Yeah, that was at least a big part of the current problem. I have friends who were at Blizzard (North) from the start, and they actually credit being owned by Vivendi as the reason for their early success. Apparently they were given operating funds and generally allowed to do their thing without interference. So they released what and when they wanted to, and killed games that didn’t live up to their quality standards.
But the corporate culture was also changing on its own before, and independent of, Activision. Blizz North got shut down around the time WoW got released, and that was a point when the culture changed as well. They got a lot bigger and more centralized, and with the problems and pressures of modern AAA development, certain changes for the worse were inevitable. The monstrous costs of AAA games means they were going to get a lot more oversight and pressure for higher revenues. The final loss of original management was probably a cherry on top more than anything, as they lost those who remembered the previous way in which things were run, but I suspect they had less and less ability to keep things running that way.
Blizzard’s (traditional) way of operating is to release games on their own schedule, when “done”; Activision’s way of operating is to release something every year, like clockwork. The mobile Diablo really feels like Activision’s influence - or Blizzard converging in their corporate culture.
But there’s not much that can be done - Blizzard was always wholly owned by Vivendi who merged with Activision. So while they may be partners in name, they aren’t in reality.
Game industry employment is already often pretty temporary. (A coworker once described game developers as “migrant labor.”) It’s not uncommon to have a job only for the development period for a particular game (at best), even as an employee. The move to turn employees into contract workers has been a pretty transparent dodge by the game industry to avoid following basic labor laws (after they got in trouble for violating them).
The benefits of unions in the movie industry really are relevant to game workers: keeping health benefits after layoffs; getting consistent credit, better pay and things like residuals. People seem to think game developers get at least something like residuals for having created hit games, but they don’t. Friends who worked at Blizzard got paid a modest salary and a few bonuses that didn’t remotely compensate them for the abusive work hours that destroyed all their marriages, much less any compensation for having created a billion+ dollar IP for the company.
