Proletariat, Inc. (also known as Blizzard Boston) is an American

video game developer A video game developer is a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large business with em ...

based in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

. It was founded by Seth Sivak and former

Zynga Zynga Inc. () is an American video game developer and Video game publisher, publisher known for its social video game services. It was founded in April 2007, with headquarters in San Mateo, California. The company primarily focuses on mobile an ...

industry veterans in 2012. The company was acquired by

Blizzard Entertainment Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and Video game publisher, publisher based in Irvine, California, and a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard. Originally founded in 1991, the company is best known for producing the h ...

in 2022. Proletariat, Inc. has developed multiple

independent games An indie video game or indie game (short for independent video game) is a video game created by individuals or smaller development teams without the financial and technical support of a large game publisher, in contrast to most "AAA" (triple-A ...

and launched its best-known game, ''

Spellbreak ''Spellbreak'' was a free-to-play, class-based third-person shooter video game developed by Proletariat for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, released on September 3, 2020. On June 28, 2022, it was announced that '' ...

'' in September 2020.

History

After Zynga closed its Boston studio in October 2012, Seth Sivak and four other former developers at Boston Zynga formed a new independent studio, Proletariat Inc. The company's first major release was ''World Zombination'', a horde-based real-time strategy mobile game. The studio raised $6 million from venture investors to finish the game. Development of the game started in April 2013. The game was ultimately released in February 2015 for

Android Android most commonly refers to: *Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human * Android (operating system), a mobile operating system primarily developed by Google * Android TV, a operating system developed ...

and

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

. In 2019, Proletariat Inc. announced the completion of $20 million in Series C funding from investors including

Spark Capital Spark Capital Partners, LLC is a multi-stage venture capital firm based in the U.S. with operations in San Francisco, New York, and Boston. Spark is a generalist VC firm with a portfolio that spans verticals such as consumer internet, enterpris ...

, FirstMark Capital and

Take-Two Interactive Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. is an American video game holding company based in New York City founded by Ryan Brant in September 1993. The company owns three major Imprint (trade name), publishing labels, Rockstar Games, Zynga and 2K ...

to grow and expand its development team. Alongside funding,

's head of corporate development and independent publishing, Michael Worosz, joined Proletariat's board of directors in 2019. Proletariat moved from mobile games to PC titles with the release of the fast-paced arena game ''Streamline'' in 2016, which featured full live streaming integration that allowed Viewers to interact with and control what is displayed on the screen on

Twitch Twitch may refer to: Biology * Muscle contraction ** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation ** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction ** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle c ...

. The company then developed ''

'', a free-to-play multiplayer action spellcasting game released on

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013, in ...

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was first released in North America, parts of Europe, Austra ...

and

Nintendo Switch The is a video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. Released in the middle of the Eighth generation of video game consoles, eighth generation of home consoles, the Switch succeeded the ...

in 2020. In June 2022, Proletariat announced that the company will end the development of ''Spellbreak'' and shut down the game servers in 2023. The next day,

announced they had agreed to acquire Proletariat, Inc., and the studio will be assigned to work on ''

World of Warcraft ''World of Warcraft'' (''WoW'') is a 2004 massively multiplayer online role-playing (MMORPG) video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment for Windows and Mac OS X. Set in the '' Warcraft'' fantasy universe, ''World of War ...

'', beginning with the ninth expansion, ''

Dragonflight Dragonflight may refer to: * ''Dragonflight'' (novel), a 1968 science-fiction novel by Anne McCaffrey * Dragonflight (convention), a gaming convention established in 1980 * ''Dragonflight'' (video game), a 1990 role-playing video game * '' World ...

''.

Games developed

References

External links

* {{Microsoft game products Blizzard Entertainment 2012 establishments in Massachusetts Companies based in Boston Video game companies established in 2012 Video game development companies Video game companies of the United States 2022 mergers and acquisitions