to Bonfire Studios) that they care about the players’ interactions and reactions. This helps make the gaming experience better over time – like a warmth of friends around a bonfire, sharing stories.

Some also believe that the partnering with Activision has ruined the image of Blizzard or the developers no more want to be a part of it. Whatever the case, Blizzard surely needs to be aware of possible shortcomings it might face if the trend continues.

For the record, Chris Metzen – the guy who co-created Blizzard’s Diablo, Warcraft, and Starcraft franchises – had also recently retired a few weeks ago.

So, are you ready to forge new legends? Or, rather, wait for them to do that?