Blizzard is one of the busiest developers in the gaming industry, and has been for the best part of two decades. Never content with just one big release at a time, Blizzard has always developed multiple projects at once, with some smaller titles acting as spin-offs of bigger projects and multiple big-name titles occassionally landing at once. Back in the day, the Warcraft real-time strategy series was releasing around the same time as World of Warcraft expansions. Nothing's really changed, with Blizzard having just released Overwatch 2, and Diablo 4 set for release next year. And on the horizon, Blizzard has at least one more game up its sleeve: its unannounced survival game.
For years now, it's been an open secret in the gaming industry that Blizzard is working on a survival game. The game's lead director, Craig Amai, has made a plethora of references to the game's existence over the years, and even Blizzard President Mike Ybarr a has openly Tweeted about the game and how he's played an early build. While Blizzard's unannounced survival game is still yet to be officially unveiled, it could be closer than some fans might think.
Blizzard's Survival Game Could Be Right Around the Corner
Back in January of this year, a few reports came out that suggested that Blizzard's unannounced survival game had actually been in development. Determined by looking up Craig Amai's LinkedIn profile, journalists discovered that lead director had begun working full-time on the project in July 2017. This means that as of July 2022, Blizzard's survival game has been in development for over five years, and by July 2023, it'll be six years.
Blizzard is no stranger to long development times, with World of Warcraft taking 4-5 years to complete, and the original Overwatch took just over 3 years to complete after carrying over development from a canceled project. While the vast majority of AAA developers try to get their projects out in around 2-3 years, Blizzard has always stuck to its own particular schedule, only launching a game when it deems it ready. That being said, six years of development time is a lot for the gaming industry, even for Blizzard.
So, assuming that this information is correct, Blizzard could be ready to start showing off its survival game in more detail soon. Even if its survival game is still a year or so away, Blizzard likes to hype up its games well in advance, with Overwatch 2 being announced all the way back in 2019, three years before it would actually release. Based on all the development team's Tweets over the last few years, it would seem as though Blizzard's survival game is fairly far along in development, with the game being confirmed to be in a playable state. This could suggest that fans will see it officially revealed at some point next year, and hopefully get their hands on it in early 2024, though that's purely speculation.
One thing that might delay Blizzard's survival game is Overwatch 2. With Blizzard switching to a free-to-play live-service approach for the sequel, the developer needs to spend much more effort and time on the ongoing project, and Overwatch 2 will likely remain the company's primary focus for quite some time. This could push back the development of Blizzard's survival game, though hopefully not by too much, as Blizzard is a huge company with multiple teams.
Blizzard's survival game is in development.