The most recent of Blizzard’s mainline games was released about 5 years ago. The second-to-most recent a decade. Diablo III, HOTS, and Starcraft are all now in maintenance mode, with no new development. Warcraft III was recently “remastered” into oblivion, replacing the original game for all its fans.
Only WoW and Overwatch are currently active, and both are fueled mostly by their microtransactions. Yes, WoW has a subscription, but despite having a fraction of the player count they used to, they’re making more money than ever thanks to those microtransactions.
Reportedly, DI, D4 and Overwatch 1.5 are in development, but how long will that last now that the last of the old guard leadership (saying nothing about the talent) from Blizzard of old is gone?
Blizzard, the company of old that we loved for its innovative and polished games which were released when they were ready, is dead. There’s nothing left but the name and thoroughly flogged IP.
The Blizzard I know (from when I was playing a lot more video games) has never been releasing a lot of games. Between 2000 and 2010, they released only four games: Diablo II, Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, World of Warcraft and StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. I'm sure even today's Blizzard can somehow manage to release four games between 2020 and 2030, although I doubt they will have as strong an impact as these four.
Hearthstone is still quite active! World of Warcraft and Hearthstone were both top-20 games streamed on Twitch in the past week, with Overwatch coming in at #33. Even though Hearthstone was released in 2014, it's still the premier digital card game. It's just a different model than the old "big release" model - there is no need to release a "Hearthstone 2", the game constantly gets new content and new game formats based on the same IP.
I fear that is all pretty much true. I suspect a downside of the mass market game business becoming so generalised and generic. Business goes where the money is, and apparently it's not in the niches of old (which is what PC gaming was tbh - we thought it was big but it was nothing compared to where we are now)
In fairness, the only real moneymakers from that list are Overwatch and Hearthstone. We could maybe add WoW to that list due to the die hard players still paying a subscription (if that's still a thing?) but Warcraft, Diablo and Starcraft and basically hibernating IPs at this point. None of those hibernating IPs have seen any major movement or releases in _many_ years. Starcraft is still viable as it's considered to be a mainstay of completive RTS (and therefore great for branding of Blizzard in general) but I don't think it's earning them buckets of money.
So we're down to 2 properties making the majority of earnings, both on Free to Play but not Pay to Win models. That model has a very distinct shelf life of, I'd say, 5 years before you need to either release a sequel or change it up with a new IP.
According to ACTI, WoW is making more money than ever, largely thanks to the microtransactions they added. Their subscription numbers haven’t maxed out again, but their revenue has.
I haven't played WoW in 10 years, but I know a number of people who still love and prefer the latest releases. From what I hear, there is still usually a lag when content patches stop for a given expansion, but most of the real complaints I hear about the game are from people who were on their way out of love for it anyway, whether they realized it or not. I've admittedly been tempted a number of times to play around with it, but I know it's akin to just having a beer after becoming an alcoholic and then quitting. Not a great idea.
The subscription is still a thing. I briefly looked into it early into lockdown when I was completely off work for a month and a half: they wanted 15 bucks a month, and were still charging $50 for an expansion that was about to be irrelevant. I don't know how/if they're drawing in any new or even returning players at that steep a buy-in.
WoW broke a billion dollars in bookings for 2020 according to the most recent earnings call. It's currently Blizzard's highest revenue game, and has a full size team working on making expansions for it.
All those games you list are bloated games that are really only fueled by nostalgia players now. When is the last time Blizzard really innovated and made something we all had to play like Diablo I and II, Starcraft, and of course WoW? I don’t think it can anymore. It sold its soul to Activision and all the passionate people are gone, judging by their recent games.
I completely agree. Overwatch was a reactionary game, meaning they wanted to cash in on the success of games like it. Heroes of the storm is also just that; a reactionary game.
Usually it's a very bad sign when a company turns after the marked instead of being a leader. It's a sign of growing too big and getting conservative. It's a steady decline that is difficult to get out of.
They took a concept (coop/role FPS such as TF, and MOBA) and tried to make a great franchise and implementation of it. I'd say they did the same with Hearthstone (hello Magic: the Gathering), and RTS (Warcraft I wasn't the first RTS). Not sure if Diablo was the first ARPG. Starcraft obviously was not the first RTS. Arguably, the only original game they ever made was their coop platform game, Vikings back when it wasn't even called Blizzard.
Overwatch is a completely new franchise though, so in that regard its novel.
The cashing in can be seen in different ways. Selling out their Diablo IP to NetEase for a mobile game (and having the guts to market it for a PC crowd). Their microtransactions in WoW while still having the subscription model as well. Them laying off nearly a thousand people while profit is at all-time high, while CEO gets bonus. All the silly DLCs for SC2. At least they didn't bother with another DLC for Diablo 3 after RoS.
Mike Morheime left for Dreamhaven together with a crowd of entrepreneurs and daredevils. Hopefully he succeeds where Schaefer brothers failed.
All their games have been reactionary, though? It's not like Diablo was the first hack and slash, nor Warcraft the original RTS. Blizzard's strength have always been refinement - take an existing genre and make the very best version of it. I think they succeeded with that in both Hearthstone and Overwatch.
no, that's not what i mean. nothing is really original when in some respect. Reactionary means wanting to get in on a trend. Heroes of the storm was made because games like dota and league was making bank. Overwatch was made based on the growing fps genre's sucess.
Their early games was not made on the sole reason to emulate something popular.
Overwatch is a very popular ISP for Blizzard. All my friends "needed" to buy this $70 AUD game, in a time when games like CS:GO ($15), League of Legends, and Dota were very popular and most of them F2P.
And McDonald’s is the top fast food chain but that doesn’t make it good. Rather it caters to the lowest common denominator, something Activision-Blizzard has excelled at. I’m talking about quality.
Wow peaked at ~20 million players. Overwatch has 40 million and Hearthstone 100 million. I think by most metrics more people are passionate about the newer games.
Since World of Warcraft they’ve released Starcraft 2, Diablo 3, Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, and Overwatch. Those all seem to be quite popular (though admittedly D3 took some time to find its footing).
Of those, one is active, one in “slowed” development, and the rest have been put into maintenance mode. The downside of live services; they get shut down eventually.
Plus, WoW was released 16 years ago? And their most recent - Overwatch - almost 5 years ago now.
Yes, dead company when it comes to creativity, taking risks and building innovative products. Dead company when it comes to making money? No, not at all.
There is an ongoing legal battle between Epic and Apple that may have an impact on any public communications they do regarding the engine and Apple platforms. Other than that, Unreal already builds to ARM so it doesn’t seem like a stretch to expect it, from a technical perspective.
