A Message From Production Director Kaéo Milker

My assumption was correct! It was a last minute decision and Blizzard cancelled the plants of HotS team without alert! (the Blizzcon 18 promised HGC 2019 and updated user interface)

The tone of message is not "damage control". It sounds like sarcasm. It really worries me because it seems that another project needs urgent help....Diablo??? Otherwise, Blizzard needs to launch games like crazy or I dont know.

The cut in HotS is big. The phrases "even new heroes" "and "we need to reprioritize" are clear message that an important capacity was cut. The same happened with Diablo 3!

6 paragraphs of nothing but "promises" so vague they might have put a post out that said, "We like mobas, promise guys!"

Originally Posted by Necroxis

6 paragraphs of nothing but "promises" so vague they might have put a post out that said, "We like mobas, promise guys!"

Would you have preferred six paragraphs of "The sky is falling" and "Heroes of the Storm is dead"?

Originally Posted by Guyviroth

Would you have preferred six paragraphs of "The sky is falling" and "Heroes of the Storm is dead"?

I'd rather have the truth than lofty vagueness that means nothing, yes.

But I guess pointlessly defending a pure PR post is another route to take.

Originally Posted by Necroxis

I'd rather have the truth than lofty vagueness that means nothing.

Perhaps. But considering the HotS team shuffle happened only, AFAIK, 24-48 hours ago, I doubt even the remaining team knows what's going to happen. And part of his post is true: They have a team still, and they're still working to support the game. Unfortunately neither they nor us are clairvoyant. No one knows what will happen in the months to come.

Originally Posted by Guyviroth

Would you have preferred six paragraphs of "The sky is falling" and "Heroes of the Storm is dead"?

At least that would have been a refreshingly honest answer from EA... I mean, ActiBlizzard.... They are in the same seat trying to dethrone LoL that every other MMO was in trying to dethrone them...

Originally Posted by Ehrenpanzer

At least that would have been a refreshingly honest answer from EA... I mean, ActiBlizzard.... They are in the same seat trying to dethrone LoL that every other MMO was in trying to dethrone them...

I think they're more concerned with keeping the game afloat than trying to dethrone LoL, as are most MMORPGs are doing in relation to WoW. Most of them have gone F2P already with a handful of exceptions such as FF 14.

And yeah, it would have been an honest answer. But it would have done nothing for them or the community as a whole. Necroxis is right: this is a PR post. At the end of the day, Blizzard is a business and people enjoying playing HotS, myself included. If I can get assurance that the team is still working to keep this game going, then I won't throw it back in their face.

Whether this turns out to be bluster or they are indeed trying to keep the game alive will not become true or false until the time comes that they either release updates and new characters as they said they would, or if they make a blue post saying that they're shutting down the game.

It's a shame Blizzard has been failing their public relations so much lately. There used to be at least 1 recognizable developer on each team that would essentially be the face outward representing Blizzard. Jeff is obviously still going strong, but with Metzen, Ghostcrawler, Ben Brode etc quitting and Dustin Browder being moved to god knows where, Blizzard feels a lot more corporate whereas they used to feel a lot more "homely".

Heroes lost a lot of the bluster for me when Dustin Browder was moved to another team. He was very much the hype man I was looking forward to each Blizzcon. And while very much inevitable with the lack of interest in the game, it's still sad state to see the game in.

Originally Posted by Unlimited Power

It's a shame Blizzard has been failing their public relations so much lately. There used to be at least 1 recognizable developer on each team that would essentially be the face outward representing Blizzard. Jeff is obviously still going strong, but with Metzen, Ghostcrawler, Ben Brode etc quitting and Dan Browder being moved to god knows where, Blizzard feels a lot more corporate whereas they used to feel a lot more "homely".

Heroes lost a lot of the bluster for me when Dan Browder was moved to another team. He was very much the hype man I was looking forward to each Blizzcon. And while very much inevitable with the lack of interest in the game, it's still sad state to see the game in.

Here is one last hope.. When Dustin Browder left HotS team, there were some others notable RTS veterans moving to another project. And more moved in recent years and now. Maybe...just Maybe, there is something new for us, RTS fans, cooking, which is not mobile game.

And maybe not.. and Blizzard, as we knew it, is just gone.

As a casual player I'm fine with this. It allows for more fun heroes if the game isn't as bothered about top-level balance.

Originally Posted by AwkwardSquirtle

As a casual player I'm fine with this. It allows for more fun heroes if the game isn't as bothered about top-level balance.

This is actually a good point. Obviously from Blizzard's point of view, it's understandable that they're interested in a large esports scene for most of their competitive games, but the strong points of HotS compared to DotA and LoL were the liabilities Blizzard took in creating different maps and very different heroes, like Abathur, Murky, Cho'Gall etc.

It feels like ever since they started doubling down on their esports focus, they've been streamlining the game to be more akin to other MOBAs, essentially watering down the very thing that in my opinion made it more fun than its competitors.

Game would have been a decent moba competitor if it didnt forced team cooperation, still, at least it had the best skins ever made, all hail succubus kerrigan

As long as Kevin is not getting moved I can live with it.
It saddens me to see this since I actually enjoy hots. Hopefully, it's only a temporary measure until the other projects are done.

Well this is depressing. How often can we expect updates now? Half as often? A quarter as often? Just as often but with much less content?

Corporate damage control shit talk, game will die a true death without a pro scene. Many players will leave because of this, queue times will get longer and matchmaking worse, as a result more players will leave and so on... domino effect, it's too late for apologies.

Just a month ago at Blizzcon they were super excited about HoTS and how they were continuing updates and stuff.. lol.. just kidding.. game's dead I guess. GG Blizzard.

I'll basically reiterate what I said in the other thread. Blizzard artificially built an eSports scene for HotS when it's strength was in being a loose and fun MOBA. If they just treat it as such, it could be fine going forward, giving them more leeway to make more crazy heroes like Cho'Gall. I'm a casual player and think overall HotS is very good when played this way ~5 games a week, just having a good time.

For me this doesn't change much, but I do feel bad for the people who lost their jobs. Hopefully Blizzard can move a few to different projects instead of just cutting them loose.

J Allen Brack a small dirty liar seriously.

Originally Posted by ro9ue

I'll basically reiterate what I said in the other thread. Blizzard artificially built an eSports scene for HotS when it's strength was in being a loose and fun MOBA. If they just treat it as such, it could be fine going forward, giving them more leeway to make more crazy heroes like Cho'Gall. I'm a casual player and think overall HotS is very good when played this way ~5 games a week, just having a good time.

For me this doesn't change much, but I do feel bad for the people who lost their jobs. Hopefully Blizzard can move a few to different projects instead of just cutting them loose.

This, get out of my mind man.

Originally Posted by Vakna

Corporate damage control shit talk, game will die a true death without a pro scene. Many players will leave because of this, queue times will get longer and matchmaking worse, as a result more players will leave and so on... domino effect, it's too late for apologies.

what if i tell you that most of the players dont give a sh*t about what pro players play, ok it might have a initial impact like "oh look those uber skilled guys" but after that it can be resumed in this: people play what is fun for them, game stop being fun people quit, if a random pro player team quit i dont f*cking care

Edit: "Even new heroes", couldn't really think of a worse way to word that. I get that he was probably pretty down about the news, though, gotta suck to hear that something you've loved and worked on for years is getting semi-axed because of corporate fucks.

Originally Posted by ro9ue

I'll basically reiterate what I said in the other thread. Blizzard artificially built an eSports scene for HotS when it's strength was in being a loose and fun MOBA. If they just treat it as such, it could be fine going forward, giving them more leeway to make more crazy heroes like Cho'Gall. I'm a casual player and think overall HotS is very good when played this way ~5 games a week, just having a good time.

For me this doesn't change much, but I do feel bad for the people who lost their jobs. Hopefully Blizzard can move a few to different projects instead of just cutting them loose.

There was an eSports scene for HotS long before HGC, though? I remember the good old days with Khaldor casting VoDs of pro matches on his youtube and stuff. Like it or not, eSports was something a lot of fans wanted for HotS and even with HGC gone, fans will likely continue to try and make an eSports scene happen, unless there's just absolutely no interest anymore (which I could see happening with no Blizzard backing).

Originally Posted by ManiaCCC

Here is one last hope.. When Dustin Browder left HotS team, there were some others notable RTS veterans moving to another project. And more moved in recent years and now. Maybe...just Maybe, there is something new for us, RTS fans, cooking, which is not mobile game.

And maybe not.. and Blizzard, as we knew it, is just gone.

I'd be surprised if he wasn't working on the WC3 remaster. If he isn't, it seems pretty insane to me that Blizzard would be working on another RTS when they already have SC2 and a recently remastered Broodwar. Not to mention that RTS games aren't really killing it on the market these.. years, heck, this decade.