Do you remember the news we had of turbulence inside Blizzard a few weeks ago, in the wake of the backlash against Diablo Immortal? Well, it looks like we are starting to see effects of that play out now, because today Blizzard announced that it will be moving developers off Heroes of the Storm, it’s troubled crossover MOBA game, on to other projects.
Blizzard notes that this change will not effect immediate support for the game, and they will continue to put out “new heroes, themed events, and other content”. That said, they drop the ominous line that the aim is to prepare the game for long term sustainability, which sounds to me like they may be preparing to eventually transition the game to maintenance mode, the limbo where the game is still “live”, but no longer actively supported.
This news is also accompanied by the update that Blizzard will not be bringing back Heroes eSports—to be specific, the Heroes Global Championship and Heroes of the Dorm—in 2019. This means if you play the game competitively, well… Blizzard doesn’t seem to be interested right now.
Heroes of the Storm never quite took off like World of Warcraft or Overwatch, but it was still successful enough, and is certainly the third most successful MOBA on the market after League of Legends and DOTA 2. Doubtless this news will end up crushing a lot of Blizzard fans, not least because of what it could bode for the company in the long term.
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