Blizzard GM leaves company after game roadmap and user data leak

By on Dec 3, 2010 at 11:00 PM
Business December 3, 2010

Following one of the largest leaks in game developer history, Blizzard China General Manager Ye Weilun has left the company for reasons that have not been revealed. The leak, which occurred last week, included a bevy of sensitive information such as confidential financial data and budgets, personal subscriber data and the company’s product roadmap for the next four years. The roadmap, shown above, reveals Blizzard’s timeline for upcoming releases like the third and fourth installments of the company’s popular World of Warcraft franchise, the third Diablo game and a new title called Titan. Blizzard’s leaked financial data and its subscriber database are rumored to have been delivered to one or more of the company’s competitors. Former sales director of Nokia China Dai Jinhe has replaced Weilun as General Manager of Blizzard China.

[Via MMOGameSite.com]

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  • http://rainabba.blogspot.com/ rainabba

    Maybe he (like many out there) was hoping that WOW was soon to be gone and realized there is no hope!?

  • Frank

    Wikileaks has gone nuts!

  • Anonymous

    They got far to strict on the players in WoW even now if you go with a trial account you can’t talk to any of the other players or even send messages to them. You are just stuck in a sandbox, plus the game has the same tasks over and over

    kill 10 of this, bring back this , over and over

    • Sanity

      You obviously haven’t played sense the shattering. All the boring tasks are completely gone and the new quest lines are fun and great.

      • Anonymous

        Yeah no, sorry.

      • Homeschooled

        Sanity is right. New WoW is amazing after Cataclysm.

  • http://twitter.com/acervus Acervus

    Undoubtly WoW will never die. Interesting but the leak will now change the future it foretold. acerv.us

  • http://twitter.com/Tommy6404 Tommy Robertson

    I’m not a WoW person, but I think that this leak is something that is actually good… now Blizzard can look at the feedback from everyone and see if they are positive or negative. Personally I can’t wait for the next Diablo, and I already want to know what Titan is about!

  • Wingless

    WoW has been a good game. However, at this point it’s safe to say that Blizzard has learned how to make a good MMO from all the good and bad feedback that WoW players have provided. They’ve pretty much mastered the blueprint for a successful online game. That said, I’m looking forward to these hard-earned fragments of insight getting turned loose onto something fresh and new. WoW play style is tired. The activities are, for like of a memorable metaphor, repetitive as s**t. The graphics are losing their ability to impress over all the impressive artwork being offered gamers. Honestly, WoW subscriptions are at an all-time low; with more and more people uninterested in more of the same. Time for Blizzard to give their fans hope of something more next-Gen.

    • Anonymous

      Do some research in to Guild Wars 2. I know the first one wasn’t a “true” MMO, but you should check out some of the innovations they’ve got in mind. They’re looking at paradigms with an eye towards tossing them out. It’s really something to be excited about and should be a breath of fresh air in the MMO realm.

  • UK.BGR.fan

    do you think this is the actual roadmap or the “date-to-announce-game-and-release-it-a-year-later roadmap? if it’s the former, it is valuable information

    • sirpaul

      Considering WOW cataclysm is set at the end of 2010, and it just went on sale last week I believe, it seems like the actual release roadmap.

  • Drummer

    oh em gee d3 2011!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • kaz

    Wonder if Titan is the new MMO I’ve been hearing rumors about.

  • Tyler

    This is too bad…Blizzard works hard to provide an excellent product. Wonder what happened with this whole thing

  • sirpaul

    0mg wh3n 1s diable3 g01ng to co//3 out?!?! I’ve been waiting forever! 4 years 0 N G!!!

    • Dtz247

      Dude, there’s this wonderful invention. It’s called the Alphabet. Every computer in the world has the funny gadget called a keyboard, and on it are keys that represent letters of the English Language. You should try it sometime.

    • NAGUAL5

      You are an idiot learn to type or go forth and replicate

      FOOL

  • Kevin

    You’re an idiot if you think this is true. Like Blizzard would EVER put together a list like this, internal or otherwise.

    • joeproblems

      yeah… what kind of dumb company maps out their plans!

      and what kind of idiot actually reads an article to go with a picture, that states, “The leak, which occurred last week, included a bevy of sensitive information such as confidential financial data and budgets, personal subscriber data and the company’s product roadmap for the next four years.”

      What kind of idiot then does further research to see if other sites are reporting the same thing has happened.

      if anyone on this site had half a brain they would clearly just look at the chart and post an idiotic comment!

      • Kevin

        Oh, so you’re the idiot. Nice.

      • Tyler

        I think Blizzard confirmed this and there is an investigation in place….if I remember correctly…

  • Bswolfe42

    Not that I want to question validity, but where is warcraft 4?

    • Richard0600

      Doubt they’ll even touch or consider a warcraft 4 until all the sc2 expansions are finished and D3 is well on the way…

      What I want to know is what is SC2 Phoenix?
      if SC2 X1 is heart of the swarm
      im assuming SC2 X2 is the Protoss expansion.. so what is phoenix?

  • Anonymous

    I have a feeling that this is somehow related to corruption. Blizzard’s competitors will pay very good money to acquire such high level info (esp. accounting data and plans) and bribery is very common in China. General Managers don’t just resign like that without good reason.

  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCJLK3KgzyQ mfranke

    If this is true, i’m very sad. A whole year until Diablo 3.

    @#(&$^%

    • Cd

      Geez! I’ve stoped and replayed D2 for years… It is still fun, but when you know there’s a D3 you just can’t wait! COME ON! BRING IT OUT ALREADY!

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