Blizzard Entertainment abandons Heroes of the Storm and receives backlash from community

It seems that Blizzard Entertainment’s MOBA Heroes of the Storm has come to an end. The company announced that it will stop developing new content for the game and change its support style similarly to projects like Starcraft II.

Heroes of the Storm was released in June 2015 and united iconic characters among all of Blizzard’s franchises. For example, players can play for Arthas from Warcraft along with Diablo and Tracer from Overwatch. Apart from the vast hero pool, the game included a unique ability improvement system that allowed to adjust the selected champion to possible situations and enemies. The teams consist of five players each and the main goal of the match is to defeat the Core, main building of the squad. 

The downfall of Heroes of the Storm

Naturally, there were some warning signs that Heroes of the Storm has some problems. First off, the game was not so interesting for the viewers on streaming platforms which directly affects the popularity of the game. 

Secondly, Blizzard Entertainment stopped supporting the esports ecosystem of the game and officially shut down the official tournaments in 2018, which also turned away the attention of popular esports organizations. With that, the development of the game was downsized too. 

While there are still some HotS enthusiasts who try to maintain the tournaments for the community, this is completely another level of production and promotion compared to the official support of the developer. Thus, such a decision of the developer wasn’t spontaneous but included many factors. 

No more content for the game

While HotS has been in “maintenance mode” since 2019, the developers are now making it official. On July 8, Blizzard Entertainment announced that it will change the game support to maintenance mode, meaning that there will be no new content to the game but seasonal rolls and hero rotations will continue. Game updates will contain bug fixing and balance updates if needed. 

Such a decision was tough for many fans of the game and the community was disappointed with this abandonment. Many continue to express their anger and sadness on social media, as the game provided them with fond memories and new connections. To ease the backlash, the developers will give away Epic Arcane Lizard Mount to all the players of the next patch as a gift. 

It seems like Blizzard Entertainment continues completely destroying the loyalty of its fans. In addition to not very popular decisions regarding its titles, the company is still going through various lawsuits regarding workplace abuse and discrimination, as well as dealing with hate around the new Diablo Immortal, which many fans consider a shameless “cash grab”. 

Header credit: Blizzard Entertainment