Daily Briefing: Wednesday 5th May

Blizzard's playerbase has dropped 29% in three years

Activision Blizzard's latest earnings call confirmed that Blizzard had 27m Monthly Active Users (MAUs) during the first quarter of 2021 - a drastic decrease on the 38m reported for the same period in 2018. The reports since have seen a steady decrease in monthly engagement in what has been a turbulent time for Blizzard - with two co-founders and people like Jeff Kaplan departing the company in the intervening years.

• Blizzard haven't released a new game in five years but that same time period has also seen multiple significant updates to titles like World of Warcraft - multiple expansions and even World of Warcraft: Classic. It's curious that these updates weren't enough to at least maintain engagement. It looks like it'll be up to new releases like Diablo IV and Overwatch 2 to bring the numbers up, although they aren't releasing until 2022 at the earliest.

Stadia's product head has left Google

Google have confirmed that John Justice (great name) is no longer with the company. He was formerly Stadia's VP and Head of Product but had presumably been at a bit of a loose end since Google announced back in February that they would be shuttering all internal Stadia development.

• Google wished Justice the best in his "next step" but there's no word on what exactly that is just yet, or what his departure will mean for the overall health of the ailing Stadia. Google have reiterated that they intend to release over 100 games on the platform this year despite the internal development closure, but it certainly feels like the end is coming one way or another.

Activision deny Toys For Bob layoff claims

Rumours of layoffs emerged last week following the studio's announcement that they will be supporting development on Call of Duty: Warzone. One contract character designer said they had left the studio alongside "everyone" they used to work with.

• Activision have denied these claims, stating that the Toy for Bob development team is "fully operational" and that reports of layoffs are "incorrect." The team will continue to support Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time in addition to their new supporting role on Warzone - which likely suggests some new content coming to the platformer. Watch this space.

The Witcher 3's director has left CD Projekt Red after harassment allegations

The Polish studio have confirmed that Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, who served as game director on The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and design director on Cyberpunk 2077, has resigned following allegations of bullying. The decision comes after a months-long CDPR investigation into the allegations which ultimately found Tomaszkiewicz not guilty.

• In an email sent to studio staff, Tomaszkiewicz outlined that many people were feeling "fear, stress, or discomfort" when working with him, and apologised "for all the bad blood that [he had] caused." Tomaszkiewicz was at CDPR for over 17 years but would now like to exit without any further questions please and thank you. Totally doesn't call the investigation's findings into question at all...