I believe this announcement was fueled by the acquisition news, since it’s super early for it, they are letting people know that this project is going to happen under Phil management and not Bobby.
This should encourage people to join blizzard for it.
I think its a coincidence. the announcement seems like one of those we need people to make this and are going to be staffing up so its going to leak anyway so we might as well get ahead of it and announce it ourselves. I do believe the Microsoft effect was the fact it said PC and CONSOLE. Where before it probably would have said xbox/ps.
Nah they could had waited to reveal this months later with a trailer or something and it went live a week after the Microsoft intent of acquisitions news? Dont buy it.
A Blizzard hype CGI reveal for this game as the “One More Thing” after the wrap-up speech would get the internet buzzing more so when it says “Only on Xbox | PC | Cloud” on it.
Blizzard games take a long time in development and also last a long ass time being played and supported. They basically invented the live service model. A survival game fits their portfolio, I don’t get complaining about it already because of that.