Blizzard Entertainment Acquires Spellbreak Developer Proletariat

To help with World of Warcraft development.

Less than a day after the shock announcement that magic-based battle royale Spellbreak will be shutting down early next year, it's been announced that Blizzard Entertainment has snapped up the game's developer, Proletariat.


VentureBeat reports that the 100-strong team at Proletariat will be joining Blizzard and helping with the development of its titanic MMORPG World of Warcraft. Blizzard is looking to beef up its staffing numbers for the game as the developer approaches the MMO's next expansion coming later this year, Dragonflight.

 

• Further reading - Fantasy-Action Battle Royale Spellbreak Shuts Down Early Next Year

This follows news in April that Vicarious Visions — the developer of Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1 + 2 — merged with Blizzard. Proletariat has reportedly been working with the Overwatch and Diablo developer since May this year.


The president of Blizzard Entertainment, Mike Ybarra, had this to say about the acquisition:

"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 itself was acquired by Activision back in 2008, with the parent company (Activision Blizzard) now being owned by Microsoft. The company has just recently re-elected CEO Bobby Kotick to the Board of Directors.

 

• Further reading - Microsoft Buys Activision Blizzard, Now Owns Call Of Duty And Crash Bandicoot

Proletariat was founded back in 2012 and has experience working on MMORPGs such as Lord of the Rings Online before launching Spellbreak in 2020.


Seth Sivak, president of Proletariat, said that the team had "an open conversation" with Blizzard, but that now "The really exciting part is what we’re going to build going forward. That was the real selling point for us, the level of ambition for what we want to do with World of Warcraft."

 

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