In a revealing interview on Grit, former Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, who stepped down in December 2023 after a 32-year tenure, expressed his strong disapproval of the 2016 film adaptation of Activision Blizzard's Warcraft. Kotick labeled the movie as "one of the worst movies I've ever seen," and highlighted its detrimental impact on the development of World of Warcraft.
Kotick noted that the film project was a significant distraction for the Blizzard team. He mentioned that the movie's production was already underway when Activision acquired the company, describing it as a "terrible idea" that diverted resources and attention away from game development. This distraction, according to Kotick, contributed to delays in World of Warcraft expansions and patches.
The former CEO also discussed the impact on veteran designer Chris Metzen, who Kotick described as "the heart and soul of creativity" at the company. Metzen's departure in 2016 was attributed to burnout, exacerbated by the movie project. Kotick revealed that Metzen took the movie's failure personally and eventually left to start a board game company. However, Kotick later "begged" Metzen to return to Blizzard on a consultancy basis.
Despite Metzen's initial dissatisfaction with the plans for the next two expansions, Kotick praised Metzen's influence on the last expansion, World of Warcraft: The War Within, which received a glowing 9/10 in our review. We described 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."
While the Warcraft movie did not perform well in North America, grossing only $47 million, it achieved significant success internationally, particularly in China, and temporarily held the title of the most successful video game adaptation. Despite earning $439 million worldwide, the film was considered a financial disappointment by Legendary Pictures due to its high production costs.
Director Duncan Jones had envisioned a trilogy that would have explored "the fulfilling of Durotan’s promise to give his people a new home," but these plans were ultimately canceled, leaving fans without a sequel.
