In a revealing interview on Grit, former Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, who led the company for 32 years before stepping down in December 2023, expressed strong criticism towards Universal's 2016 adaptation of their game, Warcraft. Kotick described the movie as "one of the worst movies I've ever seen," suggesting it negatively impacted the development of World of Warcraft by serving as a significant distraction to the development team.
Kotick highlighted the departure of veteran designer Chris Metzen in 2016, attributing it partly to the stress and distraction caused by the movie project. "Chris Metzen was — and is, to me — the heart and soul of creativity of the company," Kotick stated, emphasizing Metzen's importance to Activision Blizzard. He noted that the film was already in development when Activision acquired Blizzard, and it required substantial resources, pulling developers away from their core tasks. This, Kotick explained, led to delays in game expansions and patches.
Despite the movie's poor performance in North America, grossing just $47 million, it achieved international success, particularly in China, and became the top-earning video game adaptation at the time, with a total of $439 million. However, this was not enough to cover its high budget, and Legendary Pictures considered it a financial disappointment.
Kotick revealed that Metzen took the movie's failure personally before leaving to start his own boardgame company. Eventually, Kotick "begged" Metzen to return as a consultant. Upon his return, Metzen was critical of the plans for the next two expansions, suggesting they needed to be "redone" entirely. Kotick admitted to limited interaction with Metzen post-return, valuing his autonomy in game design. "The last expansion, he had his fingertips all over it. It's excellent. The next one is going to be great," Kotick said, praising Metzen's influence.
The impact of Metzen's return was evident in the critically acclaimed World of Warcraft: The War Within, which our review praised with a 9/10 score, describing it as "the best World of Warcraft has been on all fronts in many years, making this two-decade-old MMO feel fresh and thrilling again."
