Former Activision Blizzard devs form Notorious Studios, working on new RPG

Bobby Mills October 26, 2021

Times are hard for Activision Blizzard. And, some would argue, deservedly so. Over a period of weeks bleeding into months, a series of damning allegations have emerged against the company, ranging from your garden variety misconduct to more severe reports of sexual harassment. One anecdote in particular calls attention to a supposed ‘Bill Cosby Room’, named in poor taste for the comedian-turned-predator, which apparently certain members of staff there found utterly hysterical. Dear those staff members: grow up, and in all sincerity, get out of the business. Please.

What must be kept in mind, though, is that the vast majority of employees at these companies have absolutely nothing to do with any of this business, and are simply trying to make their way as creative professionals through a brutal, unforgiving industry. That’s a tough ask at the best of times, and situations like these don’t exactly make it any easier. Rather than continue associating with organizations that suddenly carry such CV-wrecking stigmas, many developers have jumped ship entirely; such is the case with today’s story, concerning a group of staff who worked on perennial online favorite World of Warcraft. Ah… LAN parties, Mountain Dew, the stench of sweat at 3 a.m. … those were the days. The revolting, hormonal, awesome days.

Notorious Studios formed from former Blizzard employees — I just hope someone can liberate Crash and Spyro before the Activision ship goes down entirely. The poor bastards have suffered enough as it is.

As TechRaptor reports, this contingent have formed ‘Notorious Studios’, which, despite what you may think, is actually not a sly reference to the sordid dealings of the studio they’re leaving behind. Just a happy coincidence, then? Staffers include “Chris Kaleiki, who’s working as a systems designer, as well as illustrator Cole Eastburn and level design artist Colin Volrath, all of whom worked on World of Warcraft.” Others you’ll find milling about there are “gameplay engineer Cort Keefer, gameplay engineer Doug Frazer, and artist Eric Bradder, as well as several other Blizzard alumni.”

Not everyone at Notorious has worked on WoW; “server engineer Alex O’Konski cut his teeth on Overwatch,” and there’s even a staff listing for Ellie, the studio dog. She’s the resident ‘morale booster’. Now that’s an appointment I can get behind. Ellie for PM, while we’re at it.

The team are getting right down to brass tacks on their first project: an expansive RPG. So, in other words, we’re smack dab in familiar territory here. The guys didn’t get too detailed, nor did they give us a title, but they have shared a snazzy infographic boiling down what the three core tenets of the experience will be:

Whatever the game turns out to be, it’s effectively guaranteed to be a… Notorious Studios RPG. I’ll show myself out.

Will you be following this studio’s output? Any thoughts on the Activision Blizzard “situation?” Let us know!

Via, TechRaptor.