Ex-Blizzard Employees Start Their Own Game Studio

Published: September 12, 2016 5:38 PM /

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bonfire-studios

Rob Pardo - the former Lead Designer of Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft - has announced the founding of Bonfire Studios, of which he is the CEO. Below, he explains why he helped to create Bonfire Studios.

"Game developers live the dream scenario where passion meets work. We don’t view our week as something to get through so we can really live on the weekend. But often, developers must compromise and decide — do I work on a blockbuster game where I have less personal impact or the gutsy indie studio that struggles to get noticed? Our vision is to create a studio that doesn’t require them to choose."   -- Rob Pardo, CEO Bonfire Studios

To help facilitate this goal, Pardo stated that Bonfire Studios would be splitting up their developers into small teams, 'like the Avengers.' Interestingly, Bonfire Studios' early round of $25 million funding will come from Riot Games, the developer and publisher of League of Legends, and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), a private American venture capital firm. 

With Riot Games, Pardo explained that Riot's vision 'aligns very nicely' with Bonfire Studios', while a16z is a 'treasure trove' that helped Bonfire Studios become a 'great and enduring company.'


Quick Take:

This is what, the seventh studio created by ex-Blizzard developers? I'm not saying that Bonfire Studios is doomed from the start, but I still remember how much of a letdown Hellgate: London was, along with games such as Wildstar and Firefall. Granted, we have also gotten games like the Guild Wars and Torchlight series, so I'm going to take this announcement with a grain of salt. Hopefully, we will get some good games out of Bonfire Studios, but I'm not going to be holding my breath.

What do you think of this news? Do you think we will get some good games out of Bonfire Studios? Let us know in the comments!

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A very unflattering picture of my tired face.
| Staff Writer

Patrick is a former Staff Writer for TechRaptor and has been gaming on every console he could get since he could hold a controller. He’s been writing for… More about Patrick