With the Diablo franchise taking heat from players over its mobile ambitions, Diablo II creator David Brevik decided to add more fuel to the fire. On his wife’s recent Path of Exile livestream, of all places, a somewhat tipsy Brevik blasted Blizzard for eliminating its profit-sharing program in October, which helped employees make up for the sub-standard salaries at Blizzard.
Brevik said that he anticipates a “mass exodus” from the studio over this: “Why would you work at Blizzard? If you’re trying to make a name for yourself, if you’re new to the industry, if you’re a midlevel or below designer, why in the world would you work for Blizzard? You’re not gonna get notoriety, you’re not getting profits now, you’re not getting paid, you’re getting below average wages. What would be the incentive to work there?”
Brevik speculated that Activision is taking over Blizzard while pushing out its executives, including Chris Metzen and Mike Morhaime. “There’s no incentive for them to raise the people’s salaries,” he said. “Everybody at Blizzard considers it a privilege to work at Blizzard. Or at least, 90% plus. Right, because ‘It’s a f**king blessing that I work there.'”
It’s not the first time Brevik has been, uh, excessively candid on a stream; gamers will recall that a year ago, he and his wife streamed while discussing the mess going on with Gazillion right before it imploded.
