News of Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard has been around for some time, and the final deal will not be finalized until next year. Recently, a former Blizzard bigwig spoke out, saying that Microsoft's acquisition has made the future of Warcraft 4 clear.
He is David Fried, a former quality assurance analyst for Warcraft 2 and Diablo 2, a former campaign designer for Warcraft 3, and a senior veteran of World of Warcraft before leaving the company. David Fried is considered an outspoken, approachable developer with an open and transparent style in game design, and he talked about the future of Blizzard at a recent live fan event.
Many people want Warcraft to innovate, and while many developers have left Blizzard over the years, some of the teams in charge of WAR3 are still there, including Blizzard's senior art director, Samwise Didier. According to David Fried, Samwise Didier would almost certainly be involved in the production of Warcraft 4 if given the chance, and that opportunity has already emerged since Microsoft's acquisition. David Fried also said that if Samwise Didier asked himself, he would return to the project without hesitation, and hoped that Chris Metze, the father of Warcraft, would do the same.
David Fried also talked about several other Blizzard projects, predicting their future. He believes that the market response to the negative "Warcraft 3 Remake" will be picked up again, delivering on its promises that it never kept. Other abandoned projects, from Heroes of the Storm to StarCraft: Ghosts, will be revisited (though David Fried himself is skeptical).
David Fried is optimistic that Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard is the best thing the troubled incumbent company has experienced so far, and believes everything will be in order next year, including the removal of notorious CEO Bobby Kotick.
Finally, David Fried urged fans not to give up on Blizzard altogether, because there are still many good people over there, and Blizzard still has a chance to complete redemption in the future, even if it will never be able to regain the golden years of the past.