Hearthstone’s off the charts successful. Diablo 3’s team has been gutted. Overwatch has no business model yet, Heroes of the Storm isn’t expected to do well, and the next World of Warcraft expansion is almost done with its features. These are just some of the rumors recently leaked according to Yahoo Finances’ Tae Kim. However, this is just the censored version.
A sly redditor was able to document the original text, which you can find here. The changes are a bit minor, such as deleting that the next Hearthstone expansion is coming out in April, but bears some scrutiny. Rumors and leaks always have to be taken with a healthy dose of skepticism, but prompting a response from Blizzard does seem to indicate there may be some truth. Officially, Blizzard has said:
When asked for comment Activision Blizzard said the focus right now of the Diablo III team “is on continuing to support the game with patch content. We generally don’t comment on rumors or speculation, but I do want to make sure it’s clear that they’re not working on a secret project in the StarCraft universe.
Now, this doesn’t necessarily mean everything is true. There are false Blizzard leaks all the time, however, one of the more surprising reveals about executive opinions on Blizz’s upcoming MOBA makes a lot of sense. One issue that I experienced in the past was, as much fun as Heroes of the Storm was mechanically, the community wasn’t any better than your usual MOBA community. It was just as toxic as the competition’s, preventing my play partner from really being able to enjoy the game on his own (sorry Striker!). One of Hearthstone’s biggest strengths, in my opinion, was having a competitive mode that prevented a lot of smack talk among opponents. Simplifying mechanics is a great way to get new players into the genre, as we’ve seen from HS, but a toxic community is sure to drive them away.
This is a big reason why, outside of the Blizzard official response, the rumor seems true. The WoW art team expanding is just a cherry on the top, since slow expansion releases and updates kill the aging MMO giant’s population. It’s important, but almost expected by comparison to the HotS reveal.
Again, this is just a rumor, but in my opinion, it’s one of the few worth paying attention to.
Original Author: Laguna Levine