Blizzard’s unannounced survival game won’t necessarily conform to genre conventions, but will instead incorporate elements of bothDiablo 4andWorld of Warcraft, as suggested by some newly unearthed evidence. The company first confirmed that theupcoming survival game is in development for PC and consolesin early 2022, but has shared few details about the title ever since.
The last official update on the project arrived as part of the studio’s year-in-review update in December. Back then, it was revealed thatBlizzard’s mysterious survival game started being led by formerFar CrydirectorDan Hay. The company also said the game’s development team doubled in size over the course of 2022, adding that this growth is expected to continue throughout 2023.
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Following up on that projection, Blizzard posted more than a dozen new job listings pertaining to its mysterious project since late March. Many of those postings offer additional insight into the upcoming survival game, including an outright confirmation that the title will be set in a “fantasy world,” which is something its announcement artwork already hinted at. Several other listings suggest that the universe of Blizzard’s survival game will be of the open-world variety, filled to the brim with side activities. Another employment offer mentions boss fights, which is notable because bosses aren’t necessarily a survival genre staple.
The newly emerged job listings also dovetail with an earlier report suggestingBlizzard’s survival game will have co-op, not least because they outright state that multiplayer content is meant to be part of the package. None of the ads reference co-op outright, but some do mention PvP and PvE missions, as well as “dungeons” and “raid-like Points of Interest.” Several other listings highlight artificial intelligence as a key development focus, stating that Blizzard’s mysterious game is looking to pursue “modular AI as a service.” This mention of modularity implies behavior loops that could complement one another whenever required, but still operate independently, allowing Blizzard to iterate on its enemy design fairly quickly.
Multiple other role descriptions include direct references to live service elements, which fits the developer’s long track record of post-launch monetization. One of the April postings for a senior AI designer also indicates that the survival game will spawn enemies in a mob-like fashion.Blizzardapparently wants to implement such a mechanic without sacrificing immersiveness, with the listing specifically stating that the ideal candidate will be able to reason about “the fantasy of where AI should appear.”
Finally, whereas one late 2022 report suggestedBlizzard’s unannounced survival game will feature FPS missions, this latest wave of employment offers appears to indicate the game will be played entirely from a first-person perspective. All of this new insight seemingly helps explain Blizzard’s decision to appoint aFar Cryveteran as one of the project’s leads, not least because an open-world FPS with RPG-like content sounds like something with quite a bit of overlap with Ubisoft’s hit shooter series.
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