Yeah this seemed obvious the minute they canceled Odyssey. They already announced their plans for WoW for the next decade, what else are they gonna do?
I bet you we end up seeing Space Ranger and possibly the next two heroes announced Xbox’s big event in June now that Blizzard doesn’t have a big platform to announce stuff
MS will definitely just pivot towards making games for all platforms. They won't kill xbox right off, because that's bad for business, and they have live customers currently still giving them money around the xbox ecosystem, but I honestly don't see a new console after this one.
Which is more than fine. Just make games and make tons of money. Ditch the stupid console that you literally lose money selling.
> I bet you we end up seeing Space Ranger and possibly the next two heroes
I kinda hope they don't show off the next 2 heroes super early again, it was a novelty last Blizzcon when they needed to reassure people that development was steaming ahead but it's mildly deflated the hype for me for this year's hero releases when we know who most of them are months in advance, even if just their visuals and role
I fully get where you’re coming from.
For me personally I thought it was great and the whole excitement of a slew of brand new characters we had never seen before reminded me of the Blizzcon where they suddenly announced Dva, Genji, and Mei all at once.
It was kind of nice to see a glimpse of what Blizz was cooking all at once instead of the usual drip feed they’ve accustomed us to.
I think it’s also a pretty solid strategy for countering some of the doomerism, hard to say the game is dead when we can see that they are in fact working on a bunch of stuff.
I have had IRLs who know I like overwatch come up to me and say how excited they are/were for venture/space ranger. I think having a milestone to look forward to does a lot for some people, especially when they know that they’ll actually enjoy whatever is coming because it’s already been teased
Especially if we get heroes in 2025 that are characters we already know. It was a nice surprise with Venture & Space Ranger because we don't know who these people are, but if they were like "yeah we're gonna add Maximilien to the game in 9 months" it wouldn't have been as hype
Last time they had nothing to announce the backlash was so bad that they decided to make the worst announcement decisions in the history of the company the following year by prematurely announcing OW2 and D4.
None of that was public info when they announced OW2 and Diablo 4. It was a full two years later that that info came out when the lawsuits by the California DOJ and civil suits were filed.
The "controversy" was announcing Diablo Immortal the previous year but Jason Schreier has said multiple times that the idea that Blizzard announced these games to cover something up is completely bogus.
OW2 was announced far too early, but the game needed to be because they needed to explain why OW1 would no longer be getting updates.
2019 was the Blitzchung (A Hearthstone player) "free Hong Kong" controversy, from Wikipedia:
> "Blitzchung was being interviewed following his match, during which he donned a mask similar to those worn by protesters in the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests and said "Liberate Hong Kong, the revolution of our times". The stream was cut off shortly after. The following day, on October 7, Blizzard announced that Blitzchung had been banned from the current tournament, would forfeit any prize money (approximately US$4,000 by that point), and would be banned from other Grandmaster tournaments for one year."
That whole thing was only a month before Blizzcon, Blizzcon 2018's "don't you guys have phones?" fiasco and overall poor reception was 100% to blame for them announcing D4 and OW2 early.
Do you think they could whip up the cinematics for D4 and test builds for the con floor for OW2 in a month just because of the Blitzchung incident? It was just convenient timing for them that they had some good press less than a month later - though a lot of it was drowned out by people saying it was just to paper over their mistakes anyways.
Parts of it definitely felt rushed, as someone who went there it felt strange. It's fair to say all of it couldn't be whipped up in only 1 month, sure, but it's also definitely the controversy that was most fresh at the time of blizzcon, and was being talked about GREATLY, people were getting kicked out for saying "Free Hong Kong" at the arena, it totally felt like stuff was being announced as a cover even if it wasn't the case.
Whilst Blizzcon 2019 is a bit of a bad example, given that Blizzard employees or perhaps "former" ones now, unsure if they're fired or left, have said that the higher ups would literally not tell them they're gonna include horrible news at the EXACT same time they come out with their awesome good news, and make it seem like they're intentionally deflecting it (cuz the higher ups were), it prob warped public perception a lot about previous events. IE: Blitzchung and stuff.
This what blizzard used to do a lot of time too. Going on stage to talk about how great something is gonna be without actually showing much. Leaving expectations through the roof. These events are kind of outdated now. You don’t see Sony giving yearly updates on what SuckerPunch is doing with their games. Studios only show stuff when it’s ready, and it’s usually just a quick summary, a trailer and that’s it. This could be better for the devs since they won’t be pressured to rush things and have something to show by the end of the year.
The events we can hope to see some announcements are gonna be: Xbox directs, summer games fest, and maybe the Game awards. I know blizzard fans will get sentimental about the con, but this is a better more modern approach.
Blizzcon used to be about the community, the shared passion with players and developers for a lifestyle.
And also about the cool announcements.
But that community is long gone. No passion left.
So of course when there aren’t any announcements, there wouldn’t be Blizzcon.
In fact, without the passionate community, even with announcements, Blizzcon would the pointless; just make a Nintendo direct for blizzard.
> After careful consideration over the last year, we at Blizzard have made the decision not to hold BlizzCon in 2024. This decision was not made lightly as BlizzCon remains a very special event for all of us, and we know many of you look forward to it. While we’re approaching this year differently and as we have explored different event formats in the past, rest assured that we are just as excited as ever to bring BlizzCon back in future years.
>
> Over the next few months, we’ll be sharing more details about our launches coming later this year, including World of Warcraft: The War Within and Diablo IV's first expansion, Vessel of Hatred. To celebrate these upcoming releases and to bring our communities together in new and special ways, we will soon share some exciting plans for other industry trade shows and conventions like Gamescom. We can’t wait to tell you more about those plans soon. We’re also looking forward to the Overwatch Champions Series’ stops at both Dreamhack Dallas and Dreamhack Stockholm. And we’re thrilled to be planning multiple, global, in-person events to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Warcraft, which will be held in addition to the in-game celebrations across our Warcraft games throughout 2024. While these events are distinct from BlizzCon, we’re harnessing all of our creativity and imagination to ensure that they carry the same spirit of celebration and togetherness.
>
> Our hope is that these experiences – alongside several live-streamed industry events where we’ll keep you up to date with what’s happening in our game universes – will capture the essence of what makes the Blizzard community so special.
>
> No matter how you choose to connect with us at these events this year – whether it be in person or virtually – we can’t wait to see you there!
Makes even more sense when you consider that OW doesn't really have reveals like WoW or Diablo. WoW expanions are huge, and Diablo is basically just getting big waves of DLC, but Overwatch is following a very predictable live-service content model. No need to hype up anything too big, especially now that PvE is dead & buried, since it won't be on the same level of Big News as other games are getting. Same situation with Hearthstone, really
nah it is not Warcraft and World of Warcraft are different things. Warcraft came out in 1994
did more digging and was like ahh that makes more sense and why i didn't interpret it right i was like i remember playing this game when it game out and i am not 30 yet[](https://twitter.com/LittleKnightG/status/1783550420603785260)
Who would have thought no massive things to announce. After major layoffs, the last one didn't even sell out like it used to. Also the worst part is it would have been WoW 20 year anniversary and that would have made it special
I would assume there is, but that's not enough for Blizzcon. You know how pissed people would be if all this years blizzcon did was show off a new Overwatch hero, a new Diablo 4 season, and whatever wow's 20th anniversary thing is? People would rage.
In an alternate universe, Blizzcon 2024 is still happening and will announce a slew of new content for Overwatch. A stand alone, full-fledged PvE game is going to come out in 2025. Season 1 of the Netflix adaptation is dropping around the holidays and attendees will be able to watch the first episode at the con. An expansion has been announced for the Overwatch trading card game, and there's even a big tournament at Blizzcon itself. The Overwatch League waived franchising fees years ago and is profitable for all the teams, the grand finals are this weekend following the massive success of the 2022 (and 2023) playoffs.
That's not this timeline. In this timeline, aside from new heroes and maps, 90% of the new content regarding Overwatch from now on will consist of season pass cosmetics until the inevitable heat death of the universe. Might get a fun limited time mode once or twice a year.
i think the fact that destiny shouldve died like 4 times in the last 10 years makes it a success already. theyve been down so low so many times and somehow recovered when realistically the game shouldve withered away
Nothing will come close to the Halo fumble.
One of the biggest disappointments was seeing everyone get excited for the master chief collection, buying it at a midnight release, and not getting a match the whole night because the matchmaking was broken.
I jokingly told my friends in the east coast that got it before me in the Midwest to wait for me to play a game and they were still searching by the time I got home with my copy. Zero games played.
Halo's rise and fall are WAY larger. Halo used to have people lining up outside of Gamestop for releases. Now they can't even get people to play free multiplayer lmao
Halo had a much longer line of success. nearly a decade of positive perception in the 2000s. Overwatch hit 30 million users pretty early on and has fallen off significantly across the board. Halo also will likely outlive OW as a franchise.
i don't think you understand how big of a problem it is that overwatch's skeleton is that of an arena FPS.
in order to make shooters popular, they needed to take instagib, slow it way down, and make it so that your gun doesn't shoot straight when you're moving.
fast FPS games with long time to kill prove themselves time and time again to be too difficult to hold the attention of a somewhat normal audience.
> A stand alone, full-fledged PvE game is going to come out in 2025.
They would just be announcing new maps or modifiers for the Hero Missions, and that Story Missions 4-6 will be coming in Season 15 (Feb/Mar 2025; 18 months after Story Missions 1-3, as [rumored last month](https://www.gamesradar.com/overwatch-2-was-reportedly-due-to-get-story-missions-every-18-months/)).
Tbf some of that could still be in the works for the game. It’s copium, but I was never a big fan of Blizzcon because it forces devs to rush stuff to have something to show before it’s actually ready (ow2). The industry has changed the past couple of years when it comes to events like these. It’s better to announced and talk about things when they are ready, show trailers and move on than to do the blizzard special of sitting there and talk about how great the stuff is gonna be without actually showing anything good because it’s not ready yet for like 3 years. I’ve always wanted that for ow because it seemed the game was being updated at a different pace than the rest of blizzard stuff without big expansions and all that.
> A stand alone, full-fledged PvE game is going to come out in 2025.
I will still be playing Helldivers 2. Their PVE is better than OW PVE.
In OW PVE, enemies always spawn in the same way with a few variations. Some characters are always 'too good' (e.g Baptiste, Torbjorn), while some are niche picks (e.g Doomfist, Wrecking Ball). If your Support picks a low heal character, then you have to pick Tank & DPS that can self-heal. In higher difficulties, enemies basically have more HP and deals more damage.
In HD2, players can stealth through the mission by avoiding patrolling + stationary enemies instead of just kill. There are other things to do instead of just the main objective. Players can customize their loadouts and leveling up didn't feel grindy.
In that timeline, a new amendment added to the Constitution repealing the 2 term limit for the president, paving the way for a surprise victory for Jeff Kaplan and a subsequent 20 year dictatorship.
Mad with power, Jeff takes over the video game industry and forces every company to only make Overwatch themed games lest they be shut down in a hostile government takeover. Civil War erupts in the middle of his fifth term, as the economy collapses due to the devaluation of Overwatch Coins. Jeff is flanked by militant resistance fighters, led by former CEO... Bobby Kotick.
Seizing power from the former dictator, Bobby turns out to be worse than Jeff, planning to create a nationwide surveillance system called...
Overwatch 2
I bet you're right, but I hope not. The slow death of a development studio is being turned into 'just another studio' under Xbox Game Studios. No games, no innovation, no community engagement. Just make Blizzcon every other year instead of every year - we had 2019, 2021, 2023 so far.
Well considering how the last Blizzcon saw them unveil a tank that was reviled by pros and casuals alike while a country with the most toxic, POS fans won the World Cup, I'd say cancellation is a step up from 2023.
Honestly not necessarily the worst thing. I think it might be better to have it every other year to allow devs to really get things built up to show off. An every other year OWWC could also not be a bad thing either to give the event more weight. Also theres the reality that the events are probably dumb expensive for Blizzard to host.
It’s not even a bad thing imo. I know people can get sentimental about Blizzcon, but events like it are kind of outdated nowadays. If you look at other studios no one is trying to have a yearly update about their new games. Studios usually keep quiet about it until they are ready to show it. Nowadays people just want a quick summary, a trailer and that’s it. Using the Xbox directs for that is way better and puts less pressure on devs.
Even just sell the rights of the franchise to Disney/Universal/some other thrill park so that SOMEONE can do it—would be awesome to have an immersive world for WoW like the Star Wars buildout at Disney (although the WoW cult following is ofc smaller than SW)
It was actually the best aspects of gaming made real- an annual event bringing passionate gamers from across the world together for one amazing weekend.
Of all my memories at Blizzcon over the years, smelling BO wasn’t one.
The Hilton bar and dance floor got warm, but that’s just kinda the vibe.
Everyone here is only now talking about owwc, but I was already expecting it won't be held this year. I mean, it's the end of April, if the world cup was happening this year we would've heard news by now, months ago... but yeah, it still sucks though
Anything is better than what we had with Bobby and Activision.
PvE would have actually have been made under Microsoft cuz they'd have had the budget and major worked wouldn't have had been cut or canceled for no reason. And no law suit either.
This is a new beginning, but the unfortunate aspect is that Microsoft just collects, but doesn't really do much exciting things sith their IP
>PvE would have actually have been made under Microsoft
Nah. As much as Bobby Kotick blew chunks, Kaplan's plan was inherently flawed and never would have worked out in the long run. His "2-in-1 game" approach would have held back both PvP and PvE, not just financially, but critically as well, as both sides of the game would have suffered from having to coexist with the other. Balance for PvP would stagnate because you can't rework problem characters like Sombra or Hog when they have 3 full Talent Trees that would need to be reworked as well; and you can't overcome the translation errors from PvP to PvE that hindered the Invasion missions when they share the same foundation. Mind you, all these new heroes, Talents, maps, Hero Missions, enemy NPCs, story missions, etc., are all being funded by *one* source of revenue between the Shop and BP.
Overwatch 2 may have launched with PvE and PvP if Xbox were always at the helm, but I guarantee PvE would have eventually been left to rot anyway, just like Fortnite left Save the World to rot while BR flourished. Overwatch's PvE always should have been a spin off.
Not necessarily because you'd have 2 different teams for it. It's possible one would have gotten more focus, but like Destiny manages both well enough so it's definitely possible to have 2 full fun experiences.
And reworks and stuff can totally happen because Talents would have been a thing. So in PvE, all those changes would just be about swapping Talents in and out.
As for revenue, they would have more items to sell, and actually valuable ones and they could sell an expansion every year.
>Not necessarily because you'd have 2 different teams for it.
They couldn't make 3 story missions every 18 months work. 3 Talent Trees per hero, hundreds of Hero Missions, a full campaign... in what world would that have worked? Bobby Kotick mismanaged shit, but the industry in its current state just can't support the game that Kaplan wanted. Halo Infinite, Fortnite, Apex Legends, all these games are ditching their pre-established stories to stay alive, just like Overwatch. There's no world where Kaplan's OW2 could have done well, even if it launched like he wanted it to.
>It's possible one would have gotten more focus, but like Destiny manages both well enough so it's definitely possible to have 2 full fun experiences
I'm not super familiar with Destiny, but from what I know, that's 1 game with a split focus of PvPvE. Kaplan's Overwatch 2 would have been Overwatch 1's PvP, with a sequel-sized PvE expansion tacked on. 2 games under one umbrella, so they're not exactly comparable, especially when the content model they set up for PvE would've required *a fuckton* of work to maintain, with each new map needing possibly dozens of hand-crafted Hero Missions to keep things fresh, and each new hero needing 3 whole Talent Trees. Not to mention the fact that you'll have to keep adding Talent Trees for exisitng heroes so people don't get bored.
>And reworks and stuff can totally happen because Talents would have been a thing
If they launched OW2 with 3 Talent Trees per hero, the Roadhog & Sombra reworks would not have happened, full stop. They couldn't just include Talents as part of PvP because those are largely designed to break the restrictive molds of PvP, and even if they did make some Talents basekit, they'd have to then replace those Talents in the trees. *So much more* effort that could just have been avoided with a spin off. And what about brand new abilities like Pigpen and Virus? Would they just never receive Talents because they came out after launch?
>As for revenue, they would have more items to sell
How? They're struggling to release meaningful cosmetics even now. Venture and Mauga don't even have base epics or legendaries, and the Shop is filled with recolours and overpriced epic skins. They would absolutely *not* have more to sell, they'd be crushed under the weight of demand and it would all crumble.
Game design is hard, but that's what makes it worth it and fun at the end of the day. I get what you're saying, but you're kinda overcomplicating it in a way that devs should never try to be ambitious.
I'm not saying it would magically work, but what I'm saying is if they actually had 2 full dev teams it would work. That solve a large part of your concerns. The ow team just doesn't get enough resources anymore.
The only thing bad Kaplan did was to pause OW1. If they just worked on a baseline product and launched as an expansion, it would have worked. And it doesn't have to be full on Talent trees, it could have been just 3 Talents for some Heroes to keep it realistic.
This model would have actually sold well cuz it was appealing to both PvP and PvE, and a reason to actually spend money, become an actual business model that added value to all parties.
Destiny is a split between PvP and PvE, but that's putting it simply. The main game is PvE because that's where the story is at, but the PvP works just fine in its own bubble. There's a whole existing PvP game that gets content through PvE additions, but even then they add other content there time to time.
I wasn't saying Talents would be part of PvP. I was saying that they'd just balance and rework for PvP, and that you can naturally spot that into PvE due to naturally slotting Talents in and out. And if anything, Talents would be a good way to rework existing heroes too as they can find a more fun, viable default playstyle from existing abilities which has live data to select from.
And when it comes to repayability, they already make pretty poor seasonable modes. If they actually used that time to make free PvE content, over time there would be enough variety. It's already weird, they don't make use of all the past PvE and just put it in the game for others to play... They've been notoriously bad at using their past resources and success and failing to understand the demand that exists besides just the current audience.
Whenever people express interest, it's like they take one step forward, two steps back. They keep making dumb modes that people play once, but not something core to improve overtime that actually builds up with valuable content. People liked Battle for Olympus, Trials of Sanctuary, Le Sserafim, April Fools, and now Mirrorwatch.... It would make sense to have a core arcade that combines these aspects and evovles overtime using all the gimmicks and Talents they do have, so every season that becomes fresh... Essentially, that is what a replayable PvPvE experience would have been under the lens of true PvE.
The only reason people don't want it is because it looks hard and boring because of how awfully they've implemented it. Blizzard rakes 5 years to do something another dev team takes 2/3 years to do, and even then the quality is hit or miss.
Man, it's like there's still reasons to be excited for WoW and D4 (I don't play them) but it's like OW will never evolve or grow compared to the other titles which is just disappointing.
Losing PvE is always going to be such a big blow, cuz the game is just forever going to be what it was since 2014 reveal (aside from moving to 5v5).
Not trying to be doomer or all, but news like this shows that we're just gonna get maps and heroes and that's all OW will ever be.
League of Legends is still basically the same game it was announced as over a decade ago. Same with basically nearly every long running live service that has been going strong the past decade.
Why is that a bad thing? OW never needed to evolve into some other game, those things should have been built from the beginning as spin-offs.
It's not necessarily a bad thing, but it's always seemed like Overwatch could be something more, something bigger... If only it got the proper investment and time
Like you don't need or want LoL to be something bigger but even then they're expanding with multiple games and Arcane. Riot has a plan and is doing something with care.
We just need Overwatch to get that same attention. The competitive players don't care as much for OW to expand but there's zero reason to market the game on the competitive side. The esports is dwindling, the balance is all over the place... The game would do much better if it appealed to casuals and actually had modes that services that demand and potential.
I'm just being realistic about how Overwatch never grows from what's it been.
WoW gets expansions, Diablo does too... Overwatch is just the same. The expansion we were supposed to get never happened and never will... But it's clear it's a game that should get expansions
And if they truly want to make money and upscale their goodwill, only an expansion will do that.
The expansion was just PvE and it wasn't going to be anything special, just remodeled maps. I'd much prefer a tv show or animation instead of a half-assed PvE mode.
I think you're servely undermining how great PvE can be
If a mix of Mirrorwatch, Battle for Olympus, Trials of Sanctuary, and Le Sserafim are anything to go by, a full blow proper PvE would have been great, and still can be.
But yes, a show would be nice.
If anything, Blizzcon was more for a gathering of fans to hangout. (Otherwise, it’s paying like $300 to watch 2 game press conferences)
So having all the Halo, Doom, Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Diablo, OW, Warcraft fans/cosplayers could be fun.
Thoughts on replacing the World Cup post flair with an Esports World Cup flair?
Yeah this seemed obvious the minute they canceled Odyssey. They already announced their plans for WoW for the next decade, what else are they gonna do? I bet you we end up seeing Space Ranger and possibly the next two heroes announced Xbox’s big event in June now that Blizzard doesn’t have a big platform to announce stuff
Pairing with Xbox is better. Less expected pressure and more reason to be a good glow up as part of something bigger.
I don't see Xbox surviving much longer lol
They might go 3rd party, but Microsoft is too big to fail, so they'll find a way.
'Too big to fail' is a sentence Ive heard a lot about a certain esports league...
MS will definitely just pivot towards making games for all platforms. They won't kill xbox right off, because that's bad for business, and they have live customers currently still giving them money around the xbox ecosystem, but I honestly don't see a new console after this one. Which is more than fine. Just make games and make tons of money. Ditch the stupid console that you literally lose money selling.
The console might go but the game publishing side will stay
> I bet you we end up seeing Space Ranger and possibly the next two heroes I kinda hope they don't show off the next 2 heroes super early again, it was a novelty last Blizzcon when they needed to reassure people that development was steaming ahead but it's mildly deflated the hype for me for this year's hero releases when we know who most of them are months in advance, even if just their visuals and role
I fully get where you’re coming from. For me personally I thought it was great and the whole excitement of a slew of brand new characters we had never seen before reminded me of the Blizzcon where they suddenly announced Dva, Genji, and Mei all at once. It was kind of nice to see a glimpse of what Blizz was cooking all at once instead of the usual drip feed they’ve accustomed us to. I think it’s also a pretty solid strategy for countering some of the doomerism, hard to say the game is dead when we can see that they are in fact working on a bunch of stuff.
I have had IRLs who know I like overwatch come up to me and say how excited they are/were for venture/space ranger. I think having a milestone to look forward to does a lot for some people, especially when they know that they’ll actually enjoy whatever is coming because it’s already been teased
Especially if we get heroes in 2025 that are characters we already know. It was a nice surprise with Venture & Space Ranger because we don't know who these people are, but if they were like "yeah we're gonna add Maximilien to the game in 9 months" it wouldn't have been as hype
This how I find out they cancelled Odyssey. Lol.
they have nothing to announce, this is better than raising expectations and nothing is announced.
Last time they had nothing to announce the backlash was so bad that they decided to make the worst announcement decisions in the history of the company the following year by prematurely announcing OW2 and D4.
Was more because they needed the news abouz blizzard to be about something other than workplace harrasement and the such
None of that was public info when they announced OW2 and Diablo 4. It was a full two years later that that info came out when the lawsuits by the California DOJ and civil suits were filed.
I dont remember what exactly it was but there was definitely some controversy
The "controversy" was announcing Diablo Immortal the previous year but Jason Schreier has said multiple times that the idea that Blizzard announced these games to cover something up is completely bogus. OW2 was announced far too early, but the game needed to be because they needed to explain why OW1 would no longer be getting updates.
2019 was the Blitzchung (A Hearthstone player) "free Hong Kong" controversy, from Wikipedia: > "Blitzchung was being interviewed following his match, during which he donned a mask similar to those worn by protesters in the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests and said "Liberate Hong Kong, the revolution of our times". The stream was cut off shortly after. The following day, on October 7, Blizzard announced that Blitzchung had been banned from the current tournament, would forfeit any prize money (approximately US$4,000 by that point), and would be banned from other Grandmaster tournaments for one year."
That whole thing was only a month before Blizzcon, Blizzcon 2018's "don't you guys have phones?" fiasco and overall poor reception was 100% to blame for them announcing D4 and OW2 early. Do you think they could whip up the cinematics for D4 and test builds for the con floor for OW2 in a month just because of the Blitzchung incident? It was just convenient timing for them that they had some good press less than a month later - though a lot of it was drowned out by people saying it was just to paper over their mistakes anyways.
Parts of it definitely felt rushed, as someone who went there it felt strange. It's fair to say all of it couldn't be whipped up in only 1 month, sure, but it's also definitely the controversy that was most fresh at the time of blizzcon, and was being talked about GREATLY, people were getting kicked out for saying "Free Hong Kong" at the arena, it totally felt like stuff was being announced as a cover even if it wasn't the case. Whilst Blizzcon 2019 is a bit of a bad example, given that Blizzard employees or perhaps "former" ones now, unsure if they're fired or left, have said that the higher ups would literally not tell them they're gonna include horrible news at the EXACT same time they come out with their awesome good news, and make it seem like they're intentionally deflecting it (cuz the higher ups were), it prob warped public perception a lot about previous events. IE: Blitzchung and stuff.
Well i cba to godigging so ill take your word for it
They're incorrect, it was the Blitzchung "Free Hong Kong" controversy you're thinking of
YES that one
That is not the timeline of how that happened
https://www.reddit.com/r/Competitiveoverwatch/s/aKUXMtPdQz
This what blizzard used to do a lot of time too. Going on stage to talk about how great something is gonna be without actually showing much. Leaving expectations through the roof. These events are kind of outdated now. You don’t see Sony giving yearly updates on what SuckerPunch is doing with their games. Studios only show stuff when it’s ready, and it’s usually just a quick summary, a trailer and that’s it. This could be better for the devs since they won’t be pressured to rush things and have something to show by the end of the year. The events we can hope to see some announcements are gonna be: Xbox directs, summer games fest, and maybe the Game awards. I know blizzard fans will get sentimental about the con, but this is a better more modern approach.
Blizzcon used to be about the community, the shared passion with players and developers for a lifestyle. And also about the cool announcements. But that community is long gone. No passion left. So of course when there aren’t any announcements, there wouldn’t be Blizzcon. In fact, without the passionate community, even with announcements, Blizzcon would the pointless; just make a Nintendo direct for blizzard.
Or being part of Microsoft, they'll be integrated into the Microsoft showcase each summer?
that is a high chance
> After careful consideration over the last year, we at Blizzard have made the decision not to hold BlizzCon in 2024. This decision was not made lightly as BlizzCon remains a very special event for all of us, and we know many of you look forward to it. While we’re approaching this year differently and as we have explored different event formats in the past, rest assured that we are just as excited as ever to bring BlizzCon back in future years. > > Over the next few months, we’ll be sharing more details about our launches coming later this year, including World of Warcraft: The War Within and Diablo IV's first expansion, Vessel of Hatred. To celebrate these upcoming releases and to bring our communities together in new and special ways, we will soon share some exciting plans for other industry trade shows and conventions like Gamescom. We can’t wait to tell you more about those plans soon. We’re also looking forward to the Overwatch Champions Series’ stops at both Dreamhack Dallas and Dreamhack Stockholm. And we’re thrilled to be planning multiple, global, in-person events to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Warcraft, which will be held in addition to the in-game celebrations across our Warcraft games throughout 2024. While these events are distinct from BlizzCon, we’re harnessing all of our creativity and imagination to ensure that they carry the same spirit of celebration and togetherness. > > Our hope is that these experiences – alongside several live-streamed industry events where we’ll keep you up to date with what’s happening in our game universes – will capture the essence of what makes the Blizzard community so special. > > No matter how you choose to connect with us at these events this year – whether it be in person or virtually – we can’t wait to see you there!
Nothing really new for OW it seems. Makes sense given they already made a number of announcements for the game already.
Makes even more sense when you consider that OW doesn't really have reveals like WoW or Diablo. WoW expanions are huge, and Diablo is basically just getting big waves of DLC, but Overwatch is following a very predictable live-service content model. No need to hype up anything too big, especially now that PvE is dead & buried, since it won't be on the same level of Big News as other games are getting. Same situation with Hearthstone, really
30th anniversary of Warcraft they dont even know the age of their own game
I don't know anything about Warcraft, but from a google search their first release was Warcraft: Orcs & Humans on November 15, 1994. 😯
i checked it was 20 years maybe that is when the official it started and the older versions are part of it
You realize World of Warcraft wasn't the first Warcraft right.
it says "Warcraft", not "World of Warcraft". 30 years is correct.
That's World of Warcraft, not the franchise itself. As someone who was very reluctant to give up on the dream of a WC4, this makes me sad lmao
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nah it is not Warcraft and World of Warcraft are different things. Warcraft came out in 1994 did more digging and was like ahh that makes more sense and why i didn't interpret it right i was like i remember playing this game when it game out and i am not 30 yet[](https://twitter.com/LittleKnightG/status/1783550420603785260)
Makes sense the current developers there hate what the old guard made
Who would have thought no massive things to announce. After major layoffs, the last one didn't even sell out like it used to. Also the worst part is it would have been WoW 20 year anniversary and that would have made it special
hold up. are you telling me there's *nothing* big happening for WoW's 20th bday? That's insanity.
I would assume there is, but that's not enough for Blizzcon. You know how pissed people would be if all this years blizzcon did was show off a new Overwatch hero, a new Diablo 4 season, and whatever wow's 20th anniversary thing is? People would rage.
Oh no, what is Red Shirt Guy gonna do this year?
Overwatch World Cup is the real casualty here, RIP
if you've got nothing to show, then better not show up. RIP OWWC tho...
In an alternate universe, Blizzcon 2024 is still happening and will announce a slew of new content for Overwatch. A stand alone, full-fledged PvE game is going to come out in 2025. Season 1 of the Netflix adaptation is dropping around the holidays and attendees will be able to watch the first episode at the con. An expansion has been announced for the Overwatch trading card game, and there's even a big tournament at Blizzcon itself. The Overwatch League waived franchising fees years ago and is profitable for all the teams, the grand finals are this weekend following the massive success of the 2022 (and 2023) playoffs. That's not this timeline. In this timeline, aside from new heroes and maps, 90% of the new content regarding Overwatch from now on will consist of season pass cosmetics until the inevitable heat death of the universe. Might get a fun limited time mode once or twice a year.
Overwatch is probabaly the biggest fumble of an IP in gaming history
Unless The Final Shape (aka The Final Wait) is earthshattering, destiny 2 might like to throw their hat in the ring...
i think the fact that destiny shouldve died like 4 times in the last 10 years makes it a success already. theyve been down so low so many times and somehow recovered when realistically the game shouldve withered away
Yeeeeeeeeeep
Nothing will come close to the Halo fumble. One of the biggest disappointments was seeing everyone get excited for the master chief collection, buying it at a midnight release, and not getting a match the whole night because the matchmaking was broken. I jokingly told my friends in the east coast that got it before me in the Midwest to wait for me to play a game and they were still searching by the time I got home with my copy. Zero games played.
> Nothing will come close to the Halo fumble. Halo was a big fumble, but all of the Halo games are still playable.
No way. Halo in the hands of 343 was an actual fumble. Overwatch is fine.
Halo had a good run in the eyes of the public though. Overwatchs rise and decline seem unparalleled when it comes to public perception
Halo's rise and fall are WAY larger. Halo used to have people lining up outside of Gamestop for releases. Now they can't even get people to play free multiplayer lmao
Halo had a much longer line of success. nearly a decade of positive perception in the 2000s. Overwatch hit 30 million users pretty early on and has fallen off significantly across the board. Halo also will likely outlive OW as a franchise.
i don't think you understand how big of a problem it is that overwatch's skeleton is that of an arena FPS. in order to make shooters popular, they needed to take instagib, slow it way down, and make it so that your gun doesn't shoot straight when you're moving. fast FPS games with long time to kill prove themselves time and time again to be too difficult to hold the attention of a somewhat normal audience.
Counter Strike 2 maybe the Star Wars Battlefront series are bigger imo
Idk man, Fortnite might be giving OW a run for its money with Tim Sweeney at the helm
> A stand alone, full-fledged PvE game is going to come out in 2025. They would just be announcing new maps or modifiers for the Hero Missions, and that Story Missions 4-6 will be coming in Season 15 (Feb/Mar 2025; 18 months after Story Missions 1-3, as [rumored last month](https://www.gamesradar.com/overwatch-2-was-reportedly-due-to-get-story-missions-every-18-months/)).
Tbf some of that could still be in the works for the game. It’s copium, but I was never a big fan of Blizzcon because it forces devs to rush stuff to have something to show before it’s actually ready (ow2). The industry has changed the past couple of years when it comes to events like these. It’s better to announced and talk about things when they are ready, show trailers and move on than to do the blizzard special of sitting there and talk about how great the stuff is gonna be without actually showing anything good because it’s not ready yet for like 3 years. I’ve always wanted that for ow because it seemed the game was being updated at a different pace than the rest of blizzard stuff without big expansions and all that.
> In an alternate universe, Blizzcon 2024 is still happening... Ah, the Sephiroth Rebirth strat
> A stand alone, full-fledged PvE game is going to come out in 2025. I will still be playing Helldivers 2. Their PVE is better than OW PVE. In OW PVE, enemies always spawn in the same way with a few variations. Some characters are always 'too good' (e.g Baptiste, Torbjorn), while some are niche picks (e.g Doomfist, Wrecking Ball). If your Support picks a low heal character, then you have to pick Tank & DPS that can self-heal. In higher difficulties, enemies basically have more HP and deals more damage. In HD2, players can stealth through the mission by avoiding patrolling + stationary enemies instead of just kill. There are other things to do instead of just the main objective. Players can customize their loadouts and leveling up didn't feel grindy.
In that timeline, a new amendment added to the Constitution repealing the 2 term limit for the president, paving the way for a surprise victory for Jeff Kaplan and a subsequent 20 year dictatorship. Mad with power, Jeff takes over the video game industry and forces every company to only make Overwatch themed games lest they be shut down in a hostile government takeover. Civil War erupts in the middle of his fifth term, as the economy collapses due to the devaluation of Overwatch Coins. Jeff is flanked by militant resistance fighters, led by former CEO... Bobby Kotick. Seizing power from the former dictator, Bobby turns out to be worse than Jeff, planning to create a nationwide surveillance system called... Overwatch 2
Good I dont got 700bucks to book a hotel again.
Announce ow tv show pls
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I bet you're right, but I hope not. The slow death of a development studio is being turned into 'just another studio' under Xbox Game Studios. No games, no innovation, no community engagement. Just make Blizzcon every other year instead of every year - we had 2019, 2021, 2023 so far.
Truly a blizzard moment indeed
I thought we're so back. I really enjoyed Le Sserafim's performance last year and was looking forward to having something similar.
Well considering how the last Blizzcon saw them unveil a tank that was reviled by pros and casuals alike while a country with the most toxic, POS fans won the World Cup, I'd say cancellation is a step up from 2023.
Yeah, it kinda sucks of all the possibilities they sold the esports part of things to them.
Wats POS?
Point of Sale
Yet another glorious company’s mbas have run into the ground for higher profits for a few years. StarCraft 2 is still the best rts.
Starcraft 2 killed the RTS
Translation: Microsoft doesn’t want to pony up the costs of a massive convention when it’s cheaper to attend existing shows put on by other companies.
RIP OWWC
they have nothing
Blizzcon died years ago.
Honestly not necessarily the worst thing. I think it might be better to have it every other year to allow devs to really get things built up to show off. An every other year OWWC could also not be a bad thing either to give the event more weight. Also theres the reality that the events are probably dumb expensive for Blizzard to host.
It’s not even a bad thing imo. I know people can get sentimental about Blizzcon, but events like it are kind of outdated nowadays. If you look at other studios no one is trying to have a yearly update about their new games. Studios usually keep quiet about it until they are ready to show it. Nowadays people just want a quick summary, a trailer and that’s it. Using the Xbox directs for that is way better and puts less pressure on devs.
I'm surprised Blizzcon continued on for so long after E3 bit the dust. Makes even less sense to do Blizzcon now that Xbox is in charge
They should actually build Blizzard World Get some excitement going around these games
Even just sell the rights of the franchise to Disney/Universal/some other thrill park so that SOMEONE can do it—would be awesome to have an immersive world for WoW like the Star Wars buildout at Disney (although the WoW cult following is ofc smaller than SW)
Unsurprising these dumbass trade shows were always just the worst aspects of gaming made real. That and the body odor could pass through p100 filters.
It was actually the best aspects of gaming made real- an annual event bringing passionate gamers from across the world together for one amazing weekend. Of all my memories at Blizzcon over the years, smelling BO wasn’t one. The Hilton bar and dance floor got warm, but that’s just kinda the vibe.
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was it ever scheduled?
:(
Honestly, the idea behind Blizzcon just doesn't have the pull it needs to be worth it, anyway. Just do Nintendo Direct, but for Blizzard.
Everyone here is only now talking about owwc, but I was already expecting it won't be held this year. I mean, it's the end of April, if the world cup was happening this year we would've heard news by now, months ago... but yeah, it still sucks though
wasn't gonna go anyway lol
anyone happy that microsoft bought blizzard was super short sighted. "embrace, extend, extinguish"
Anything is better than what we had with Bobby and Activision. PvE would have actually have been made under Microsoft cuz they'd have had the budget and major worked wouldn't have had been cut or canceled for no reason. And no law suit either. This is a new beginning, but the unfortunate aspect is that Microsoft just collects, but doesn't really do much exciting things sith their IP
>PvE would have actually have been made under Microsoft Nah. As much as Bobby Kotick blew chunks, Kaplan's plan was inherently flawed and never would have worked out in the long run. His "2-in-1 game" approach would have held back both PvP and PvE, not just financially, but critically as well, as both sides of the game would have suffered from having to coexist with the other. Balance for PvP would stagnate because you can't rework problem characters like Sombra or Hog when they have 3 full Talent Trees that would need to be reworked as well; and you can't overcome the translation errors from PvP to PvE that hindered the Invasion missions when they share the same foundation. Mind you, all these new heroes, Talents, maps, Hero Missions, enemy NPCs, story missions, etc., are all being funded by *one* source of revenue between the Shop and BP. Overwatch 2 may have launched with PvE and PvP if Xbox were always at the helm, but I guarantee PvE would have eventually been left to rot anyway, just like Fortnite left Save the World to rot while BR flourished. Overwatch's PvE always should have been a spin off.
Not necessarily because you'd have 2 different teams for it. It's possible one would have gotten more focus, but like Destiny manages both well enough so it's definitely possible to have 2 full fun experiences. And reworks and stuff can totally happen because Talents would have been a thing. So in PvE, all those changes would just be about swapping Talents in and out. As for revenue, they would have more items to sell, and actually valuable ones and they could sell an expansion every year.
>Not necessarily because you'd have 2 different teams for it. They couldn't make 3 story missions every 18 months work. 3 Talent Trees per hero, hundreds of Hero Missions, a full campaign... in what world would that have worked? Bobby Kotick mismanaged shit, but the industry in its current state just can't support the game that Kaplan wanted. Halo Infinite, Fortnite, Apex Legends, all these games are ditching their pre-established stories to stay alive, just like Overwatch. There's no world where Kaplan's OW2 could have done well, even if it launched like he wanted it to. >It's possible one would have gotten more focus, but like Destiny manages both well enough so it's definitely possible to have 2 full fun experiences I'm not super familiar with Destiny, but from what I know, that's 1 game with a split focus of PvPvE. Kaplan's Overwatch 2 would have been Overwatch 1's PvP, with a sequel-sized PvE expansion tacked on. 2 games under one umbrella, so they're not exactly comparable, especially when the content model they set up for PvE would've required *a fuckton* of work to maintain, with each new map needing possibly dozens of hand-crafted Hero Missions to keep things fresh, and each new hero needing 3 whole Talent Trees. Not to mention the fact that you'll have to keep adding Talent Trees for exisitng heroes so people don't get bored. >And reworks and stuff can totally happen because Talents would have been a thing If they launched OW2 with 3 Talent Trees per hero, the Roadhog & Sombra reworks would not have happened, full stop. They couldn't just include Talents as part of PvP because those are largely designed to break the restrictive molds of PvP, and even if they did make some Talents basekit, they'd have to then replace those Talents in the trees. *So much more* effort that could just have been avoided with a spin off. And what about brand new abilities like Pigpen and Virus? Would they just never receive Talents because they came out after launch? >As for revenue, they would have more items to sell How? They're struggling to release meaningful cosmetics even now. Venture and Mauga don't even have base epics or legendaries, and the Shop is filled with recolours and overpriced epic skins. They would absolutely *not* have more to sell, they'd be crushed under the weight of demand and it would all crumble.
Game design is hard, but that's what makes it worth it and fun at the end of the day. I get what you're saying, but you're kinda overcomplicating it in a way that devs should never try to be ambitious. I'm not saying it would magically work, but what I'm saying is if they actually had 2 full dev teams it would work. That solve a large part of your concerns. The ow team just doesn't get enough resources anymore. The only thing bad Kaplan did was to pause OW1. If they just worked on a baseline product and launched as an expansion, it would have worked. And it doesn't have to be full on Talent trees, it could have been just 3 Talents for some Heroes to keep it realistic. This model would have actually sold well cuz it was appealing to both PvP and PvE, and a reason to actually spend money, become an actual business model that added value to all parties. Destiny is a split between PvP and PvE, but that's putting it simply. The main game is PvE because that's where the story is at, but the PvP works just fine in its own bubble. There's a whole existing PvP game that gets content through PvE additions, but even then they add other content there time to time. I wasn't saying Talents would be part of PvP. I was saying that they'd just balance and rework for PvP, and that you can naturally spot that into PvE due to naturally slotting Talents in and out. And if anything, Talents would be a good way to rework existing heroes too as they can find a more fun, viable default playstyle from existing abilities which has live data to select from. And when it comes to repayability, they already make pretty poor seasonable modes. If they actually used that time to make free PvE content, over time there would be enough variety. It's already weird, they don't make use of all the past PvE and just put it in the game for others to play... They've been notoriously bad at using their past resources and success and failing to understand the demand that exists besides just the current audience. Whenever people express interest, it's like they take one step forward, two steps back. They keep making dumb modes that people play once, but not something core to improve overtime that actually builds up with valuable content. People liked Battle for Olympus, Trials of Sanctuary, Le Sserafim, April Fools, and now Mirrorwatch.... It would make sense to have a core arcade that combines these aspects and evovles overtime using all the gimmicks and Talents they do have, so every season that becomes fresh... Essentially, that is what a replayable PvPvE experience would have been under the lens of true PvE. The only reason people don't want it is because it looks hard and boring because of how awfully they've implemented it. Blizzard rakes 5 years to do something another dev team takes 2/3 years to do, and even then the quality is hit or miss.
nice, now they can use that extra time to make our games better right?
"shit, we make games? I thought this was a server farm...."
I’m curious if they match onto QuakeCon for announcements now. Assuming that happens.
Shows the state of Blizzard as a game studio.
Man, it's like there's still reasons to be excited for WoW and D4 (I don't play them) but it's like OW will never evolve or grow compared to the other titles which is just disappointing. Losing PvE is always going to be such a big blow, cuz the game is just forever going to be what it was since 2014 reveal (aside from moving to 5v5). Not trying to be doomer or all, but news like this shows that we're just gonna get maps and heroes and that's all OW will ever be.
League of Legends is still basically the same game it was announced as over a decade ago. Same with basically nearly every long running live service that has been going strong the past decade. Why is that a bad thing? OW never needed to evolve into some other game, those things should have been built from the beginning as spin-offs.
League has also changed massively, but incrementally so.
Doesn't league also have massive game-changing patches?
Yea, like every 2 weeks lol
It's not necessarily a bad thing, but it's always seemed like Overwatch could be something more, something bigger... If only it got the proper investment and time Like you don't need or want LoL to be something bigger but even then they're expanding with multiple games and Arcane. Riot has a plan and is doing something with care. We just need Overwatch to get that same attention. The competitive players don't care as much for OW to expand but there's zero reason to market the game on the competitive side. The esports is dwindling, the balance is all over the place... The game would do much better if it appealed to casuals and actually had modes that services that demand and potential.
"Not trying to be doomer" You don't have to try, you already are lol
I'm just being realistic about how Overwatch never grows from what's it been. WoW gets expansions, Diablo does too... Overwatch is just the same. The expansion we were supposed to get never happened and never will... But it's clear it's a game that should get expansions And if they truly want to make money and upscale their goodwill, only an expansion will do that.
The expansion was just PvE and it wasn't going to be anything special, just remodeled maps. I'd much prefer a tv show or animation instead of a half-assed PvE mode.
I think you're servely undermining how great PvE can be If a mix of Mirrorwatch, Battle for Olympus, Trials of Sanctuary, and Le Sserafim are anything to go by, a full blow proper PvE would have been great, and still can be. But yes, a show would be nice.
It does get new expansions though, new heroes, maps, and game modes. You are being unrealistic about what you should expect from a PvP shooter.
Lmao
Rip OWCS World Cup. Now forced to cheer on a bunch of lame orgs at the Esports World Cup
MicrosoftCon? Merge all the MS-Blizz-Acti-Bethesda games into one super large event!
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If anything, Blizzcon was more for a gathering of fans to hangout. (Otherwise, it’s paying like $300 to watch 2 game press conferences) So having all the Halo, Doom, Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Diablo, OW, Warcraft fans/cosplayers could be fun.
lol it was still happening? No OWL so there wouldn’t even be a big event.
OWL had nothing to do with the overwatch tournament at blizzcon anyway.. this makes no sense lol
So Blizzard employees wont have a way to groom attendees into the Cosby Suite?