[Royalaid]

Unsurprising but still sad to see it be officially cancelled. Having gone the last few years and growing up on Blizzard's games it does feel slowly like Blizzard is losing their way and this kind of throws salt in the wound, not that anyone is to blame for this particular situation.

[grawprog]

>it does feel slowly like Blizzard is losing their way

Blizzard lost their way on the day they were purchased by Activision. They've been a hollow shell of their former selves since then. The quality and passion of their older games is gone and everything they pump out is a way to milk money from customers. Everything from releasing individual campaigns for StarCraft 2 as standalone titles, to diablo 3's launch nonsense, to the ridiculous phone diablo nonsense. Not to mention just milking the utter fuck out of WoW for well over a decade.

[panorama]

I was just talking about this with a friend earlier today. It's interesting to have witnessed Blizzard go from indie maker to #1 PC game studio to whatever you would describe them now. But the reasons for their downfall shouldn't be surprising, since you see similar in tech often:

Step 1: Lose core talent that made your company what it was (Blizzard North, Chris Metzen)

Step 2: Misalign incentives between shareholders and users (Arguably: Destroying the SCBW pro scene, Diablo mobile, RMAH, WarCraft Reforged's journey so far, etc.)

Step 3: Add time

For the younger generations, Riot Games is now to them what Blizzard Entertainment was to me when I was growing up. Hopefully Riot doesn't fall victim to the same issues, or perhaps these issues are inevitable for any company after a certain growth stage.

[carpetfizz]

Overwatch was a great post-Activision game. Overwatch 2 on the other hand...seems like a blatant cash grab.

We don't know much about it, but it seems like it's introducing new heroes, maps, and new abilities for existing heroes. Maybe that's enough to warrant a "2" in the title, but it sure doesn't feel like it at the moment.

[GuB-42]

To be honest, I think that Diablo 3 was a pretty good game. The auction house certainly was a failure and the mechanics were a bit shallow compared to the previous well established hack and slashes. But otherwise, beautiful game, responsive controls, very enjoyable overall. The kind of game we love to hate as much as we love playing it.

The problem with the auction house wasn't really the real money part, it wasn't that much used. The problem was that the best way to get good items was to trade in the not-real-money action house, creating all sorts of unblalance. In the end, they completely killed the game economy, probably for the best.

The lack of depth is to put into perspective. Such things only matter at high level, and many people didn't get that far. Also, many of the people who (rightfully) complained about that came from late Diablo 2, or even Median, and probably don't realize how much has been done since the original game. Like its predecessor, Diablo 3 endgame improved a lot since launch.

Now everyone is on Path of Exile, great game, but way too complex for casual players like myself. Basically Median's brainchild.

[TheChaplain]

Blizzard was an amazing storyteller with their Warcraft and Diablo games, and combining it with the social aspect in WoW had me staying up countless nights adventuring with people all over the world.

It was good times, and I sadly doubt I'll ever find a similar experience ever again.

[bentona]

I agree, but I'm still, probably unwisely, allowing myself some anticipation for Diablo 4.

[runawaybottle]

Nothing unwise, it looks like the game that Diablo 3 should have been. Lots to be excited about there.

As for Blizzard falling off my radar, I just can’t shake them. They are still about as good as it gets.

[ehsankia]

And Ovewatch 2.

[AbraKdabra]

Blizzard didn't lose their way, Activision made them lose it.

[duxup]

Yeah it's unrelated to COVID, but Blizzard sort of fell off my radar of "folks whose games I'll check out by default".

Blizzard lasted a long long time compared to how quickly developers / game companies can rise and fall.

It was good run.