Blizzard President Mike Ybarra has released a year-end update summarizing the company's major developments over the past year; claiming that 2022 was a "great year" for Blizzard, the blog includes the company's recent accomplishments, some surprising statistics such as "12 billion hours of Blizzard games were played last year," and a fair amount of discussion of Blizzard's attempts to improve its work culture.

But first, there are a few more specific points worth digging into. First, while discussing position changes in various internal Blizzard teams, Ybarra notes that the team for the untitled survival game has "doubled in size."

Ybarra emphasizes that this project is Blizzard's "first new IP since 'Overwatch' and is led by Dan Hay, previously executive producer of Ubisoft's "Far Cry" series. Little else is known about the survival game, but it will be released for PC and, according to a job posting earlier this year, is "a place filled with as-yet-unseen heroes, as-yet-untold stories, and as-yet-unseen adventures."

Next, Ibarra says he will "bring back BlizzCon," Blizzard's annual gaming convention, which has had a tougher time than most in-person events over the past few years. Like many other events, it was canceled in 2020 due to a pandemic and a replacement virtual event, dubbed BlizzConline, was scheduled to take place in 2021, but Blizzard put the plan "on hold" due to the discrimination and sexual harassment allegations that have plagued the company. Ibarra would not be specific about the return of BlizzCon, but simply said, "More details early next year!" he stated. However, he does mention that BlizzCon has a new executive producer, April Mackey.

Regarding Blizzard's work culture, Ybarra notes a number of new Blizzard hires in this area, including Jessica Martinez in the "brand new role" of Vice President of Culture and Makaiya Brown in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) repeatedly stated about the And Ibarra emphasized that "culture is not a one-person job" and that he has "convened a culture team made up of a wide range of functions across Blizzard to help us improve the way we work."

More broadly, he states that Blizzard has "looked deeply at the mission, vision, and values on which Blizzard was built" and that "this is a project whose results will be seen by employees as well as players in the New Year." All of this sounds good in theory, but in reality Blizzard is still dealing with the effects of the allegations against the company; in October, Blizzard faced a new sexual harassment lawsuit for "sexist and harassing conduct" by a former manager. Also not to be ignored is the fact that Blizzard workers' unionization efforts have resulted in the creation of two labor unions within the company.