Blizzard Entertainment has canceled the 2019 Heroes Global Championship and is shifting development resources away from their MOBA Heroes of the Storm.
Heroes of the Storm has been trying its damnedest to build an audience for both the game and its esports competitions. Unfortunately, it seems that Blizzard Entertainment doesn’t feel that they’ve managed to reach a level of popularity where they can call their work a success. The Irvine-based company has announced that they’re canceling 2019’s Heroes Global Championship along with the university-focused event Heroes of the Dorm.
Aside from the cancellation of the Heroes Global Championship, Blizzard is shifting development resources away from the game. The announcement doesn’t specify which of the company’s projects these people are being moved to. Communities from other games like the /r/Overwatch subreddit have shown mixed feelings about the move. While the possibility of gaining more attention for their game is there, they’re also concerned about the possibility of not getting the unique cosmetics from the MOBA ported to Blizzard’s first-person shooter.
The announcement makes a point of saying that this was a “tough choice” and that games such as Diablo II, World of Warcraft, and Overwatch would not have existed if they hadn’t made similar decisions in the past.
The cancellation of the Heroes Global Championship and the shift of development resources to other projects could be interpreted as the death of the game. Blizzard is keen to allay those fears by stating that they will continue to support their MOBA with new heroes, themed events, and other content. However, they qualify this statement by saying that “the cadence will change”. This means that we are likely to see the frequency of updates to the game decrease in the coming weeks and months.
There isn’t much more in the way of specifics about the changes coming to Heroes of the Storm. Fans of the game are sure to be watching how things play out in the near future. Whatever happens, it’s going to be rolling out a little slower than usual.
