HGC and Heroes of the Dorm 2019 Cancelled, Some Developers Switching Teams

[Nerraw]

HGC and Heroes of the Dorm 2019 Cancelled, Some Developers Switching Teams

We’re constantly changing and evolving not only our games, but how we support and grow them. This evolution is vital to our ability to continue doing what we love to do—making great games—and it’s what makes Blizzard, Blizzard.

Over the past several years, the work of evaluating our development processes and making hard decisions has led to new games and other products that we’re proud of. We now have more live games and unannounced projects than at any point in the company’s history. We’re also at a point where we need to take some of our talented developers and bring their skills to other projects. As a result, we’ve made the difficult decision to shift some developers from Heroes of the Storm to other teams, and we’re excited to see the passion, knowledge, and experience that they’ll bring to those projects. This isn’t the first time we’ve had to make tough choices like this. Games like Diablo II, World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, Overwatch, and more would not exist had we not made similar decisions in the past.

Despite the change, Heroes of the Storm remains our love letter to Blizzard’s worlds and characters. We’ll continue actively supporting the game with new heroes, themed events, and other content that our community loves, though the cadence will change. Ultimately, we’re setting up the game for long-term sustainability. We’re so grateful for the support the community has shown from the beginning, and the development team will continue to support Heroes with the same passion, dedication, and creativity that has made the game such a unique experience.

We’ve also evaluated our plans around Heroes esports—after looking at all of our priorities and options in light of the change with the game, the Heroes Global Championship and Heroes of the Dorm will not return in 2019. This was another very difficult decision for us to make. The love that the community has for these programs is deeply felt by everyone who works on them, but we ultimately feel this is the right decision versus moving forward in a way that would not meet the standards that players and fans have come to expect.

While we don’t make these decisions lightly, we do look to the future excited about what the decisions will mean for our other live games and all the projects we have in the works. We appreciate all of our hard-working developers and everyone in the Blizzard community, and look forward to sharing many more epic gaming experiences with you in the future.

J. Allen Brack and Ray Gresko

[Deleted]

RIP. It was a good run.

[otro]

WoW is about to gain some steam we hope.

[seleri]

Not surprising but still sad. I hope the time between updates won't be too long now.

[Tisane]

So it's not dead, but they're basically preparing for its death

[Deleted]

HGC and Heroes of the Dorm 2019 Cancelled, Some Developers Switching Teams

though the cadence will change. Ultimately, we’re setting up the game for long-term sustainability.

What this means is that the game is getting the Diablo 3 treatment in terms of development.

The reasoning is simple: game viewership is quite low, while money invested is medium.The highest $ contribution for Blizzard are skins and not new heroes and balance fixes. BFA has been a clown fiesta and the development of the new expansion(which will be presented at Blizzcon next year) is now in full swing. Diablo 4 also needs developers and last but not least there are at least 2 mobile titles in development.

[Noomz]

WoW is about to gain some steam we hope.

No, it's all these unannounced mobile titles they said they're working on.

[xenogear3]

Let us face it.

This game is supposed "Dead on Arrival", if it is not Blizzard behind it.

I was surprised that Overwatch is not dead yet, with so many Battle Royale clones.

[Necroxis]

RIP HotS. What a shame. It's one of Blizzard's better games.

[Netherspark]

A cynical person might think they are being forced to move resources onto a more 'profitable' project.

This does line up with that supposed leak saying that Blizzard has been ordered to cut costs.

[Saphyron]

Sad, I loved watching HGC.
Even more sad to see devs getting shifted around. Let's hope hots don't get the D3 treatment.

[Kralljin]

A cynical person might think they are being forced to move resources onto a more 'profitable' project.

The truth is that HotS came out like 5-6 years too late.

By 2015, the MobA train has left town already and entering a market that is dominated by two Titans is more than difficult.
Let alone taking over that market, because i guess that was Blizzards goal.

HotS is by no means a terrible game, but its reception was simply not up to Blizzards standard, they don't like being #2, let alone #3.

[Antilurker77]

The truth is that HotS came out like 5-6 years too late.

By 2015, the MobA train has left town already and entering a market that is dominated by two Titans is more than difficult.
Let alone taking over that market, because i guess that was Blizzards goal.

HotS is by no means a terrible game, but its reception was simply not up to Blizzards standard, they don't like being #2, let alone #3.

It is a terrible game, and that's why it failed. Blizzard's game philosophies doesn't work for mobas at all.

[JoshuaNLG]

WoW is about to gain some steam we hope.

Lol no, they're going on to making shitty mobile games for the chinese market.

It is a terrible game, and that's why it failed. Blizzard's game philosophies doesn't work for mobas at all.

HoTS is not a terrible game, just because you didn't like it that doesn't make it shit.

[Auxora]

I could never get into playing Heroes very much myself, but I did enjoy watching the HGC.

But tbh some of their other IP's do need some help. The Blizzcon Diablo fiasco doesn't need to be mentioned. BfA has already had plenty of debate over being considered worst expansion ever. SC is stagnant, Hots is already shelved now, etc. That said, Blizz is big enough that if Hots were doing well they would just hire more devs instead of reallocating resources to other games.

[Lady Velvet]

Nooo... I totes enjoyed HoTS... I hope they don't close it... I love playing with many heroes... and knowing how to play with them... it is super fun....

[Highelf]

This makes me so happy. Their garbage "report" system helped ruin this game.

#bringbackhots1.0

[Netherspark]

It is a terrible game, and that's why it failed. Blizzard's game philosophies doesn't work for mobas at all.

It's still a fairly popular game.

I would put the reasons it "failed" down to poor monetization - first the skins and mounts were so expensive that nobody wanted to buy them. When they changed to 'loot 2.0' they made everything so accessible that nobody needed to buy them.

[KainneAbsolute]

Seems the Kotaku article was right. Activision wants Blizzard to cut costs and to move to the mobile market development. So sad for Hots. This year i enjoyed the competitive scene and its really sad to send it to the maintenance mode. Iam sure they demand blizzard that hots be big as LoL or fortnite.

Sad day for a game the bring so much ideas and cool art for the genre.

[Dizzeeyooo]

great game killed by awful developer decisions, rip hots