The developers of World of Warcraft have founded a studio in which there will be no managers
Notorious Studios is a new studio opened by former Blizzard employees. According to the idea, there will be no managers in it, and all processes will be made transparent. The team has already enlisted the support of Riot Games.
There are nine people in the studio right now (and one dog). Eight of them used to work with World of Warcraft. For example, among the founders of Notorious Studios is Chris Kaleiki, a former class designer in this MMORPG, who left Blizzard last October after 13 years of work. By the beginning of next year, the studio staff is planned to expand to 12 people.
By the way, the studio got its name in honor of the guild of the same name in World of Warcraft. It previously consisted of some of the founders of Notorious Studios.
As the developers explained in an interview with VentureBeat, they are going to arrange the work in the studio so that all employees are equal. This will allow you not to repeat Blizzard’s mistakes and avoid problems with discrimination or harassment.
“It is important to form the right culture, not to allow any harassment, and also to be transparent and open. We strive to create a horizontal structure. There are no managers or directors among us. […] Discrimination usually arises because of the boss-subordinate relationship. We hope that our idea will help to cope with such problems,” Kaleiki said.
The first project of Notorious Studios will be a multiplayer action RPG with a third-person view. The studio has already attracted the first investments for its development. The funding round was conducted by the venture funds Galaxy Interactive and 1 Up Ventures together with Riot Games. They invested $5 million.
Recently, Blizzard veterans are increasingly opening their own studios. For example, in July, the developers of Diablo IV and StarCraft II, together with Tencent, launched Uncapped Games Studios. And last October, other people from the company founded Frost Giant Studios. Both studios are doing RTS projects.
