We’ve learned (via NeoGAF) that Activision Blizzard has opened up a new “Classic Games” division, in an attempt to restore various PC classics of theirs “to glory.”
The open position for a senior software engineer puts a focus on the games StarCraft (1998), Warcraft III (2002), and Diablo II (2000) as the games which Blizzard is looking to “restore to glory.”
“Compelling stories. Intense multiplayer. Endless replayability. Qualities that made StarCraft, Warcraft III, and Diablo II the titans of their day,” Blizzard said in the posting. “Evolving operating systems, hardware, and online services have made them more difficult to be experienced by their loyal followers or reaching a new generation.
“We’re restoring them to glory, and we need your engineering talents, your passion, and your ability to get tough jobs done,” is one of the more bold statements from the posting.
The publisher is likening this new Classic Games team as a smaller one, adding that the successful candidate will need to “wear many hats” and be familiar with “small teams.” You can find the responsibilities for this position, below:
RESPONSIBILITIES
- Make gameplay first again on modern operating systems.
- Create conditions for experiences that look as good as they play.
- Own implementation and curation of features new and old.
- Combat hacking to improve multiplayer.
- Diagnose and fix all the things: crashes, deadlocks, overflows, heap corruptions, etc.
Blizzard provided an update to GameSpot, stating:
“We need engineers to help maintain our legacy games. We have a history of maintaining our games for many years. Our earlier games are still played and enjoyed today, so we want to continue to maintain them for those communities.”
In case you missed it, we had a 15th anniversary retrospective for Diablo II, which you can read here. In other news, Blizzard will “consider Warcraft” RTS after their final StarCraft 2 expansion, Legacy of the Void, ships on November 10th.
