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‘Blizzard’ is a company that makes one’s heart flutter just by hearing the name. This is because they have changed the paradigm of the global game industry or rewritten the history of the genre with numerous masterpiece games such as StarCraft, Warcraft, Diablo, Overwatch, and World of Warcraft. Even now, when the form has declined a lot, Blizzard is not left out when choosing the world’s leading game companies, and there are still many users who believe in and support them.
But lately, it feels like Blizzard’s future is at stake. The cause is the latest Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2. Both games are going up and down with update directions and moves that are opposite to user demand. In fact, it is difficult to find articles that are friendly to Blizzard in various communities, such as SNS and official forums, both at home and abroad.
▲ Blizzard showing a disappointing appearance recently (Photo courtesy: Blizzard)
From developer game understanding controversy to copying bug, Diablo 4 without wind
First, Diablo 4 was officially released on June 6th. As it was the first new work in 11 years, it attracted tremendous attention from all over the world, and sold 666 million dollars (about 840 billion won) in less than a week after its release, proving its popularity. Up to this point, it was easy to find evaluations that it had succeeded in recreating it in a new atmosphere by inheriting the advantages of Diablo 2 and 3.
However, from around the release of Season 1, requests for improvement began to pour in in various aspects, such as inventory convenience, lack of monster density in dungeons, and hardcore mode server issues. Blizzard responded by introducing several patches, but the results were not good. Patch contents that missed user requests were released frequently, and users were disappointed by not being able to give a definite answer when they would fix the parts that needed immediate improvement. The belated response to the gold and item copying bug, which was only recently fixed, is a bonus.
▲ Diablo 4, which was recently suspended due to a copy bug (photo source: Diablo 4 official forum)
It was the developer gameplay video that ignited the public sentiment due to these in-game issues. The video, which was released on the official YouTube channel on the 12th, contained several scenes in which the Diablo 4 dungeon designer’s understanding of the game was questionable, causing controversy. Users showed their opinions, saying, “I know why the patches have been like that so far,” and bombarded them with “dislikes” and comments, and eventually Blizzard blocked comments on the video. To put it bluntly, even for the season 2 preview shown at Gamescom, there are criticisms saying, “How urgent the current situation is, is it possible to announce the next season within a month of the start of the season?”
▲ The controversial developer play video (video source: Diablo official YouTube channel)
PvE content is the main thing, but what if I reduce it, Overwatch 2 has lost its meaning of release
Overwatch 2 was released in October of last year. As much as the numbering is attached, it is a sequel concept, but in fact, there is not much change from the first part. Although the basic play has been changed for free, the season system has been introduced, and the PvP team composition has been changed, these are actually at the level of large-scale updates that occur occasionally in general online games.
The part that was put forward as a differentiating point in the process was the PvE mode. It gave hope that a new wind would blow in Overwatch, which had been surviving only in PvP mode without the story progressing properly for years. The PvE content, where you can freely select various skill trees and characteristics and enjoy various productions, made many Overwatch users look forward to it as soon as it was released. In fact, the development team mentioned, “The reason for developing a new game engine for Overwatch 2 is to smoothly update PvE content.”
▲ Overwatch 2, which received much anticipation for its PvE content (photo credit: Blizzard)
However, in May, the development team announced that they would drastically reduce the scale of Overwatch 2 PvE content. At the time, Overwatch 2 director Aaron Keller explained the reason for the reduction, saying, “In the process of developing the PvE mode, we felt that we needed too much, and we decided that we couldn’t disrupt the PvP development, so we canceled many plans.” Users who heard the news expressed a lot of disappointment by saying, “If this is the case, why the hell did you release Overwatch 2?”
Overwatch 2 PvE content, which was so talkative, was released on the 11th under the name of ‘story mission’ with a reduced version. Unsurprisingly, many negative reviews came out in terms of quantity and completeness. This can be seen from the Overwatch 2 Steam page review, which was introduced with the start of Season 6, and currently Overwatch 2 is recording 162,094 ‘overwhelmingly negative (9%)’ reviews on Steam. Of course, this is not simply a complaint about PvE, but more like a release of user complaints accumulated with Overwatch 2 so far through a chapter called Steam user evaluation.
▲ The PvE story mission revealed a lot of disappointment in terms of quantity and completeness (Photo: Game Mecca shooting)
In the end, the only card left is this year’s BlizzCon.
Now, it is safe to say that the only card left for Blizzard this year is actually ‘BlizzCon’. There is a World of Warcraft Classic server hardcore mode added on the 25th or Diablo 4 Season 2 scheduled for October, but it is weak to completely change the current public opinion. BlizzCon is the perfect time to pull out a solid card.
As a result, various rumors related to BlizzCon are also circulating. StarCraft 3 has recently been receiving a lot of attention. Some foreign media have speculated that Blizzard is developing a sequel to the StarCraft series, and that related content may come out at BlizzCon. In November of last year, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer announced his intention to discuss the revival of the StarCraft series with Blizzard.
Of course, simply because StarCraft 3 comes out, the situation surrounding Blizzard will not change 180 degrees. This is because the RTS genre is not as popular as it used to be. In fact, officials who participated in the development of the StarCraft series in the past are showing various strategy games combined with the AOS genre after leaving the company. Therefore, even if it comes out, it is highly likely that it will be a game of another genre using StarCraft IP. It could be in the same way as StarCraft: Ghost, whose development was canceled in the past, or it could be in a completely different way.
▲ A new StarCraft IP game may come out (photo source: Blizzard official website)
Another card is the Diablo 4 large expansion pack. This is because it is a way to catch various issues in the game with a lot of user complaints and requests for adding new content in one shot. In fact, Diablo 3, the previous work, was also evaluated as having become noticeably more noticeable from the ‘Reaper of Souls’ expansion pack, so if additional expansion packs are released at this year’s BlizzCon, ‘the recent development team’s belated patches are the result of a lack of manpower due to expansion pack development’. may receive an indulgence.
In fact, in the case of the Diablo 4 expansion pack, the possibility is quite high. In the case of Diablo 3, the news of the first expansion pack was released a little over a year after its release, but on the 15th, Blizzard CEO Mike Ibarra said, “There will not be a big gap between (Diablo) titles in the future,” so the expansion pack was released earlier than before. and prepare for the next game, Diablo 5, etc. As it is too late to go to BlizzCon next year, in fact, this year is the perfect timing for an announcement.
▲ Diablo 4 expansion pack with a high possibility (Photo: Game Mecca shooting)
Or, there could be major changes to World of Warcraft, which celebrates its 20th anniversary next year. On the 9th, CEO Mike Ibarra said, “At this year’s BlizzCon, we will reveal interesting information related to World of Warcraft with Chris Metzen.” Users who heard the news are expecting a major graphic improvement or ‘World of Warcraft 2’.
Of course, apart from these rumors, it should be noted that the offline event will be held four years after the pandemic. Blizzard announced that it would hold an offline BlizzCon even if it costs a lot of money, unlike the game industry trend of moving to an online event, including the cancellation of E3 this year. As the business aspects related to the merger and acquisition of Microsoft and Activision Blizzard are also intertwined, there may be talk about the future direction of the company. In fact, Blizzard recently released Overwatch 2 on Steam, tying its own game with an external platform for the first time, and signing a contract to provide its own game to Ubisoft subscription service (Ubisoft+).
All of this is making this year’s BlizzCon a highlight. Can Blizzard show something that meets the expectations of users? This year’s BlizzCon will be held at the Anaheim Convention Center on November 3 and 4, local time.
▲ This year’s BlizzCon with a lot of things (photo credit: Blizzard)
