Mike Morhaime, formerly the CEO of Blizzard, shares some insights. He reveals why Heroes of the Storm has failed. WoW is also to blame.
It has been a few months since Mike Morhaime, one of the founders and former CEO of Blizzard, left the company. Now that a non-compete clause has expired, which is supposed to prevent former employees from using their current knowledge in other companies or causing harm to the company afterwards, Morhaime has opened up a bit about mistakes and decisions of the past. One topic was Heroes of the Storm.
What is happening with Heroes of the Storm? Shortly after BlizzCon 2018, it was announced that Heroes of the Storm is canceling its eSports and the development team will be drastically reduced. There are still new patches and fresh content, but the pace has significantly slowed down. Many players feel the game is “dying” and there are increasing fears that it will be completely shut down within the next few months.
What does Morhaime say about this? In an interview with VG24/7, Morhaime talked about HotS. One thing he regrets in this context is that they didn’t delve into DOTA when it was a mod for Warcraft 3. “Defense of the Ancients” was a map that would later be considered the progenitor of the entire MOBA genre.
Blizzard paid no attention to it for two reasons. First, the game (in the form of the mod) was developed by the community, and secondly, there was World of Warcraft, which was being worked on feverishly. And this was despite the fact that at that time more people were playing Dota than Warcraft 3.
What would Morhaime do differently? Morhaime elaborates on his thoughts further and explains:
If I could go back in time, “You know what? Why don’t we form a small team to do something with Dota? Or why don’t we just add Dota as a mode for StarCraft 2 or something?” I would have preferred to do that a bit earlier. I believe Heroes [of the Storm] was simply a bit too late.
That seems to be true. Because when Heroes of the Storm was released, the market was already saturated, and players were divided among League of Legends, Dota 2, or smaller representatives like SMITE. It was difficult to win this target group over.
Morhaime believes that the developers created a great game with Heroes of the Storm. The timing just didn’t fit.
What exactly Morhaime wants to do in the future is still unclear. However, he is considering re-entering the gaming industry.
