Is HOTS really dead?

[VinceVega]

Maybe with Microsoft we'll get an update, there's talk going around about Starcraft 3.

I'm shocked that Hots has a forum page, but Starcraft doesn't...

I don't think there is anyone left in the hots team outside from server technicians to keep it going.
Getting new devs who have all never worked on this game to give it more development... i doubt it honestly.

It would be quite expensive for probably no return. Hots is on life support and it will stay that way. The tried to establish themselves as a casual MOBA but never managed to get a significant foothold in.

Reviving an allready failed game never works.

[Viikkis]

The tried to establish themselves as a casual MOBA but never managed to get a significant foothold in.

I think they stumbled trying to force the game to be e-sport success but it just didn't work out since as you said the game was meant to be casual.

Also 2.0 update pretty much killed all monetization drying the cash flow leaving e-sports as their only source of real income which obviously failed. Just a recipe for disaster really.

[danki1337]

I don't think there is anyone left in the hots team outside from server technicians to keep it going.
Getting new devs who have all never worked on this game to give it more development... i doubt it honestly.

It would be quite expensive for probably no return. Hots is on life support and it will stay that way. The tried to establish themselves as a casual MOBA but never managed to get a significant foothold in.

Reviving an allready failed game never works.

they openly stated the game will no longer recieve new content or updates, just maintained servers and gameplay, there is no esports, there is no influx of players, its given up on but just keept on the blizzard servers for the few ppl who play and to save face. i agree its on lifesupport and it wont leave, they tried to get in on the dota2 esports scene but with a vastly dumbed down version that offered no real incentive or interesting gameplay really failed due to simplicity & lack of individual skill mattering.

[Soon-TM]

They tried to establish themselves as a casual MOBA but never managed to get a significant foothold in.

If memory serves me right, they actually HAD managed to get a decently sized playerbase, all things considered. After all their initial reasoning made sense: if the two big boys in the yard were famous for catering to hardcore audiences (especially Dota 2), then a markedly casual-friendly competitor might still hold a chance, even if it was late to the party.

The problem started as soon as they made an U-turn with the 2.0 update, when they tried their best to turn HotS into yet another e-sport. They badly alienated their intended (at least before 2.0) audience, and failed even more badly at wooing streamers to try the "new" HotS.

I frankly don't know why is Blizzard so obsessed over e-sports. Every time they've tried to enter the e-sport business, it has ended in an embarrassing failure... Except the first Starcraft (when e-sports weren't a thing yet) and maybe, maaaybe OW's first year. And OW is flopping hard, really hard as far as e-sports go.

[VinceVega]

If memory serves me right, they actually HAD managed to get a decently sized playerbase, all things considered. After all their initial reasoning made sense: if the two big boys in the yard were famous for catering to hardcore audiences (especially Dota 2), then a markedly casual-friendly competitor might still hold a chance, even if it was late to the party.

The problem started as soon as they made an U-turn with the 2.0 update, when they tried their best to turn HotS into yet another e-sport. They badly alienated their intended (at least before 2.0) audience, and failed even more badly at wooing streamers to try the "new" HotS.

I frankly don't know why is Blizzard so obsessed over e-sports. Every time they've tried to enter the e-sport business, it has ended in an embarrassing failure... Except the first Starcraft (when e-sports weren't a thing yet) and maybe, maaaybe OW's first year. And OW is flopping hard, really hard as far as e-sports go.

Mh... i think hots never had a decent playerbase. Or at least not big enough to be a proftiable online game. They need to make their money with ingame sales somehow.
The hots 2.0 update had its ups and downs honestly. The removal of mastery skins was a big no go for many people as far as i can remember.
I do not think their last effort in creating HOTS unique charaters was a good idea when people asked for certain wow lore characters for ages... although she played nice.

THe game went the normal route most online games do. I don't think it was a failure. It was just average in success for online games.
99% of game won't reach DOTA LOL WOW status where it will be profitable no matter what.

The fumbled the ball with OW though. Becuase it could have been and was that big. But they destroyed it. I played soooo much OW1. WIll never touch OW2 again. Shitty monetization.

[Hotmail]

I frankly don't know why is Blizzard so obsessed over e-sports. Every time they've tried to enter the e-sport business, it has ended in an embarrassing failure... Except the first Starcraft (when e-sports weren't a thing yet) and maybe, maaaybe OW's first year. And OW is flopping hard, really hard as far as e-sports go.

Blizzard made their fortune on multiplayer gaming (specifically battle.net and competitive/versus multiplayer) and e-sports are kind of the natural evolution of that. When kids start playing an e-sport supported game they buy into a dream, which has proven to be profitable time and time again.

It is in theory good for the longevity of a game, but who knows. Maybe HotS was never going to last that long anyway.

[Ghost of Cow]

It is in theory good for the longevity of a game, but who knows. Maybe HotS was never going to last that long anyway.

Pretty much this. I know people like to prop up "e-sports" as some kind of boogeyman that somehow ruins things in ways we can't quite ever put our finger on, but lets face it...it didn't take some evil corporate people pushing e-sports to drag HotS down.

[vizzle]

If memory serves me right, they actually HAD managed to get a decently sized playerbase, all things considered. After all their initial reasoning made sense: if the two big boys in the yard were famous for catering to hardcore audiences (especially Dota 2), then a markedly casual-friendly competitor might still hold a chance, even if it was late to the party.

The problem started as soon as they made an U-turn with the 2.0 update, when they tried their best to turn HotS into yet another e-sport. They badly alienated their intended (at least before 2.0) audience, and failed even more badly at wooing streamers to try the "new" HotS.

I frankly don't know why is Blizzard so obsessed over e-sports. Every time they've tried to enter the e-sport business, it has ended in an embarrassing failure... Except the first Starcraft (when e-sports weren't a thing yet) and maybe, maaaybe OW's first year. And OW is flopping hard, really hard as far as e-sports go.

I don't think memory is serving you right.

They badly alienated their intended (at least before 2.0) audience

They didn't really alienate players. The problem was they made it less profitable with the 2.0 update; their business model with the 2.0 update was terrible, basically, but no one was really "alienated". The casual scene was strong and thriving.

They just didn't get the expected ROI and growth with the esports push so they decided it wasn't worth their time, and they just cut it and the rest of HOTS without a second thought. It's as simple as that.

[Lucetia]

Reviving an allready failed game never works.

I mean isn't that what they did with FFXIV? It launched, failed horribly so they reworked it and relaunched it to where it is now? Can't really think of many games, if any off the top of my head, that failed and dead that were retooled/reworked/added to and still failed.

[Khaza-R]

I don't see them re-investing in this game anytime soon.

The MOBA genre hit its peak around 2016 in the NA region and has been declining ever since. Mostly from a lack of interest from younger gamers. That and mobile versions of games have become more popular than their PC alternatives in Asia.

[God Save The King]

They just didn't get the expected ROI and growth with the esports push so they decided it wasn't worth their time, and they just cut it and the rest of HOTS without a second thought. It's as simple as that.

Agreed. It feels like Blizzard has been chasing the new 'WoW' in terms of profit, but with less need for resources. OW, D3, HoTS, HS, etc. All a lot cheaper to run and maintain than WoW. E-Sports have been pushed a bit because streamers/pros/tournaments keep player interest if the base game is also enjoyable for the masses.

It's why I don't really think they'll do SC3, and if they do it won't be an RTS like SC1/2 because they don't really have a decent continual revenue source that isn't costly to make like expansions.

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I mean isn't that what they did with FFXIV? It launched, failed horribly so they reworked it and relaunched it to where it is now? Can't really think of many games, if any off the top of my head, that failed and dead that were retooled/reworked/added to and still failed.

I think you're right. There are many examples of games that had a successful revival. Inside Blizzard, D3 is a good example. There was a massive dropoff due to the RMAH and D3 2.0, with the RoS expansion, brought a lot of new people and old players back and kept the game pretty active until D4 came out. Might not have been massively popular, but I played each season and never had issues finding groups, getting boosts, etc.

No Man's Sky, FF14, Battlefront 2, Cyberpunk, Destiny, etc, all had successful relaunches.

[VinceVega]

I mean isn't that what they did with FFXIV? It launched, failed horribly so they reworked it and relaunched it to where it is now? Can't really think of many games, if any off the top of my head, that failed and dead that were retooled/reworked/added to and still failed.

Well yeah. But the original ff14 wasn't an old game. It failed immediatly. And nearly no one knew about it until the new FF14 got popular.

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Agreed. It feels like Blizzard has been chasing the new 'WoW' in terms of profit, but with less need for resources. OW, D3, HoTS, HS, etc. All a lot cheaper to run and maintain than WoW. E-Sports have been pushed a bit because streamers/pros/tournaments keep player interest if the base game is also enjoyable for the masses.

It's why I don't really think they'll do SC3, and if they do it won't be an RTS like SC1/2 because they don't really have a decent continual revenue source that isn't costly to make like expansions.

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I think you're right. There are many examples of games that had a successful revival. Inside Blizzard, D3 is a good example. There was a massive dropoff due to the RMAH and D3 2.0, with the RoS expansion, brought a lot of new people and old players back and kept the game pretty active until D4 came out. Might not have been massively popular, but I played each season and never had issues finding groups, getting boosts, etc.

No Man's Sky, FF14, Battlefront 2, Cyberpunk, Destiny, etc, all had successful relaunches.

And everyone of those had an allready massivly succesfull franchise or game before that. Hots didn't. It never was succesfull in the ifrst place.

[Lucetia]

Well yeah. But the original ff14 wasn't an old game. It failed immediatly. And nearly no one knew about it until the new FF14 got popular.

And everyone of those had an allready massivly succesfull franchise or game before that. Hots didn't. It never was succesfull in the ifrst place.

Does anything count then by your comments of standards? You keep changing the criteria by first saying "failed immediately" "wasn't popular" "had successors beforehand". It sounds like you are just adjusting the requirements as people mention other games to show that you are correct.

I mean if you get technical HoTs had WC3 mods, Dota (was originally part of WC3 mods), etc that it was built off of.

[McNeil]

I saw them adding a few skins that were apparently leftovers. If only they release the new Arthas and Uther builds that the former team couldn't finish in time, I'd be playing again in an instant.

[Myradin]

And everyone of those had an allready massivly succesfull franchise or game before that. Hots didn't. It never was succesfull in the ifrst place.

No Man's Sky Didn't.
Cyberpunk is based on a relatively minor TTRPG

HoTS is technicablly based on three different massively successful franchises.

[AngieTheResearcher]

I don't know how Blizzards lost MOBA market to other so badly. HoTS have so many advantages for casual players imo.

[Myradin]

I don't know how Blizzards lost MOBA market to other so badly. HoTS have so many advantages for casual players imo.

I think part of it is it came so late that casuals had largely been scared away from the genre.

[cozzri]

I think part of it is it came so late that casuals had largely been scared away from the genre.

Casual players were already locked in to League of Legends, investing into skins, runes, and character unlocks; there is little incentive to switch to something moderately similar outside of being a fan of Blizzard characters and lore.

Older fans of the genre already played HoN and Dota2; the same can be said for them as well.

I believe part of the failure of HotS is the developer throwing money around and forcing eSports on the game instead of letting it grow and progress; by doing so they didn't flow with the actual playerbase to allow sport to develop naturally. The Esport died as soon as the money left, and they just had hobbyist gamers left, instead of an engaged playerbase with a huge following.

Beyond that, one of the biggest draws of the genre is rewarding gameplay, you perform good, then snowball and carry the team; for this genre, those big plays are the exciting to watch, as well as experience as you play. You don't get that skyrocketing moment in HotS very often.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I sank hundreds of hours into this game. My favorites were Abathur, Falstad, Muradin, Rexxar, and Cho'gall. I especially loved playing as Abathur and was proud to queue up in ranked with my master skin. I also sank some money into the game too.

Then the 2.0 overhaul happened and killed my interest in the game. The interface used to be really simple: get to level 10 on a character to earn their master skin. Buy master skin with coins. Buy cash shop stuff with IRL currency. But then 2.0 made the interface really confusing. Now you can't just buy the skin you want anymore. Now you have to either spend the new IRL currency on it (which was really confusing), or you had to hope that the skin you wanted dropped from a lootbox... and because the lootboxes were padded to hell with crap nobody wanted like sprays and voicelines, you statistically will never get the thing you want.

Any sense of achievement was thrown out the window. Queueing for a game with my Abathur master skin equipped used to be prestigious. "Damn, that guy must be really good! I feel confidant with him playing as Abathur now!". After the 2.0 revamp, any random newb could get an Abathur master skin from a lootbox, so for veteran players that badge of prestige was ripped away from them, and for other players they now don't know if you are actually a good player if you have a master skin equipped. Any schmuck could run around looking like me and besmirch the reputation of master skin Abathur players.

Maybe I have some of the details wrong, but if I do... well then, that's the point isn't it? I had hundreds of hours invested in this game and couldn't make heads or tails of the revamp. That's quite the failure on Blizzard's part.

I dropped the game and never went back.

[Askyl]

Early on the game was super fun but the more they updated it and changed stuff they kind of killed the fun in it.