Blizzard Entertainment has announced that they have acquired developers of Spellbreak, Proletariat, and are moving forward with their long-running online game, World of Warcraft, including its upcoming expansion, Dragonflight, set for a late-year release. Blizzard Entertainment has acquired Proletariat, the developer behind the free-to-play battle royale game, Spellbreaker, in order to work on its multi-massively multiplayer online role-playing game, World of Warcraft.
Spellbreak, the fantasy-themed battle royale game for consoles and PC, is closing in early 2023, as its studio, Proletariat, has been acquired to be repurposed to work on World of Warcraft. Proletariat announced earlier this week it will stop developing Spellbreak, a free-to-play battle royale, and that the game’s servers are set to shut down in early 2023.
Acquired developer Proletariat followed up on the sad news of the imminent shutdown of the third-person shooter Spellbreak. As reported by GamesBeat, the acquisition will result in Spellbreak developer Proletariat becoming a studio within Blizzard Entertainment. Developer Proletariat has been working with Blizzard since May, and the acquisition sees the 100-person team formally integrated. Spellbreak developer Proletariat has been working with Blizzard Entertainment and the World of Warcraft team since May, according to reports, and is set to be integrated into Blizzard in full within the next few months.
Under the acquisition, Spellbreak creator Proletariat’s 100-person team started work on World of Warcraft, including the Dragonflight expansion, which launches later this year. VentureBeat reports that Spellbreak developer Proletariat is set to be working on the Blizzard Entertainment-owned World of Warcraft MMORPG. Blizzard has one more big launch lined up, in the form of the World of Warcraft Dragonflight DLC, expected by late 2022. The acquisition marks Blizzard Entertainments’ biggest move to branch out, and it will help them meet their time and quality goals for both the upcoming expansion Dragonflight, as well as for future expansions to World of Warcraft.
Acquired means that its World of Warcraft team will be placed under Microsoft-Xbox’s branch shortly after the conclusion of Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard. “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. Spellbreak developers are the perfect fit for supporting Blizzard Entertainments’ mission to deliver quality content more frequently to our players”, said Mike Ybarra, President, of Blizzard Entertainment, in a statement. Spellbreak, a battle royale game, is set to see its development halted immediately, with servers being taken offline completely in 2023.
