Jay Wilson has made the decision to part from the Diablo 3 team. Here's his official statement.
Originally Posted by Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
(Hey everyone,
I wanted all of you to be some of the first to know that I've made an important decision about my future, and how that decision will affect the future of Diablo.
I recently celebrated my seven-year anniversary working on Diablo III, and while it’s been one of the most challenging and rewarding periods of my life, I've reached a point creatively where I'm looking forward to working on something new. The powers that be at Blizzard have been gracious enough to give me that opportunity. Over the course of the next several weeks, I will be moving off of the Diablo III project and transitioning elsewhere within Blizzard. This decision was not an easy one for me, and not one I made quickly, but ultimately it’s what I feel is right.
The first thing I want to assure you all is that this will not negatively impact our ongoing support of Diablo III. The game was not made by one person, far from it, and the team that poured their passion and considerable talent into it isn’t going anywhere. We have lots of things planned for the future, and those plans will carry forward as normal. I also won't be abandoning the team, and will remain available to them during the transition period while we determine who will take over duties as game director.
To that point, you shouldn't be surprised if you see a job posting for a game director on Diablo III, as we want to make sure we explore every opportunity to find the best possible leadership for the project. We’re looking forward to finding this person and hearing what kind of fresh ideas they can bring to the table.
I'm proud of Diablo III, and despite our differences at times I will miss the community that has formed around it. I feel I have made many mistakes in managing that relationship, but my intent was always to provide a great gaming experience, and be as open and receptive as possible, while still sticking true to the vision the Diablo team has for the game.
I know some of you feel we fell short of our promise to release the game “when it’s ready.” While we're not perfect, we try to make the best decisions we can with the information and knowledge we have at the time. That doesn't mean we always make the right decisions, but if we made a mistake then I feel we've made an exceptional effort to correct it.
This is what you can always count on from Blizzard: that we will stand by our games and make every effort to continually improve them over time. We heard the feedback and suggestions from the community. For example, we agreed that Diablo III's itemization at launch was not good enough, so the team made numerous changes, including changing drop rates, re-tuning legendaries, and adding scores of new items to the game. We also agreed that the end game needed more depth, so the team added new events, and new systems like Monster Power and Paragon levels.
Our commitment to making our games as good as they can be is what has always defined Blizzard as a game studio, and that commitment never ends for us at a ship date. With your help, we'll continue to play, debate, and improve Diablo III, as we've done with every Blizzard game.
To that end, patch 1.0.7 is underway, the PTR is live, and there are many other great things brewing for Diablo in 2013. I’m leaving Diablo III in good hands, and my departure will not jeopardize the progress of the game as we continue to do what we do: listen, play, and improve.
You are the most passionate, dedicated group of gamers a designer could hope to have. I wish you all the best, and want to thank you for making this an amazing experience for me. Keep your axes sharp, your spell books handy, and that crafty devil in check.
--Jay
I wanted all of you to be some of the first to know that I've made an important decision about my future, and how that decision will affect the future of Diablo.
I recently celebrated my seven-year anniversary working on Diablo III, and while it’s been one of the most challenging and rewarding periods of my life, I've reached a point creatively where I'm looking forward to working on something new. The powers that be at Blizzard have been gracious enough to give me that opportunity. Over the course of the next several weeks, I will be moving off of the Diablo III project and transitioning elsewhere within Blizzard. This decision was not an easy one for me, and not one I made quickly, but ultimately it’s what I feel is right.
The first thing I want to assure you all is that this will not negatively impact our ongoing support of Diablo III. The game was not made by one person, far from it, and the team that poured their passion and considerable talent into it isn’t going anywhere. We have lots of things planned for the future, and those plans will carry forward as normal. I also won't be abandoning the team, and will remain available to them during the transition period while we determine who will take over duties as game director.
To that point, you shouldn't be surprised if you see a job posting for a game director on Diablo III, as we want to make sure we explore every opportunity to find the best possible leadership for the project. We’re looking forward to finding this person and hearing what kind of fresh ideas they can bring to the table.
I'm proud of Diablo III, and despite our differences at times I will miss the community that has formed around it. I feel I have made many mistakes in managing that relationship, but my intent was always to provide a great gaming experience, and be as open and receptive as possible, while still sticking true to the vision the Diablo team has for the game.
I know some of you feel we fell short of our promise to release the game “when it’s ready.” While we're not perfect, we try to make the best decisions we can with the information and knowledge we have at the time. That doesn't mean we always make the right decisions, but if we made a mistake then I feel we've made an exceptional effort to correct it.
This is what you can always count on from Blizzard: that we will stand by our games and make every effort to continually improve them over time. We heard the feedback and suggestions from the community. For example, we agreed that Diablo III's itemization at launch was not good enough, so the team made numerous changes, including changing drop rates, re-tuning legendaries, and adding scores of new items to the game. We also agreed that the end game needed more depth, so the team added new events, and new systems like Monster Power and Paragon levels.
Our commitment to making our games as good as they can be is what has always defined Blizzard as a game studio, and that commitment never ends for us at a ship date. With your help, we'll continue to play, debate, and improve Diablo III, as we've done with every Blizzard game.
To that end, patch 1.0.7 is underway, the PTR is live, and there are many other great things brewing for Diablo in 2013. I’m leaving Diablo III in good hands, and my departure will not jeopardize the progress of the game as we continue to do what we do: listen, play, and improve.
You are the most passionate, dedicated group of gamers a designer could hope to have. I wish you all the best, and want to thank you for making this an amazing experience for me. Keep your axes sharp, your spell books handy, and that crafty devil in check.
--Jay
Oh well, I don't think I will play Diablo 3 more than I did before, but I am still glad Blizzard woke up and understood Jay just couldn't bring a game with so much espectation up to them.
That's correct. Blizzard just can't be happy with how Diablo 3 turned out. They had Blizzard fans in the palm of their hands. They didn't have to make a good game to ensure a record sale. But delivering a bad game would make fans more aware next time. This is actually a very bad situation to be in. I preordered Diablo 3 collector's edition, my first collector's edition EVER. I bought every Blizzard game on day1 before preorder was a marketing stunt. Now I know I will never preorder a single game, and will wait to see how the game feels before buying it. I will not give my money so blindly next time. Not anymore.
Everyone I talked of Diablo 3 with share the same feeling about Blizzard, like they lost their touch, simply because Diablo 3 wasn't as good as it could have been. They thought they could do anything about this game, changing every aspect of it every 2 months in front of the fanbase. Add a transaction system, remove gameplay mechanics that were well thought in earlier itterations before removing them so it could fit their new RMAH system. They played with fire and they got burned. I wouldn't want to be in the shoes right now, must be a hard time when you know you aren't the flawless, most perfect, game company in the world anymore.
Does/did D3 have issues? A handful of objective ones but most are subjective.
You are one person and one opinion, there are tons of people who think differently than you. You are childish to demand things of people. It is this bizzare thing you really only see in video games and comics/manga and shit. Nobody is making you buy or play this game. It sucks if you don't like it but that is really tough titties at the end of the day. You can't please everyone and that is really the main issue behind a large majority of controversy surrounding any blizzard game.
I think for a lot of people it is because what they want is something they really can't get back in the first place, the sense of youth and excitment that came with playing games when they were younger.
D3 is not a terrible game in any sort of critical manner. The game functions well, looks and sounds nice, offers a substanial amount of gameplay (compared to most $60 games these days), and has added a considerable amount of content and fixes since its release. This is not a bad game. If you think D3 is bad then you really need to play some of the shitty random NES and SNES games that used to exist. Perhaps the overall vision of the game was misguided, but it doesn't make the game terrible or bad. Just because you don't personally enjoy something it doesn't make it a bad thing, its the entire point behind the whole 'not my cup of tea' type thing.
The D3 team could have certainly done better, but I don't really think you guys understand how stressful, time consuming, and complex software development (especially video games) can be. Especially a game that had been in development for so long and had been changed so many times. They have admirably tried to deliver you what you want and are met not only with no appreciation, but with hatred. Seriously? Its a video game. Jay Wilson is a human. Diablo 3 is his job. Can you imagine if a small mistake at work (which is what this would compare to) was met with public redicule, threats, and a constant spew of vitriol? Its immature and unfair.
Dirty play Blizzard, dirty play.
I wish he could be around to direct the game to its final product, but his fingerprints will be on this game forever and I think, for the most part, he did a great job. There are always haters of games, and I'm glad Bilzzard heeds their advice to some extent, but some people are so rude because they've never had or will never have a job this big. Cheers Jay, you did a great job. It's clear you you put blood, sweat, and tears in to this. I played a lot of hours and am not even close to done yet.
Or, as someone on page 1 said, Jay made more money from this game than any other PC game in 2012. Time to put those talents to good use in other IPs. I do think he is used as a scapegoat, it makes me sad. D3 hasn't been an endless source of entertainment for me, but I got more play time out of it than most games I've bought in the last few years, and I'll get yet more I'm sure. I never expected WoW with demons. After all, they can't support the game in the same way they do WoW on box sales alone.
D3 is most certainly not a bad game. But it's not nearly as awesome as it could have been. Hopefully someone with a little more balls will take over. All the best to Jay.
people wanted a game they would play as much and for as long as WoW while not paying a subscription. they may not admit it, but that's the cause behind a lot of the whine/complaint posts.
"You fcked it up, we we'll put you on another project where you won't have as much resposibilities."
http://www.thebroctopus.com/comic/jay-wilsons-failed-pvp-ideas/
I hope he was put on a pet project within Blizzard so that he won't do any further harm to existing projects in the pipe. If it's Warcraft 4 with him in charge I'm sure it'll release with the campaign but lacking multiplayer.
You don't see news like this article coming from games that are actually good.
It has far more than a handful of issues and the fact that you can't see that is why you're in the minority that thinks the game is fine.
Take other leading competing games in a genre like BF3 and CoD:Blops2. If you go to any article about one of those games there is often a debate about the other game being better (as is the nature of competition in general). In pretty much ANY article about D3, the majority of people are spitting on it and recommending the competition (articles on fansites mitigate this somewhat but even then, not much). Yet if you go to articles about other games in the ARPG genre, people still use the comment space to spit on D3 and recommend the product in the article or another competing title.
I have never seen a game so hated in 25+ years of gaming. It's not billed as the worst game ever made like say: the Atari E.T. game or Superman 64, but it's probably the game with the largest difference between the hype and the resulting reception.
People don't talk about games they don't care about. People go out of their way to flame D3 because they DO care. There are many like me who LOVE the series, but very much dislike some of the decisions made about this game. And since in the end it's just code, it can be changed. Some changes would be monumental and unlikely, but in the hopes that the series can have a modern epic, veteran fans pray (figuratively or literally) and continue to provide feedback to remind Blizzard where they stand currently with the game.
Runeword rofl.. D2 was way better before runeword.
If you want all this, go play back to D2.
D3 is actually nice to play, Give time to build and add content to the game.
Diablo 2 sucks until 1.08 to 1.10.
Many of the things you list are exactly what the OP was referring to.
Putting points into stats? There is a right vs. wrong answer to stats, so it adds nothing ot the game except punishing people who don't google for a cookie cutter build. Designers have figured this out since the 90s, thank goodness.
Likewise with magic find as a stat. They experimented here, but ultimately gear-switching for kills was dumb. The design they have right now where you need less MF the higher your paragon level actually makes for interesting gearing decisions and gear changes at endgame beyond straight upgrades.
Groan. You can't be serious, can you? Disallowing respecs is a great way to force everyone into the same cookie cutter build because attempting a new build requires an enormous time investment. If you enjoy leveling multiple characters, you can still do it. I did, and I did in WOW too despite having respecs available.
You mention other points that certainly have truth to them, and D3 isn't perfect by any means. But I thank Jay for the ambitious and creative direction they took with the game. They could have crapping out a Diablo2 clone (as other companies still do), but instead they gave us something new and interesting. Even if it has problems, at least they're new problems, not the same problems ARPGs had in the 90s. Most of their bets paid off, and the few that didn't are still solvable.
The game's direction since launch has been good, and I hope Jay's removal lets the same team that made the game and the post-launch improvements continue to iterate on the game with less animosity from the community.
2) He is going to work on project blackstone = bad for us
3) He is going to work on D3 expansion = bad for us
4) He is going to work on D3 secretely = bad for us
take your pick
What good is a direction when the pace is abysmally slow?